Roach, Steven

CS 4310-26690

Spring 2004

Comments:

1. Overall, taking this course was a great experience. The only complaint I have is that the tests may have been a bit long for the given testing time, but just a little.

2. It was a lot of work, but I learned a great deal. I like the fact of having the diagrams due before the final. SRS helps us turn out a better final project. I would’ve like to have seen more examples from previous projects since this was something entirely new for most of us. We also would have enjoyed a little more color in the TA’s wardrobe. As regards the TA, great choice, very helpful.

I agree that Omar is a good TA. He does not need me to dress him.

3. I learned a fair amount, more than other classes. Some group exercises were rushed so I would recommend a bit more time. I would also recommend more clarification on required documents. The TA wore black constantly which both mystified and scared me. Book of notes was a good idea.

Most of the group exercises in class are somewhat rushed. There is not time for you to play around. I intend for you to get to work, stay focused, and complete the exercises. On the days we do exercises in class, you should feel like you’ve been working when you leave.

By now I hope that you have discovered that Omar’s choice in clothing style has nothing to do with his knowledge and ability in software engineering and that you have overcome your fear of black.

4. I found this class overall interesting. I often heard from students before me that this was a painful class to take. However, I don’t agree. The group I was given helped, but that is only part of it. The one suggestion I would make is that more example of the deliverables by given ahead of time. I often worried that our approach was way off base.

You are welcome to come talk to me early in the assignment to determine if your approach is correct. We provide examples of most of the deliverables on the web site.

5. Dr. Roach teaches a challenging course. Everyone previous to this semester said that this course is horrible and a lot of work, but that is not true. While it is a lot of work, I learned a lot and enjoyed the course. The only thing I would change are to have weekly or bi-weekly mandatory meetings with the professor to discuss course work and issues. Also, there needs to be better communication between the TA and professor but I think this was due by a lack of effort by the TA. The TA also wore black everyday, which scared me to no end.

We will have regularly scheduled meetings in the Fall. I did not have weekly or bi-weekly meetings this semester due to time constraints. I have been instructed to spend more time on research and less time on teaching. In order to accomplish this, we did not have meetings in the Spring.

By now I hope that you have discovered that Omar’s choice in clothing style has nothing to do with his knowledge and ability in software engineering and that you have overcome your fear of black.

6. I believe that Dr. Roach should help students while doing the requirements elicitation. I mean he helps, but not that much. The TA helps us a lot.

I’m not sure what you mean. I do everything I can to elicit information from the client during the interviews. I also attempt to stay in contact with the client during the semester. We demonstrate prototypes for the client, which is a great source of information. What kind of assistance would you like for me to provide?

7. We know at this point, the class requires to much work from us as students. I cannot complain about it, Dr. Roach has been a good instructor as well as the TA. Both of them have always been available.

8. The class is very interesting. You really learn a lot. Exams are fair, it is a lot of material, but not that impossible to manage. The TA was very helpful and really helped us out whenever we needed.

9. This has been an interesting class. I have participated in other research projects where no documentation was used. That by experience was hard! The only suggestion I would make is to pass back documents at least 4 days after turning them in. It’s helpful to see how we are doing on the documents. More teacher/student interaction is also more helpful. Other than that everything was good.

We try to return the deliverables in a timely fashion. It is not always possible.

10. This class reinforced my writing abilities, the ability to work in a team and to study hard before exams. Dr. Roach is an excellent instructor. I wish all of the instructors on the dept had his “work extremely hard” and “learn” philosophy the TA was helpful.

11. I like how the professor and the instructor gave us the class. And all the time the instructor help us out of the class and in class. They did a good team.

12. Dr. Roach is an excellent instructor and did the best job possible in a short time. Things to consider in the future: better explanations and examples of what is expected in the assignments. Our team had to find previous years team’s documentation to begin to have an idea of what was expected. The text book was not only expensive but difficult to read and very “wordy”. We were much better served by the notes. Every team should be required to conduct an interview with the client. Dr. Roach’s exams are known to be difficult, they’re just a little too long-maybe shave off a question. Since we have a print out of the notes, include all of the notes on the print outs and save us some writer’s cramp. Excellent teacher, good course. Thanks, Dr. Roach.

The text book is one of the industry standards. It is written at the college level, and is not particularly difficult reading by industry standards. I agree that the text is not as helpful in some areas as it might be. The Guidance Team is searching for the perfect text book, and having reviewed as many as sixty texts myself, it is clear to me that the perfect text has yet to be written.

There are two reasons we do not have each team interview the client separately. First, interviews are time consuming, and our client’s time is quite valuable. Second, we want each student to hear the same thing. In separate interviews, it would not be possible for the client or the Guidance Team to keep track of exactly what was said to each team. In theory, there would be no differences. In practice, there will be.

You can refer to previous semesters’ comments where I describe how the notes came about. In short, when I give the complete set of notes, students stop paying attention and fail to write anything in their notes except what gets displayed. With partial notes, students have to pay attention at least when the display changes, and they frequently write things other than what is displayed. I prefer the second behavior.