CPSC 354 010, 020 & 29H, Spring 2025 Syllabus

General Information

Instructor:
Dr. Dylan Schwesinger
Office:
Old Main 250; Phone: (484) 646 - 4389
email:
schwesin@kutztown.edu
Web URL:
https://faculty.kutztown.edu/schwesin
Office Hours:
MoWe: 4:00pm – 5:30pm, TuTh 10:00am – 11:00am
Meeting Time & Place:
Section 010: TuTh 12:00pm – 1:15pm, OM 159
Section 020 & 29H: TuTh 1:30pm – 2:45pm, OM 159

Course Description:

This is the first course in a two-semester capstone sequence. This course introduces the fundamental principles of software engineering. Coverage will include the System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies, capturing requirements, design modeling, project management, risk management, and quality assurance. Students will learn techniques for requirements elicitation, prioritization, validation, and specification. They also will be introduced to various design models that are used to capture requirements.

Prerequisite: Completion of 24 CPSC credits, numbered 125 or higher AND a GPA of 2.25 in the CPSC courses.

Course Objectives

Books (Optional)

Essentials of Software Engineering, Frank Tsui, Orlando Karam, Barbara Bernal, Addison-Wesley, 2014, 4th Edition, ISBN: 978-1449691998

Peopleware: Productive Teams and Projects, Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2014, 3rd Edition, ISBN-13: 978-0321934116

UML Distilled, Martin Fowler, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013, 3rd Edition, ISBN: 978-0321193681

Course Organization

Your participation in the course will involve the following activities:

Regular attendance and class participation are expected. Students are responsible for all material covered in class.

Policies

Final Grade Assignment

There are no letter grades associated with your assignment work in this class. Instead, you will receive feedback, from your peers and me, on work-in-progress as well as “final” versions of assignments. I will ask you to record reflections on the feedback during the semester. At the end of the semester, we will meet on an individual basis to discuss your learning and your grade based on your mastery of the software engineering objectives. The University Scale will be used in determining letter grades. For students that must take the final exam (see below), the final exam will count for 30% of the course grade.

Assignments

All assignments are due by the specified day and time. Late assignments will not be accepted. All assignments must include the following information: your name, the course (CPSC 354), semester, year, and assignment number. Programming assignments must follow the Computer Science Documentation Standards. Failure to meet these expectations will result in a 10% penalty for that assignment.

Exams

There will be a comprehensive final exam. Students that have a 75% or greater attendance rate are not required to take the final exam. For the purposes of calculating the attendance rate, coming to class late will be counted as a half day of attendance. Exams must be taken when scheduled unless I have approved an alternate time prior to the scheduled exams. Missed exams will be handled on an individual basis and will require written documentation for the absence. University policy will be followed.

Project Documents

An essential part of Software Engineering is understanding the client’s requirements and clearly communicating them to the client and your team members. We will develop the following documents: Software Development Plan, Requirements Specification, User Interface Design, Architecture Specification, and Test Plan. Since this is considered a writing intensive course, each student is required to write and revise a portion of each document. The university has a writing center as a free service for students where you can get advice and assistance with writing assignments from any course or subject.

Team Collaboration

You will be working in teams of 3-4 students for CPSC 354 and CPSC 355 to experience team dynamics similar to the work environment. Team presentations, peer evaluations and team evaluations will be part of the process.

Academic Dishonesty

All students should familiarize themselves with the Computer Science Academic Integrity Policy

Assignments will be closely monitored for plagiarism. All infractions will be reported to the department chair. The penalty for cheating will be determined on a case-by-case basis, but it will always be worse than having not turned in the assignment.

Email Correspondence

The preferred method of course communication is email. When sending email, please indicate the course number in the subject line by placing it within square brackets, for example, “[CPSC 354] Need help on Assignment 1”. All email correspondence must sent from your Kutztown University email address. You can expect a response to an email with a properly formatted subject line within 24 hours. An email with an improperly formatted subject line may get no response at all.

Classroom Etiquette

Consideration for your classmates, instructor, and class is expected. Please come to class on time and prepared to learn. There should be no classroom conversations, sleeping, cell phone usage, or other disruptions to the class.

Accreditation

Any course work submitted to the instructor (including but not limited to assignments, tests, and projects) may be photocopied and retained for the purpose of assessment, accreditation and quality improvement, after removal of any information identifying the student.

Kutztown University Class Handout Information

Supplemental information from university offices for class handouts and syllabi is located here: Class Handout Information

Note: This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.