Presentations for SE 3800

Presented on: Week 10, Day 2

In groups of 3 to 5 students, pick a book related to material covered in SE 3800 and present it to the class. The intent is that the group would pick a book that someone encountered in the work place, had recommended to them, or just read on their own. Books that have been discussed in the past include Cracking the Coding Interview, Domain-Driven Design, Clean Code (I have a copy of this I could loan), Lean UX, Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Code Complete, The Mythical Man Month, and Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models. You could pick one of these, but be sure to develop your own materials. But I would deeply appreciate people finding new books - there are a lot of great ideas out there!

Each group will present the book with the basic goal of making people aware of the good ideas in the book and perhaps encourage them to read it. Do not try to cover all of the book; pick the parts that you find the most compelling. Not everyone in the group has to read the full text; you can simply read some portion of it. You might even be able to work from secondary sources.

Ensure your audience gets useful information out of your presentation:

• Be sure the first slide names the book, the date of the presentation, and the names of the students.
• Include a slide giving a very high-level view of the book, maybe the title and a sentence capturing the purpose.
• There should be one or two slides per student. If you have two slides, make sure there are images, otherwise it will be too much material to present in your allotted time.
• Be careful of using small fonts. Large amounts of text written in 18 or 20 point font is likely unreadable by your audience.
• If you need notes, write them on an index card. Your slide should have key thoughts only.
• Practice your timing so that the team can fit in its limit.
• Avoid fluff such as reference slides, or if you have such material then do not show it to the audience. It makes absolutely no sense to display information that you do expect your audience to read.
• Include pictures, smart art, other tools to relieve the audience of just reading text and to make stronger points.

See Canvas for teams and books.

Notes for Fall, 2020

• Two minutes per person max, so a team of 4 would have 8 minutes. That is about the time it takes to present a single slide. Go for key elements; don't try to say everything. Treat 1 minute per person as a minimum.
• If you cannot give the presentation live, pre-record it and have your teammates show that for your section. My preference is that they would be live, but I know that won't work for everyone.
• Seeing your face is critical, so please do plan to show your face. One person will show the slide deck, and all will turn on their camera so as they talk they will show up with the slide deck.
• Practice to make sure you've got a smooth presentation and you do not run over time. Having practiced is a part of your grade, but don't get so practiced that you can rattle off all of the material without notes.
• Presentations will be Thursday, Nov. 12.