CS5031 Software Engineering Practice

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

15

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable

To be arranged.

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module Staff

TBC Module coordinator(s): Director of Postgraduate Teaching - Computer Science (dopgt-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk)

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module introduces advanced software engineering methods supporting the development of complex, composite software systems with an emphasis on software configuration management, reuse and test-driven development practices. It examines software reuse at different levels of scale, from software libraries and components to service-oriented architectures and discusses how reuse presents both challenges and opportunities for the development of quality software. A key process in today's software engineering practice is testing; the module introduces testing methods that complement the different scales of reuse-oriented development, from unit-level testing to integration testing and system-level testing. Students work on a project to design, implement and test a complex, distributed application to put the content of the lectures into practice. Reference is made to the content of the co-requisite Software Engineering Principles module where appropriate, so that students learn how the practices studied fit into a larger software engineering lifecycle.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

UNDERGRADUATE - BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS CS2002 AND (PASS CS2001 OR PASS CS2101). POSTGRADUATE: YOU MUST ALSO TAKE CS5001 AND CS5030

Anti-requisites

YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS MODULE IF YOU TAKE CS3099

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework Assignment = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2.5 hr x 11 weeks lectures/seminar/tutorial/practical class.

Scheduled learning hours

28

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

122

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.