CMPU-235: Software Development Methodology

Fall, 1998

Instructor

Contents Announcements/Messages Readings Student Groups Background Course Schedule and Projects Grading Policy

Messages:

1/5: The final project has been extended to Friday, January 22. Click here for more details.
12/7: There is a quick reference guide to the list container here.
11/3: Note: HW #5 is graded. You can pick it up from me.
10/11: The first project is ready. See below.
10/10: The groups have been assigned. Meet your group members before break and email me your team name.
10/5: I made a mistake in class - there is an example of the proper syntax for overloading the << operator in a template class in the homework 4 description.
10/2: If you can't get the ++ operator to work alone, i.e. "i++" doesn't change variable i, then i=i++ will be acceptable.
10/1: Examples from the book using the map container are available. There is a simple one and a slightly more complex one.
9/30: Homework 4 has been assigned.
9/22: Homework 3 has been assigned.
9/13: Homework 2 has been assigned.
9/10: Note a change in submission procedure for HW1. See the assignment page.
9/10: There is an example of passing two dimensional arrays on page 839 of the C++ book.
9/10: Grading criteria for Homework 1 will be available by 5PM today. Check the assignment page. There is a working example of an overloaded print (<<) operator here.
9/9: The C++ book Chapter 11 is devoted to operator overloading if you need help.
9/9: Note: Change to Homework 1 - irregular grids not required. See project description for more.
9/7: Note that the schedule below has been modified. Please attempt to do the readings.
9/3: Homework 1 is ready.

Schedule:

Week	Topic		Chapters	Assignment
8/31	Overview, Review			Homework #1
9/7	Modeling Tools	Containers	C++ 3.7	Homework #2
9/14		Namespaces, Templates, Iterators	C++ 3.8, 8.1, 8.2, 13	Homework #2
9/21		C++ Standard Library	C++ 16-18	Homework #3
9/28		C++ Standard Library	C++ 19-22	Homework #4
10/5	Object-Oriented Modeling	Introduction	UML 1-3	Homework #5
10/12		Objects and Classes	UML 4,5	Project #1
10/19		Fall Break
10/26		Objects and Classes	UML 13
11/2		Committments and Static Behavior	UML 5,6,14	Project #2
11/9		Dynamic Behavior	UML 7	Project #2
11/16		Relationships	UML 15,16	Project #3
11/23		No Class (thursday classes held on 11/24) Thanksgiving Break		Project #3
11/30		Relationships	UML 17	Project #4
12/7	Last Class		UML 11	Project #4

Books: The C++ Programming Language, 3rd ed. Bjarne Stroustrup. Addison Wesley, 1997. [C++] You can order this book from Amazom.com by clicking UML and C++. Richard C. Lee and William M. Tepfenhart. Prentice Hall, 1997. [UML]

Groups:

For the second half of the semester, all the projects will be in groups. You will be working through the steps, from start to finish, of developing a complete software system. The groups were determined by me, using a chaotic process that approaches randomness. The names of each group are followed by the Unix group name in parenthesis.

Lucid (lucid):: Alex, Andrew, Jessica
Silver Bullets (bullets):: Daniel, David, Praju
Delta Group (delta):: Derek, Gabriel, Jasper
ORC - Omega Red Corp. (orc):: Nikhil, Session
SDM - Slingshot Dragster Masterworks (sdm):: Michael, Robina, Steve

Background:

This course will concentrate on modeling application domains for software development using object-oriented (OO) technology. One of the biggest problems with OO languages today is that there is not a widespread methodology in use, leaving programmers and designers on their own to interpret how these languages should be used. Without sufficient background in the conceptual reasons that various OO facilities exist, programmers typically use them incorrectly as programming tricks or hacks. We will address this problem directly by studying the techniques and principles of Object Oriented Design, and its most fundamental purpose: to model an application domain.

While the course will involve much programming in C++, the purpose of this course will not be to teach C++, but the more general facilities and uses of object oriented languages for design, such as: encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, information sharing/hiding, and the object centered approach to software development. In addition, we will discuss programming in the large (without actually doing it), in hopes of at least seeing the problems this implies.

Another important experience this course will provide is working in groups. The main assignment will be a group assignment, requiring work in groups of no less than three.

One aspect of this course we have striven to emphasize is the importance of modeling a domain such that an understanding of it can be facilitated. There is a saying which can effectively sum up the importance of domain knowledge in software development and maintenance: Writing code isn't the problem, understanding the problem is the problem. The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) has been conducting field studies of large scale software projects in industry. Bill Curtis and Neil Iscoe conducted several of these studies, and they recognized the thin spread of application domain knowledge as the most critical problem common to all the projects they studied:

The deep application-specific knowledge required to successfully build most large, complex systems was thinly spread through many software development staffs. Although individual staff members understood different components of the application, the deep integration of various knowledge domains required to integrate the design of a large, complex system was a scarcer attribute. This problem was especially characteristic of projects where the software was embedded in a larger system (e.g. avionics or telephony), or where the software implemented a specific application function (e.g. transaction processing). These systems contrast with applications currently taught in computer science departments, like single processor operating systems and compilers. Although most software developers were knowledgeable in the computational structures and techniques of computer science, many began their careers as novices in the application domains that constituted their company's business. As a result, software development required a substantial time commitment to learning the application domain.
From: Curtis, B., Iscoe, N. and Krasner, H. A Field Study of the Software Design Process for Large Systems. Communications of the ACM. 31(11). Pp. 1268-1287. Nov, 1988.

Grading:

30%:	Homeworks
40%:	Projects
30%:	Final Group Project