UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

MSIT630 Syllabus

Course Title Concepts in Software-Intensive Systems
Term TERM 5, 2006/2007
Education Center MANNHEIM-SULLIVAN-GRAD
Faculty Member Manfred Trostmann - mtrostma@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Students may use email.

Consultation:

The instructor will be available for consultation after each class.

Required Texts and Readings:

Pressman, R. S. (2005). Software engineering: A practitioner's approach (6th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-2853183-2

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: APA. ISBN: 1-55798-791-2

ADDITONAL READINGS:

As assigned.

Supplementary Readings:

Fowler, M. (1997). Analysis patterns: Reusable object models. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-89542-0

Keller, M. & Shumate K. (1992). Software specification and design: A disciplined approach for real-time systems. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-53296-7

Pfleeger, S. L. (2001). Software engineering: theory and practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-029049-1

Ruble, D. A. (1997). Practical analysis & design for client/server & GUI systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Yourdon Press. ISBN 0-13-521758-X

Schulmeyer, G. G. & MacKenzie G. R. (2000). Verification & validation of modern software-intensive systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-020584-2

Shneiderman, B. (1998). Designing the user interface (3rd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-69497-2

All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/library/.  The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available.  The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.

Recommended Journals:

Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that IT professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.

Course Description:

This course examines the technology, engineering practices, and business economics behind the wide variety of modern software-intensive systems. The foundations of software engineering are examined. Classes of application domains including real-time systems and transaction-based systems are analyzed. The practices used in developing small-scale and large-scale software systems are evaluated. Modern issues including design of the human-computer interface, software product liability, and certification of software engineers are discussed. The course concludes by investigating the structure, environment, and possible future of the software industry.

Course Goals:

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should understand and be able to apply knowledge concerning:
  • The Software Process
  • Agile Development
  • The Relevant Software Tools
  • System Engineering
  • Design Engineering
  • Software Testing Strategies
  • Web Engineering, including the analysis, design and testing of Web Applications
  • Project Management Concepts
  • Software Project Scheduling
  • Risk Management
  • The Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Course Objectives:

At the end of the course, students should be able to:
  • Analyze the activities, products, and alternative methods for major phases of the software development life cycle.
  • Describe the principles of structured design and object-oriented methodologies.
  • Define key performance and design issues in transaction-based and real-time software systems.
  • Evaluate user interface requirements.
  • Apply the concepts of application frameworks.
  • Discuss the technical approaches for measuring and improving software reliability and safety.
  • Analyze technology and business trends in the software industry.
  • Explain the issues involved in the professional certification of software engineers.

Grading Information:

The final grade will be determined as follows:

Midterm Examination-------- 35%
Final Examination---------- 35%
Research Paper------------- 30%


Grades will be calculated numerically as follows:
90 - 100: A
80 - 89: B
70 - 79: C

Course Requirements:

The course requirements are as follows: Examinations. Midterm and final examinations will be given.

Research Paper. A research paper of 10-15 pages is required.

Description of Course Requirements:

Successful graduate students in American universities dedicate approximately three hours of preparation/study time for every hour spent in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the following course requirements were developed on the assumption that students would be prepared to spend approximately 150 hours of their own time working on them. In an 8-week term, that is the equivalent of a half-time job. Most 14-week graduate distance education courses require at least 10 hours per week of dedicated time, plus time spent in the virtual classroom.

STATEMENT ON WRITING REQUIREMENTS:
Effective managers and leaders are also effective communicators. Written communication is an important element of the total communication process. The Graduate School recognizes and expects exemplary writing to be the norm for course work. To this end, all analyses and papers must demonstrate graduate level writing ability and comply with the format requirements of the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association. All writing assignments will be graded on the basis of content, logic, analysis, mechanics, organization, and research. Careful attention should be given to source citations, proper listing of references, the use of footnotes, and the presentation of tables and graphs. Work submitted online should follow standard procedures for formatting and citation.

POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Academic integrity is central to the learning and teaching process. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will contribute to the maintenance of academic integrity by making all reasonable efforts to prevent the occurrence of academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) obtaining or giving aid on an examination, having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination, doing work for another student, and plagiarism of all types.

PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator. Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by following carefully accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge these sources in footnotes. The penalties for plagiarism include a zero or a grade of F on the work in question, a grade of F in the course, suspension with a file letter, suspension with a transcript notation, or expulsion. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.

