All software that is used in the real world was created under real constraints. In this course students learn how to engage in the messy-guessy process of specing, planning, designing, and building a software product that they intend to deploy in the wild.

Classes follow a workshop format. We begin with a short lecture to unpack the readings, then switch to hands-on activities and group project work. The structure of the course simulates the experience of a junior software engineer and teaches students to learn on the job through contemporary readings and assignments, the largest of which is a 6-week group project to build a functional web application in Ruby on Rails. Students have full control over the design decisions, but they must impress one another with their choices as the semester culminates in a final demo day where teams vie to have their software voted Most Valuable Minimum Viable Product.