CSci 435/535: Software Engineering

Homework 1: Issue Tracker and Project

Due Friday, January 26th by 11am

Summary

Issue Tracker

Create an account for yourself, using your CS userid as your username. You must do this by 5pm Thursday.

Between 5pm and 8pm Thursday, I will give everyone developer permissions. This will allow you to create and edit tasks. I will also create two tasks: a "Free Points" task, and a "Homework 1" task. I will sign everyone up for the "Free Points" task and close it.

The following must be done after 8pm Thursday.

1. Go to preferences, and change your password. Also set it so that the issue tracker shows you the the issue list using: Issue Number, Status, Points, Module, Assigned To, Category. Sort by points. (You can change this to whatever you like later.) Save your changes.
2. Click the "Group Preferences" link near at the top. Check the email notification for the developers group and save your changes. This will cause emails to be sent when changes are made to the issue list, such as the creation of new issues. You will always be notified if there is a change to an issue that you are assigned to.
3. Sign yourself up for the "Homework 1" task.
4. Go to reports, and tell it to show you the "performance score" for the developers group, milestone 1.
5. Create a text file. In this file answer the following questions:
   1. Where did you get your individual points?
   2. Why didn't you get points for the "Homework 1" task?
6. Find the issue in the issues list entitled "Homework 1". Add an event to the issue with a little description. Also attach your text file to the event.

Project

Prepare for Friday's class two ideas for semester projects. One of your ideas must not be a game. If you propose a game it must be innovative---Scrabble or World of Warcraft will not do. For example, check out the demos of "Spore" at http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=spore.

Here are some good qualities of a project:

• It should be large enough for 20 people to work on.
• It should have requirements that build upon each other, so that a functional "base version" can be created in the first milestone, then enhanced in later milestones.
• It should be fun and interesting.
• It should not require specialized domain expertise, such as chemistry knowledge. (If there is, see if this risk can be reduced.)
• There should be no serious "bottlenecks" in development that would cause many people to wait.
• It should not be a past course project.

Examples of past projects include a command-line PAR2 program (not fun, required specialized knowledge), a billiards game with 2D and 3D views (fun, but required physics and simulation knowledge), a traffic simulator (fun, not too much specialized knowledge), a turn-based strategy game (fun, not too much specialized knowledge).

Try to choose a project that is genuinely useful. Talk to people you know about their software needs.

Grading

25 points total