• Macquarie Home »
• Faculty of Science »
• Department of Computing

Unit Outline: ITEC800 Systems Engineering Process

Semester 1, 2011

Convenor: Dr Frank Moisiadis

Prerequisites: N/A

Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About This Unit

ITEC800 provides a a comprehensive explanation of the systems and software engineering processes in software development projects. In detail, ITEC800 explains in detail a large number of software development approaches (e.g. waterfall, agile, re-use, formal, incremental, spiral) as well as a thorough coverage of the activities involved in the analysis, design, implementation and maintenance of software systems using these development approaches.

Students will also participate in a group project which will entail developing a software system. The students will provide a detailed project proposal followed by detailed requirements and design specifications, implementation and testing procedures and a final presentation of the project work to the class.

Even though there is no formal teaching of a programming language, students will be expected to use their programming skills to develop the software system for their course project work. Students passing this course will have a strong theoretical and practical understanding of the whole software development lifecycle and the processes involved in developing software systems.

Teaching Staff

Role	Name	Email
Convenor, Lecturer	Dr Frank Moisiadis	frank.moisiadis@mq.edu.au

All emails related to ITEC800 should be sent to frank.moisiadis@mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.

Classes

Each week you should attend the lecture and practical on Saturday. The lecture is from 2-4pm in room C5A229. The practical takes place in room E6A 127 from 4-6pm. For more details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

Required Text

The required textbook for ITEC800 this semester is: “Software Engineering” Ian Somerville, 9th Edition, Pearson Education Limited ISBN 13: 978-0-321-31379-9 ISBN 10: 0-321-31379-8

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found at http://online.mq.edu.au/pub/ITEC800. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to WebCT to access it.

Learning Outcomes

A student completing the unit should have:

1. a comprehensive understanding of software development processes;
2. a comprehensive understanding of requirements and design processes in developing software systems;
3. a comprehensive understanding of verification, validation and testing procedures in developing software systems;
4. a comprehensive understanding of project management and quality processes in developing software systems;
5. a good understanding of the practical aspects of developing a small software system in a group environment;

In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:

• Communication skills;
• Critical analysis skills;
• Problem-solving skills;
• Creative thinking skills.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

ITEC800 is taught via lectures and practical sessions in the laboratory. Lectures are used to introduce new material and to give examples of the various analysis, design and testing processes in developing different software systems. In lectures students are encouraged to ask questions. Class discussions encourage interaction, critical thought and sharing of professional experiences and practical ideas on the various lecture topics. The group project work will provide an opportunity for students to work together and practically learn what it takes to develop a quality software system.

Each week you should:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
• Attend the practical session and work on your group project.
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer.
• Work on the project deliverables that have been released.

Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.

Topic List

 

 

Week	Topic	Deliverables
1	Introduction to software development processes models
2	Software process models and their activities
3	Requirements and requirements engineering processes	DELIVERABLE 1 DUE OF GROUP PROJECT WORK
4	System models and specifications
5	Architectural design and distributed systems
6	Application architectures and object-oriented design	DELIVERABLE 2 DUE GROUP PROJECT WORK
7	Real-time software design and user interface design
8	Rapid software development and software reuse
9	CBSE, critical system development and software evolution	DELIVERABLE 3 DUE GROUP PROJECT WORK
10	Verification, validation and testing
11	Managing people and costs
12	Quality and configuration management and process improvement
13	Final presentations	DELIVERABLE 4 DUE GROUP PROJECT WORK

Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes

1. a comprehensive understanding of software development processes; assessed in group project work and final exam.
2. a comprehensive understanding of requirements and design processes in developing software systems; assessed in group project work and final exam.
3. a comprehensive understanding of verification, validation and testing procedures in developing software systems; assessed in group project work and final exam.
4. a comprehensive understanding of project management and quality processes in developing software systems; assessed in group project work and final exam.
5. a good understanding of the practical aspects of developing a small software system in a group environment; assessed in group project work.

Task	Planned Date	Total Marks
Deliverable 1 of group project work	Due Week 3	5%
Deliverable 2 of group project work	Due Week 6	10%
Deliverable 3 of group project work	Due Week 9	10%
Deliverable 4 of group project work	Due Week 13	15%
Final Examination	TBA	60%

Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular:

You must perform satisfactorily in the examination and in all deliverables in order to pass this unit.

Late work will be accepted with a penalty of 10% of the marks for the assignment per day submitted late. Hence, an assignment submitted five days late will get at most half the marks. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date.

Examinations

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations.

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.

The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

Plagiarism

Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).

On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.

It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Director of Teaching or the Head of Department (Assoc. Prof. Bernard Mans). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.