Overview
In this unit you will learn both theoretical and practical aspects of software engineering. The theory will focus on software processes, requirements engineering, system models and modelling, architectural design, object-oriented design, and software development methodology. The theoretical and practical aspects of software testing, and quality management including quality assurance, and quality control are also discussed. You will also be introduced to the principles of software evolution and configuration management. You will develop layered software application having presentation, application and data layers, addressing authentic software use, thus building solid foundation for software development.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisites: COIT20247 Database Design and Development, COIT20256 Data Structures and Algorithms, and COIT20248 Information Systems Analysis and Design. Anti-requisites: COIT20226 Software Design and Implementation.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit Coordinators' Reflection
While students are using Git in assessment 3, the learning curve is high especially for collaborative projects.
Introducing Git in the Assessment 2 of the unit will give students early hands-on experience, reducing the learning curve and enhancing their effectiveness in collaborative group work for the Assessment 3 of the unit.
Feedback from Reflection of Head of Course
Marking criteria for assessment 3 is very prescriptive, which may reduce students' desire to develop novel solutions for open-ended, complex problems.
Introduce rubrics for assessments that allow for different solutions amongst students and groups.
- Develop models of the proposed multi-tiered software application as per the requirements identified following formal requirements engineering procedures
- Design system architecture and components using design patterns and object-oriented design
- Develop three-tiered software applications using agile and plan-driven methods
- Plan and conduct test-driven development, validation and verification testing
- Assess software quality measures and maintenance requirements of software applications
- Work independently and collaboratively in small teams.
Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at
https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 7. The SFIA code is included:
- Requirements Definition and management (REQM)
- User experience analysis (UNAN)
- User experience design (HCEV)
- Software Design (SWDN)
- System Integration and Build (SINT)
- Programming/Software Development (PROG)
- Data modelling and design (DTAN)
- Database Design (DBDS)
- Testing (TEST)
- Quality assurance(QUAS)
- Quality management (QUMG).
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | ||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 35% | ||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 45% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | |||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 35% | |||||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 45% | |||||||||
Textbooks
Software Engineering
- Edition: 10 (2018)
- Authors: Ian Sommerville
- Pearson Education
- Edinburgh Gate Edinburgh Gate , Essex , England
- ISBN: 978129209613-1
- Binding: Paperback
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Zoom (both microphone and webcam capability)
- MySQL Community Server 8.0.26 (available from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/)
- JavaFX 11.0.12 (available from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/)
- Git version Control (available from https://git-scm.com/download/win)
- NetBeans 20 (available from: https://netbeans.apache.org/front/main/download/nb20/)
- Open JDK 21 (available from: https://jdk.java.net/21/)
- Scene Builder 21 (available from: https://gluonhq.com/products/scene-builder/)
- Jakarta EE 10 (available from https://jakarta.ee/release/10/)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
m.che@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 08 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Professional Software Development and Software Processes
Chapter
Chapters 1 and 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2
Begin Date: 15 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Agile Software Development and Requirements Engineering
Chapter
Chapters 3 and 4 (Sections 4.1 - 4.3).
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 22 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Requirements Engineering and System Modeling
Chapter
Chapters 4 (Sections 4..4 - 4.6) and 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4
Begin Date: 29 Jul 2024Module/Topic
Architectural Design and O-O Design
Chapter
Chapters 6 and 7 (section 7.1)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 5
Begin Date: 05 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Design, Implementation, and Programmatic Creation of Databases
Chapter
Chapter 7 and online materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 12 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 19 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Software Testing
Chapter
Chapter 8
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 26 Aug 2024Module/Topic
Quality Management
Chapter
Chapter 24
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 02 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Software Evolution
Chapter
Chapter 9
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 09 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Configuration Management
Chapter
Chapter 25
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10
Begin Date: 16 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Dependable Systems and Reliability Engineering
Chapter
Chapters 10 and 11
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11
Begin Date: 23 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Software Reuse and Component Based Software Engineering
Chapter
Chapters 15 and 16
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 30 Sep 2024Module/Topic
Service-Oriented Software Engineering
Chapter
Chapter 18
Events and Submissions/Topic
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 07 Oct 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 14 Oct 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical Assessment
You will demonstrate your ability to analyse a given case study, apply the principles of requirement engineering by eliciting functional and non-functional requirements and documenting system and user requirements specifications. You will also choose appropriate modelling techniques to model the system and design the system architecture. You will use the topics learnt in Weeks 1- 4 in this assignment.
