CS 511: Personal Software Process (PSP) and Project
Catalog-like Description (as implemented):
CS 511 Personal Software Process
(PSP) and Project: Individual analysis, planning, development, and maintenance
of a software product or development artifact, using principles and practices
the Personal Software Process. Analysis of project lessons learned.
Prerequisite: none. Recommended: Any software project course or development
experience.
CS511 is the third of three courses in an evolving Software Engineering sequence which constitutes the core of a Master of Science in Computer Science with specialization in Software Engineering. Software Engineering I (CS577a) focuses on software plans, processes, requirements and architectures. Software Engineering II (CS577b) focuses on software product creation, integration, test and transition with an emphasis on quality software production. Both CS577a and CS577b are team project courses. CS511 will focus on planning, development, and deployment of a software engineering artifact by an individual using a Personal Project Management Process (PPMP) and the Personal Software Process (PSP) when appropriate. Both PPMP and PSP assist significantly in personal professional improvement.
The course concept includes learning and application of a PPMP to the software engineering activities involved with development of software engineering artifacts. The PPMP is subset of Watts Humphrey's "Personal Software Process" which focuses on personal project planning and tracking, including process definition, estimating and scheduling, even in situations where their may be significant, on going learning. The homework assignments for the first half of the course are all related to learning and practicing PPMP or PSP; providing a personal, spreadsheet-based tool set for PSP; and gathering data to be used during the second half of the course. The second half of the course teaches the rest of PSP and applies PSP and PPMP to the further development and productization of extensions or enhancements of existing products.
The course project for this semester will be the disciplined development of the PSP process analysis and improvement planning reports (also known as R4 and R5). Students will be required to plan the work, analyze the data, generate an analysis report including supporting data, and developing "tools" which will enable them to further improve their software development process productivity and quality.
Text(s):
1. Watts Humphrey, A Discipline for Software Engineering Addison-Wesley, 1995
2. Course notes (available through the Schedule page)
3. Miscellaneous Papers (available through the Schedule page)
Lecture Time and Location: MW 11:30 to 12:50, OHE 100 (DEN) Classroom F
NOTE: the Friday session (11:30 to 12:50) is for
eOfficeHours including demonstrations and exercise discussions
Assignments and Grading (subject to change during course):
Instructor:
Teaching Assistant:
For updates, see the class web page at http://www-scf.usc.edu/~csci511