This is to answer questions from several people about the content of this course for Fall,2000.

I taught this course for several years some time ago; this year’s course will be a complete update. However, the basic structure of the course will follow the same structure that I have used before.

The course will be a realistic experience in working in a software engineering project. Everyone who registers for the course will be a part of a single project. We will divide into teams that have different responsibilities. Together the class members will produce one product. Each student will have multiple roles on the project.

The course will examine both technical issues and people issues in a software development project. One class member will be the project manager, other students will be team leads and receive management experience. I will select a project that will be technically challenging (probably a distributed system, maybe with a web interface) but that will be doable within the context of a single semester. The scope of the project will be scaled based on the size of the class. We will use object-oriented techniques and will implement in the Java language.

I am an active consultant as well as a researcher. We will structure the project using state of the art techniques that reflect the best of what industry is doing. During my sabbatical this year I am working at the Software Engineering Institute. This is giving me a chance to investigate the latest trends in large scale software development. My consulting this year includes working on the basic software driving a cell phone and a distributed accounting package that will be placed in service this summer in a multi-national organization.

In past years, employers and students have been very pleased with the realistic nature of the course. It will assist students in their first employment experience.