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CSE3900 Case study - Semester 2 , 2008

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Unit leader :

Sue Foster

Lecturer(s) :

Caulfield

  • Sue Foster

Tutors(s) :

Caulfield

  • Santosh Kalkurni

Introduction

Unit synopsis

CSE3900 Case study provides the opportunity for students to build on pre-requisite knowledge and skills in system analysis, software design and development, documentation, system and software testing and to develop a software based solution for a realistic business specification.

Students work in groups. The groups meet regularly with, and report to, a Tutor/Supervisor, who is the Project Manager for the group. Students work collaboratively on their project during their own team-organised time, and develop the detail of the project in their own time. Students are required to make a formal presentation of the project solution to their peer students and Supervisors.

Learning outcomes

CSE3900 aims to introduce students to the skills, tools and techniques required in the development of a realistic business system IT solution as part of a team. These skills include project planning, quality planning, technical and user documentation, software development and teamwork.

Workload

For on campus students, workload commitments are:

  • one-hour seminar
  • three-hour studio
  • a minimum of 2-3 hours of personal study per one hour of contact time in order to satisfy the reading and assignment expectations.
  • You will need to allocate up to 5 hours per week in some weeks, for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups/discussion groups.

Unit relationships

Prerequisites

Before attempting this unit you must have satisfactorily completed CSE9000, CSE9001, CSE9002, IMS9001, or equivalent.

Students:

  • must be familiar with the system development life cycle, and in particular the Waterfall and Prototyping models. They must be competent in requirements determination and project planning.
  • should be able to develop application software in C++ and/or Java
  • must be able to design and develop a database and be familiar with data modelling, entity relationship modelling, database specification, physical implementation, security and recovery.
  • Knowledge of the Unified Modelling Language and Object-Oriented database development and construction could be advantageous.

Relationships

CSE3900 is a foundation unit in the Graduate Diploma in Computing, the Master of Applied Information Technology and the Master of Information Technology at Caulfield.

You may not study this unit and COT6640, CSE9020, GCO9800, IMS3000, FIT3015 or equivalent in your degree.

Continuous improvement

Monash is committed to ‘Excellence in education' and strives for the highest possible quality in teaching and learning. To monitor how successful we are in providing quality teaching and learning Monash regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. Two of the formal ways that you are invited to provide feedback are through Unit Evaluations and through Monquest Teaching Evaluations.

One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through Unit Evaluation Surveys. It is Monash policy for every unit offered to be evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys as they are an important avenue for students to "have their say". The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.

Student Evaluations

The Faculty of IT administers the Unit Evaluation surveys online through the my.monash portal, although for some smaller classes there may be alternative evaluations conducted in class.

If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to http://www.monash.edu.au/unit-evaluation-reports/

Over the past few years the Faculty of Information Technology has made a number of improvements to its courses as a result of unit evaluation feedback. Some of these include systematic analysis and planning of unit improvements, and consistent assignment return guidelines.

Monquest Teaching Evaluation surveys may be used by some of your academic staff this semester. They are administered by the Centre for Higher Education Quality (CHEQ) and may be completed in class with a facilitator or on-line through the my.monash portal. The data provided to lecturers is completely anonymous. Monquest surveys provide academic staff with evidence of the effectiveness of their teaching and identify areas for improvement. Individual Monquest reports are confidential, however, you can see the summary results of Monquest evaluations for 2006 at http://www.adm.monash.edu.au/cheq/evaluations/monquest/profiles/index.html

Unit staff - contact details

Unit leader

Ms Susan Foster
Lecturer
Phone +61 3 990 32404

Lecturer(s) :

Ms Susan Foster
Lecturer
Phone +61 3 990 32404

Tutor(s) :

Santosh Kalkurni

Teaching and learning method

In this unit we provide a simulation of a real world systems development experience. Groups of students work as a team with support from tutors and academic staff to develop a system for an industry case. The seminars are developed to address specific issues during system development. The studio sessions are there for students to work on their project and to receive help from tutors and academic staff.

