17-413: Software Engineering Reflection

Description

This course is an opportunity to reflect on a software engineering experience you have had in industry. It is structured as a writers workshop, in which you will work with the instructor and other students to identify and flesh out a software engineering theme that is illustrated by your industry experience. You will prepare a 10-page report on this theme, comparable to a practitioner's report at a conference like ICSE or OOPSLA, and a 30-minute presentation to match.

This course fulfills a requirement of the Software Engineering Minor program, but students in other programs may take the course if they meet the prerequisite industry experience and if space is available.

Prerequisites

Industry internship experience

at least 8 full-time weeks in industrial setting
integrated into a team, exposed to industry pressures
may be in development, management, quality assurance, or other relevant positions

Requirements

Attendance - 10%

Attend the presentations of other 17-413 students

Report - 50%

Issue-focused reflection and analysis of some personal software engineering experience
Requirements

See the SE Ph.D. practicum requirements page (access information on Blackboard)

Lots of good advice on this page
Our requirements are the same but shorter in scope

Scope: about 8-12 pages single-space, 11-point font, 1 inch margins, including figures and references

Talk to me if you're going outside this

Evaluated for writing skills (33%) and critical reflective content (67%)
Must pass to pass the course

Presentation - 25%

30-45 minute talk
Evaluated for communication skills (33%) and critical reflective content (67%)
Must pass to pass the course

Process - 15%

Putting in effort along the way

Resources

See the SE Ph.D. Practicum Page (access information on Blackboard)

Contains previous practicums written by SE Ph.D. students. They are longer than yours need be, but the idea is the same.
These practicums are CONFIDENTIAL - do not share outside of this class. Do not give the URL to the page or access information to anyone outside this class. Your practicum report will be confidential as well, so respect the confidentiality of others.

Schedule

Course meetings are normally Wednesdays at 4pm in Wean 4220. In occasional weeks where the instructor has unavoidable conflicts, class will be held Fridays at 1:30pm (location as announced), and any students who cannot make the alternate time can meet individually with the instructor instead.

Date	Class	Assignment Due
Wed Aug 25	Organization
Wed Sep 1	Discuss abstracts	Title and Abstract (a one-paragraph summary of your paper)
Fri Sep 10	Discuss notes	Revised Title and Abstract One-Page Experience Brain Dump Describe different experiences you had that are relevant to the point of your paper
Fri Sep 17	Discuss rough outlines	Initial outline, showing the paper structure, the major points you want to make, and one or more supporting experiences for each point
Wed Sep 22	Office hour
Fri Oct 1	Discuss detailed outlines	Detailed outline: should contain all of the content that you plan to put in the paper
Wed Oct 6	Office hour	2 pages of text
Wed Oct 13	Office hour	4 pages of text (cumulative)
Fri Oct 22		First draft of full paper--can be rough but should not have any more writing to do, only revisions.
Wed Oct 27		Complete draft of slides
Wed Nov 3	Office hour	Polished paper due - something you believe is of adequate quality to pass the course.
Fri Nov 12	Presentations
Wed Nov 17	Presentations
Wed Dec 1	Presentations	Final paper due

Late Policy

5 free late days
Excuses for true personal emergencies. Being busy in another course is not an excuse; that's what your free days are for.
Beyond your free days, 1% penalty on final course grade per day (or fraction) late on any assignment, up to 15% total (losing all your process grade). Procrastination is really bad when you are writing something long, so don't do it. Grading thresholds are standard: 90-80-70-60.
I must have 2 days to grade your final report; anything turned in past 5pm on December 14 will not be graded, because grades are due on December 16. Note that December 14 would already incur a late penalty based on the schedule above, so this is a last resort.