CSE 8340 (Spring, 2014): Empirical Software Engineering
(Advanced Topics in Software Engineering)
Prof. Jeff Tian, CSE Dept., SMU, Dallas, TX 75275
Phone: (214)768-2861; Fax: (214)768-3085
E-mail: tian@lyle.smu.edu; Webpage: www.lyle.smu.edu/~tian/class/8340.14f
1. General Information and Course Contents
With the pervasive use of computers, software systems, and information
technology in modern society,
and the maturing of software engineering as a discipline,
experiment, assessment, evaluation,
and other empirical studies about existing and
newly proposed technologies and solutions have take on
increased importance,
leading to the emergence of empirical software engineering (ESE)
as a key focus of modern software engineering research and practice.
Much like many of the mature natural science disciplines,
ESE draws conclusions based on empirical evidence,
as accumulated from industrial practices and observations,
case studies, controlled experiments, etc.
This fact is the key distinction between ESE and other branches of
software engineering,
where the focus could be new design/analysis/implementation/evaluation/process
techniques, methodologies, and tools.
This advanced course on empirical software engineering (ESE)
will focus on recent research in the subject area that may have a great
practical impact and that may lead to innovative research.
In this advanced course,
we will have in-depth discussions about several important
and inter-related topics in empirical software engineering (ESE).
The major focus will be on the following four areas:
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Area 1. ESE Fundamentals:
Foundations of empirical studies and applicability to software engineering,
generic steps involved in ESE,
sub-areas within ESE,
data collection and analysis in software engineering,
design of experiment, etc.
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Area 2. Risk Identification in ESE:
Empirical evidence for risk identification (80:20 rule),
risk identification in empirical studies ,
specific risk identification techniques
(including traditional statistical analysis,
principal component analysis,
discriminant analysis,
neural networks,
tree-based modeling,
and pattern matching approaches),
and empirical studies applying these techniques
under different settings.
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Area 3. Hypothesis Testing and Other ESE:
Scientific foundations of hypothesis testing (HT),
comparison of HT in other scientific disciplines vs in SE,
implicit HT in ESE,
past and recent empirical studies in HT.
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Area 4. Current and Future Trends in ESE:
new application domains (particularly net-centric, service-oriented,
and cloud computing) and their influence on ESE,
data collection/extraction/mining,
automated support for ESE, etc.
2. Who Should Attend
CSE 8340 attempts to enhance the advanced research component
in the SMU's software engineering program.
It is particularly suited for students interested in pursuing a Ph.D.
degree in software engineering,
and for MS/SE students who want to get a firsthand knowledge about
some advanced research affecting their field of study.
For students in SMU's MS/SE program, this course can be counted
either as an "advanced major elective" or as a "general elective" course.
The students are expected to have the basic software engineering knowledge
(at least one or two core course in our MS/SE program or equivalent) before
taking this class.
In particular,
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This course is a natural followup to CSE 7314
particularly the analysis and modeling parts.
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This course can also be considered to be a followup or companion
to CSE 8314 which defines basic metrics,
while empirical studies using those metrics form part of this course.
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This courses is similar to CSE 8317 in both organization and format,
but on different, yet related, topics.
Notice 1:
If you need to make alternative arrangements for turning-in
material or taking exams,
you must contact the instructor ahead of time,
unless it is truly an emergency.
(Otherwise you'll receive 0 for the specific item.)
Notice 2
(Relevant SMU policies):
* Disability Accommodations:
Students needing academic accommodations for a disability
must first be registered with Disability Accommodations
& Success Strategies (DASS) to verify the disability and
to establish eligibility for accommodations.
Students may call 214-768-1470 or visit
http://www.smu.edu/alec/dass.asp to begin the process.
Once registered, students should then schedule an appointment
with the professor to make appropriate arrangements.
* Religious Observance:
Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays
that require missing class should notify their professors in
writing at the beginning of the semester,
and should discuss with them, in advance,
acceptable ways of making up any work missed because of the absence.
(See University Policy No. 1.9.)
* Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities:
Students participating in an officially sanctioned,
scheduled University extracurricular activity should be given
the opportunity to make up class assignments or other graded
assignments missed as a result of their participation.
It is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements
with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled examination
or other missed assignment for making up the work.
(University Undergraduate Catalogue)
3. Textbooks and Class Material
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No textbook will be required.
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Course material
will be made available at our course website, on BlackBoard,
or through the SMU digital library.
4. Workload and Grading
CSE 8340 will be organized as a research seminar,
with active student participation.
The course grade each student receives will reflect the weighted
average of homework, a major project, a final quiz, and other
course elements, as follows:
- Project:
The project will either be
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an application of a specific technique in ESE
discussed in class and the report of related findings,
-
a term paper covering some in-depth (theoretical) study of a chosen topic.
Students may form teams to do the project.
However, if one chooses to write a term paper,
it should be an individual effort.
An oral presentation (see below about individual study presentation)
and a written report are required for each project.
- Homework and individual study presentation:
3 or 4 homework assignments will be given
on relevant topics.
The in-class students,
as well as distance students who live in the DFW metro area,
are required to give a presentation
in class, lasting approximately 15-30 minutes
on a topic approved by the instructor.
The other distance students are required to submit a pre-recorded presentation..
Typically, the presentation is on the same topic as one of
the homework assignment.
- Final Quiz:
There will be a final quiz to cover the breadth of the students' knowledge
in ESE (as the students' depth of knowledge is demonstrated in their projects).
More information will be provided online.
The approximate weight assignment is as follows:
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Project: 50%
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Homework: 15%
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Participation and individual study presentation: 15%
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Final quiz: 20%
Prepared by Jeff Tian
(tian@lyle.smu.edu).
Last update Jan. 22, 2014.