Communication, participation and feedback

Monash aims to provide a learning environment in which students receive a range of ongoing feedback throughout their studies. You will receive feedback on your work and progress in this unit. This may take the form of group feedback, individual feedback, peer feedback, self-comparison, verbal and written feedback, discussions (on line and in class) as well as more formal feedback related to assignment marks and grades. You are encouraged to draw on a variety of feedback to enhance your learning.

It is essential that you take action immediately if you realise that you have a problem that is affecting your study. Semesters are short, so we can help you best if you let us know as soon as problems arise. Regardless of whether the problem is related directly to your progress in the unit, if it is likely to interfere with your progress you should discuss it with your lecturer or a Community Service counsellor as soon as possible.

Unit Schedule

Week Topic Key dates
1 Introduction 14 July
2 Preparing for IT projects & formation of teams 21 July
3 Project Management for IT Projects 28 July
4 Planning and Design for IT Projects 4 August
5 TBA 11 August
6 IT Project Teams 18 August
7 IT Project Testing 25 August
8 TBA 1 September
9 Wrap Up and Presentation Arrangements 8 September
10 Presentation Consultation & Preparation 15 September
11 Team Presentations  
Mid semester break
12 Team Presentations 6 October
13 Prototype Demonstrations 13 October

Unit Resources

Prescribed text(s) and readings

There is no prescribed text, however a reading list is provided below.

N/A

Recommended text(s) and readings

Yardley, D. (2002) ‘Successful IT Project Delivery’, Addison-Wesley, UK. ISBN 0-201-75606-4

Schwalbe, K. (2004) ‘Information Technology Project Management’, Thomson Course Technology – 3rd (or 4th) Edition ISBN 0-619-15984-7

Curry, J. & Stanford, P. (2005) ‘Practical System Development: A Project-based Approach’, Pearson SprintPrint, Australia ISBN 0-7339-7336-1

Required software and/or hardware

To access weekly lecture/ class materials, you will need an Adobe Acrobat reader, and access to Microsoft Office software (PowerPoint, Word, and Excel) for document preparation.

Equipment and consumables required or provided

Students may use the facilities available in the computing labs. Information about computer use for students is available from the ITS Student Resource Guide in the Monash University Handbook. You will need to allocate up to 6 hours per week for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups/discussion groups.

Study resources

Study resources we will provide for your study are:

  • lecture notes/ppt slides and
  • weekly tutorial requirements available on the unit web page.
See http://my.monash.edu.au and select Blackboard.

CASE STUDY:  You will be supplied with a case study which will be made available in week 1 tutorial.  This case study forms the basis of this course and will require you to work in groups to develop the system. 

Library access

The Monash University Library site contains details about borrowing rights and catalogue searching. To learn more about the library and the various resources available, please go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au.  Be sure to obtain a copy of the Library Guide, and if necessary, the instructions for remote access from the library website.

Monash University Studies Online (MUSO)

All unit and lecture materials are available through MUSO (Monash University Studies Online). Blackboard is the primary application used to deliver your unit resources. Some units will be piloted in Moodle. If your unit is piloted in Moodle, you will see a link from your Blackboard unit to Moodle (http://moodle.monash.edu.au) and can bookmark this link to access directly. In Moodle, from the Faculty of Information Technology category, click on the link for your unit.

You can access MUSO and Blackboard via the portal: http://my.monash.edu.au

Click on the Study and enrolment tab, then Blackboard under the MUSO learning systems.

In order for your Blackboard unit(s) to function correctly, your computer needs to be correctly configured.

