CS 5310: Software Requirements Analysis and Specification, Fall 2012

Announcements

• 12/15: SRS document grades have been released via email.
• 12/9: The final has been released via email. Additionally, please fill out the End of Semester Survey. Thank you!
• 12/8: Each of you should have received an email containing the following information: Tomorrow morning at 6am, you will receive an email containing the final exam as an attachment and the survey as a link. The final will be due by Thursday, December 13th 2012 at 11:59PM
  If you choose to hand draw your diagrams, you may scan the document, making sure all text is readable, and email it. Otherwise, you may submit your document in my mailbox in the CS office. ALL DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED IN MY MAILBOX MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE 5PM ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13TH 2012.
  If you did not receive this email or do not receive the email tomorrow morning, please contact me as soon as possible!!!
• Finals Correction: Your take-home final will be due at 11:59pm on Thursday, December 13th. It will be emailed out on Sunday morning, December 9th.
• The schedule for the presentations and end of the semester is below

Presentations are to be 11 minutes long followed by 4-5 minutes for questions/answers/switchover. Send me your slides before your presentation day so I can have the presentations all up and ready. Please see the Nov 13th slides for more presentation information

• 11/2 (8:30pm) Each is taking me 3.5 hours on average. Thank you for your patience.

  For those of you have have received feedback, the P stands for new paragraph, S.S.==sentence structure, W.C. == word choice

• 10/25: There have been questions regarding the 2nd project and final exam. In the second project, you will be creating your own SRS using pre-elicited data. There will be two components. In the first, you will write the document, giving you hands on practice on creating a SRS document in natrual language and diagrams using the principles taught in class. In the second part, you will be assigned groups to evaluate SRS documents in terms of the quality assurance practices described in class and in terms of the ease at which the document can be maintained. Group work may be done via email or in person. This project will allow you to explore the practical implications of all topics covered in class (minus elicitation techniques).

  The final exam for the course will be a take-home exam, open book, open notes. The questions will be rather open-ended (much like the questions I've been giving in class). They will be mostly situational, and the goal is to have you apply your knowledge from your research, course lectures, and the SRS document experience. For example, I might give a system (e.g. meeting scheduler), and ask what processes are involved and how you would attempt to find faults in individual processes, The desired system will be well described, and you should use your knowledge (including pros and cons given in class) to explain how you would deal with it. After completing the SRS project, these ideas will be much more concrete in your mind- you have already been presented and questioned about much of the theory in class. Apply your intuition and reasoning when answering each question. You will have several days to complete the exam, and you are free to use any resources- explain all answers thoroughly and as best you can.

  More details will be provided in the upcoming weeks. As you prepare for the project and exam, focus on the course slides and materials covered in class. The main book provides higher level guidance.

  Please contact me if you have concerns or questions.

• 10/19: A bit of humor/horror for your day: Randomly generated paper gets accepted to journal. Cite reliable sources in your papers!!

• 10/2: To access the ACM and IEEE publications for your research, connect to the UCCS VPN. The instructions to connect can be found here.

• 9/28: Please sign up for your individual research project meetings by Monday, October 1st using this link. Meetings will be held from October 1-12.

  At least 24 hours before your meeting, email me with your general research ideas/questions/concerns so that I can prepare and best help you! Also, feel free to email me about potential ideas or how to get started prior to your meeting.

• 9/21: I have added another book, Requirements Engineering: From System Goals to UML Models to Software Specifications, to the class reading list-- this book is optional. However, many of the lectures and examples given in class will be (and have been) from this book. For a much more thorough, rich understanding of requirements engineering and management, I highly recommend it.

• 9/20: Taxonomy-Based Risk Identification Report: The Software Engineering Institute has elaborated a process-oriented risk taxonomy and a comprehensive list of questions to help in spotting project-oriented risks.

• 9/19: How to Read a Paper: This page gives some good guidelines about how to read a research paper and what kinds of questions to ask as you read and do your analysis.

• 9/11: For Thursday, please think about the questions posed at the end of class, write up your answers, and turn them in. A Word document to fill out can be found here.

• 9/6: Several people have asked for clarification regarding the homework write-ups- There is no template to use for these assignments. Be sure to address each of the four requirements. For the pro and con sections, please explain the reasons why you liked and disliked the paper. Some of your reasons may be as simple as: "The paper is well-written." However, try to explain why you would support or criticize the work. As you're writing, imagine that you're on the committee to accept or reject the paper at the conference.

• 9/2: The groups for the group homework presentations have now been assigned. Each of you should have received an email with your assignment. The groups can also be viewed on the Homework page.

• 9/1: I'm waiting to hear from a few more students on class status (a few are signed up, but have not yet been in class)- I'll post and email the group assignments in the morning regardless of the response. Thank you for your patience and have a wonderful long weekend!

• 8/29: To students just now joining the class: Please fill out the Pre-Class Survey and either 1) hand it in during class or 2) email it to me. Thank you!

• 8/27: The readings for the semester have now been posted under "Homework". Please note that assignments will be due ONE WEEK AFTER the dates originally posted. This is to give you enough time to read and analyze the papers and to guarentee that the background material of the paper can be covered in class prior to presentation. You will be signing up for papers this week- a description of the signup process is described on the Homework page. Please submit your paper preferences by Friday, August 31st.

• 8/22: If you have not yet obtained a copy of the Software Requirements textbook, a digital copy is available through UCCS's Books 24x7: Software Requirements, Second Edition. Karl E. Wiegers.

• 8/20: Welcome to CS 5310: Software Requirements Analysis and Specification! Please watch this page for course updates, reminders, and announcements.

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