DISABLED STUDENTS:
Students with disabilities who need to register or request services should contact the Staff Support Team four to six weeks in advance of registration to request and register for services.

COURSE EVALUATIONS:
Feedback on each graduate course and instructor is important to the university, your professor, and to all UMUC students. UMUC has the responsibility to assess the effectiveness of classroom instruction, and each student has the responsibility to provide accurate and timely feedback through completion of the course evaluation form. This is a shared obligation for us all. It is therefore important that you complete the evaluation form for each course you attend. This should be viewed as an additional course and program requirement.

Course Schedule:

Session 1; 9 June Morning - Introduction and Course Overview

  • Overview
  • Issues in Software Engineering
  • The Development Process
  • Categories of Systems
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 1-3

Session 2; 9 June Afternoon - Software Project Management

  • Project Organization
  • Process & Project Metrics
  • Planning and Estimation
  • Risk Management
Readings: Pressman, Chapter 21, Chapters 22-27 (Skim)

Session 3;10 June Morning - Structured Methods - Part 1

  • Systems Engineering Concepts
  • Requirements Analysis
  • Requirements Specification
  • Prototyping
  • Analysis Modelling
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 5-7, Chapter 8 (Skim)


Session 4; 10 June Afternoon - Structured Methods - Part 2

  • Design Principles
  • Architectural Design
  • User Interface Design
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 9-10, 12

Session 5; 23 June Morning- Implementation

  • Component Level Design
  • Structured Programming
  • Programming Lanaguages
  • Compiler Principles
Readings: Pressman, Chapter 11

Session 6; 23 June Afternoon - Testing

  • Testing Techniques
  • Testing Strategies
  • Technical Metrics
  • Safety and Reliability
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 13-15
Research Paper Topic and Abstract due

Session 7; 24 June Morning
Mid-Term Examination


Session 8-; 24 June Afternoon Object-Oriented Methods - Part 1

  • Concepts and Principles
  • Object-Oriented Analysis
Readings: Reserved Readings: Object-oriented Concepts & Principles/ Object-oriented Analysis

Session 9; 14 July Morning- Object-Oriented Methods - Part 2

  • Object-Oriented Design
  • Design Patterns and Frameworks
  • Object-Oriented Programming
  • Object-Oriented Testing
  • Technical Metrics for Object-Oriented Systems
Readings: Reserved Readings: Object-oriented Design/ Object-oriented Testing/ Technical Metrics for Object-oriented Systems

Session 10; 14 July Afternoon - Advanced Topics

  • Formal Methods
  • Cleanroom Software Engineering
  • Component-Based Software Engineering
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 28-30

Session 11; 15 July Morning - System Applications

  • Transaction-Based Systems
  • Client/Server Software Engineering
  • Web-Based Applications
  • Real-Time Systems
  • Reengineering
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 16 & 31


Session 12; 15 July Afternoon - Future Trends I

  • Agile Methods
  • Standards
  • Process Improvement Models
  • Licensing and Certification
  • Business Models and the Software Industry
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 4
Session 13; 28 July Morning - Future Trends II

  • The Road Ahead
Readings: Pressman, Chapters 32

Session 14; 28 July Afternoon
Research Paper Due
Group Project Presentations

Session 15; 29 July Morning
Group Project Presentations

Session 16:; 28 July Afternoon
Final Examination

Academic Policies:

The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism

The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."

Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course.

Students with disabilities should contact the appropriate support office at UMUC-Europe. 

Jan Keller, Director of Student Services

UMUC-Europe, Heidelberg

Phone:  +49-6221-378299

Email:  edstudent_svc@ed.umuc.edu

Mailing Address:  Unit 29216, APO AE 09102 OR Im Bosseldorn 30, D-69126 Heidelberg, Germany

Please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:

Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Code of Civility

Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.

Faculty Bio:

Faculty Bio:
Manfred Trostmann earned the Diploma in Electrical Communication from the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University and in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences at Cologne.
After working for DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION (DEC) and Mobil Oil he managed the computer center at the University of Frankfurt and built the network for the university. He has been teaching for the University of Maryland for 15 years and belongs to the graduate faculty where he is teaching several classes in the MIS program in Germany.


Last updated by Manfred Trostmann: April 26, 2007, 4:01 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule