Grading Criteria - Software Methodology

Overview

Work in CS 115 is divided into two main components:

Lectures, with associated readings, article reviews, homework assignments, and exams.
The term project, with associated deliverables for each project phase.

Each component contributes 50% of a student's grade.

A necessary but not sufficient precondition for passing the course is passing both the lecture component and the project component (described below).

Variation from written guidelines required written approval. Oral-only instructions are only valid as clarification to ambiguous written material, or to supplement for missing written material. You may get tentative approval in a conversation but you are then responsible for following up with a written request to the instructor or TA and the final decision will be written and published.

Details

Specifically, each aspect of the course contributes the following percentage to the final grade.

Lecture Component (50%):

Homework: 16% (evenly split)
Article reviews: 18% (evenly split)
Exams: 16% (8% each)

The lowest article review grade will be dropped at the end of the quarter.

To pass the lecture component requires at minimum a 50% average over the homework, article reviews and exams, and at minimum a 50% exam average.

Project Component (50%):

Initial architecture: 3%
Scenarios: 5%
Project under configuration control: 3%
Requirements specification: 5%
Risk analysis: 3%
User manual: 5%
Design document: 5%
Acceptance test plan: 3%
Software inspection participation: 3%
Acceptance test performance: 5%
Final project notebook: 10%

Passing the project component requires at minimum a 50% average for your individual contributions to the project.

Final Examination:

Students who have an 80% or better total class average by the end of Week 9 have the option of not taking the final exam (though students may take the exam if they wish). Students with an average of less than 80% must take the final exam.

If a student takes the final exam, it counts for 20% of the total course grade, computed as follows. In the lecture component, 20% of the total course grade is the final examination, and 30% of the total course grade is homework/reviews/exams (that is, all existing homework/learning experience/exam scores are multiplied by .60). The project component remains unchanged at 50% of the total course grade.

Late Submission

Homework, article reviews, and project deliverables are due at the beginning of class. Due dates are specified on the course syllabus. Late items automatically receive no credit (0 points for that assignment). However, one assignment deadline can be missed without penalty (one "get out of jail free" possibility). If you miss the deadline for a deliverable, you'll have to turn it in along with the next deliverable. So, you can miss one deadline, but it means you'll have to turn in two deliverables on the next deadline.

Submission Format

All submissions (homeworks, exams, reviews, project documents) should be handed in on paper at the start of class on the due date.

Project deliverables should also be checked into Subversion in a common format. HTML, PDF, PostScript, any standard form of XML, and plain text will be accepted. Any handwritten or hand-drawn document must be scanned so that an electronic copy exists. For text documents, it's probably easier to just begin in electronic form. Get in the habit of typing notes. For drawings, scanning often makes more sense. For hand-drawn documents, neatness counts, at least in the final version. Having messy drafts is fine, and even expectable, as long as they lead to a neat final drawing.

Project Deliverable Resubmission

Each project deliverable may be corrected, and then submitted for regrading within a week of receiving a grade for that deliverable. Up to half of all points lost on that deliverable may be recovered during regrading. This means that if, beyond the one free late, you miss a deadline, you can get half of the score you'd normally get on it by "resubmitting" it after the deadline, even if it is technically the first time you have turned it in.

Individual and Group Work

Homework assignments and article reviews are performed individually. Project deliverables are a joint effort by each project team.

Academic Dishonesty

Any confirmed academic dishonesty including but not limited to copying another's homework or article review, cheating on exams, and copying project work without giving credit to the author of the work products, will result in a no-pass or failing grade. Students are encouraged to read the campus policies regarding academic integrity.

Uneven Contributions by Group Members

Occasionally, one or more group members contribute less effort to the project than others. In CS 115, this is viewed as a management challenge: how to motivate and coordinate under-performing team members. Groups experiencing this problem are encouraged to meet with the Professor or TA to discuss management tactics.

If, at the end of the quarter, multiple managerial approaches have been tried without success, it is possible to ask the Professor to assess the relative contributions of each team member. The Professor sends out an email questionnaire asking each member to rate the relative contributions of every team member (including themselves) by dividing 100 points among all team members. For example, if there are four team members, and each member contributed equally, each would receive 25 points. Based on this data, the Professor may, at his discretion, modify the total project grades of one or more team members.

Note that if no effort was made to attempt managerial solutions to the problem, then no reassessment of course grades will be permitted. This reflects the viewpoint that the situation reflects a failure to address an obvious managerial problem, as well as the failure of some team members to contribute their share of the work.

Last updated: 2004-03-23