Course description

Software development methods are used to contribute to the software process. They prescribe human actions and activities, tools, and intermediate products for developing software systems and claim to improve characteristics of the software (e.g., reliability) or its production (e.g., total cost or schedule predictability). As a course topic Software Development Methods is a subset of the Software Engineering field.

Many such methods have come into practice over the last decades, and new methods are emerging. The new methods are more powerful than the old ones, but many of their concepts, guidelines, or techniques are alike. The course chose the object-oriented method, but aims to put emphasis on what is inherent, persistent in all these methods.

Usually, the software development methods focus on two activities in the software process: analysis and design. Analysis is concerned with understanding the "real world" we are studying (the problem domain) sufficiently well to permit its modeling. Design is concerned with the mapping of the analysis results in an implementable-by-software form.

Analysis and design methodologies promote development of software systems using development visual languages and CASE tools as part of a team's project. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is currently the industry standard for communicating many of object-oriented development artifacts. In this course UML is the vehicle for learning Object-Oriented Analysis and Design.

The last but not the least, software comes out from an analysis of its future environment. This is why the course outlines some techniques of the system analysis field, too.

Prerequisite(s) & Corequisite(s)

“Object Oriented Programming”, “Algorithms and Data Structures”, and “Formal Languages & Automata” . Knowledge and experience of programming in a high-level imperative language (Java, C++, or C). This course will find its natural achievement in the course “Software Engineering”.

•  R.S.Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach , 7/e McGraw-Hill, 2003.

•  L.D.Serbanati, Integrating Tools for Software Development , Yourdon Press Computing Series, Prentice Hall, 1992.

Object Oriented Methods

•  G. Booch, J, Rumbaugh, I. Jacobson, The Unified Modeling Language. User Guide , Addison-Wesley, 1999.

•  M. Fowler, Uml Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Modeling Language , 2/e, Addison-Wesley, 1999.

•  C. Larman, Applying UML and Patterns-An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process , 3/e, Prentice Hall, 2004.

•  www.omg.org

The objective of this course is to explore the methods and techniques of systems development from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Upon successful completion of the course, the student should be able to meet the following specific objectives:

•  Be able to perform systems and software analysis and design

•  Have skills to partition a system in logical and physical views according to relevant aspects and then integrate them in a unique artifact

•  Be able to compare and choose intelligently from among methods, tools, and techniques of systems and software analysis and design

•  Contribute as a team member in analysis and design projects

•  To understand how to specify analysis and design in terms of several conceptual modeling tools as UML's diagrams.

•  Introduction to Systems Engineering . Systems, information systems, and software systems. (2h)

•  The Software Process . Definiton and components. Capability Maturity Model. Software life cycle models. Unified Process. (2h)

•  Introduction to object-orientation . Concepts. Semantic relationships. Abstraction, encapsulation. Classes and objects. UML notation for classes. Relationships. Generalization vs. inheritance. Polymorfism. Association. Aggregation and composition. Class diagrams. (2h)

•  OO Business Process Modelling . Business components. Control and object flows. Activity diagrams. (3h)

•  Requirements gathering with use cases . Actors. System boundaries. Context diagram. Use case descriptions. Use case extension mechanisms. Identifying actors and use cases. Sequence diagrams. System operations. Operation contracts. (3h)

•  Structural Modeling . Identification of classes and relationships between them. Identifying attributes, operations and relationships. Domain Model. (3h)

•   Modeling Collaborations . Inter-objects messages. Responsibility and collaborations. CRC cards. Communication diagrams. Patterns for assignment of responsibilities (4h)

•  •  Architectural Design . Software modularity. Subsystems. Subsystem communications. Package diagrams. (2h)

•  Design Classes . UI classes. Controllers. Persistence classes. (2h)

•  Modeling object dynamics . States, events, automata. Statechart diagrams. Concurrency in UML. (2h)

•  Component-based software development . Component diagrams. Package diagrams (1h)

This is a list of the main laboratory topics:

1. Business Analysis and Modelling
Deliverable: Business Model - Activity Diagrams

2. Software Requirements Analysis
Deliverable: Use Case Model

4.  Domain Modelling
Deliverable: Structural Model - Class Diagram

5.  From Requirements To Design
Deliverable: Behavioural Model - Interaction Diagrams

6.  From Requirements To Design
Deliverable: Dynamic Model - Statechart Diagrams

7.  Refining the Models
Deliverable: Package Diagrams

There are about 7 assignments, due two weeks after the student get them. They put into practice modelling activities common in software development. Assignments should be prepared for the next class period. Some may be collected for grading; others will be reviewed in class with the aid of available CASE tools.

The project to be undertaken is a team project : it is expected to work in teams of three to develop a software application within the two methodologies . Each student is expected to work as a member of your group in this course and cooperate with his/her colleagues. Each group will be responsible for assigning tasks to its team members, but the instructor must be informed about this assignment. Each of the seven homework assignments will contribute to the completion of the final project. The project is a requirement for the competition of the course and will be graded individually, thus it is the responsibility of the students to document and give full details on his/her contribution to the project.

Grading will be as follows:

40% Final exam consists of a written answer to a quiz and a closed-book test consisting in analysis and design of a small application.

20% Homework assignments, two tests and personal contribution to laboratory classes.  The points per assignment will vary depending importance and effort.

The course is a very conceptual class. Its main goal is the development of an understanding of abstract analysis, design, and modeling techniques and to provide attendees with in-depth coverage of the concepts needed to effectively analyze and design software systems. This class provides skills suitable to some roles in the software process as the business analyst, software analyst, and software architect.