The University of Western Ontario

London Ontario

Department of Computer Science

CS2212b -- Introduction to Software Engineering
Course Description -- Spring 2012

Course Description

The informal approaches that most individual programmers use when writing small programs do not work very well when applied to the development of large pieces of software and team programming situations. Software engineering is, according to the author of the text for this course, ''the process of solving customers' problems by the systematic development and evolution of large, high-quality software systems within cost, time and other constraints''.

In this course, we will examine the stages of the software engineering process, including requirements gathering, specification, design, implementation and testing. The principles of object-oriented design and analysis and user interface design will be stressed, and the concept of software design patterns will be introduced. UML (Unified Modeling Language), the standard tool for expressing designs in software engineering, will be introduced. All programming for this course will be done in Java.

Topics to be covered include:

Prerequisites: The former Computer Science 210 and 211 or the current Computer Science 2210 and 2211, or equivalent background as approved by the Computer Science Academic Counselors. Note: Unless you have either the prerequisite for this course or special written permission from the department or your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from the course, and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites. The term work for this course is predominantly group work, and students with inadequate backgrounds have the tendency to pull down other people's marks, not just their own.

Instructor: 
Name: Laura K. Reid
Office: MC Room 416
Office hours:Mondays 2:00pm-3:00pm and Wednedays from 2:00pm - 3:00pm, other hours available by email appointment
Phone: 661-2111 ext. 86905
Email address: lreid<at>csd.uwo.ca

Textbook, Lecture Notes:

Course Website: http://webct.uwo.ca

Class Schedule:

Student Evaluation:

Every effort will be made to have assignments marked and handed back within 2 weeks of the hand-in date, preferably sooner.

General Course Conduct:

Exam Schedule:

Quizzes:

Assignments:

Group Project:

Group Project Marking:

Participation:

Computing Facilities

Each student will be given an account on the Computer Science Department senior undergraduate computing facility, GAUL . In accepting the GAUL account, a student agrees to abide by the department's Rules of Ethical Conduct .

Note: After-hours access to certain Computer Science lab rooms is by student card. If a student card is lost, a replacement card will no longer open these lab rooms, and the student must bring the new card to a member of the Systems Group in Middlesex College Room 346.

Email Contact

We will occasionally need to send email messages to the whole class, or to students individually. Email will be sent to your GAUL email address. You must make sure that you read your email on GAUL on a frequent and regular basis, or have it forwarded to an alternative email address if you prefer to read it there.

However, you should note that email at ITS (your UWO account) and other email providers such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com may have quotas or limits on the amount of space they can use. If you let your email accumulate there, your mailbox may fill up and you may lose important email from your instructors. Losing email that you have forwarded to an alternative email address is not an excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.

Ethical Conduct

Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.

Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence.

For assignments which are individual, you may discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual details of the work (assignment coding, answers to concept questions, etc.) must be an individual effort.

The standard departmental penalty for assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty is, for the student's first offence, a mark of zero for the assignment, with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences and Rules of Ethical Conduct .

Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness

If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately.  It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed. In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For further information please see: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf

A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here: https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_document.pdf

Tutoring

The role of tutoring is to help students understand course material. Tutors should not write assignments or take-home tests for the students who hire them. Having employed the same tutor as another student is not a legitimate defense against an accusation of collusion, should two students hand in assignments judged similar beyond the possibility of coincidence

Classroom and Course Accessibility

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.