CSCI 510 FAQ
1. What is EC and EP?
EC stands for electronic charts, they can be found at here. EP stands for electronic papers, they can be found at here.
2. Where is the homework policy?
It's here, at the bottom of the page.
3. If I get some homework questions, whom I should talk to FIRST, the TA or the professor?
The TA.
4. What are the readings for HW2?
You are supposed to read all the readings (EPs and ECs) listed in the class schedule. This assignment is more related to the Theory W, but not limited to that.
5. For HW2, what is the assignment of jobs to people that maximizes the sum of the weights?Are we talking about maximizing the sum of the individual person, like for harry and then larry and then mary OR are we talking about maximizing the sum of larry+harry+mary?
Sum of three people. Each person will do only one task, and will do 100% percentage on that task. They can not do the same task, all three tasks need to be done.
6. For HW2, What is the resulting numerical sum? The numerical sum of what?
Sum of weight.
7. For HW3, the problem says that the CCD version reduces Size of reduced profits by $4000k...so does that mean we have to take loss equal to $4000k???....Also what would be the loss for IOC? What does Size(Loss) Savings (SLS) mean exactly?
For CC approach, the REDUCED loss is 4000; for IOC approach, the REDUCED loss is SLS-IOC. It is the delta part of the loss.
8. For HW3, is the probablity of loss [ P(Loss) ] the same for both CC and IOC?
Yes.
9. For HW3, what does "breakeven" mean?
In this problem, the breakeven is the point where the RRL of CC and RRL of IOC are the same.
10. About the Midterm, will COCOMO™ be covered in midterm 1?
No.
11. For HW4 (COCOMO™ Assignment)
(From David) We were given these equations for HW #4:
Effort = 2.94(KSLOC)^1.1 * EAF
Schedule = 3.67(Effort(^1.1 * Sced%/100
--- As Dr. Madachy replied you before, Schedule = 3.67(Effort)^0.348 SCED%/100
There was a typo in the initial post. We have corrected it. Sorry about the confusing.
HW #$=4:
Question (2)
I have no idea how you use either the equations or the tool to estimate Effort or Schedule from lines of code, RELY = high, ACAP = low and other cost drivers = nominal?
--- Yes, other cost drivers which are not mentioned should take the default values as Nominal.
I could not follow the lecture how the instructor was even entering lines of code because the image of the COCOMO™ II estimator was of such poor quality. When I blew it up, all I got was a blurred image. In any case, no mention of producing Effort or Schedule from the data given above was explained in class or in the charts.
--- I am sorry to know that. Yeah sometimes DEN has this problem because of image compression quality. Also as you know, COCOMO™ is a comprehensive model. It would be very difficult to get a good coverage in a 50 minutes class. Up to now, the lecture contents are covered in COCOMO™ II book chapter 1-3. Please read through, it will be helpful.
Question (3)
All that is given is time in months (120 person-months) and a TOOL rating of low to high. Nothing was mentioned on how this can translate into Effort being calculated. I am totally lost.
--- Think in this way: what is the (Previous Effort)/(New Effort)? How it is related to TOOL driver?
Question (4)
Part A
5 Years and change to 3 years and 9 months. Calculate new effort? Again, how do you go from a change in the time of the schedule to calculating Effort?
--- According to COCOMO™ model, if you are trying to do your project with less time, it will need more effort to achieve that. You need to find out what is the related driver, and use the similar approach as Question (3) to resolve the problem. The change in time here is in terms of percentage.
Part B
Average personnel level 25 people & 5 years. I have no idea how the Average personal level equates to Schedule or how reducing time relates to this value? This is not covered in the lecture and is not even mentioned in the charts we went over.
--- Now, you need to use the percentage you get in Part A, to get a specific number for Part B.
Question (5)
Size = 300,000
Cost Driver: SCED = very low
Tool Experience = 3.1 years
All other cost drivers = nominal
Scale Drivers: all rated at nominal
How do you do this by either equations given or the tool? This was not even mentioned in the lecture.
