NDAA09029U Project Course: Development Studio

Volume 2013/2014
Education
MSc programme in Computer Science
Content
A development studio is a place where software development is taught and where developers practice. In this course, the focus is on software development in a broad sense covering all aspects of modern development processes. This includes requirements development, system and software design, software construction,
testing, and integration of the system solution in its use context. The aim is for the students to be able to analyze, design, and implement a software product in teams while managing the process.

The course activities are anchored around project work which expands over two blocks. In the projects the students are supposed to solve demanding real-life problems whose specification and solution requires active end-user participation. In addition to this, the team members are expected to read selected articles and extracts from textbooks that may help them to produce high-quality solutions for the tasks in question, both as regards to technical quality and usability.

Also, guests will be invited to give talks related to the development tasks, and software development in general. Depending on the number of students on the course, all projects can be bundled together, or they can be separate development tasks which are realized synchronously in parallel. The main idea is to allow learning across teams. Thereby the students may obtain a more multifaceted and deeper insight into software development than it would be possible by working alone with the same task and literature.
Learning Outcome
This course aims to give the students solid skills in software development, which is understood as the range of activities leading to software systems that are effective, useful, and satisfactory to their users, both in organizational context and in human lives.

After the course the student should to have:

Knowledge of
  • techniques for requirement description, analysis, and estimation
  • techniques for software design based on requirements
  • software construction in projects characterized by uncertainty
  • software verification including testing
  • development processes used in the software industry
Skills to
  • plan a project before its requirements are known
  • negotiate contracts/development plans with customers/end users
  • describe requirements that enable effective development and that may form the basis of estimation
  • create the software architecture and detailed design of a software system according to quality requirements
  • transform software designs into an operational software system
  • produce software system that are of satisfactory quality including to their users
  • test a sizeable program
Compentences to
  • criticize and analyse other people's work
  • disseminate the results of his or her work
  • work effectively in small groups to develop a software system
Literature
See Absalon when the course is set up.
The student must be enrolled in a relevant MSc programme.
The student should have equally good programming skills as a computer-science bachelor from our department. Furthermore, an introductory course on IT project management is a desirable prerequisite.
Lectures; discussion sessions; student presentations; obligatory assignments; workshops; group project; project exam
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 26
  • Guidance
  • 16
  • Lectures
  • 48
  • Practical exercises
  • 32
  • Preparation
  • 130
  • Project work
  • 160
  • Total
  • 412
Credit
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
The final exam is a written exam based on the course project with an external examiner (ekstern censor) and is assessed on the 7-step grading scale. Submission in Absalon.
Exam registration requirements
To be eligible for the final exam, a number of obligatory assignments must be handed in and passed, most of which are in the form of assignments related to a group project.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Re-exam
The re-exam consists of a new written exam based on the course project.
Criteria for exam assesment
See learning outcome.