CS 5150

Software Engineering

Lecture 1

Introduction to Software Engineering

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 About the Course

Web site: www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/cs5150/2010fa/

Instructor: William Arms, wya@cs.cornell.edu
Teaching assistant: Stephen Purpura, stevepurpura@gmail.com
Assistant: Corinne Russell, crussell@cs.cornell.edu
This course does not use the Computer Science Course
Management System (CMS)

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 Course Administration

Email
To contact members of the course team, send email to:
both wya@cs.cornell.edu
and stevepurpura@gmail.com
The Teaching Assistant does not have office hours, but
you can schedule an appointment by email.

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 Academic Integrity & Professional Practice

Software Engineering is a collaborative activity. You are

encouraged to work together, but ...
• Some tasks may require individual work.
• Always give credit to your sources and collaborators.
Good professional practice: To make use of the expertise of
others and to build on previous work, with proper
attribution.
Unethical and academic plagiarism: To use the efforts of
others without attribution.
See: Academic Integrity on the course Web site, which points
to the Cornell code.
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 Professional Responsibility

Organizations put trust in software developers:

• Competence: Software that does not work effectively can
destroy an organization.
• Confidentiality: Software developers and systems
administrators may have access to highly confidential
information (e.g., trade secrets, personal data).
• Legal environment: Software exists in a complex legal
environment (e.g., intellectual property, obscenity).
• Acceptable use and misuse: Computer abuse can paralyze an
organization (e.g., the Internet worm).

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 About the Course

Syllabus
For the schedule of lectures, assignments, and tests, see the
Syllabus file on the course Web site. (Note that this syllabus
may change as the course progresses.)
Monday evening
This time is for project team meetings. You may choose to
meet at other times, but each project should have at least one
regular weekly meeting.
The four tests are held on Monday evenings.

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 About the Course

Readings:
There is no course textbook.
See the Books and Readings file on the Web site.
Wikipedia is often a good source for information about
methods of software engineering
but...
beware articles that emphasize the current fashions

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 Lectures and Tests

Lectures and Tests

• The slides are outlines of the lecture material. You will
need to take additional notes during class.
• Tests are on the material covered in the lectures,
including material that is not on the slides.
• Four tests held on Monday evenings, each with two
questions. Best six questions count for final grade.
• No make-up times.
See Tests on the Web site for more information.

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 Grading (Subject to Change)

Project (group) 45%

Project (individual) 25%
Tests 30%

Do not neglect the material covered in the lectures.

You cannot expect to do well on the tests and get a
good final grade in the course from the slides alone.

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 Feedback about the Group Projects

There will be four short surveys, at the time of each

assignment.
Comments on the group projects
Your feedback about what is working well on the project and
where you see difficulties: to help anticipate problems early.
Feedback about the contribution of team members
Your feedback about how each member of your team
contributed to the work of the group: to identify those
individuals who make extra effort or do not contribute fully.

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 Projects

The projects are a central part of the course

• Real projects for real clients who intend to use the software
in production.
• Select your own project, any branch of software
development.
• Project teams, 5 to 7 people.
• Feasibility study and plan, due September 24
• Milestones: three reports and group presentations

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 Project Selection

Read the Web site

• Some projects are suggested on the Web site and will be
discussed in class next week
• You are encouraged to find other projects
Contact potential clients
• Gain idea of their expectations
• Estimate scope and complexity of the project
• Discuss business decisions
Assemble project teams
• Make announcements at the beginning of class

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 Thoughts about Project Selection

Projects
• Target must be a production system (not prototype or
research)
• Client should be one or two named people -- client should
be prepared to meet with you regularly and attend the
presentations
Team
• Teams need many strengths -- organizational, technical,
writing, etc.
• Consider appointing a project manager to coordinate the
effort, or a separate project manager for each of the four
assignments.

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 Overall Aim of the Course

We assume that you are technically proficient. You know

a good deal about computing, can program reasonably,
can learn more on the job.
When you leave Cornell, you are going to work on
production projects where success or failure may cost
millions of dollars.
Soon you will be in charge. It may be your money.
We want you to make your mistakes now and learn from
your mistakes.

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 Previous Experience (Yours)

Your background
• Biggest program that you have written?
• Biggest program that you have worked on?
• Biggest project team that you have been part of?
• Longest project that you have worked on?
• Most people who have used your work?
• Longest that your project has been in production?

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 Previous Experience (Mine)

Much of my career, I was in charge of computing at

universities such as Dartmouth and Carnegie Mellon, with
some time in industry.
Projects where I was in charge
• Operating system, compilers, etc.
• Campus networks, routers, protocols, etc.
• Distributed computing environment, file systems, etc.
• Administrative data processing, general ledger, etc.
• Digital libraries (including recent Cornell Web Lab)

Theme has been first production system where the methods

have previously been used only in research.

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 Variety of Software Products

Examples
Data processing: telephone billing, pensions
Real time: air traffic control
Mobile devices: digital camera, GPS, iPhone
Information systems: web sites, digital libraries
Sensors: weather data
System software: operating systems, compilers
Communications: routers, telephone switches
Offices: word processing, video conferences
Scientific: simulations, weather forecasting
Graphical: film making, design
etc., etc., etc., ....

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 The Craft of Software Development

Software products are very varied

• Client requirements are very different
• There is no standard process for software engineering
• There is no best language, operating system, platform,
database system, development environment, etc.
A skilled software developer knows about a wide variety of
approaches, methods, tools. The craft of software development
is to select appropriate methods for each project and apply them
effectively.

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 Software is Expensive

Software is expensive.
The major costs are:
• salaries (your salaries)
• organizational change

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 Software is Expensive

Who is paying the money?

What does that person or organization want?
• What is success?
• What is failure?
Technical people may have very different criteria of success
from the people in charge of the organization.
Examples:
• Early Unix workstations, Sun and IBM
• Ship date for Dartmouth financial system

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 Clients, Customers, and Users

Client
The client provides resources and expects some product
in return.
The client is often a member of the organization that is
providing the money. The client's job success may
depend on the success of the software project.
Client satisfaction is a primary measurement of
success in a software project.
Who is the client for Microsoft Excel?

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 Clients, Customers, and Users

Customer
The customer is the person who buys the software or
selects it for use by an organization.
User
A user is a person who actually uses the software.
• With personal software, the user may be the same
person as the customer.
• In organizations, the customers and the users are
usually different.
The Cornell Finance Office uses Microsoft Excel. Who
is the customer? Who are the users?
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