SE2: Software Design and Architecture - CS 446, CS 646, ECE 452

SE2: Software Design and Architecture is the second course of the three software engineering capstone project courses, offered jointly by the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Lectures are held Tuesday and Thursday from 1600 to 1720 in MC 2038. My office hours are by appointment at DC 2332. Official administrative entry.

Important dates and information will be posted here on this website. The official syllabus is also the contents on this website.

While the course does not have a required textbook, much of the materials will be sourced from the first two texts; additional books are supplementary.

• Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric Dashofy. Software Architecture. Foundations, Theory, and Practice. Available in the library or for purchase (e.g., through Amazon.ca). Slides for this book are available online.
• Ian Gorton. Essential Software Architecture. Available online or for purchase (e.g., through Amazon.ca). Slides for this book are available online.
• Fred P. Brooks Jr. The Mythical Man Month. Available in the library or for purchase (e.g., through Amazon.ca).
• Fred P. Brooks Jr. The Design of Design. Unfortunately not in the library but still available through Amazon.ca.

The best way to get help is via email. Please try not to leave your questions until the last minute. Prefix the subject line with CS446/ECE452/CS646 for a prompt reply.

• Instructor: Mei Nagappan - mei.nagappan@uwaterloo.ca (DC2332). Office hours by appointment
• TA: Aaron Sarson - asarson@uwaterloo.ca (DC3334).Office hours Th 1000 - 1100
• TA: Sahba Ezami - sezami@uwaterloo.ca (DC3334).Office hours Mo 1500 - 1600

You could also use Piazza to discuss with your fellow classmates. Please sign up here. The Piazza page for the class is here.

The course is broadly broken down into two components:

Architecture

The architecture component will comprise the first half of the course.

Date	Topics	Notes
Jan 3	Introduction
Jan 5	Architecture Overview
Jan 10	Architectural views & decomposition
Jan 12	Non-functional properties
Jan 17	Project Proposal Prep	Attendance Compulsory
Jan 19	Project Proposal Prep	Attendance Compulsory D2/D4 signup
Jan 24	Project Proposal Presentations	Opti Roast Duck Project Orange Hippothesis Awesome Possum APP CJ2 Use Your Imagination
Jan 26	Project Proposal Presentations	WXYZ Welm Jet Kennedy Best SW Arch... Group 5 Crash Test Dummies
Jan 31	Arch styles intro
Feb 2	Arch Styles (D2)	Client Server (Mei) Pipe & Filter (Opti) Layered (Roast Duck)
Feb 7	Arch Styles (D2)	Event Based (Project Orange) Peer to Peer (Hippothesis) Publish Subscribe (Awesome Possum)
Feb 9	Arch Styles (D2)	Mobile Code (APP) Interpreter (CJ2) Blackboard (Use Your Imagination)

Design

The design component will comprise the second half of the course.

Date	Topics	Notes
Feb 14	Midterm Review
Feb 16	Project time
Feb 21	Reading Week
Feb 23	Reading Week
Feb 28	Project Prototype Demo (D3)	Crash Test Dummies Group 5 Best SW Arch... Kennedy Jet Welm WXYZ
Mar 2	Project Prototype Demo (D3)	Use Your Imagination CJ2 APP Awesome Possum Hippothesis Project Orange Roast Duck Opti
Mar 7	Design Introduction	Proxy (Mei)
Mar 9	Design Patterns (D4)	State (WXYZ) Facade (Welm) Observer (Jet) Composite (Kennedy)
Mar 14	Design Patterns (D4)	Decorator (Best SW Arch...) Command (Group 5) Strategy (Crash Test Dummies) Visitor (Mei)
Mar 16	MVC/MVP, Cloud/REST
Mar 21	Quick Recap
Mar 23	Class cancelled for orals
Mar 28	Class Cancelled
Mar 30 (0400 PM - 0600 PM)	Final Demo
Apr 24 (0400 PM - 0630 PM)	Final Exam (Open book, open notes, and anything on paper)

The project forms an integral part of this course. The goal of the project is to produce a significant mobile app that performs some useful function. This software must have a considered and defensible design and architecture. One requirement for the implementation of the app is that it must work on at least two platforms (iOS and Android).

There are only three real restrictions on the app idea itself: no database management apps will be accepted (e.g., simple CRUD apps that do not make sense in a mobile context); apps that require crowd buy-in are not acceptable (e.g., apps that would require large numbers of people to contribute content to be viably useful); apps that require a complex server infrastructure are also not acceptable.

You must demo your app on a mobile device (iOS or Android). While the app can be HTML5-based, it must be deployable in a standard app container. The library has iOS and Android devices that can be signed out. After the prototype demo we will provide a 'pivot' to each group; this will consist of a new or modified requirement for your app that you will have to include for the final demo (and write about in the architecture and design deliverable).

