DD1363, Mjukvarukonstruktion
Aktuell kursomgång: period 2-4
07/08
Kursledare: Rand Waltzman
Datorpostadress(er): rand@nada.kth.se
Course Administration
This course is graded on a 6 grade scale (A
– F where A is the top grade and F is fail) and is broken into two parts
(A and B) each worth 6 points. Part A of
the course will be completed during Period 2.
Part B will be completed during Periods 3 and 4. The 6 points corresponding to Part A of the
course will be awarded to those who pass at the end of the 2nd
period. The 6 points corresponding to
Part B of the course will be awarded to those who pass at the end of the 4th
period.
NOTE: Part A of the course is an absolute
prerequisite for Part B. If for some
reason you do not pass Part A of the course, you will not be allowed to
continue to Part B and will have to come back the next academic year (2008
– 09) and begin again. The only
exceptions to this are for those who have taken another 6 point course that the
department has approved as being equivalent to Part A of this course. Those students may proceed directly to Part B
starting in Period 3.
By the end of the course you will have
completed (a) a set of homework assignments and (b) a course project. There will be homework assignments during
Part A and Part B of the course. The
project work will begin in Part A of the course and be completed in Part B.
Course Requirements
In order to pass each part of the course, you
must successfully complete the homework assignments and project work as described below. So, for example, if you manage the project
work successfully in Part A of the course but do not pass the homework, you
will fail the course. In addition, you
are required to attend a number of lectures where we will have guest
speakers. These lectures will be clearly
noted. Attendance at other lectures is
not required. In case you do fail and
need to return next year, any work that you have successfully completed this
year will be discarded and you will
have to begin from the beginning.
Part A Requirements
NOTE: All
work must be submitted in English.
Homework
There will be a total of 6 homework
assignments during this part of the course.
Each homework assignment will be worth 50 points. You will be penalized 15 points at the beginning of each 24 hour late period
starting with the first one. The first
late period starts 1 minute after the day and time that the homework is
due. The next late period begins 24 hours
later, etc.
In order to pass the homework part of the
course, you must have a total of 150 points out of 300 possible on the
homework. If you do not, you will fail
the course and will not be allowed to proceed to Part B.
NOTE:
Many of the homework questions can be answered in more than one
way. So do the best you can on each
one. Your answers will be accepted as
long as we think you have made an honest effort and had some good ideas. We will try to post sample answers after each
assignment has been turned in. But just
because they are not the same as yours does not mean that your answers were not
acceptable.
Project
Work
During this part of the course you will
select a project to work on and complete the Requirements Analysis phase of the
project. In order to pass this part of
the course, you must successfully complete all necessary documentation by the
stated deadlines.
There are 6 hand-ins (not including the final Requirements Document) required during this
first phase of the project. They are
listed on the Project Information
page. Each of the hand-ins is worth 100
points. You will notice that some of the
hand-ins are to be done individually and others as a group. For those hand-ins that are done as a group,
each member of the group will be awarded the same points. Otherwise, each member will receive their own
grade. It is each group member’s
responsibility to make sure that all group work is completed and handed in on
time. Otherwise, you will be penalized
25 points at the beginning of each 24 hour late period starting with the first
one (see discussion above). Problems
that cannot be resolved within the group must be reported to the course
management before deadlines have passed.
The points for the final hand-in, the Requirements
Document, will not be counted for the grade of part A of the course. However, it must be turned in on time and if
you are late, you will be penalized 50 points at the beginning of each 24 hour
late period starting with the first one (see discussion above). These penalties will be applied to your point
total for part A of the course – not
part B.
Note that the Requirements Document
must be handed in for you to pass the course, even if the points for it will
not be counted until next term.
In order to pass the project work part of the
course, you must have a total of 300 points out of 600 possible. Also, be sure to note that you must turn in
each hand-in, even if it is so late that
you get no points. Missing a hand-in
is not an option. If any hand-ins are missing, you will fail
the course. I will not accept any
hand-in until you have turned in all previous hand-ins. This could have a serious cascading effect on
your grade. If you do not get at least
300 points on the project work, you will fail the course and you will not be
allowed to progress to Part B. Note that
it is possible that some members of a group fail the course while others
pass. This is because some of the
project points are individually awarded as explained above.
Guest
Speakers
From time to time, we will have guest
speakers at the lectures. While
attendance is normally not required, it is very definitely required when we
have guests (you would not want to appear rude, would you?). The lectures will be announced at least one week
in advance. Attendance is required and
attendance will be taken. Failure to
attend any of these lectures will result in a penalty of 50 points.
General
Comment on Deadlines
If you can’t meet a given deadline and have a fantastically good reason
(you are deathly ill, a family member has died, etc.) we can always work
something out.
Grade
Assignments
Grades will be assigned according to the
following schedule:
A: 800
<= total points <= 900
B: 700 <= total points < 800
C: 600 <= total points < 700
D: 500 <= total points < 600
E: 450 <= total points < 500
F: total points < 450
You must have >= 150 points on the homework and >= 300 points on the project work in order to pass the
course. You must also have turned in the
Requirements Document in order to pass this part of the course even though the
final points for it will not be counted until next term.
Part B Requirements
There is no homework, as such, from your
textbook for the second part of the course.
The project work will be pretty intense and there will be a lot of
material to hand in. The maximum points
for each hand in are as follows:
Items 10 – 23, 25 – 27 and 30 will
each be worth 100 points. As in Part A
of the course, you will be penalized 25 for each day a hand-in is late. Items 24 and 28 will each be worth 200
points. You will be penalized 50 points
for each day one of those hand-ins is late.
Rules for attendance and penalties for
mandatory guest lectures will be as in Part A of the course (see above).
Final grades will be assigned as follows:
There are 11 group hand-ins (excluding the DD
and FD) and 7 individual hand-ins. In
order to pass the course, you must get at least 600 points on the group
hand-ins (again, excluding the DD and FD) and 400 points on the individual
hand-ins. You must also score a minimum
of 100 points on the DD and FD. Finally,
you must attend the final presentation.
A: 2000
<= total points <= 2200
B: 1800 <= total points < 2000
C: 1600 <= total points < 1800
D: 1400 <= total points < 1600
E: 1200 <= total points < 1400
F: total points < 1200
General Information
Both Rand and Inge (Inge Frick, inge@nada.kth.se) are available to help you
any time. E-mail us or come by our
offices any time you feel the need – we are here to help you
succeed.
Please be sure to monitor the course News page frequently - the link is on
the course home page. Outside of
lectures, it is the only way I have to communicate with you as a group. I will assume that you are monitoring this
news page to the extent that you will be held
accountable for any information that you might need to complete your work
successfully. For example, any changes
in the instructions for the course work will be posted on the news page and not
following those instructions because you did not see them is unacceptable as an
excuse – so please don’t even bother to try. All notices will be posted in plenty of time.
Upp till Nadas kurser.
Sidansvarig: <rand@nada.kth.se>
Tekniskt stöd: <webmaster@nada.kth.se>