SSE04 Exam and Report

Course objectives

At the exam, I expect students to be able to:

• Relate central concepts from model-driven software development (MDSD) such as code, model, meta-model, and domain-specific language to each other.
• Show and explain concrete examples of template-based code generation.
• Discuss issues in MDSD such as when and why to use MDSD, how to create domain-specific languages, and impliciations for architecture and software development process.
• Discuss the general idea of agile software development and compare different agile methodologies to each other.
• Present specific basic ideas, techniques and strategies in the Crystal Clear methodology and relate them to other agile methodologies.
• Reflect on the use of MDSD and agile processes in your specific project and their on their applicability in general.

Moreover, in order to completely fulfill the course objectives (and hence obtain a high grade), I expect students to have an understanding of the more difficult parts of the project, those marked with an asterix (*).

Report

The report is not part of the exam, except that during the exam I may use parts of what you have written in the report to help you, to the extent that this is possible. (If what I grab from your report does not help you, we just forget about it and move onto something else.)

Sample template for reports (if you have no ideas how else to structure it, or just need ideas for what you can put in the report):

1. Introduction
2. Domain analysis and meta-model
   1. domain analysis
   2. meta-model and XML language
3. Software prototype design
   1. implementation description
   2. patterns, used, or potentially useful
4. Development process
   1. concrete process for your project
   2. evaluation
   3. general observations on agile development
5. Conclusion

Exam

The SSE04 exam is an individual, oral, 20-minute exam without preparation. At the start of the exam you draw a random question from a list of questions that will be posted in due time before the exam. The question is to be used as a starting point; typically, the exam will cover many different topics from the course. While I do not expect students to deliver a 20-minute memorized presentation on the topic, it is important to keep in mind that we do value initiative and the ability to relate different topics to each other. An informal presentation of max 10 minutes, perhaps using slides to show complex diagrams, would be good. Having a single slide for each question highlighting important issues also works well for many students. Important note: This is not a "powerpoint exam"! There is no projector for hooking up a computer, there is only an overhead projector for displaying slides. You may bring your own (physical) slides, but there is also a collection of slides available at the exam, see below. I am not interested in hearing you answer questions using your slides - slides may be used to assist or save time (e.g., a diagram), but your presentation should primarily be oral and could ideally use a combination of a single slide for overview and the blackboard for detailed illustrations as we proceed.

The curriculum for the exam will be made available on the literature web page (bottom). It is important to note that although your project is not formally a part of the curriculum, we may discuss it during the exam. You may use examples from your project if you feel like it, and if I feel it may be an advantage for you, I may ask you to explain certain parts of the report.

Questions

Final list of questions that serve as starting points for your exam.

1. Agile development processes; possible topics are agile development processes in general, Crystal Clear, UP, SCRUM, XP, in particular similarities and differences.
2. Crystal clear; possible topics are crystal clear practices and the philosophy behind crystal clear, how crystal clear relates to other agile development processes.
3. MDSD concepts; possible topics are the motivation for MDSD, using MDSD for software development, the role of models (and metamodels) in MDSD, design and use of DSLs.
4. MDSD implementation; possible topics are template-based code generation, code generation in general as well as alternative approaches, issues in MDSD wrt. software the development process, application design and architecture, implementation strategies for DSLs.

Plan

We start Friday 19th of June at 9:30.

Time	Name
9:30	Kenneth Henriksen
9:55	Elton Dasho
10:20	Jakub Jan Tarasiuk
10:45	Mariusz Marcin Matula
11:10	Morten Knudsen
11:35	Robert Marek Puszczewicz
12:00	Michael Dahl Sørensen
12:25	Lukasz Malinowski