COMS 3090

teaching
Computer Science
Software Development Practices
Published

January 10, 2025

COMS 3090 – Software Development Practices

🧠 Course Overview

This course provides a practical introduction to software engineering principles including process models, requirements engineering, system design, testing, and project management. It emphasizes collaborative software development through a semester-long group project, focusing on teamwork, accountability, and real-world delivery practices.

🎯 Learning Objectives

Students completing this course will:

  • Gain practical exposure to the software development lifecycle, from requirements to implementation and testing.
  • Learn to apply project management techniques including cost estimation, scheduling, and risk analysis.
  • Collaborate in teams to design, develop, and deliver a working software product.
  • Use software engineering artifacts and tools such as source control, UML, SQL schemas, and versioning systems.
  • Understand software ethics, legal responsibilities, and industry best practices.
  • Practice client/server programming concepts including socket communication and APIs.

🛠️ Topics Covered

  • Software Process Models and Lifecycle
  • Requirements Analysis & Specification
  • Architecture and System Design
  • Project Scheduling, Risk Management, and Metrics
  • Testing, Inspections, and Code Reviews
  • Software Configuration & Source Control
  • Database Schema Design and SQL
  • Object-Oriented Concepts and Modeling
  • Networking & Client-Server Programming (HTTP, DNS, Sockets)
    • DNS, IP, URI
    • Introduction to the client/server model
    • Http
    • Socket APIs
    • Client/server APIs
  • Professional Ethics in Computing

👨‍🏫 My Role as Teaching Assistant

As a Teaching Assistant for COMS 3090, I supported over 150 students in mastering software development practices through lectures, labs, and team projects. My responsibilities included:

  • Mentoring Project Teams: Guided multiple student groups through requirements gathering, iterative design, and implementation milestones for their semester-long projects.
  • Lab Instruction: Facilitated labs covering Git, object-oriented modeling, system architecture, and backend programming fundamentals.
  • Technical Support: Helped students with debugging, API integrations, testing techniques, and version control during weekly office hours.
  • Evaluation & Feedback: Assisted in grading project deliverables, presentations, and code quality, providing constructive feedback for improvement.
  • Process Coaching: Reinforced agile principles, milestone planning, documentation quality, and collaborative communication.

This role allowed me to blend technical mentorship with project coordination, while reinforcing industry practices and promoting engineering discipline among future software professionals.

💡 Course Catalog | Email