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 is the password to password-protected class readings?
cs510
5. How DEN Students submit the Questionnaires?
Please submit the Questionnaires as a normal homework. Click here for further details
6. For homework 2, should we prepare the questions alone or with their answers??
No, questions only.
7. I am not able to understand the question about the pentagons in the homework: does it mean that we have to draw two pentagons - one for agile and other for plan-driven methods using the risks of each given in the homework.What does it mean by "range of ratings"? (Updated with Professor's answer to this question)
You are rating the project and product to be developed with respect to the 5 criteria, not the methods. But parts of the the product may be more dynamic or critical than others, or if more than one organization is participating in development, their skills distributions and cultures may not be the same. This would mean that parts of the project and product would have ratings closer to the agile center and parts closer to the plan-driven periphery. These real-world ranges of ratings are important things to represent and deal with when planning, organizing, and architecting the project and product.
Read chapter 2 in the book again, especially from page 54 to page 57, may help you with it.
8. Can u explain part 4b of the homework a little more....Are we supposed to draw the complete project strategy diagram for sierra mountainbikes?
No, the strategy diagram is already given in Figure 5-4. You need to use the risk-based approach based on the knowledge from Figure 5-4 as well as risk assessment findings given in HW3 to answer question b.
9. What do we take into account from the SMB case study? In other words do we just work off of the information on the homework handout and the description of the project before it takes place? Or do we take into account information in figures 2-6 from EP 41? I guess we are acting like the project has not started yet, so an analysisnot outlined in the homework does not exist.
The EP-41 only provides some background infromation of this supply chain project. You do not need to look into those numbers in figures in EP-41 for this HW.
You should be able to answer all the questions only by looking the risk assessment findings in HW3.
10. I noted in the SMB report that the software development was outsourced which made me think that SMB had an internal development team, but if you look at the organ chart for SMB there is no indication that they have one. Also if there is one, they must be experienced with SMB's operations which is a supply chain business, so how could they not be experienced with Supply Chain Applications?
We assume SMB report you are referring to is EP-41.
In EP-41, it says that "Sierra entered into a strategic partnership with eServices Inc. for JOINT development..." So it is not an pure internal development team. Furthermore, HW3 specifies that the development team can have a peak of 15 people, majority (10) are from eServices, only 5 from SMB and they are primarily responsible for post-delivery revolution requirement, which means 5 SMB people's first responsibilities are not the developing the system.
11. Can I use COCOMO tool for this problem? And where can I get the tool?
Yes, you can use the tool or do hand calculation. In either case, provide all your work and/or screenshots. You can get the tool at the homepage of the class website or click here.
12. What does "Report your results using the MBASE lifecycle" mean?
This means you have to distribute effort and schedule using MBASE lifecycle distribution, refer Appendix A in COCOMO II book for effort distribution and Table A.5 for effort and scheduling distribution formulas. Please refer to EP32 and EC15 for MBASE background information.
13. What is the rating for AEXP and PEXP?
AEXP is the APEX and PEXP is PLEX.
14. For the COCOMO ratings on the table for Processor X and Processor Y, do them apply to all software functions or only the last one for COTS integration?
Only apply to COTS integration.