CSE 599E1 Assignment 1

Due: Before class on Monday, October 3, 2016
Submit: to the dropbox

There are three parts to this assignment. It looks like a lot, but it isn't as bad as it looks. We are aiming to make a fast start on the quarter and set the groundwork for effective learning and successful projects.

1. Complete web-based human subjects training. You can do either one of the two available from https://www.washington.edu/research/hsd/training/. Print out your certificate and bring it to the class. If you have already done the training, you do not have to repeat it; just bring your up-to-date certificate.

2. Read Wohlin (“Experimentation in Software Engineering”) chapters 1-3.

   Turn in no more than 1 page, briefly answering at least two of the following questions.

   • How is the book's perspective, definitions, or guidance different from what was presented in the first lecture? Give a couple of concrete examples. Which do you find more compelling?
   • What were the two most interesting or valuable things you learned from the reading?
   • What is something that you disagree with the book about?
   • What was particularly confusing?

3. Turn in a 1-3 page essay/reflection on the following topic.

   Think back over your software development experience.

   You have sometimes been more effective than at other times. What practices or tools have made the most difference in your success? How do you know? How would you convince someone else to use these practices or tools?

   There have also been times when you tried a practice or tool that didn't work out for you — it did not help you and you abandoned it (or you maintained it only because your boss made you). What convinced you to try it? If you were convinced by someone else, what convinced that person (or whoever made the technical decision)? What was different about your situation that made the arguments not apply? How would you convince someone else not to use that practice or tool?