The University of Sheffield
School of Computer Science

COM3420 Software Hut

Summary The Software Hut (a microcosm of a real Software House) gives students an opportunity to experience the processes of engineering a real software system for a real client in a competitive environment. The taught element covers the tools and technologies needed to manage software development projects successfully and to deliver software products that meet both client expectations and quality standards. Topics that are put into practice include: the requirements engineering process; software modelling and testing; using specific software development framework(s); group project management; quality assurance; testing. Tutorials take the form of project meetings, and so are concerned with team management, conduct of meetings and action minutes.
Session Spring 2024/25
Credits 20
Assessment There will be no written examination for this module.  Assessment will be entirely on the basis of the project work undertaken in teams. Marks are awarded
  • by departmental staff (course lecturers), who assess each team's management of their project; (LO3)
  • by project clients, who assess the ability of teams to satisfactorily elicit requirements and develop and deliver a product that meets the client’s needs; (LOs 1 & 2)
  • for individual reflection upon the lessons learned, on areas such as teamwork, project process, client interaction, and professional issues such as security, privacy and ethics (LO4).
This module has the explicit objective of developing group teamwork skills. Participation in teamwork is mandatory and failure to participate will result in deduction of marks and eventually loss of credits. Furthermore, this group teamwork exercise cannot be repeated within the academic year. Failure will normally result in repeating the year.
Lecturer(s) Mr Andrew Charlesworth & epiGenesys
Resources
Aims The aims of this module are:
  • to gain experience in dealing with clients, particularly in understanding and managing clients expectations
  • to enhance team working skills
  • to experience, in a competitive environment, the practical problems of constructing, managing, testing and deploying a medium-sized software project, producing the associated user documentation and providing training and online support
  • to examine professional issues, including security, privacy, and ethics, in a realistic context
Learning Outcomes  By the end of this course the students should be able to:
  • Analyse a client’s business needs to agree on a software requirements specification.
  • Apply an agile methodology, working in a team to develop a solution to their client’s requirements.
  • Manage a team software project, including appropriate documentation of meetings, design process, software standards and testing strategies.
  • Critically reflect upon individual and team activity in the software project, highlighting professional issues and personal growth.
Content Teamworking:
  • group project vs individual project
  • roles in a team
  • documents used by the team
  • team meetings and communication
Requirements Engineering (classic OO vs XP):
  • Requirements Capture and Analysis
  • Functional versus non-functional requirements
  • Managing changing requirements
Managing Software Development Projects:
  • Project management strategies
  • Risk analysis and management
  • Quality management strategies
  • Reviews and inspections
  • Testing strategies and test plans
Use of Prototypes:
  • Reasons for prototyping
  • Characteristics of prototypes
  • Use of prototypes for requirements elicitation and validation
Software Documentation:
  • Usable Requirements Specification documents
  • User manuals and on-line user support
Restriction

Students from departments other than Computer Science will need to demonstrate mathematical skills, programming skills in the required language, and some experience of developing web-based systems.

Optional modules within the department have limited capacity. We will always try to accommodate all students but cannot guarantee a place. 
Teaching Method
  • The course is centred around the project, which involves the students working in teams to develop an application for a client.
  • There is a short set of lectures on project management, delivered in the earlier weeks (approx. 5 hours).
  • There will be worksheets covering the technology training that must be completed in the early weeks (approx 20 hours). These worksheets introduce specific technologies that the teams will be expected to use in the development of their client's solution. These are supported by weekly drop-in support sessions.
  • There will be a monitoring meeting each week, looking at team interactions and project progress.
Feedback Feedback is provided on a weekly basis at the monitoring meetings. There will also be feedback from both client and staff at the end of the module.
IP Exemption This module is exempt from the University's Regulations relating to Intellectual Property which can be found at: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/apse/apo/quality/policies-guidance/ip