Advanced Computer Science II (Software Engineering)

[ News | Course material | Tutorials | Links ]

"Complexity is easy; simplicity is hard."
-- Edmund Kean

This course is an introduction to software engineering and object-oriented software design. At the core of the lecture is the notion of software quality and the methods to achieve and maintain it in environments of "multi-person construction of multi-version software" [Parnas 1987].

Based on their pre-existing knowledge of an object-oriented programming language, students are familiarized with software architectures, design patterns and frameworks, software components and middleware, UML-based modelling, and validation by testing. Further, the course addresses the more organisational topics of project management and version control. Practical work underpins this by looking at suitable tools.

The course is recommended to all students on whose software skills people will depend one day.

Notes:

It is strongly recommended to take this course in parallel with the Adv CS II lab; both are constructed complementary to each other. Should you still want to choose either the course or the lab, then the lab is recommended - it will train vital cornerstones for your future life as an IT professional.
An aspect touched only cursorily in this course is professional ethics; my recommendation for completing your professional education is the Engineering Professionalism and Ethics spring course.

News

In 201, this course is being taught by Dr Xia Wang.
don't forget to subscribe to the course mailing list:

Course material

The lecture is based on Software Engineering Vol. 7, available from Pearson

Course slides:

Introduction: [ Introduction | Socio-Technical Systems ]
The software lifecycle: [ Software Lifecycle | Requirements Engineering | UML and Reuse | UML | Design Patterns | Compiling and Linking | Defensive Programming | Configuration Management | Testing | Maintenance | Documentation | topcoder with assembly scorecard ]
Web and other applications: [ Application Architectures | Language Processing | Web Content Management Systems | GUI Technology | UI Design | Web Design Patterns ]
Project and process management: [ Project Management | Classical and Incremental Process Models | Agile Models | Iterative and Evolutionary Models, V-Model | CMMI | Wrap-up ]
Wrap-up

Exams

For Process Models, make sure you have read Kal Thot's article about choosing the right process model (local copy)!

Concerning ethics, the short story pragma SUPPRESS is required reading; make sure you have read it for your final exam preparation.

Sample exams: [ midterm | final ]

Tutorials

In place of homeworks, we will do tutorials where the TA will introduce you to selected CASE tools. Be aware that this knowledge too may be subject of exams!

You may want to prepare yourself for the sessions: make sure you are familiar with the Linux hints.

List of tutorials:

Links

general

RFC 1925 containing some wisdoms applicable not only to networking. Check it out!

cyberethics

First and foremost, let me point you to the lecture Engineering Professionalism and Ethics (Course Number: 400252) taught every spring.

Richard Spinello: Readings in CyberEthics, 2nd Edition. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2004

Richard A. Spinello: Case Studies in Information Technology Ethics (2nd Edition). Prentice Hall, 2002

Sara Baase: A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet (2nd Edition). Prentice Hall, 2002

UML

For the Unified Modeling Language (UML) there is many good tutorials available on the Web, for example Borland's tutorial, Sparx Systems' tutorial with a particular part on Database Modeling in UML. There is a list of UML tutorials maintained by uml.org itself.
Meantime there is also a host of UML tools available - such as Rational Rose and Enterprise Architect (EA) by Sparx Systems, or Omondo's free UML extension to Eclipse - collected in lists like this one.

Programming

How to write unmaintainable code

Software Calculus - The Missing Abstraction.

Make and svn

Beautifiers

Artistic Style (C, C++, C#, Java)
BCPP (C; C++)
DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit (many languages)
VanCBJ (C++, C, Java and Oracle Pro-C; Borland, but not MS VC)

Testing and Debugging

The following list of tools is intended to give a first overview; no tool is particularly endorsed, and missing one doesn't mean any discouragement either.

links:
Unit Test Tools
Coverage Analysis Tools
Memory Leaks Detection

Project Management

An XP team room
There is a host of tools; The V-Modell site offers the open-source tool V-Modell-XT-Projektassistent assisting from initial project proposal to final report.