The projects will be completed in teams of four. You are free to select your own team; if you do not have a team or your team has less than four members, please talk to me and I will set you up.

Project grades need not be the same for all team members. Each team member will get a score based on effort. Projects will have a difficulty scale applied to them by the instructor and TAs. The scale formula will be:

(project score for the team member + bonus) * scale = final project grade

Scale will range between 0.75 and 1.0. The components of the scaling mark will be determined by:

• 5: completeness (compared to proposal)
• 5: utility
• 5: polish
• 5: difficulty
• 5: pivot

There will also be various sources of bonus marks during the term; each will be worth 2%:

• Best pitch
• Best prototype demo
• Best final demo
• Accepted to curated App Store (i.e., iOS)

NOTE: The expectation is that you will work approximately 12 hours per week on this course; at least 5 of these hours should be on the project. Given that the course lasts 13 weeks, each team member is expected to work on the project at least 65 hours. You should be able to accomplish something pretty great in this time; please make the most of this opportunity.

2014 Project Videos

A selection of project videos from 2014 are included in this playlist to help you get an idea of the scope of projects suitable for the course.

All deliverables are due at Noon on the day of submission. No late submissions shall be graded.

Deliverable	Date	Format	Value
Project Groups	Jan 12	E-Mail me and TAs	Pass/Fail
Project Proposal Prep	Jan 17/19	Attendance in class	Pass/Fail
D1: Proposal Document	Jan 23	Email me and TAs	5%
D1: Proposal Presentations	Jan 24/26	In class	Pass/Fail
D2: Architecture Activity	Feb 2/7/9	In Class	10%
D3: Prototype Document	Feb 27	Email me and TAs	5%
D3: Prototype Demo	Feb 28/Mar 2	In class	Pass/Fail
D4: Design Activity	Mar 7/9/14/16	In Class	10%
D5: Arch + Design Document	Mar 20	Email me and TAs	10%
D5: Arch + Design Oral Exam	Mar 22/23/24	Oral exam location TBD	10%
D6: Final Documentation	Mar 27	Email me and TAs	5%
D6: Presentation + Video	Mar 28/30	In Class	5%
Final Exam	TBD	Location TBD	50%

You must pass the final exam and all pass/fail assignments to pass the course.

For graduate students only: in addition to the mobile project, you will perform an individual graduate project. The graduate project is worth 25% of your grade; your final exam grade will only account for 25% of your final grade instead of 50%.

Three types of graduate projects are possible:

1. Build a Software Tool:

   The goal of this style of project is to identify some problem developers encounter in practice, find some solution, and validate that the solution helps with the initial problem. I would recommend drawing upon your experience as you write code to identify some problem that has inhibited you in the past and fix it.

   The outcome of this project will be a short (5-6 page) paper describing the problem, your solution, a comparison to related approaches, and some form of validation.

2. Literature Survey:

   The goal of this kind of project is to gain a more complete understanding of a topic relevant to this course. The outcome of this project will be a critical summary of the state-of-the-art on your selected topic; this summary should be 8-10 pages. It is essential that this summary synthesizes the surveyed literature to identify important themes, findings, and open questions.

3. Use an Advanced Software Development Tool

   The goal of this project is to provide a validation of some previously-existing development tool from the research community. The tool you validate must be related to the course material. The outcome of this project will be a 6-8 page paper describing your experience with the tool outlining its strengths, weaknesses, and avenues for future improvement.

There are two deliverables for the graduate project:

1. Project proposal. Before you undertake your project you will need to submit a proposal for approval. The proposal should be short (1-2 pages in ACM format). The proposal should include a problem statement, the motivation for the project, a set of objectives you aim to accomplish, and a set of milestones. I will read these and provide comments. The proposal is not for marks but _must_ be completed in order to pass the course. This will be due on Jan 31 via email to me.
2. Written report. The required length of the written report varies from project to project; all reports must be formatted according to the ACM format and submitted as a PDF. This artifact will constitute 100% of the graduate project grade. This will be due on Apr 03 via email.

This is the high-level outline provided by the department; while this is general guideline the course will be adjusted according to your feedback, interests, and experience.

Introduction (1h)

Software Design Process Models (3h)

Arch/Design Representations (9h)

Design Plans/Arch (9h)

Design Strategies and Methods (6h)

Design Assessment (3h)

Design Verification (3h)

Academic Integrity

• In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [See the academic integrity site for more information.]

Grievance

• A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4.
• When in doubt please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline

• A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions.
• A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean.
• For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline.
• For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals

• A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) (other than a petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there is a ground.
• A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 (Student Appeals).