For example:

  • Blackboard supported browser
  • Supported Java runtime environment

For more information, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/downloadables-student.html

You can contact the MUSO Support by: Phone: (+61 3) 9903 1268

For further contact information including operational hours, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/contact.html

Further information can be obtained from the MUSO support site: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/index.html

Assessment

Unit assessment policy

obtain all of the following:

  • at least 50% of the total marks for the unit
  • at least 40% of the marks available for the every deliverable component including the presentation

Assignment tasks

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Business Case & Requirements

    Description :

    Weighting : 15%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Planning & Design Document

    Description :

    Weighting : 15%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Testing Document

    Description :

    Weighting : 15%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Technical & User Manuals

    Description :

    Weighting : 15%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Presentation

    Description :

    Weighting : 10%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

  • Assignment Task

    Title : Working Prototype

    Description :

    Weighting : 30%

    Criteria for assessment :

    Due date :

Assignment submission

All Deliverables should be submitted to your Supervisor on the due date. The format of documents will be outlined in lectures.

Assignment coversheets

Assignment coversheets can be found : via the "Student assignment coversheets" ( http://infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/assignments/ ) page on the faculty website

University and Faculty policy on assessment

Due dates and extensions

The due dates for the submission of assignments are given in the previous section. Please make every effort to submit work by the due dates. It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. Students are advised to NOT assume that granting of an extension is a matter of course.

Requests for extensions must be made to your tutor at least two days before the due date. You will be asked to forward original medical certificates in cases of illness, and may be asked to provide other forms of documentation where necessary. A copy of the email or other written communication of an extension must be attached to the assignment submission.

Late assignment

Late assignments submitted without an approved extension may be accepted up to one week late at the discretion of the lecturer, but will be penalised at the rate of 10% of total assignment marks per day including weekends. Assignments received later than one week after the due date will not normally be accepted.

Return dates

Students can expect assignments to be returned within two weeks of the submission date or after receipt, whichever is later.

Assessment for the unit as a whole is in accordance with the provisions of the Monash University Education Policy at http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/assessment/

We will aim to have assignment results made available to you within two weeks after assignment receipt.

Plagiarism, cheating and collusion

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with Student Rights and Responsibilities (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/committees-groups/facboard/policies/studrights.html) and the Faculty regulations that apply to students detected cheating as these will be applied in all detected cases.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as a program, a report, an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, someone else's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions unless this is specified by your lecturer. 

Intentionally providing students with your solutions to assignments is classified as "assisting to cheat" and students who do this may be subject to disciplinary action. You should take reasonable care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. For example, do not leave copies of your work in progress on the hard drives of shared computers, and do not show your work to other students. If you believe this may have happened, please be sure to contact your lecturer as soon as possible.

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own by either copying material or paraphrasing without citing sources. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

Register of counselling about plagiarism

The university requires faculties to keep a simple and confidential register to record counselling to students about plagiarism (e.g. warnings). The register is accessible to Associate Deans Teaching (or nominees) and, where requested, students concerned have access to their own details in the register. The register is to serve as a record of counselling about the nature of plagiarism, not as a record of allegations; and no provision of appeals in relation to the register is necessary or applicable.

Non-discriminatory language

The Faculty of Information Technology is committed to the use of non-discriminatory language in all forms of communication. Discriminatory language is that which refers in abusive terms to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, citizenship or nationality, ethnic or language background, physical or mental ability, or political or religious views, or which stereotypes groups in an adverse manner. This is not meant to preclude or inhibit legitimate academic debate on any issue; however, the language used in such debate should be non-discriminatory and sensitive to these matters. It is important to avoid the use of discriminatory language in your communications and written work. The most common form of discriminatory language in academic work tends to be in the area of gender inclusiveness. You are, therefore, requested to check for this and to ensure your work and communications are non-discriminatory in all respects.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities that may disadvantage them in assessment should seek advice from one of the following before completing assessment tasks and examinations:

Deferred assessment and special consideration

Deferred assessment (not to be confused with an extension for submission of an assignment) may be granted in cases of extenuating personal circumstances such as serious personal illness or bereavement. Information and forms for Special Consideration and deferred assessment applications are available at http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html. Contact the Faculty's Student Services staff at your campus for further information and advice.