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Catalog Description

Course Objectives

Prerequisites

Class Location

Grading

Assignments

Additional Information

Schedule of Assignments and Events

Contact Information/Office Hours

Texts

• 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)

Software

• General software requirements are described on the Online Learning page.
• All students who meet the prerequisites for this course will already have software development experience, and will therefore already be familiar with some software development environment. Students are welcome to use the environment of their choice, but if they wish suggestions, they are welcome to contact the professor.

Other Resources

You will need a suitable computer. The University's Computer Recommendations are appropriate for this course for Windows and OS X. If you use the Linux operating system this course, the recommendations for Windows computers will also be suitable for Linux.

Please see the Online Learning page for more information regarding expected student student access to the internet, and corresponding software.

Please see the Mercer's Distance Learning page for more information regarding expected student student access to the internet, and corresponding software.

Course Description

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 January 6, 2020 at (12:00) 8:00 am Eastern time. All assignments are due by the end (11:59:00 pm) of the specified calendar day in the Eastern time zone. This course ends at 11:59:00 pm on April 28, 2020, in the Eastern time zone.

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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 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.

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Prerequisite(s)

SSE 550 Object-Oriented Design I

This prerequisite provides one graduate-level 3 semester hour course in C++ or Java or C#.

Please see the Online Learning page for more information regarding expected student abilities and aptitudes.

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Class Location

• This course is entirely online.
• Please see the Canvas page for information regarding access to Canvas, Mercer's online learning system. Please note that the Canvas contents for this course are in addition to this syllabus, and do not substitute for this syllabus.

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Grading

Item	Percent of Term Grade
Project 1	25
Project 2	25
Project 3	25
Project 4	25

Credit will be given only for original work.

The Office of the Provost's "Academic Integrity page includes a link to the Graduate Honor Code, which covers issues such as plagiarism. Please take a good, careful look at the Graduate Honor Code. Plagiarism is not acceptable in this, or any, course.

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

Instruction Time

All course work time 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.

Please begin logging your time as specified on these pages, starting wherever you are in the course when you receive this notice (via Canvas). These logs will not be deliverables for this course.

All deliverables are due on their assigned dates .

• Deliverables submitted no more than one day late may be graded, but with a 10 point penalty .
• Deliverables submitted more than one day (24 hours) late will receive a grade of zero.

Manage your time and keep on schedule. You should schedule your work evenly throughout the term.

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

If you have a question about any of this, please ask.

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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:
  • Projects shall be delivered via Canvas.
  • 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 Write (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, such as showing test execution and results, is appropriate. But code must not be presented in screenshots. Code must be presented as text which can be searched using the "find" or "search" capability of the app (e.g., Acrobat Reader) that will be used to read your report. 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, unless otherwise specified in the assignment.
  • 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.
  • Use IEEE standards to cite references How to Cite References: IEEE Documentation Style. Careful attention to this will help you to avoid plagiarism.
  • Some suggestions for doing a project are contained in the One Way to Do a Project page.
  • You may arrange the teamwork pretty much as you please. The team members may develop a single deliverable (code, report, etc.), or multiple deliverables, one per member. In this latter case, team members should perform substantive peer reviews of each others's work as that work progresses, to help their team mates to do better work. Persuasive evidence of these reviews must be included in the reports.
• Project 1(Solo)
• 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 are 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 team (on MS Teams) to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.
• Project 2 (Solo)
• Pick two new (to you) architectural or design 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 are 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 team (on MS Teams) to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.
• Project 3 (Solo)
• Pick two new (to you) architectural or design 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 are 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 team (on MS Teams) to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.
• Project 4 (Team)
• Pick two new (to you) architectural or design 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 are 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 team (on MS Teams) to report your intended project scope, and to help to manage that scope.
• Implementation Language(s)
• Java, C#, or C++
• Please raise questions and issues via Canvas the course MS Teams team.

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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 (communicating via whatever means the team members find acceptable) 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 MS Teams team Login in to the course on Canvas before the second day of class. You will receive an invitation to join this group.
• Study the assigned material.
• Write and read MS Teams Canvas messages about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned study material.
• Do the assigned work, deliver the assigned deliverables.
• Write and read MS Teams Canvas messages about ideas, problems, projects, and solutions to do with the assigned homework.
• Review the deliverables, which will be made available in the "Files" section of the course on Canvas, produced by other people.

Changes to this Syllabus:

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

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Schedule of Assignments and Events (tentative)

Start Date	End Date	Activity/Event
January 6, 2020	April 28, 2020	Course in Progress
	January 6, 2020	Login in to the course on Canvas.
January 6, 2020	February 3, 2020	Work on Project 1
	February 3, 2020	Project 1 due
	March 2, 2020	Project 2 due
March 16, 2020	March 20, 2020	Classes Suspended for Public Health
	March 23, 2020	Classes Resume, online, as before.
	March 30, 2020	Project 3 due
	April 28, 2020	Project 4 due Course ends

This Online Learning course begins on January 6, 2020 at (12:00) 8:00 am Eastern time. All assignments are due by the end (11:59:00 pm) of the specified calendar day in the Eastern time zone. This course ends at 11:59:00 pm on April 28, 2020, in the Eastern time zone.

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Contact Information

• My Name: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
• My E-mail: macneil_pe@mercer.edu .
• OfficeHours
• My Office Phone: 478 301-2185
• US Mail:
 
• Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
• School of Engineering
• Mercer University
• 1501 Mercer University Drive
• Macon, GA 31207

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Important Additional Information:

"Disability Statement for Syllabus"

"Students in need of accommodation due to a disability should contact the Access and Accommodation Office to complete the verification process to become approved for services. In order to receive accommodations, each term, students will request accommodation and faculty notification forms through the Access Office online system Accommodate. Students are strongly encouraged to schedule a meeting with each professor in a timely manner to discuss arrangements. Accommodations are not retroactive in nature. Note - Disability accommodations or status are not reflected on academic transcripts. Students with a history of a disability, perceived as having a disability or with a current disability who do not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly encouraged to complete the verification process with the Access Office. Students must request accommodations in a timely manner to receive accommodations in a timely manner."

"Mental Health and Wellness Statement for Syllabus"

"Mental Health and Wellness: Mercer University faculty and staff recognize that mental health concerns can impact academic performance and interfere with daily life activities. Please notify your faculty member or academic advisor for academic assistance, as needed. CAPS can also provide support if you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, lost or are struggling with personal issues. Please call or visit the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) website for more information. These services are free and confidential, and support non-traditional, graduate, and undergraduate students. S tudents at Regional Academic Center locations may call a CAPS Office for assistance in finding local services (that may charge for their services) if distance to either campus creates challenges. CAPS locations include: MACON – Linden House (attached to the MEP Residence Hall), 478-301-2862; ATLANTA – 215 Sheffield Student Center, 678-547-6060."

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Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACSCOC.