Syllabus for SSE 661

Software Architecture

Summer Semester 2014 (14U)

Be sure to check back for updates.

Instructor: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil

Office:       Suite 223a, School of Engineering

Phone:       478-301-2185

Email:        macneil_pe@mercer.edu

Textbooks and Supplies:

Texts (including web sites):

• Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 1: A System of Patterns (1st ed), by Buschmann, Meunier, Rohnert, Sommerlad, and Stal, Wiley ISBN 978-0471958697 (1996) (Required)
• Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 2: Patterns for Concurrent and Networked Objects (1st ed), by Schmidt, Stal, Rohnert, and Buschmann, Wiley ISBN 978-0471606956 (2000) (Required)

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Software (including web sites):

• A software development environment for your language of choice (C++, C#, Java) (Required, but your choice.)
• TBD - more information will be forthcoming
  
• 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):

Catalog Description (Course Purpose):

A course in software architectural design. All students will begin with a common core of software architectures and criteria for selecting them. Impact of software architectural choices on: availability, modifiability, performance, security, testability, and usability. Students will then explore architectures selected from among the many available.

This Online Learning course begins on May 19, 2014.

Course Objectives:

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

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate an advanced capability to apply software architecture design techniques to solve complex problems.

Communicate Technical Aspects ofcommunicate regarding the selection of appropriate software architectures to a Technical Audience:

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate a more advanced ability to communicate regarding the selection of appropriate software architectures to a technical audience.

Prerequisites:

SSE 550.

Class Location:

• The Online Learning asynchronous "meetings" take place in Cyberspace; i.e., on the Internet.

Grading:

Credit will be given only for original work.

The Mercer University Student Handbook, including its provisions for academic honesty (including plagiarism), apply to all Mercer students.

Project reports are to be submitted complete, not as incremental partial submissions.

All course work is categorized as either Direct or Non-Direct (but not both). More information about the Direct and Non-Direct categories is contained in the Direct and Non-Direct and Report Logs. Please read these pages very carefully.

Instruction Time

Federal and regional accreditation requirements stipulate that a 3-credit hour course must include 450 minutes of direct instruction time per week (for a five week Summer course). For this course, that direct instruction time includes"

• Collaborative discussions with other students regarding the content of readings assigned for the course.
• Collaborative discussions with other students regarding the content that goes beyond readings assigned for the course, but is not part of work on the projects assigned on the syllabus.
• Collaborative development of generic technology that may be useful for your project(s), but is not, in its generic form, part of your project.

In addition to the 450 minutes of direct instruction time each week, students are expected to spend a minimum of 900 additional minutes per week (for a five week Summer course) completing reading and writing assignments:

• Doing the assigned reading.
• Working on the projects assigned on the syllabus.

More information about the Direct and Non-Direct categories is contained in the Direct and Non-Direct and Report Logs. Please read these pages very carefully.

Use the Report Logs to help you to manage your time and keep on schedule. You should schedule your work evenly throughout the term. If you fall behind schedule for your Direct Activities, and you "catch up" by your last Direct Activity Report, your previous Direct Activity Report grades can be raised to reflect your success in meeting this requirement, provided that your previous Direct Activity Reports were submitted in a timely manner. Direct Activity Reports not submitted in a timely manner will receive a grade of 0 (zero) unless the professor has approved an extension in advance.

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

• Purpose of projects:
• Use the projects to develop your capabilities, and
• Use the projects to demonstrate your capabilities.
• Deliverables for all projects:

  All course work is categorized as either Direct or Non-Direct (but not both). Read Direct and Non-Direct and Report Logs before continuing. Please read these pages very carefully.

  • All Direct Activity Reports include a Direct Activity Log, and may include additional supporting material at your discretion.

  • All Project Reports include a Non-Direct Activity Log, in addition to your work on the project.