For comprehensive details, refer to the Assignment 1 Specification document available on the Moodle Unit website.
Due Week 4 Thursday (28 March 2024) 11:59 pm AEST instead of Week 4 Friday (29 March 2024) due to 29 March 2024 through 1 April 2024 being public holidays.
- Analyse the given case study, identify system and user requirements
- Elicit functional and non-functional requirements following formal requirements engineering procedures
- Create a requirements specification document
- Apply modeling techniques to develop models of the system
- Develop models of the proposed multi-tiered software application as per the requirements identified following formal requirements engineering procedures
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
2 Practical Assessment
You are required to follow the already completed system model and requirement specification to implement, build, debug, and test a software application having a three-tiered architecture with a front-end graphical user interface (GUI), a middle layer implementing the business logic, and a back-end to persist the data. You will document the detailed design of the application. You will also be documenting a test plan to systematically test the developed application and a quality plan retrospectively prepared to demonstrate how you would have commenced the application development with a quality plan in place to deliver a system meeting the quality requirements. You will use the topics learnt in Weeks 1-7 in this assignment.
For comprehensive details, refer to the Assignment 2 Specification document available on the Moodle Unit website.
- Design a software application following the requirement specification developed in Assignment 1.
- Follow object-oriented design principles to design a three-tiered software application.
- Document software application design and test plans.
- Implement a software application, consisting of presentation, application and data layers.
- Develop a retrospective quality plan that would have been created to deliver the application meeting quality requirements.
- Conduct test-driven development, and validation testing.
- Design system architecture and components using design patterns and object-oriented design
- Develop three-tiered software applications using agile and plan-driven methods
- Plan and conduct test-driven development, validation and verification testing
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Project (applied)
This is a group assessment. In this assessment, you will work in a team of three to five members to develop a three-tiered software application. You will demonstrate your ability to analyse a given case study and develop requirement specifications and a quality plan to implement a three-tiered software application. You will document both system and user requirements, system architecture, and a detailed design of the system. Your software application will have a front-end graphical user interface(GUI), a business logic layer, and a data persistence layer. You will follow both agile and plan-driven development to implement the software application. You will use test-driven development to build the system, assembling program components developed by team members using a version control system.
Also, individual students of a group must submit a separate report (also known as Individual report ) critically evaluating the team's performance and their own performance in the team. The report also has to identify areas for improvement. For example, a group leader of a group G1 will submit a zip file containing group project source code files, combined group project report, and his/her Individual report. The remaining members in the group G1 will submit their respective Individual reports.
For comprehensive details, refer to the Assignment 3 Specification document available on the Moodle Unit website.
Results will be published on the grade certification date.
- Work as a small team collaborating in all aspects of software development.
- Analyse the given case study and identify system and user requirements.
- Document requirement specification containing functional and non-functional requirements.
- Develop a test plan and design documents.
- Create a quality plan to meet the software quality requirements.
- Implement a three tiered software application following agile and plan driven development.
- Use a version control system for system building integrating components developed by team members.
- Conduct tests and verification using software tools.
- Develop models of the proposed multi-tiered software application as per the requirements identified following formal requirements engineering procedures
- Design system architecture and components using design patterns and object-oriented design
- Develop three-tiered software applications using agile and plan-driven methods
- Plan and conduct test-driven development, validation and verification testing
- Assess software quality measures and maintenance requirements of software applications
- Work independently and collaboratively in small teams.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
