EVALUATION
Students are required to attend all
twelve classes, complete the assigned reading prior to each
class, actively participate in course activities within class and outside of class,
complete two assignments on the course material, write a term
paper, and lead an in-class seminar and follow-up discussion on
a topic closely related to your term paper.
To determine the
course grade, these components will be weighted as follows:
- Assignments (20%)
- 1. Application of project management concepts (10%)
- 2. Report on a software development project (10%)
- Participation (30%)
- Contribution to in-class discussion
- Contribution to on-line discussion forum
- Contribution to course wiki
- Seminar presentation (20%)
- Term paper (30%)
Assignments submitted late and presentations not made will
receive a grade of zero.
Final grade reports will follow
Carleton University guidelines.
ASSIGNMENTS
(20%)
Details on the two assignments will be provided in
class. The assignments will be weighted equally. Assignment #1 (application of project management concepts) is
due October 4, the Monday following the week 6 class. Assignment #2 (report on a software development project) is
due November 3, the Monday following the week 7 class.
Note that there is a one-week break between classes 6 and 7.
PARTICIPATION
(30%)
You are expected to actively contribute to the learning
environment both within and outside of class.
Participation will be evaluated in terms of frequency and
quality of contribution to class discussions, active threads in
the on-line discussion forum, and the course wiki.
Distance-learning students should
note that much of this participation can be asynchronous
at a time and from a place of your choosing.
Some roles will be assigned to
students prior
to some classes. Those roles may include serving as
a discussant for particular papers, or preparing summations of
discussion threads for the course wiki. These activities
are a component of the participation grade.
Guidelines for On-line
Discussions
An excellent discussion comment
demonstrates depth of understanding
and has one or more of
following qualities:
- insightful
- adds something new to the
discussion
- introduces an alternative
perspective
- shares relevant stories from
your own career
- makes connections with earlier
course material
- is critical, but also
constructive (how might something flawed be improved?)
Guidelines for Discussant
Critiques
An excellent critical analysis of
a paper is more than a summary; it assesses the paper's
contribution and connects it to the related literature on theory
and practice. The following four-part framework may be
useful for organizing your thoughts:
- Description: provide a
succinct summary of the central arguments (and if
applicable, research methods and results)
- Critical analysis: assess the
contribution of the paper and its strengths and weaknesses;
are the arguments convincing?
- Synthesis: explain how the
paper relates to ongoing dialogues in the course (other
papers, past discussions, position within the larger
practitioner and research literatures, connection to other
topics in engineering or management, common themes, etc.)
- Extension: consider the next
steps and open research questions
A critical analysis should be
succinct. A good length is about six hundred words, ,
irrespective of the length or complexity of the original
article. As a rule of thumb, description should comprise
no more than about 30% of the words.
Guidelines for Discussion
Summations
An excellent summation of a
discussion thread has much in common with a critical analysis of
a paper. It summarizes the main ideas and points of view
and the areas of agreement and disagreement in the discussion,
and adds thoughtful analysis, synthesis, and extension.
SEMINAR
PRESENTATION (20%)
You will lead a special topics seminar on a topic of your choice related to
the management of software engineering projects. An
excellent seminar teaches, and creates an environment for us to
learn. You will set a short reading list for the class to
prepare in advance (typically one or two articles), give an
in-class presentation (possibly with exercises), and lead the
follow-up discussion by moderating the discussion forum and
summation to the course wiki.
The topics of your
seminar presentation and term paper should be closely related.
You are encouraged to identify a
topic of high relevance to yourself and your
employer.
All seminars will occur in the
second half of the course and will be scheduled by agreement
between you and the instructor. More information, including a list of recommended topics, will
be provided in class.
You should begin your seminar
with a statement of clear learning objectives just as we
do with each of our regular class sessions. A statement of
learning objectives for a seminar would be of the following
form:
Upon completion of this
seminar, you will know about:....
You will be able to....
TERM
PAPER (30%)
You will develop a term paper on a topic of your
choice (closely related to your seminar topic). Your paper
should expand on the subject matter of your seminar to not only
survey the literature, but also say something new and interesting about
the theory or practice of managing software engineering
projects.
Several engineering and
management conferences publish papers about the management of
software engineering projects. You are encouraged to consider
submitting your work at one of these forums. To focus your
efforts, it may be helpful to identify a target conference early in
the writing process. Throughout the course, we will
discuss good "hooks" and possible publication outlets for promising conference
papers.
Your term paper topic must be unique to this course, and not be one that
you are using or have used for another course or thesis.
GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT GROUP
ASSIGNMENTS
More is expected from a group of two than from a single
contributor.
All students in a group receive the same grade (with the
exception of free-loaders, as noted below). Group
conflicts are to be managed within the group. The
instructor does not settle group disputes.
Free-loaders are not welcome anywhere. This course is
no exception. The best way to deal with free loaders is to
not include their names in the first page of the group
assignments. If a student's name does not appear in an
assignment submitted by his or her group, the student must
submit his or her own assignment or receive a grade of
zero. There is zero tolerance for free loaders.
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