  • Projects shall be delivered via the course FTP site.
  • Project reports should each be a single, standalone .pdf document, with the Bookmark feature used to support easy document navigation. Note that both MS Word and LibreOffice (which is free open-source software) support bookmarks, and will carry the bookmarks over into the pdf document when they convert your .docx, .odf, or whatever file type to PDF.
  • Project reports should focus on the development and/or maintenance that you actually do. Reports should not focus on summarizing or explaining the text or other materials.
  • Inclusion of screenshots demonstrating your work, and code you actually wrote for the project, are appropriate. Long code listings can be placed in appendices if doing so does not interfere with you presenting your work on that code in the body of the text.
  • 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 (on the FTP site), 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.

• Familiarize yourself (at a high level of abstraction) with the contents of Volumes 1 (Buschmann et al.) and 2 (Schmidt et al.) . Become familiar with what is similar between the two volumes, and what is different.
• Pick an architectural pattern from chapter 2 of Buschmann et al., and develop (program, test, and demonstrate) an implementation of that pattern.
  • Implementation of some patterns make take some ingenuity. For example, the Microkernel architectural pattern is frequently used in designing operating systems. However, design and implementation of an operating system is well beyond the scope of this course. However, you can build something that is less than an operating system but is none-the-less based on your chosen design pattern(s).
  • Use the course listserv to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.

• Pick two new (to you) architectural patterns from Volume 1 and/or Volume 2, and develop (program, test, and demonstrate) an implementation of each pattern.
  • Implementation of some patterns make take some ingenuity. For example, the Microkernel architectural pattern is frequently used in designing operating systems. However, design and implementation of an operating system is well beyond the scope of this course. However, you can build something that is less than an operating system but is none-the-less based on your chosen design pattern(s).
  • Use the course listserv to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.

• Pick two new (to you) architectural patterns from Volume 1 and/or Volume 2, and develop (program, test, and demonstrate) an implementation of each pattern.
  • Implementation of some patterns make take some ingenuity. For example, the Microkernel architectural pattern is frequently used in designing operating systems. However, design and implementation of an operating system is well beyond the scope of this course. However, you can build something that is less than an operating system but is none-the-less based on your chosen design pattern(s).
  • Use the course listserv to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.

• Pick two new (to you) architectural patterns from Volume 1 and/or Volume 2, and develop (program, test, and demonstrate) an implementation of each pattern.
  • Implementation of some patterns make take some ingenuity. For example, the Microkernel architectural pattern is frequently used in designing operating systems. However, design and implementation of an operating system is well beyond the scope of this course. However, you can build something that is less than an operating system but is none-the-less based on your chosen design pattern(s).
  • Use the course listserv to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.

• Java, C#, or C++

Additional Information:

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

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• What Do I Do?

• Subscribe to the course email listserv. 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 work, deliver the assigned deliverables.
• Write and read email messages (to/from the listserv) about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned homework.
• Review the deliverables produced by other people.

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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:

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Contact Information

• My Name: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
• My E-mail: macneil_pe@mercer.edu .
• My Office Phone: 478 301-2185
• 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 or modifications for a disability should inform the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon as possible. The instructor will refer you to the ACCESS and Accommodation Office to document your disability, determine eligibility for accommodations under the ADAAA/Section 504 and to request a Faculty Accommodation Form. Disability accommodations or status will not be indicated on academic transcripts. In order to receive accommodations in a class, students with sensory, learning, psychological, physical or medical disabilities must provide their instructor with a Faculty Accommodation Form to sign. Students must return the signed form to the ACCESS Coordinator. A new form must be requested each semester. Students with a history of a disability perceived as having a disability or with a current disability who does not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly encouraged to register with the ACCESS and Accommodation Office and request a Faculty Accommodation Form each semester. For further information, please contact Carole Burrowbridge, Director and ADA/504 Coordinator, at 301-2778 or visit the ACCESS and Accommodation Office website at http://www.mercer.edu/disabilityservices.

Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACSCOC.