Course Syllabus

Course-PM

DAT246 / DIT278 Empirical software engineering lp2 ht18 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering

Contact details

List of...

• examiner
• lecturer
• teachers
• supervisors

...along with their contact details. If the course have external guest lecturers or such, give a brief description of their role and the company or similar they represent.

If needed, list administrative staff, along with their contact details.

Course purpose

Short description of the course purpose and content: can be copied from syllabus in Studieportalen. Additional information can be added.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

List all mandatory literature, including descriptions of how to access the texts (e.g. Cremona, Chalmers Library, links).

Also list reference literature, further reading, and other non-mandatory texts.

Course design

Description of the course's learning activities; how they are implemented and how they are connected. This is the student's guide to navigating the course. Do not forget to give the student advice on how to learn as much as possible based on the pedagogy you have chosen. Often, you may need to emphasize concrete things like how often they should enter the learning space on the learning platform, how different issues are shared between supervisors, etc.

Provide a plan for

• lectures
• exervises
• laboratory work
• projects
• supervision
• feedback
• seminars

Should contain a description of how the digital tools (Canvas and others) should be used and how they are organized, as well as how communication between teachers and students takes place (Canvas, e-mail, other).

Do not forget to describe any resources that students need to use, such as lab equipment, studios, workshops, physical or digital materials.

You should be clear how missed deadlines and revisions are handled.

Changes made since the last occasion

A summary of changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

1. Knowledge and understanding:
a. Describe the principles of empiricism in software engineering.
b. Describe the principles of case study research/experiments/surveys.
c. Describe the principles of meta-analytical studies.
d. Explain the importance of research ethics.
e. Recognise and define code of ethics for when conducting research in software engineering.
f. Discuss and explain the most common ethical models in research.
g. State and explain the importance of threats to validity and how to control said threats.

2. Skills and abilities:
a. Design an empirical study.
b. Analyse descriptive statistics and decide on appropriate analysis methods.
c. Use and interpret code of ethics for software engineering research.

3. Judgement and approach:
a. State and discuss the tools used for data analysis and, in particular, judge their output.
b. Judge the appropriateness of particular empirical methods and their applicability to solve various and disparate software engineering problems.
c. Question and assess common ethical issues in software engineering research.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).

Examination form

Description of how the examination – written examinations and other – is executed and assessed.

Include:

• what components are included, the purpose of these, and how they contribute to the learning objectives
• how compulsory and/or voluntary components contribute to the final grade
• grading limits and any other requirements for all forms of examination in order to pass the course (compulsory components)
• examination form, e.g. if the examination is conducted as a digital examination

• time and place of examination, both written exams and other exams such as project presentations
• aids permitted during examinations, as well as which markings, indexes and notes in aids are permitted

Do not forget to be extra clear with project assignments; what is the problem, what should be done, what is the expected result, and how should this result be reported. Details such as templates for project reports, what happens at missed deadlines etc. are extra important to include.