FIT3037 Software engineering - Semester 2, 2014

In this unit students will learn about many aspects of working with a large team on large projects to produce quality software products on time and within budget. The student will gain an appreciation of the tools and techniques used to develop software systems within a group context. Topics to be studied include: software development lifecycle models; sizing, estimation, planning and control of projects; functional specification and design of real-time systems; formal specification and design using Z; integration and testing strategies, configuration management; reuse and re-engineering.

Mode of Delivery

• Gippsland (Day)
• Gippsland (Off-campus)
• South Africa (Day)

Workload Requirements

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

• Two hours of lectures
• One 2-hour tutorial

(b.) Study schedule for off-campus students:

• Off-campus students generally do not attend lecture and tutorial sessions, however should plan to spend equivalent time working through the relevant resources and participating in discussion groups each week.

(c.) Additional requirements (all students):

• A minimum of 8 hours independent study per week for completing lab and project work, private study and revision.

Unit Relationships

Prohibitions

CSE2201, CSE2401, FIT2024, GCO3811

Prerequisites

FIT2005

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Tutors

Your feedback to Us

Previous Student Evaluations of this Unit

Previous student feedback has suggested having two assignments instead of three.

Academic Overview

Learning Outcomes

• the continuing software crisis, problems encountered in the development of large software systems: poor quality, late delivery and budget overruns;
• techniques used in software engineering to counter these problems;
• the role of software lifecycle models in project control and planning;
• different categories of software metrics;
• software estimation methods;
• methods for specifying real-time systems;
• techniques and tools to support configuration management;
• strategies for testing software;
• the roles and responsibilities of project team members.

• apply techniques for scheduling and control of large projects;
• construct and validate a software specification;
• formal methods specification of software systems;
• functionally design of software systems;
• describe large software systems using appropriate language and technical specification techniques to suit the intended audience;
• be aware that quality software is not a luxury but essential in solving the software crisis.

Unit Schedule

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your learning system.

Teaching Approach

Assessment Summary

Examination (3 hours): 55%; In-semester assessment: 45%

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Assessment Tasks

Participation

• Assessment task 1

  Title:

  Assignment 1: Real-time Specification

  Description:

  The student will analyse a proposed real-time system and present a specification that describes the system operation and constraints of the system.

  Weighting:

  25%

  Criteria for assessment:

  The full specification and criteria for the assignment will be available early in the semester from the Moodle site, a summary of the marking criteria is included here.

  The major criteria and the relevant percentages are:

  1. Presentation (5%). Looking for well-presented and laid out specification.
  2. ERD (10%). Looking for an entity relationship diagram that shows the basic relationships between the system to be developed and the other entities in the environment.
  3. DFD’s and CFD's (30%). Looking for a set of data and control flow diagrams that show the data and control flows around the system. The flows must be maintained between different levels with no overall gain or loss of information.
  4. PSPECS (15%). Each process at the lowest level MUST have a specification showing exactly what it does and how the data flowing through the process is manipulated.
  5. CSPECS (20%). Basic job of Control Specification is to show how events in CFD are handled and to synchronise process activation as required. Looking for logical and consistent specification to manage this task.
  6. Data Dictionary (10%). Need to include all names in dictionary, including process, data and control flow names.
  7. Coverage (10%). What percentage of the overall problem has been considered in this solution.

  Due date:

  4 September 2014

• Assessment task 2

  Title:

  Assignment 2: Formal Specification - Z

  Description:

  The student will develop a formal specification in Z for an interesting but relatively simple proposed system. This will include the specification of a suitable state space and schemas to perform operations on that state space.

  Weighting:

  20%

  Criteria for assessment:

  The full specification and criteria for the assignment will be available early in the semester from the Moodle site, a summary of the marking criteria is included here.

  The major criteria and the relevant percentages are:

  1.  Presentation and basic layout (5%). Looking for good layout, adherence to basic Z concepts and structures.
  2.  State Space Specification (15%). Looking for well defined structure for all the data to be stored. Predicates to hold these structures consistent. Types to be used consistently.
  3.  Initialisation Schema (10%). Must ensure initialisation cannot be re-run once data input and ensure that all data initialised.
  4.  Schema Calculus (10%). Looking for use of schema calculus to handle error conditions and make schemas less complex. Schema calculus to handle the majority of possible error conditions.
  5.  Defined Schemas (60%). Schemas defined in the assignment specification to be correctly written in Z with logical and consistent manipulation of the state space and local variables.

  Due date:

  16 October 2014

Examinations

• Examination 1

  Weighting:

  55%

  Length:

  3 hours

  Type (open/closed book):

  Closed book

  Electronic devices allowed in the exam:

  None

Learning resources

Reading list

Sommerville, Ian. Software Engineering, 9th Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2010, ISBN-10: 0137035152 or ISBN-13: 978-0137035151.
   
Vliet, Hans Van. Software Engineering: Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 2008, ISBN-10: 0470031468 or ISBN-13: 978-0470031469.

Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence and Atlee, Joanne M. Software Engineering Theory and Practice, 4th Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2009, ISBN-10: 0136061699 or ISBN-13: 978-0136061694.

Feedback to you

• Graded assignments with comments
• Solutions to tutes, labs and assignments

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Assignment submission

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the learning system for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Required Resources

Prescribed text(s) and readings

Pressman R.S., Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, McGraw-Hill, 6th Edition, 2005, ISBN 007-123840-9 or 7th Edition, 2010, ISBN 978-007-126782-3.

Text books are available from the Monash University Book Shops. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Required software and/or hardware

You will need access to a computer with Word etc. for assignment preparation. A special Z font is available from the Moodle site for development of the Z formal methods specification in Assignment 1.

Computers with MS Office are available in Computer Labs.

Other Information

Policies

Graduate Attributes Policy

Student Charter

Student services

Monash University Library

Disability Liaison Unit