COMP41670 Software Engineering (ME)

Academic Year 2021/2022

Software engineering focuses on the processes and techniques fundamental to the creation of reliable and robust software systems. This module will cover the main principles of the most important software development processes, from ‘traditional’ plan-driven software engineering to agile methods. It will also cover principles and techniques of software requirements engineering, software design using UML, software testing and refactoring.

This module is 100% continuous assessment, whereby each student will have to work on a substantive software project in groups of 2. The programming language used in the module is Java.
Because not all students may be familiar with the Java programming language, the first 3 weeks of the module will be focusing on refreshing object oriented programming concepts in Java.
If possible, the module will host 2 or 3 panels where practitioners will be invited to describe their experience and opinion on various advanced software engineering topics, such as agile software development, legacy systems, and refactoring.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the methodologies and procedures necessary to a software engineer to manage and develop a software project as part of a team.
2. Demonstrate how to design a complex software system with identification and consideration of functional and non-functional requirements.
3. Outline the design of software components using existing design languages, such as UML.
4. Implement a complex software system as part of a team with regards to division of labour, source control, integration of different components.
5. Perform unit testing and demonstrate an understanding of system testing, and user acceptance testing.
6. Identify and implement suitable refactoring strategies on existing software systems.
e systems.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24

Practical

24

Autonomous Student Learning

70

Total

118

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
The module will adopted a blended approach, where traditional lectures will be combined with active learning activities and a group project. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Additional Information:
Object-oriented programming knowledge is a required prerequisite for this module


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: MCQs on the topics covered in the industry panel Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

10

Continuous Assessment: Students will be required to perform Java programming exercises individually during the first 3 weeks of the module. Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

10

Group Project: Software Engineering Project in a group of 2 Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded Yes

80


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

A variety of feedback will be provided to students. During first 3 Weeks of the module students will be required to complete a Java programming exercise at the end of each week. Feedback will be provided using automated feedback tools (Web-CAT) and will be specifically tailored to help students correct their programming mistakes early. Students will be required to work in group of 2 on a substantive project. At Week 9 students will have the chance to show the lecturer an intermediate release of their project. The lecturer will provide oral feedback to each group to highlight project strengths and problems; this will allow students to fix potential issues before the final project release. In the last 2 weeks of the module there will be 2 invited talks from practitioners. The students will be asked to answer MCQs about the topics covered in the industry talk. At the end of the module the lecturer will provide written feedback about the group project to each group based on an instructional rubric.

Name Role
Professor Chris Bleakley Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Avishek Nag Tutor