Course Title:
Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (Science)
Proposer:
Rationale
Why is the new course being
proposed? What
are the academic objectives? Which programs/stage(s) does it serve?
What
proportion of students do you expect to come from which program? (It is
legitimate not to have a full answer to that, but if you do have one,
we'd like
to know). Why can the same objectives not be achieved with existing
courses?
How does the proposed course relate to other courses? What overlap is
there? If
there is any overlap, why is this justified/not a problem?
NICTA Empirical Software Engineering conducts internationally
leading research into Software
Engineering which could be packaged into a course for graduate
students. The
course will be designed for students who are Software Engineering
practitioners
who see a need to improve their development techniques or move up into
management.
Existing courses do not cover the material involved at the depth
offered and do not provide
students
access to the research outcomes from NICTA Empirical Software
Engineering.
This is intended for students with a focus on software engineering, as opposed to computer engineering or computer science generally. It will provide details on specialist areas of research in management and processes and will assume a thorough background in software. Students will be in their fourth level of a Masters Course in CSE (Group D course).
The course will be focused on providing an advanced and in depth
treatment of specialist topics in selected areas of Software
Engineering (Science).
Stakeholders and Consultation
Who are the potential
stakeholders, who was
consulted about the proposal (inside the School as well as outside),
what was
the result of that consultation?
NICTA Empirical Software Engineering staff, CSE Software
Engineering Teaching Cluster.
Enrolment Impacts
Likely enrolment (with justification), and impact on enrolments of
other
courses.
Likely enrolments are people enrolled level 4 in MEngSc/MCompSc/MInfSc
who are focusing on
Software
Engineering as their main career, rather than one option of Computer
Engineering. It is designed to access the growing area of the Software
Engineering community who are concerned with improving their software
development process or in promotion to management positions.
We are looking at enrolling 30-45 students
Justification of Prerequisites (or lack thereof)
Industrial Experience in IT or COMP9008
The topics will be focused on advanced aspects of selected areas of
Software Engineering (Science) and will only be relevant to those with
experience in Software Engineering practices.
Any Courses this is Replacing, and Why?
NA
Delivery and Assessment
Anything noteworthy about delivery mode, assessment (with
justification).
3 Hour lecture/week
The first hour will probably
become mostly
post mortem on the previous weeks exercises, or this can be done in
tutorial.
Alternatively the second hour could be more practical case study
approach to
the topic.
There will be lectures and laboratory or tutorials held each
week. The course assessment may be based around a single project in
which they will look at specific aspects, or it may be around separate
projects for different focuses of the course. The projects will be
group projects if appropriate, or individual projects.
The course focuses on topical aspects of Software Engineering
(Science) in
practice.
Topics will provide an in depth treatment of specialist topics in areas
selected from the following: Software Engineering
Lifecycle
Models, Software Engineering Project Management, Risk management,
Estimation
and Scheduling, Software Requirements Management, Software
Configuration
Management, Release Management, Product Line Development and Reuse,
plus other
topics as deemed topical by the course development group. The web page
each session will provide more detailed information of the course to be
run that session.
Textbooks/References
Textbooks will be listed on the web site as relevant to the specific
focus of the course each session.
Syllabus
Indicative syllabus / overview of contents (at a level of detail
well beyond
that of the handbook entry)
The course will combine lectures from various researchers in Empirical Software Engineering who will present focused and innovative approaches to the current topics included in the syllabus. These topics will change as their relevancy to research changes. The course will be linked by one or more projects given to the students and each lecture will focus on various aspects of these projects. The project concept will be reused throughout the syllabus to provide practical experience and learning. The assessment submissions also will be based around the project material to provide a varied but unified approach to the field of study.
Effect on School Resources:
Who is proposed
to teach the
proposed new course, and what impact would this have on their
planned/current
allocation?
Various staff from NICTA Empirical Software Engineering.
What sort of
tutorial
component is proposed, if any?
1-2 hour tutorial/laboratory each week
What
is the likely impact on lab
utilisation (this relates to assignment and project work as well as
scheduled
labs?
Possibly labs on specific tools that are topical - ClearCase, CM
Synergy, MSProject. The students will use these in
their own time for their projects up to 3 hours per week.
Any other
resource needs?
E.g. special print/disk quota, access to servers, access to special
machines,
special labs.
Normal Masters course requirements