CS3528: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE (2015-2016)

Course Aims

Building on top of the first term software engineering principles course, software engineering and professional practice aims at providing students with an in-depth understanding of disciplined approaches to the software development process and operative knowledge of professional issues. This course is fully teamwork-based and focuses on the engineered development of a software project chosen by students at the beginning of the sibling software engineering principles course in term one. 
Self-learning individual study sessions focusing on a range of professional issues, to be immediately applied to the teamwork-based software development project complement the learning process. 
Company-based presentations (activities, jobs, roles, needs) help students to achieve an in-width perspective of the professional opportunities, issues, and challenges in their future career. 

Main Learning Outcomes

• In-depth operative knowledge of all aspects of the team-based software development process for a medium-sized software-centric system.
• Operative knowledge of ethical and professional issues in the wider software sector.
• Operative knowledge of legal and policy issues in the wider software sector.
• Written and verbal communication skills.
• Project management and teamwork skills.
  

Course Content

 

Team-based software development: proof-of-concept-based requirements analysis review, modular software design, quality-based software coding, testing and deployment.
Ethical and professional issues: individual, organisational and societal context of computing systems; concern for the public good. Professional Bodies structure, function, restriction of title, licence to practise, code of ethics, conduct, and practice. Career options; entrepreneurship.
Legal and policy issues: UK legal system, contract law liabilities, company and employment law, data protection, computer misuse, intellectual property rights. Rights and duties of an employee. Digital signatures, restrictions on encryption, IT monopolies.
Communication skills: Effective written and verbal presentation; public engagement.
Project management and teamwork skills: managing teams and the development process; technical and personal self-management as a team member in the workplace.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

View CS3528 Timetable

More Information about Week Numbers

1st Attempt

Continuous assessment (100%).
Continuous assessment includes 1  teamwork project technical report (50 pages); 1 complete software release; 1 team-based project presentation and software demo (30 minutes)

Resit

Continuous assessment (100%). As it is not possible to resit the teamwork-based coursework, an alternative individual equivalent task will be assigned to the student in case of resit.

Collective verbal team discussion with groupwork project guides (every week)  and with course organiser (every fortnight or so).

Due to the groupwork-based nature of most assignments, feedback is provided by team guides (and by the course organiser) during the appropriate meetings (see above).

None.