SWE 637 Course Syllabus


Schedule Updates Home page

Software Testing
Spring 2012

Professor: Paul Ammann
Office: ENGR 4428, 993-1660
Email: pammann@gmu.edu
URL: cs.gmu.edu/~pammann
Class Hours: Monday 4:30 - 7:10, Robinson B104.
Prerequisite: SWE 619 and SWE Foundation material
Office Hours: Mondays 1-2PM. By Appointment. Anytime electronically.

Catalog Description:

Concepts and techniques for testing software and assuring its quality. Topics cover software testing at the unit, module, subsystem, and system levels, automatic and manual techniques for generating and validating test data, the testing process, static vs. dynamic analysis, functional testing, inspections, and reliability assessment.

Course Materials

Assignments

There will be weekly, relatively short, homework assignments. Some assignments are pencil and paper. Others require modest programming or execution of software available over the web, and typically result in a summary document or report. Assignments that require the submission of executable code or test cases (typically JUnit) will have a placeholder made available on Blackboard.

The GTA, Xin Meng, can be reached at xmeng@gmu.edu. She has Office Hours Wednesdays 2-4 in Engineering Building 4456.

Quizzes

Each class begins with a short quiz. Each quiz covers material from the previous session(s).

The goal of the quizzes is to keep students abreast of the material covered in class. Because of the quizzes, there is no midterm exam.

Missed assignments and quizzes

In recognition of the fact that many students have occasional but unavoidable work and family commitments that preclude attendance at every class, each student may drop a total of 3 quizzes and/or assignments prior to final grade computations.

In view of this policy, late homework is not accepted and there are no make-up quizzes. Please don't ask for an exception.

Final Exam

A final exam is held during the University-scheduled exam period. On the final, a student must demonstrate reasonable competence with the course material to receive a B or better in the class.

Honor System:

Students are reminded that the honor system governs all work turned in for credit. Unless otherwise indicated, each assignment must be an individual effort. An assignment submission carries with it an implicit statement that the submission is your own work. You may discuss the requirements and syntactical issues of assignments with other students in the class, but you may not discuss specific solutions. Any and all collaboration is prohibited on the quizzes and on the final. Details of honor code policies and procedures can be found at the Office for Academic Integrity website.

Grading

Grades are computed as: Assignments (30%), Quizzes (30%), Final (40%).

Updates

As the semester progresses, I post notices about changes to the course web pages here.