CS 471 Fall 2025 > Syllabus

CS 471 Fall 2025
Syllabus

COURSE:	CS 471 Senior Capstone I. 3 credits.
Time & place:	10:30–11:30 am MWF, 535 Duckering.
Prerequisites:	CS major; senior standing; CS 311; CS 371.
INSTRUCTOR:	Glenn G. Chappell, Dept. of Computer Science.
Office:	539 Duckering.
Office hours:	In person 11:45–12:45 MWF, 3:30–4:00 MW on fall 2025 class days, or by appointment; private Zoom meetings available on request.
E-mail:	`ggchappell@alaska.edu`
TEXTS:	Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited, 3rd ed. (required) Eric Brechner, Agile Project Management with Kanban (recommended)
WEB PAGE:	`https://www.cs.uaf.edu/~chappell/class/2025_fall/cs471` UA Canvas will be used for homework submission.

Course Topics & Goals

CS 471 is the first half of a two-semester capstone sequence comprising CS 471 (fall) and CS 472 (spring). It is intended to be taken by CS majors in the final year of their BS or BA degree program—or in the equivalent portion of a BS/MS program. The sequence covers software development processes, software quality, and related legal and ethical issues, culminating (in CS 472) with a semester-long group software-development project.

CS 471 topics include communicating as a software professional, software process models, software requirements, software architecture, testing, development case studies, usability, code review, internationalization & localization, and licensing.

Upon successful completion of CS 471, students are expected to:

Have a basic understanding of concepts and methods used in building large software systems: process models, testing, usability.
Be familiar with several commonly used software process models and have experience using one of them.
Have experience performing multiple kinds of software testing, including usability testing.
Have improved skills and knowledge in professional communication—both written and oral—ethical standards, and legal and international issues.
Be prepared to complete a high-quality group software project in the following semester.

Important Dates

For more details, see the Semester Plan, on the class webpage.

Mon, Sep 1	No class meeting (Labor Day)
Fri, Oct 31	Last day to withdraw (“W” on transcript)
Wed, Nov 26–Fri, Nov 28	No class meetings (Fall Break)
Fri, Dec 5	Last regular class meeting
Fri, Dec 12	Final Exam period 10:15 am–12:15 pm—student presentations

Procedures

Class meetings—Lecture/discussion format with in-class activities.

Homework—Assignments will be given every week or two. There will be seven in all. Five of these must be done individually. The other two are group assignments; groups will be chosen by the instructor.

Projects & Presentations—Each student will make an individual video presentation, to be critiqued by another student.

Students will be involved in three group projects; groups will be chosen by the instructor. The first will be a software development mini-project following a specific process model. This will involve five in-class group presentations. The second will be an in-class presentation doing a case study of a real-world software development effort. The third will be giving an introduction to an assigned topic. This will involve a formal group presentation during the final-exam period, which will be recorded, with professional dress expected.

Exams—No exams will be given. The final exam period will be used for the topic intro presentations. See Important Dates.

Required—Students must have access to equipment to do video/audio recording. Students must also have clothing appropriate for professional-level presentations.

Grades

Course grades will be based on points earned, using a 90-80-70-60 scale. The +/− grading system will not be used. Point totals will be as follows.

Assignment 1 (Video Presentation)	45 pts
Assignment 2 (Video Critique)	45 pts
Assignment 3 (White Paper Draft)	80 pts
Assignment 4 (White Paper Final)	45 pts
Assignment 5 (Case Study Slides Draft)	45 pts
Assignment 6 (Book Summary)	80 pts
Assignment 7 (Topic Intro Slides Draft)	45 pts
Mini-Project Presentations	150 pts	(5 presentations, 30 pts each)
Case Study Presentation	80 pts
Topic Intro Presentation	85 pts
Class Participation	300 pts
TOTAL	1000 pts

Policies

Communication with the instructor outside of class will be via e-mail and the class webpage. Students are expected to check both their UA e-mail account and the class webpage daily during the semester.

Students are expected to be at every class meeting on time, and are responsible for all class content, whether present or not. If absence is necessary, it is expected that the instructor will be notified as soon as possible; in particular, absences due to scheduled events must be arranged ahead of time.

Students who fail to attend the first class meeting after registering for the class, or who miss four consecutive class meetings, may be dropped/withdrawn without warning, unless prior arrangements are made with the instructor.

No graded work—other other than the topic intro presentation and associated final slides—will be accepted after the beginning of the final exam period.

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with according to UA procedures.

Students pay the CS lab fee. Payment allows access to the CS labs.