People and Project Groups

Student groups will be organized around four of the MSE Studio projects, and assignments will often call for solutions in the context of these Studio projects. 

Objectives and Activities

Practical development of software requires an understanding of successful methods for bridging the gap between a problem to be solved and a working software system. In this course you will study a variety of ways to understand the problem you're solving, the various factors that constrain the possible solutions, and approaches to deciding among alternatives.

After completing this course, you will be able to

• identify different classes of problems and their structures
• analyze technical, organizational, usability, business, and marketing constraints on solutions
• apply engineering approaches to frame solutions

You will learn more by applying the ideas and explaining them to others than by listening to us lecture.  To that end, the course requires these activities:

• Homework assignments, including questions to help you focus on important points in the readings and assignments to exercise particular skills
• Project assignments, to apply course techniques to one of the MSE Studio projects and report to the rest of the class in oral and written form
• External viewpoints reports, with each project group responsible for sharing the major points of a book with the rest of the class in oral and written form

We are designing the course with the following average time budget in mind; remember that this is average time per week. It will take advance planning on your part to minimize the week-to-week variation, as you will be making two significant class presentations.

• 3 hrs/week in class
• 6 hrs/week on reading, homework, and preparation for each class (this time will contribute to the project assignment as well)
• 2 hrs/week specifically on project assignments
• 1  hr/week on external viewpoints reports

In addition, students enrolled for PhD credit will do a project that involves them in software engineering research related to the course.

Evaluation

For the MSE course, 17-562

Evaluation will be based on the homework assignments, project work, external viewpoints reports, oral presentations, and class participation.

For the PhD course, 17-752

Evaluation will be based 80% on the same things as the MSE course, augmented by evaluation of the PhD project (20%).

PhD Version of the Course

This course is designed principally for professional masters students. It also serves PhD students by adding a special project that involves the student in the research issues associated with the course.

Late Policy

All work is expected to be handed in at the indicated due date and time. For fairness to the whole class no late submissions will be accepted for the group work, i.e. the project reports and EVR reports. In the first week of classes you receive the schedules of all the core courses in addition to Methods. Please use those to plan ahead.

We understand that individual extraordinary circumstances do arise, hence each student is allowed 1 late submission for the individual homework assignments. In such a case, you should immediately notify the course TA that you will submit late. Late work must be submitted as soon as circumstances allow, ordinarily within 24 hours of the due date. Please understand that these policies are for us to help you better and on time while respecting everyone's schedule and work load. If you have any questions you should raise them immediately rather than waiting for conflicts to arise.