Syllabus for SSE 658

Design Problems and Solutions

Spring Semester 2010 (10S)

Instructor: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil

Office:       Suite 223a, School of Engineering

Phone:       478-301-2185

                  478-301-2732

Email:   &nbsin2smithereens@hotmail.comp;    macneil_pe@mercer.edu

Textbooks and Supplies:

Texts (including web sites):

(Read the note after the list of texts before you buy!)

• Software Engineering (8th ed.) by Ian Sommerville, Addison Wesley (2006) ISBN 978-0321313799 (Required). Check this text out at Amazon.com
• Head First Design Patterns (1 st ed.), by Freeman and Freeman, O'Reilly, ISBN 0-596-00712-4 (2004) (required) Check Out This Text at Amazon.com

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Software (including web sites):

• Note that this course is intended to be OS neutral.
• TBD - more information will be available later.
• An Internet ftp client of your choice.  Core FTP LE is free and works well http://www.coreftp.com/ .  (Required, but your choice)

Other Useful Resources (including web sites):

• TBD

Catalog Description (Course Purpose):

Advanced topics in object oriented design (OOD), emphasizingpossible the reuse of successful designs via design patterns.

The text is written in Java. Your implementation language may be Java, C#, or (object-oriented) C++.

Please note that this course is conducted *asynchronously* with regard to the face-to-face class meeting schedule. That is, the course begins on January 12, 2010, for *all* students.

Course Objectives:

Breadth and Depth in Defining, Analyzing, and Solving Complex Problems:

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate a basic capability to apply design patterns development techniques to solve complex problems.

Communicate Technical Aspects of the Solution for Complex Software Engineering Problems to a Technical Audience:

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to demonstrate a basic ability to communicate regarding the application of design pattern development techniques to a technical audience.

Prerequisites:

SSE 550 Object-Oriented Design I or permission of the program director.

Class Location:

• The (limited) Macon face-to-face meetings take place in the Engineering Building Room 216b. (Directions to the Macon campus, and a map of the Macon campus can be found at  http://www2.mercer.edu/Admissions/macon.html and  http://www2.mercer.edu/About_Mercer/MaconMap/default.htm [look for Building 34 on the map], respectively.)
• The online Learning asynchronous "meetings" take place in Cyberspace; i.e., on the Internet.

Grading:

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

This course will also use an additional grading rubric.

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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:

• 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.

• You may include other material outside of the report (see Project Delivery, below), 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.

• Some suggestions for doing a project are contained in the One Way to Do a Project page.

• Project Delivery

• Projects 1 and 2 will be delivered entirely via the FTP site (which will be announced when it is ready).

• The Project 3 report will be delivered via the course wiki, so use Project 1 to learn how to use the wiki.

• Project 1 (solo) Demonstrate use of Design Patterns in design and code :
• Part 1 Design Patterns
1. Demonstrate four design patterns covered the Introduction through Chapter 7 in "Head First Design Patterns".
2. If you include a pattern that is partially or wholly included in a programming language (such as Observer or Iterator in Java), then do and present your own implementation of that pattern (those patterns); don't just apply what someone else has already programmed (such as Java's event handling capabilities for Observer).
3. For each design pattern, explain in detail what your alternative design would be, and what problem with that design the use of this pattern solves (if it does).
4. Explain in detail what is good about your Design Pattern (DP)-based design, and what is problematic about your DP-based design.
5. Create implementations for your designs, and test them in such a way that you clearly demonstrate the success of your design.
6. Document your work in a report in .htm, .html, or .doc format.
7. Presume that you are writing your report to convince a hiring manager with whom you will otherwise have no contact that you are competent in the topics covered in this assignment. Assume that this manager is an experienced and intelligent software developer, but has not read our text. Presume that this manager is skeptical, and that your report will have to be clearly convincing in supporting your claim that you are competent (in the topics covered in this assignment). Clarity, completeness, and correctness count, as does your coverage of design patterns. You probably can't cover all of the DPs in the text, so make a judicious selection from among them.
8. As a check on how well you are doing with regard to convincing that hypothetical manager of your competence, try to reverse roles in your own mind. Imagine that you are the manager, and your success/raise/continued employment depend on you hiring someone who does this job well. How well does the report convince you that the person who wrote it really can "do patterns" well?
9. If you create new designs for an existing piece of code, include this code in your report.
10. If you create new designs for an existing piece of code, you may use any piece of code that you wish, subject to conformance to any legal requirements (e.g., don't release anyone's proprietary code), and the dictates of morality, ethics, and good taste.
11. Manage the scope; don't try to do something too big or two small.

