CSE 8317: Homework Assignments

CSE 8317 (Fall, 2006): Homework Assignments

Prof. Jeff Tian (tian@engr.smu.edu)

Assignment #1: Background/Literature Research

Assignment#1-part 1: Literature Research

Use the online resources for software engineering/quality literature as your guide, search some journals/magazines/proceedings to find some articles on software quality/reliability/safety, and do the following:

Browse through at least 3 recent (see below) periodical/proceeding issues where some of the relevant papers in the subject area appear.
List related papers for each issue by the following topic areas:
1. quality and/or defect analysis
2. software reliability engineering
3. software safety engineering
Be sure to glance through the abstracts because some titles may not be informative enough for your to make the above categorization.
For papers on other topics (other than the above three), there is no need to list them individually, just indicate the total number for that issue.
If you choose to do a full individual study presentation, choose your candidate paper, and let me know of your desired presentation date.
In addition, if you plan to do a "literature survey" type of project, indicate which paper(s) will be among your candidate papers.

Some specifics about your literature sources:

When I say "recent", it means no more than 10 years old under most circumstances, but typically within the last 5 years.
You may use online sources if you prefer, but try to stay with online version of "published" literature only. (I.e., not just some personal opinion posted by individual web users.)
When you use online sources, make sure you have access to at least the paper abstracts for this assignment, and the full papers for future ones. (See my point above about some less informative paper titles.)
Try to use different publications to achieve better diversity. I.e., Do not limit yourself to three issues of the same journal.
You may want to use some of the more recent papers from our textbooks and online papers/references as index into selected periodical/proceedings issues. However, this may work better for older issues instead of newer ones.

Assignment#1-part 2: Background Research on Analysis Techniques

Use Tian/SQE Part IV chapters and related references as your guide, find an article or a book to help you understand better some of the following topics:

Causal analysis for individual defects and groups of defects, and related analysis techniques and processes. A good example is Ishikawa's "fishbone" diagram.
Overall statistical defect analysis, including trend analysis (e.g., Lyu/HSRE Ch. 10), distribution analysis (lots of papers on this), general defect models.
Defect classification and analysis (e.g., read one of the original ODC papers referenced in Tian/SQE Ch.20, or Lyu/HSRE Ch.9, or recent development/applications of ODC such as Lutz/Mikulski paper in our online list).
Risk identification techniques, particularly newer ones such as PCA/DA, NN, OSR, TBM (e.g., read one of the references cited in Tian/SQE Ch.21, or Lyu/HSRE Ch.17)

Write a one-paragraph summary of the paper/chapter, and an additional paragraph or two about its relevance to our class and to your work (total length not to exceed 2 pages).

If you find the paper/chapter interesting and useful, you might want to prepare a presentation as your individual study presentation for the class on 9/8/06. In that case, please let me know before class time (the earlier, the better).

Due Date for hw#1: 9/8/06

Assignments #2 and #3

You might want to tie your hw#2 and/or hw#3 with your course project. In that case, if you choose an SRE-related project, you might want to do hw#2 first; otherwise, you might want to do hw#3 first.

1st due date: 10/21/06 for one of (hw#2 or hw#3)
2nd due date: 11/3/06 for the other

Assignment #2: Paper Summary/Critique

Select one paper about software reliability from homework #1 or from other sources (you might want to do some additional literature research for this assignment, based on what we have covered up to this point in class) and write a short summary, analysis, and critique. You summary/analysis/critique should be around 3 or 4 double-spaced pages of text. Pay special attention to its relevance to CSE 8317. Some specifics about this assignment are listed below:

The summary should be your own summary, based on your understanding of the paper, not the authors' summary/abstract.
The analysis and critique is an important part of your essay (at least as important as your summary itself), which may include, among other things, an analysis based on what we covered in class on related topics, your subjective assessment of the paper, what you would do differently, practical impact of the reported work. It is desirable if you can make it relevant to what you are doing at work.
Give full citation details (for example references, see Tian/SQE), and provide a copy of the original abstract. If the paper was not publicly available (e.g., internal report) or hard to track down (e.g., regional or industry specific conferences), you need to include a copy of the paper(s) with your homework submission.

Due Date for hw#2: 10/21/06

Notice: You may choose to do hw#3 first, in that case, hw#2 will be due on 11/3/06.

Assignment #3: Paper Summary/Critique

Repeat assignment #2 for a software safety related paper.
(Again, you might want to do some additional literature research for this assignment, based on what we have covered up to this point in class.)

Due Date for hw#3: 11/3/06

Notice: You may choose to do hw#3 first, in that case, it will be due on 10/21/06.

Assignment #4: Preparing for the Final Quiz

In preparation for the final quiz, as well as to review and summarize the course material for your own learning, I suggest the following questions:

Sample final quiz to be distributed in class on 11/3/06.
Problems from Tian/SQE book: 2.4, 15.1, 15.3, 15.4, 15.6, 15.7, 16.1, 16.2, 16.7, 16.8 (add "fishbone"-diagram here), 16.9, 18.5, 20.1, 20.3, 20.4, 20.5, 20.6, 21.2, 21.7, 21.9, 22.1-6 (all).

Due Date for hw#4: (None, but see note below.)

Nothing need to be turned in for this homework. However, for your own benefit, you should try to finished it before our last class on 11/18/06, when some of these problems will be briefly discussed/reviewed as part of the review for the final quiz.

Alternatively, you can treat hw#4 as an on-going self-evaluation assignment, and finish the questions as we go along throughout the semester when relevant topics are discussed in class.

Individual Study Presentation

Notice: You may choose either of the above papers for hw#2 and hw#3 or the background article/chapter for hw#1 for your full individual study presentation.

Prepared by Jeff Tian (tian@engr.smu.edu).
Posted: Aug. 17, 2006. Last update: Aug. 23, 2006.