1. Practical Software Engineering
Revision Class

2. Basic Information Level 6, 15 credits Module code: BUCI049H6-AAA
This term: optional module
Lecturer: Taolue Chen
All materials are available at
But next academic year:
BSc Computing program
SE1 (Level 4, compulsory), SE2 (Level 5, optional)
Information System A&D (Level 5, Compulsory)
Information System A&D II (Level 6, Compulsory)

3. Contents One term, first course in Software Engineering Focus on
Important concepts (such as software processes) – 3 sessions
Essential software development activities – 5 sessions
Project management and planning – 2 sessions

4. Arrangements Contents Date/Place Portfolio Remark W1 Introduction
Jan 12th -Mal403
Software failure (presentation) W2
2. Software processes
Jan 19th
Software processes (essay) W3
3. Agile methods
Jan 26th
Agile Methods (Comparison) W4
4. Requirements
Feb 2nd
Requirements Specification W5
5. Modelling
Feb 9th
System Modelling W6
SELF-STUDY
Deadline of C1 W7
6. Design and Impl.
Feb 23rd
Software Implementation Strategies W8
7. Testing
Mar 2nd
Testing Plan W9
8. Evolution
Mar 9th
Software evolution (essay)
W10
9. Project management
Mar 16th -Mal403
Project Planning and Risk Assessment
Deadline of C2
W11
10. Configuration control
Mar 23th -Mal457
Version Control with Git and GitHub
Can you add any more types of software to the list?
Give specific examples of the different types of software you have listed.
10 sessions:
Introduction
Software process models
Agile software development
Requirement engineering
Software modelling

5. Arrangement –con’d Revision: May 11th at MAL 403 (that’s today!)
Will be simply a Q&A session, but NO lecture like this.

6. Assessment Porfolio Tasks (20%) Final exam (80%) Coursework portfolio.
Students will complete three from a possible ten tasks based on session topics.
You have done these well in general ;-)
Final exam (80%)
2-hour exam, EIGTH questions, 100 marks
Each one will have 2-3 sub-questions.
May 29th, 10:00am---12:00pm
Is being a software engineer the same as being an engineer in other disciplines, e.g. civil engineering?
Is the term engineer correctly applied to those working as software engineers?

7. Textbook Ian Sommerville. Software Engineering. 10th Ed.
How do you think software engineering differs from other branches of engineering (e.g. civil engineering)?
In what way do you think the theories, methods and tools used if software engineering are different from, or similar to other, more established, branches of engineering?
In what ways is software engineering distinct from computer science?

8. Session 1 Introduction What is Software Engineering?
What does “software” mean in the context of SE?
Importance of Software engineering
Challenges of Software Engineering
Software processes, methodologies, techniques, tools
Understand that the development of different types of software may require different SE techniques
Characteristics of successful software

9. Session 2: Software processes
What is a software process?
A coherent set of activities for software production
Four fundamental activities of software processes
What are they? What does each one do?
Plan-driven vs agile software processes
Software process models
Three generic models: waterfall, incremental development, integration and configuration
Definitions;
Advantages and disadvantages;
Comparison;
Given a practical case, which model should be selected? And why?
Software Process Improvement, CMM
specification, development, validation, maintenance

10. Session 3: Agile Software Development
What does it mean by “agile”?
The core values and principles of agile methods
Typical practice of Agile methods
Extreme programming
Key practices and distinguished features of XP
For each practice (user stories & task cards, refactoring, test-first development, pair programming), understand
what it is?
Its benefits (i.e., why?)
Extreme Programming
Scrum
Kanban
Crystal Methods

11. Session 4: requirement engineering
Understand basic concepts of user and system requirements
Why they should be written in different ways?
Understand basic concepts of functional and non-functional requirements
Their difference, how to distinguish them?
Requirement engineering process
Elicitation, analysis, and validation
Requirement specification (ways to write the req. down)
Use case (very important ;-) )
scenario, actor, use case diagram, use case description, etc.

12. Session 5 Software Modelling
UML ;-)
Interaction model (user case, sequence diagram)
Behavioural model (activity diagram, state diagram)
Structural model (class diagram)
Interaction model (user case, sequence diagram)
Behavioural model (activity diagram, state diagram)
Structural model (class diagram)

13. Session 6 Software Design and Implementation
Architectural design
What is this? Why?
Design decisions
Architectural views
Architectural patterns
Application architecture
Design models
Design pattern
Open source development

14. Session 7 Testing Testing Stages Testing activities By whom Remark
Development testing
Unit testing
team developing the system
White-box/black-box
Component testing
System testing (user case testing …)
Or: a separate testing team
Realising Testing
Scenario testing
Separate team not involved in system development
Black-box
Requirement testing
Performance testing (incl. stress testing)
User Testing
Alpha testing
users or customers
Beta testing
Acceptance testing

15. Testing For each concept of testing, understand
what it is?
What is the purpose?
How does it carry out?
When given a real scenario, how to apply testing?

16. Session 7 Software Evolution
What is software evolution and why it is important?
Software evolution process
Legacy systems
Software maintenance
What is software maintenance?
The reasons to perform software maintenance
Principal activities of software maintenance
Software re-engineering

17. Session 9 Project management and planning
Risk management
Categories of risks
Risk management process (identification, analysis, planning, monitoring)
Project planning
Scheduling: Gantt chart, PERT  (program evaluation and review technique) chart
(Show the interdependence of tasks, Calculate the amount of time it will take to complete a project, Determine a project’s critical path; Set start and end dates for tasks)
Estimation techniques

18. Project Schedule Representation
PERT chart showing task dependencies and time estimates.
1. How might a PERT chart like the one above help us to schedule a project and allocate resources to tasks?

19. Session 10: Software Quality and Configuration Management
What is software quality and its management, why it is important?
Quality assurance process
Software standard
Software measurement
Configuration Management
Aim
Activities (version management, release management, change management, system building)
What are these?

20. Good luck!