--- Again, it is very difficult to cover everything for such a complex Model in a 50 minutes lecture. You are supposed to read the book and find the way out from there.
Question (6)
Have no idea how Average Language Experience relates to Effort? Or how changing from 6 months to 3 years effects Effort. This was not covered in class and I don't see how this can be determined from either by the equations or the Tool?
--- Firstly, you need to find out which driver is related. Then you need to determin what's the difference for 3-year-experience and 6-year-experience for this driver. Does it have the same rating or not? If not, what's the corresponding rating number for this driver? From there you can get started. BTW, you can find the rating numbers in the back-page of the book cover: COCOMO™ II. 2000 Scale Factors and Effort Multipliers.
I tried bringing up the tool and all I got was the picture below and included as an attachment in case the picture in the email is lost in sending it. All I saw was the field for Project Name that was cable of being changed. I have no idea how this homework can be done by hand (assume using the equations from above) or by the Tool (COCOMO™ II) used in class?
--- Yes, this homework can be done with simple manually calculations.
12. For HW5
There are no values for Tool rating for Low, Nominal, High and Very High for the categories First Year Savings, Investment Cost or Return on Investment for question #3.
--- The values for Tool rating can be found right at the second page of COCOMO™ II book under the coverpage, in table "COCOMO™ II. 2000 Scale Factors and Efforts Multipliers".
Do we assume any of the information from previous questions to be true on following questions?
--- For Investment cost, yes, they are the same as question 2.
To determine cost for question 3, I assume we need the number of person months for each of the 5 projects or do we just use a number for an average software project and multiply this number by 5?
--- The calculation should be based on the average project savings you just calculated from question 2, also assuming there will be averagely 5 projects per year as mentioned in question 3.
Or do we use previous calculation for person-month for Effort from question 1 or do we look up an average number for person-month for the average project as stated in question 3 and multiply that by 5 projects?
--- The calculation should be based on the average project savings you just calculated from question 2,
I am not sure if question 3 is supposed to be based on all 5 projects running concurrently for the entire year or how this figures into the cost. I assume the intermediate calculations are to show the Effort is changed by each of the multipliers for each of the factors listed in question 1?
--- As mentioned before, question 3 is talking about "savings", so it is directly based on question 2. Since question 2 (*) is based on question 1, yes, question 3 also uses the ratings of question 1.
On question 2 are we to just fill in the * or do we have to recalculate Effort based on Low-Very High tool ratings?
--- You are supposed to calculate the whole table based on the Very Low to Very High ratings.
Do we have to calculate the net-present-value of ROI for one year or for five years?
Just for by the end of the 5th year.
And do we have to calculate the present value only after one year or five years?
Again, it is for by the end of the 5th year.
If the "5 year license fee" is paid at the beginning of first year or it is paid over 5 years?
All the 5-year license cost are paid at the beginning of the first year.
13. For HW7
Is the 4 person Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) included in the 200 person staff?
No, it is not.
I don't know how many projects will be done each year at Precision Products, Inc.(PPI), how do I know exactly how much savings they can get by improving PMAT?
The numbers and conditions given in the question are "average charactoristics". You can calculate the effort saving percentage for one project, and then apply this ratio to the total labor cost, which is 200 person multiply the salary per person per year, to get the average savings per year.
14. For HW8
1. Do I have to do the research on all 8 methods in Lecture Note page 7 in "Balacing Agility and Discipline"? Some of the methods, such as crystal methods, have very few source or have branches .
You don't have to, but foundamentally the more research you do, the better grades you will get. There are a lot of materials on the software engineering journals, conferences, and internet sources discuss about Agile methods. For example, IEEE, ACM, Crosstalk, and many more others. Try to dig into the paper references, you will see.
2. What exactly means "analysis"? Do we have to conclude a certain method is better than other?
Explain what the approach is, analyze the related pros and cons, and explain how well it fits the organization's needs in the question context. Please make sure you bullet your points out, so that the graders can easily get what you are trying to say.
Last Updated on 07/12/2004 8:46a.m.