Conclusion With over 60 references to a multitude of webcasts, guidance and virtual hands on labs, it is hoped that you have a better idea of how much material is out there. These references have been reduced from approximately 500 source documents. In the pages of the preparation document we have covered many of the software engineering topics, with the virtual labs, the student does not have to load anything on their Windows 2000/XP/Vista (except for a small active X control one time) and they

Testing, Analysis, QA, Reviews Build and test, then review the results of the software builds; follow up after deployment with the end users to ensure quality assurance, make the changes that improve the quality. It is simple as that, except that it is difficult to implement these processes in a matter that is cost effective for the software project stakeholders, and is painless for the end users. To perform testing, analysis, QA and reviews, a centralized production, tester and project server that

Metrics and Reliability Assessment Measuring the process of building, installation and implementation of the system under design is required so that costs and time estimates can be tracked. As a software and hardware system is being implemented, project managers have to make many decisions. Costs have to be estimated and the time remaining to project completion. Business requirements may change as the hardware and software product is being produced, and the new requirements have to be added to the

COTS Risk Assessments and Reuse Risk assessments End-users often benefit in cost and time to operation by purchasing commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology. The use of COTS can save money, but not always. Implementing processes that utilize COTS software may require special training for existing developers. COTS often require changes to the business systems, and this can lead to unanticipated costs. How do you evaluate the risks in the use of COTS? Identifying Commercial Off the-Shelf (COTS)

Apologies It has been quite awhile since I last posted to this blog, but I have completed the discussion about Software Engineering and will be posting more regularly. After the completion of my software engineering entries, I will be demonstrating real software engineering using XNA 2.0 (a toolkit from Microsoft for Game Programming) that works with VSTS and Team Foundation Server. So with that, here is the beginning of completing my Software engineering discussions. Let me know what you are think

Today I went up to Belfast with Vincent Vergonjeanne and Liam Cronin to present at QuMIX '07. Mike McMeekin , who is a Microsoft Student Partner at Queen's University Belfast did a fabulous job setting up the afternoon, so special thanks go to him and all of his hard work. The afternoon included a session on Imagine Cup by Liam. This included all of the information needed to get started for students interested in participating in the Imagine Cup for this year as well as lots of super giveaways! There

Today I went up to Belfast with Vincent Vergonjeanne and Liam Cronin to present at QuMIX '07. Mike McMeekin , who is a Microsoft Student Partner at Queen's University Belfast did a fabulous job setting up the afternoon, so special thanks go to him and all of his hard work. The afternoon included a session on Imagine Cup by Liam. This included all of the information needed to get started for students interested in participating in the Imagine Cup for this year as well as lots of super giveaways! There

Man, I disappear for a few days and all the excitement happens! Not only did Microsoft ship Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 Monday , but the XNA team also released the Game Studio 2.0 Beta!! If you want to try it out, you can download it here and see the cool new integration with Visual Studio 2005 - now you don't have to have Visual C# Express. All versions of VS 2005 (standard, professional, etc.) are supported. But don't worry about uninstalling your existing version of Game Studio Express, the

Man, I disappear for a few days and all the excitement happens! Not only did Microsoft ship Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 Monday , but the XNA team also released the Game Studio 2.0 Beta!! If you want to try it out, you can download it here and see the cool new integration with Visual Studio 2005 - now you don't have to have Visual C# Express. All versions of VS 2005 (standard, professional, etc.) are supported. But don't worry about uninstalling your existing version of Game Studio Express, the

Long time readers of this blog will know that 'Mix On Campus' has been talked about for quite some time now - if you haven't already registered, you can do so at http://mixoncampus.spaces.live.com . Well the speaker schedule for all 3 cities is finally up, and I have to say, I'm surprised at the interest members of community have shown in coming to present at the events. You can check out the speakers for each city below - our lineup includes MVP's, Senior Lecturers, award winning digital design