Spring 2027

Software Engineering

Software Engineering covers designing and modifying large software systems, focusing on processes, architectures, design patterns, and testing, with a substantial team-based programming project.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Mouna Kacem2.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Scott Swanson

Lectures and reading materials were described as tedious, but the class required consistent effort to get value from the content.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Execute a significant software development project within a team

  • Use software tools for collaboration including source control, project management, and automated testing

  • Collaborate effectively on a significant software development project as part of a team, demonstrating professionalism in communication, accountability, and teamwork.

  • Describe and participate in various SWE inspection activities (e.g. Group Code Review; Pair Programming; Asynchronous Review).

  • Characterize and contrast software engineering methodologies and development techniques, including Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, Test-driven Development, Comment-First Development, and Extreme Programming

  • Characterize and contrast software design philosophies and principles.

  • Explain and evaluate techniques for software deployment such as Container and VM technologies.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(COMP SCI 367 or 400) and (COMP SCI 407, 536, 537, 559, 564, 570, 679 orE C E/​COMP SCI 552) or graduate/professional standing, or declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals

COMPSCI/ECE 506

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.57/5 from 60 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.60 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=168 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MOUNA AYARI BEN HADJ KACEM is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SCOTT SWANSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TRACY LEWIS-WILLIAMS is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 780
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 780
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 780

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Scott Swanson

One student found the course to be the best CS class they took, citing its practical preparation for industry and engaging lectures.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.57 GPA, 76.5% A/AB (n=170 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.56 GPA, 76.5% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.60 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=168 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Scott Swanson

Lectures and reading materials were described as tedious, but the class required consistent effort to get value from the content.

Past student reviews · Scott Swanson

The group project allowed students to gain experience dealing with real issues, which one student found valuable for their career preparation.

Topics

  • Software engineering processes, requirements, specifications, and project management
  • Software architectures, design patterns, testing, debugging, and quality metrics
  • Methodologies including Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, TDD, and Extreme Programming
  • Software deployment techniques like containers and virtual machines

Skills

  • Using software tools for collaboration, including source control, project management, and automated testing
  • Participating in SWE inspection activities such as group code review, pair programming, and asynchronous review
  • Characterizing and contrasting software engineering methodologies and development techniques
  • Explaining and evaluating software deployment techniques such as container and VM technologies

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.20 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
COMPSCI/ECE 506 · Spring 2027

Software Engineering

Recorded 2026-10-14
COMPSCI/ECE 506 · Spring 2027

Software Engineering

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:266:024047",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI/ECE 506",
    "course_uid": "course_32bc831d31cf0c1254ddaf8d",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024047",
    "source_subject_id": "266",
    "title": "Software Engineering",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:320:024047",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI/ECE 506",
    "course_uid": "course_32bc831d31cf0c1254ddaf8d",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024047",
    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Software Engineering",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "2cac08a3ce5c54a106c85e8e78d0c7c9c8de65869c6c841d4de983cc45c0197c",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}