Reviews & Metrics for Software Improvements

This course covers techniques for monitoring your projects in order to align client needs, project plans, and software production. It focuses on metrics and reviews to track and improve project progress and software quality.

• Apply techniques to measure and visualize project progress

• Integrate Agile review practices to increase project visibility

• Reflect on lessons learned in software projects through retrospective exercises

• Improve project and process quality through ongoing measurement

Syllabus

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Week 1
Module 1: Right Product
Welcome to the first module! This module is all about creating the “right product”. You will examine various ways of ensuring that you are creating the right product for both your client and your users. You will learn how to conduct a sprint review meeting and why they are an important step for delivering the right product. Then you will look at user studies. You will learn about several techniques for determining the needs of your users. The module concludes by examining how some of the big companies in the industry ensure that they are delivering the right product to their users.
Week 2
Module 2: Done Right
Welcome to the second module! Now that you’ve learned about how to make sure you’re creating the “right product”, it’s time to explore how to ensure that product is “done right”. Here, you’ll start with review techniques, some issues surrounding project monitoring in general, and the Goal Quality Metric framework. Then, you’ll move on to desirable properties of metrics and dive into some key metrics for ensuring that you’re on track. You’ll finish off the module with defect analysis, leading you into getting your product “managed right” in the next module.
Week 3
Module 3: Managed Right
This third module examines the concept of managing your project right. You will learn some important and popular project management techniques. The module starts off by introducing you to the Daily Scrum meeting. You will learn ways to implement daily scrums with the teams that you work with as well as techniques to improve the meetings if they are not working well. Then we will cover the concept of Velocity in more detail which will prepare you for learning about burndown charts. This module covers both Release Burndowns, as well as Iteration Burndowns. We show you how to create, read, and use these useful tracking tools with the teams you work with. Together, these lessons will teach you how to ensure your projects are “managed right”.
Week 4
Module 4: Project Retrospectives
Welcome to the final module of the course! The previous module was focused on ensuring your project was managed right by exploring techniques in project planning. This module will focus on an often-neglected, but very valuable tool: Retrospectives. You’ll explore what retrospectives are and some issues surrounding them. Then, you’ll learn about how a retrospective looks, along with some recommended retrospective exercises. Finally, you’ll round the module off with a summary of the course!

FAQ

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?

Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:

What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.

Is financial aid available?

Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

Reviews

All my projects, in terms of productivity and quality, have improved by simply applying various aspects of what I have learnt from this specialization.

Great content, great Professors, and even greater explanations. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

A very good course, where the presenters have really tried to articulate the topics and explain in a very simple manner using real life examples.

The content of this course is well presented and close to what you will experience in real work settings.