Basic Information

Lectures:	Tuesday and Thursday 1:25-2:40
Instructor:	William Arms, wya@cs.cornell.edu, Upson 4107B, 255-3046
Instructor's Office Hours:	Tuesday and Thursday 3:00-4:00
Instructor's Assistant:	Rosemary Adessa, rosemary@cs.cornell.edu, Upson 4105, 255-9555
Recitations:	Monday 7:30 to 8:30, Phillips 219
Teaching Assistant 1:	Nate Nystrom, nystrom@cs.cornell.edu, Upson 5132, 255-5577
Teaching Assistant's Office Hours:	Monday and Wednesday 4:00 to 5:00
Teaching Assistant 2:	Eric Melin, edm5@cornell.edu
Teaching Assistant's Office Hours:	Monday 12:30 to 2:00, Upson 328

Course Topics and Goals

• The methods, tools, and techniques for developing and managing the process of creating and evolving software products. Emphasis on the professional skills needed to deliver high-quality software products at agreed cost and schedule. Topics will follow Sommerville's text, supplemented with additional reading materials. The course is concerned with the full software life-cycle: requirements, specification, design, implementation, testing, validation, operation, and maintenance. The course provides experience in dealing with large software systems, working in groups, and using state-of-the-art tools.

Assumed Background

• CS410 (or equivalent) plus a reasonable knowledge of the C, C++, or Java programming languages. Sufficient maturity to be able to learn new programming languages on your own if assignments require it.

Assignments and Computer Resources

• Computer assignments on both Unix and Windows/NT are likely. Late assignments will not be accepted. There are likely to be some individual assignments and some group projects.

Recitations

• The weekly evening recitation will focus on tool details and on discussions relevant to the current assignment.

Computing Laboratory

• Unix and NT computers with appropriate software are available in the Computer Science Undergraduate Lab, Upson Hall Room 315/317. MEng students may also use the MEng computing lab.

Grading

The course grade will be based on course assignments, the project, and the final project. Two of the course assignments are group assignments related to the project; the others are individual assignments. The weightings given to these components are expected to be as follows, but these weightings may be changed:

Course newsgroup

The course has a newsgroup that members of the class can use to send messages. It is:

cornell.class.cs501

[ CS 501 Home Page ]

William Y. Arms
Last changed: September 14, 1999