Good software project leadership requires an understanding of three major areas: software technology, economic factors, and human relations. This course assumes that you have a good background in software technology, and concentrates on the economic and human factors and shows how they interplay with software factors.
The course will focus on a set of pervasive management and economic paradigms which are highly valuable software engineering tools: teambuilding, empowerment, continuous process improvement, win-win situations, production functions, economies of scale, present value, constrained optimization, risk and decision analysis, etc. It will do this in the context of new software challenges (rapid development, rapid change, COTS integration, talent shortages) and new approaches to the software process, including process maturity models, Theory W, the Spiral Model, Model-based (System) Architectecting and Software Engineering (MBASE), and software risk management. These will all be integrated into a framework of Value-Based Software Engineering.
MBASE integrates economics and human factors into software development through the fundamental concept of reconciling stakeholder value propositions into a win-win shared vision of the products to be developed and the process for developing them. A software project's success-critical stakeholders generally include users, acquirers, developers, and maintainers; and may also include marketers, venture capitalists, interpreters, and representatives of the general public.
Theory W project management is based on the fundamental principle that the project manager's principal objective is to Make Everyone a Winner (customers, subordinates, bosses, users, maintainers). The course will elaborate this principle into a 9-step approach which focuses on techniques for creating win-win conditions, negotiation, expectations management, and conflict resolution.
Software risk management is one of the nine Theory W steps: identifying and managing win-lose or lose-lose project risks. It is also the driver of the Spiral Model. The course will cover the discipline of software risk management under six primary sub-topics: risk identification, risk analysis, risk prioritization, risk management planning, risk resolution, and risk monitoring.
Basis of Grade
500 points: Homework exercises. Due dates are indicated in the Course Schedule. Assignments are due at 12 noon on the day indicated, either in hardcopy in Prof. Boehm's office (SAL 328) or via email to yangy@sunset.usc.edu.
250 points: Midterm Exams: 9/25(Wednesday) and 10/30(Wednesday). 125 points each; based on lecture, homework, and reading material covered through the previous class session. Open book; bring a hand calculator with an x^y key.
250 points: Final Exam: 12/11(Wednesday). Covering the full range of course material, but focused on topics covered in lectures and homeworks. Open book; bring at least textbooks amd a hand calculator with an x^y key.
Course Procedures
Except for the initial live lecture on Monday, August 26, and occasional live wednesday lectures, course lectures will use webcasts from 2001 class and be webcasted the week before they are listed on the course schedule. Students can download and review the lectures at their convenience.
Each week, students must submit at least one question that they want answered for each of the week's lectures. Questions are due each Friday morning 8am, by email to yangy@sunset.usc.edu. Weekly questions assignment is 5 points each, and will be graded on relevance and thoughtfulness and counted into your final score.
Prof. Boehm, or occasionally an alternate, will answer your questions each Monday in two ways:
From 10 to 11:20am Monday, Prof. Boehm will answer questions for Distance Network Certificate students via an interactive Chat Room Session. The resulting Chat Room procedures are posted on the class Web Site.
From 8:30 to 9:50am Monday, Prof. Boehm will answer questions for regular CS510 students (on-campus and local-offsite students) in the classroom and over the USC network. These will be Webcasted for Certificate students to review as well.
We're aware that conducting the class in the class in this way is a big experiment in which you are stakeholders. We welcome your email on how to improve this approach as a learning experience for you, and will try to answers any future email questions about the course you sent, although we unfortunately can't guarantee you an instant response. Please address such comments and questions to both boehm@sunset.usc.edu and yangy@sunset.usc.edu.
We look forward to working with you to explore how best to employ distance learning capabilities to provide you with the most rewarding educational experience