• Part 2 Web 2.0/Wiki

  • Learn to edit pages for our wiki, so that you will be able to collaborate on and deliver your Project 3 report at the appropriate time. See the wiki page.

  • Document your learning and accomplishments with wiki development in screen shots, and include this documentation in your Project 1 report.

  • Retain this documentation at least until you graduate, in case you need it for a later course.

• Project 1 is not complete, and Part 1 will be not be graded, until Part 2 is acceptable.

• Project 2 (solo):

• Read in Sommerville Part 3 and Chapter 31.

• Write a report that demonstrates your good understanding of each chapter and chapter section (e.g., 26.3) in the assigned reading. No code is required for this project.

• Your report will be evaluated based on breadth, depth (completeness), and quality. You need not cover every topic to the maximum level of completeness, but you should demonstrate completeness in at least some topics. However, don't leave any topics (i.e., chapter sections) uncovered.

• Including explanations of how you could or would apply the topics of to a real or potentially real project helps in developing and demonstrating your understanding.

• Project 3 (team)

• Demonstrate four design patterns covered the Chapters 8 through 13 in "Head First Design Patterns".

Form teams of two persons; teams of other than two persons require my prior written approval.

• Same coverage of design patterns as Project 1, except please cover design patterns that you did not cover previously.

• TBD

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 (via the Internet [wiki,email, ftp]) with your partner(s) to produce a team product. Your collaborative work is substantial, asynchronous, and rapid.

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• Subscribe to the course email listserv and be able to access our wiki and FTP server (after it has been announced).

• Study the assigned material.

• Write and read email messages (to the listserv) about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned study material.

• Do the assigned projects/exercises.

• Write and read email messages (to/from the listserv) about ideas, problems and solutions to do with the assigned homework.

• Review the reports done by other people; give them credit in your future reports if you adopt something good from their (earlier) report.

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Changes to this Syllabus:

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

Schedule of Events and Assignments:

Notes:

tbd

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Schedule of Macon Face-to-face Class Meetings:

attendance is 100% optional.

All Macon face-to-face meetings are from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

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List of all courses.

Contact Information

• My Name: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil (Atlanta, Macon and DL Section)
• My E-mail: macneil_pe@mercer.edu .
• My Office Phone: 478 301-2185
• My FAX: 478 301-2732
• US Mail:
 
• Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
• School of Engineering
• Mercer University
• 1400 Coleman Ave.
• Macon, GA 31207

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Important Additional Information:
Students requiring accommodations for a disability should inform the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon as possible.  If you are not registered with Disability Services, the instructor will refer you to the Disability Support Services office for consultation regarding documentation of your disability and eligibility for accommodations under the ADA/504.  In order to receive accommodations, eligible students must provide each instructor with a “Faculty Accommodation Form” from Disability Services.  Students must return the completed and signed form to the Disability Services Coordinator on the 3rd floor of the Connell Student Center.  Students with a documented disability who do not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly encouraged to register with Disability Services and complete a Faculty Accommodation Form each semester.  For further information, please contact Carole Burrowbridge, Disability Services Coordinator, at 301-2778 or visit the web site at http://www.mercer.edu/stu_support/swd.htm

Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACS.