Annoucements

• Mon Dec 19, 2005: I will be available for office hours this afternoon, from 2:30pm in BA7260, for last minute exam prep questions.
• Mon Dec 5, 2005: Please note that this week there will be no lecture on Thursday 8th Dec, and no tutorial on Friday 9th. The deadline for the final assignment is extended until midday (actually 12:30pm EST) on Friday 9th. Please submit your report to Sotirios Liaskos in BA7231 between 12 and 12:30pm.
• Wed Nov 9, 2005: As several of you have asked, please note that the midterm will take place during the lecture slot tomorrow (Thursday 10th Nov) in the usual lecture room. The exam will start at 10:10am, and last for 50 minutes. It is a closed book exam, as in previous years. I've also added a link to the midterm from last fall (previously it was only available from the 2004 version of this page)
• Wed Nov 2, 2005: Please note there will be no tutorial on Friday. All teams should hand in their assignments by 9:20am on Friday morning, to Sotirios Liaskos in BA2179. The other TAs will not be available. Note - it is not necessary for all team members to be present to hand the assignment in.
• Mon Oct 17, 2005: Assignments 3 and 4 are now posted.
• Wed Oct 12, 2005: Please note, the lecture next Tuesday (Oct 18th) is cancelled.
• Tues 27 Sept, 2005: Important: If any of you are still not in a team of 3, please email me urgently.
• Thurs Sept 22, 2005: Lists of tutorial groups are available. We've moved some of you around to balance the groups - please check the list to find out which tutorial section to attend.
• Fri Sept 16, 2005: Assignments 1 and 2 are now available - see below.
• Fri Sept 9, 2005: This webpage has been updated for the fall term 2005. Last year's site can still be accessed.

About the Course

This course covers the theory, tools and techniques of problem analysis for software systems development, covering both information systems and control systems. Topics include: requirements specification, object-oriented analysis, business process modeling, and analysis of non-functional requirements.

General Course Handouts

• Course Information Sheet
• Notes on Teamworking (including a pointer to the team information sheet)
• The Frequently Asked Questions list
• Web pages for previous incarnations of this course may still be available:
  • Spring2003 taught by JM;
  • Spring 2005 taught by JC;
  • Fall 2002 and Fall 2004 taught by SE;

Lecture Notes & Weekly Readings

• Week 1:
  • 13/9/2005 - Lecture 01: Introduction
  • 15/9/2005 - Lecture 02: What are Requirements?
  • 16/9/2005 - Form teams in tutorial
  • Readings: "What is Requirements Engineering?" the draft chapter 1 and "What are Requirements?" the draft chapter 2 of Fundamentals of Requirements Engineering (FoRE)
• Week 2:
  • 20/9/2005 - Lecture 03: What is Engineering?
  • 22/9/2005 - Lecture 04: What is a System?
  • 23/9/2005 - Tutorial notes - Professional Ethics
  • Readings: "What is Engineering?" the draft chapter 3 and "What is a System?" the draft chapter 4of FoRE
• Week 3:
  • 27/9/2005 - Lecture 05: Requirements Specifications
  • 29/9/2005 - Lecture 06: Inspections
  • 30/9/2005 - Tutorial notes - Inspection forms
  • Readings: the Standard 830-1998 for Requirements Specifications
• Week 4:(Assignment 1 is due in the tutorial this week)
• 4/10/2005 - Lecture 07: Feasibility Studies
• 6/10/2005 - Lecture 08: Stakeholders, Goals, Scenarios and Boundaries
• 7/10/2005 - Tutorial notes - Scoping (and hand in assignment 1!)
• Readings: Notes on the PIECES framework.
  For more guidance on feasibility studies, take a look at Prof. Sauter's resources on estimation and feasibility.
  Axel van Lamsweerde's Tutorial on Goal Modelling () from the RE'01 conference;
  Alistair Sutcliffe's Tutorial on Scenarios () from the RE'03 conference;
• Week 5:
  • 11/10/2005 - Lecture 09: Elicitation Techniques
  • 13/10/2005 - Lecture 10: Risk replaced with: Lecture 11: Introduction to Requirements Modelling
  • 14/10/2005 -Tutorial notes - Return on Investment
  • Readings: Ann Hickey and Alan Davis' paper on Elicitation Technique Selection () from the RE'03 conference. Barry Boehm's "Software Risk Management: Principles and Practices" (), IEEE Software, January 1991.
• Week 6:
  • 18/10/2005 - no lecture
• 20/10/2005 - Lecture 12: Modelling Enterprises
• 21/10/2005 -Tutorial notes - Modelling Stakeholders' Goals and Business Processes
• Readings: Stephen White's paper on Business Process Modeling and Activity Models
• Week 7:
  • 25/10/2005 - Lecture 13: Modelling Objects
  • 27/10/2005 -Lecture 14: Modelling Relationships
  • 28/10/2005 - Tutorial notes - ER and Class diagrams
  • Readings: The chapter in your UML textbook on class diagrams.
• Week 8 (Assignment 2 is due in the tutorial this week)
  • 1/11/2005 - Lecture 15: Modelling State
• 3/11/2005 - Lecture 16 - Modelling Events
• 4/11/2005 - No tutorial. Hand in assignment and go back to bed.
• Readings: Harel and Gery's paper Executable Object Modelling with Statecharts (), IEEE Computer, July 1997. (David Harel was the inventor of the statechart notation).The entry on SCR in the Encylopedia of Software Engineering (Ed. John J. Marciniak, Jan 2002)
• Week 9: (Midterm test in the Thursday lecture this week)
  • 8/11/2005 - No lecture
  • 10/11/2005 - Lecture = midterm test!
  • 11/11/2005 - No tutorial
  • Readings: No new readings this week
• Week 10:
  • 15/11/2005 - Lecture 17 - Modelling Interactions
  • 17/11/2005 - Lecture 18 - Non-functional Requirements
  • 18/11/2005 - Tutorial notes - Use Cases and Sequence Diagrams
  • Readings: The chapters in your UML textbook on use cases and sequence diagrams.
• Week 11: (Assignment 3 is due in the tutorial this week)
  • 22/11/2005 - Lecture 19- Verification and Validation
  • 24/11/2005 - Lecture 20 - Prioritizing Requirements
  • 25/11/2005 - Tutorial notes - Prioritization using AHP
  • Readings: Karlsson and Ryan's paper A Cost-Value Approach for Prioritizing Requirements (), in IEEE Software, Sept-Oct 1997
• Week 12:
  • 29/11/2005 - Lecture 21 - Software Evolution
  • 1/12/2005 - Lecture 22 - Moving into Design
• 2/12/2005 - Tutorial: feedback from assignment 3
• Readings: Parnas's paper Software Aging (), in 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, 16-21 May 1994
• Week 13: (Assignment 4 is due this week)
  • 6/12/2005 - Lecture 23 - Software Architecture
  • 8/12/2005 - No lecture.
  • No tutorial, No new Readings

Other stuff:

• Humour

Assignments and Exams

• Assignment 1:
  • Description
  • Support materials about inspection
  • A set of specifications for you to choose from for your inspection
• Assignment 2:
  • Description
• Assignment 3:
  • Description
• Assignment 4:
• Description
• Midterm Exam :
  • Samples (with suggested answers): 2001 Spring, 2002 Spring, 2002 Fall, 2003 Spring, 2004 Spring, 2004 Fall
  • Note: In studying these samples, bear in mind that the course has changed a little this term - in particular, don't worry that there are modelling techniques on these exams that we haven't covered (yet) in the lectures. The midterm will only cover things we have met in lectures.
  • This term's midterm exam with model answers
• Final Exam:
  • Samples (with suggested answers): 2001 Spring, 2002 Spring, 2002 Fall, 2003 Spring, 2004 Spring, 2004 Fall
  • Same note applies to these as it does to the midterm samples above. Don't forget that previous instances of this course covered more design than we do now, so ignore exam questions asking to give detailed designs.
  • This term's Final exam with model answers

Contact Details

Professor:

TAs: