Learning Objectives:

The overall theme of this week’s lessons is software engineering processes: how do we organize our (non-programming) activities so that we can build some software project as efficiently as possible? The lessons will center on these three themes:

• How do we organize our development activities?
• How do we estimate how long a software project will take?
• How do we build an effective team?

Important Dates:

• Team Formation Due Sep 28 by 1159pm

Lecture Slides:

• Software Process Slides PDF, PPT
• Agile Planning and Estimation Slides PDF, PPT
• Teams Slides PDF, PPT

Additional Readings:

The following books provide additional depth on the topics in this week’s lessons:

• The Mythical Man-Month
• Head First Agile
• eXtreme Programming eXplained
• Debugging Teams

For more reflections on software processes in the 1980’s, David Parnas’ article: “Software Aspects of Strategic Defense Systems”. For a discussion of various xDD approaches, see Rebecca Wirfs-Brock on What Drives Design?. Chuck Rossi’s 2014 Release Engineering Keynote includes some great discussion of Facebook’s mobile release process, now outdated, but quite interesting; there is a discussion of team structure around 18 minutes in. Sarah Mei’s 2018 Power of Agile talk provides a great discussion of embracing agile values that work for your team, while leaving behind toxic practices. Miscellaneous: Investigating the origins of the tire swing meme