Syllabus for SSE 658

Design Problems and Solutions

Spring Semester 2010

Early draft; changes are certain.

revised February 4, 2009 11:11 AM Eastern Time

Instructor: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil

Office:       Suite 223a, School of Engineering

Phone:       478-301-2185

                  478-301-2732

Email:        macneil_pe@mercer.edu

Textbooks and Supplies:

Texts (including web sites):

(Read the note after the list of texts before you buy!)

• Head First Design Patterns (1 st ed.), by Freeman and Freeman, O'Reilly, ISBN 0-596-00712-4 (2004) (required) Check Out This Text at Amazon.com

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Software (including web sites):

• Note that this course is intended to be OS neutral.
• TBD - more information will be available later.
• An Internet ftp client of your choice.  Core FTP LE is free and works well http://www.coreftp.com/ .  (Required, but your choice)

Other Useful Resources (including web sites):

• TBD

Catalog Description (Course Purpose):

Advanced topics in object oriented design (OOD), emphasizing the reuse of successful designs via design patterns.

The text is written in Java. Your implementation language may be Java, C#, or (object-oriented) C++.

Please note that this course is conducted *asynchronously* with regard to the face-to-face class meeting schedule. That is, the course begins on January 12, 2010, for *all* students.

Course Objectives:

Breadth and Depth in Defining, Analyzing, and Solving Complex Problems:

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate a basic capability to apply design patterns development techniques to solve complex problems.

Communicate Technical Aspects of the Solution for Complex Software Engineering Problems to a Technical Audience:

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate a basic ability to communicate regarding the application of design pattern development techniques to a technical audience.

Prerequisites:

SSE 556 Java Design I or permission of the program director.

Class Location:

• The Macon face-to-face meetings take place in the Engineering Building Room 216b. (Directions to the Macon campus, and a map of the Macon campus can be found at  http://www2.mercer.edu/Admissions/macon.html and  http://www2.mercer.edu/About_Mercer/MaconMap/default.htm [look for Building 34 on the map], respectively.)
• The Distance Learning asynchronous "meetings" take place in Cyberspace; i.e., on the Internet.

Grading:

More information about grading is contained in the General Project Rubric.

This course will also use an additional grading rubric.

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Assignments:

• Purpose of projects:
• Use the projects to develop your capabilities, and
• Use the projects to demonstrate your capabilities.
• Deliverables for all projects:
• Your report should be a single, standalone document in .html or .doc format.
• Your report should be organized in such a way as to make the topics that you want credit for covering easy to find, and demonstrate your capabilities clearly and convincingly. Everything you want considered for credit, including code and tests (including test results), should be included in the report.
• Each project can be a single, integrated project that tries to actually do something, or a collection of exercises that demonstrate your capabilities but don't accomplish anything else, or any combination of these two alternatives that you find convenient.
• You may include other material outside of the report, if you wish, but this material may or may not be considered in evaluating your work.
• For each capability that you demonstrate within a report or major section of that report, you may present only the final result of your work; you need not demonstrate every step in the development of that result.
• Some suggestions for doing a project are contained in the One Way to Do a Project page.
• Project 1 (solo) Demonstrate use of Design Patterns in design and code :
1. Demonstrate the four design patterns covered the assigned readings in "Head First Design Patterns".
2. If you include a pattern that is partially or wholly included in a programming language (such as Observer or Iterator in Java), then do and present your own implementation of that pattern (those patterns); don't just apply what someone else has already programmed (such as Java's event handling capabilities for Observer).
3. For each design pattern, explain in detail what your alternative design would be, and what problem with that design the use of this pattern solves (if it does).
4. Explain in detail what is good about your Design Pattern (DP)-based design, and what is problematic about your DP-based design.
5. Create implementations for your designs, and test them in such a way that you clearly demonstrate the success of your design.
6. Document your work in a report in .htm, .html, or .doc format.
7. Presume that you are writing your report to convince a hiring manager with whom you will otherwise have no contact that you are competent in the topics covered in this assignment. Assume that this manager is an experienced and intelligent software developer, but has not read our text. Presume that this manager is skeptical, and that your report will have to be clearly convincing in supporting your claim that you are competent (in the topics covered in this assignment). Clarity, completeness, and correctness count, as does your coverage of design patterns. You probably can't cover all of the DPs in the text, so make a judicious selection from among them.
8. As a check on how well you are doing with regard to convincing that hypothetical manager of your competence, try to reverse roles in your own mind. Imagine that you are the manager, and your success/raise/continued employment depend on you hiring someone who does this job well. How well does the report convince you that the person who wrote it really can "do patterns" well?
9. If you create new designs for an existing piece of code, include this code in your report.
10. If you create new designs for an existing piece of code, you may use any piece of code that you wish, subject to conformance to any legal requirements (e.g., don't release anyone's proprietary code), and the dictates of morality, ethics, and good taste.
11. Manage the scope; don't try to do something too big or two small.
• Project 2 (solo) Demonstrate use of Design Patterns in design and code :
1. Same a Project 1, except please cover design patterns that you did not cover in Project 1.
• Project 3 (team) Demonstrate use of Design Patterns in design and code :
1. Form teams of two persons; teams of other than two persons require my prior written approval.
2. Same a Project 2, except please cover design patterns that you did not cover in Projects 1 and/or 2.
• TBD

Additional Information:

• Asynchronous Learning Nets (ALNs)
• Self Study: You study the texts and any other course study material on your own.
• Collaborative Projects: After your self-study, you collaborate (via the Internet [email, ftp]) with your partner(s) to produce a team product. Your collaborative work is substantial, asynchronous, and rapid.
• This course is a distance learning course with 100% optional face-to-face class meetings Please read this Distance Learning web page regarding distance learning in this course and this program.

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• Subscribe to the course email listserv and be able to access our FTP server; your professor can tell you how to do this.
• Study the assigned material.
• Write and read email messages about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned study material.
• Do the assigned exercises.
• Write and read email messages (to/from the listserv) about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned homework.
• Review the exercises done by other people, as assigned by the professor.

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Changes to this Syllabus:

There will be changes to this syllabus, so check back frequently, and don't forget to hit "Reload" or "Refresh".

Schedule of Events and Assignments:

Notes:

tbd

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Schedule of Macon Face-to-face Class Meetings:

attendance is 100% optional.

All Macon face-to-face meetings are from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

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List of all courses.

Contact Information

• My Name: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil (Atlanta, Macon and DL Section)
• My E-mail: macneil_pe@mercer.edu .
• My Office Phone: 478 301-2185
• My FAX: 478 301-2732
• US Mail:
 
• Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
• School of Engineering
• Mercer University
• 1400 Coleman Ave.
• Macon, GA 31207

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Important Additional Information:
Students requiring accommodations for a disability should inform the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon as possible.  If you are not registered with Disability Services, the instructor will refer you to the Disability Support Services office for consultation regarding documentation of your disability and eligibility for accommodations under the ADA/504.  In order to receive accommodations, eligible students must provide each instructor with a “Faculty Accommodation Form” from Disability Services.  Students must return the completed and signed form to the Disability Services Coordinator on the 3rd floor of the Connell Student Center.  Students with a documented disability who do not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly encouraged to register with Disability Services and complete a Faculty Accommodation Form each semester.  For further information, please contact Carole Burrowbridge, Disability Services Coordinator, at 301-2778 or visit the web site at http://www.mercer.edu/stu_support/swd.htm

Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACS.