CS 520
Theory and Practice of Software Engineering
Fall 2023
Course introduction
September 5, 2023
The CS 520 team
Instructor
● Heather Conboy
● Lectures: Tu/Th 10-11:15 AM will be recorded
● Office hours: TBD and by appointment
● [email protected]
Course support
● Teaching Assistants: Mahbuba Tasmin, Dilara Tekinoglu,
Pratheba Selvaraju
● 4 graders
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Today
● What is Software Engineering and why is it
important
● Course expectations, topics, and logistics
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What is Software Engineering?
● Developing in an integrated
development environment?
● Coding and debugging?
● Deploying and running
a software system?
● Empirical evaluations?
● Modeling and designing?
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What is Software Engineering?
● Developing in an integrated
development environment?
● Coding and debugging?
● Deploying and running
a software system?
● Empirical evaluations?
● Modeling and designing?
All of the above -- much more than just writing code! 5
What is Software Engineering?
More than just writing code
The complete process of specifying, designing, developing,
analyzing, deploying, and maintaining a software system.
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What is Software Engineering?
More than just writing code
The complete process of specifying, designing, developing,
analyzing, deploying, and maintaining a software system.
● Common Software Engineering tasks include:
○ Requirements engineering
○ Specification writing and documentation
○ Software architecture and design
○ Programming
○ Verification & Validation (e.g., manual reviewing, testing, model checking)
○ Software debugging and repair
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What is Software Engineering?
More than just writing code
The complete process of specifying, designing, developing,
analyzing, deploying, and maintaining a software system.
● Common Software Engineering tasks include:
○ Requirements engineering
○ Specification writing and documentation
○ Software architecture and design
○ Programming Just one out of many important tasks!
○ Verification & Validation (e.g., manual reviewing, testing, model checking)
○ Software debugging and repair
8
What is Software Engineering?
More than just writing code
The complete process of specifying, designing, developing,
analyzing, deploying, and maintaining a software system.
● Common Software Engineering tasks include:
○ Requirements engineering
○ Specification writing and documentation
○ Software architecture and design
○ Programming
○ Validation & Verification (e.g., manual reviewing, testing, model checking)
○ Software debugging and repair
Why is Software Engineering important?
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Why is Software Engineering important?
Software is everywhere...
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Why is Software Engineering important?
Software is everywhere...and buggy!
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How complex is software (e.g., lines of code or LoC)
● Debian 5.0: 324 MSLoC
– Four times the height of the
CS building
– 5 words/LoC @ 50 wpm
32M min 61 years
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How complex is software?
● Measures of complexity:
○ lines of code (LoC)
○ number of classes
○ number of modules
○ module interconnections and dependencies
○ time to understand
○ # of authors
○ … many more
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Why is Software Engineering important?
Infrastructure is software, too!
Example: Design space exploration
1 0.34 0.81
2 0.52 0.32
Infrastructure
3 0.21 0.53
Parallel executions of all
possible configurations 4 0.81 0.22
... ... ...
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Why is Software Engineering important?
Infrastructure is software, too!
Example: Design space exploration
1 0.34 0.81
2 0.52 0.32
Infrastructure
3 0.21 0.53
Parallel executions of all
possible configurations 4 0.81 0.22
... ... ...
● 150 configurations, 1000+ benchmarks
● 1-85 hours per execution
● 200,000+ CPU hours (~23 CPU years)
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Summary: Software Engineering
What is Software Engineering?
The complete process of specifying, designing, developing,
analyzing, deploying, and maintaining a software system.
Why is it important?
● Software is everywhere and complex.
● Software defects are expensive and range from annoying
to life threatening.
Common tasks include:
○ Requirements engineering and documentation
○ Software architecture and design
○ Programming
○ Validation & Verification (e.g., manual reviewing, testing, model checking)
○ Software debugging and repair
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Your background and expectations
Introduction and a brief survey
● What is your background?
● What do you expect from this course?
● What are your learning goals (theory and practice)?
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Course overview: the big picture
● Software requirements, architecture, and design
○ Requirements engineering.
○ Software modeling and UML crash course.
○ Best practices and OO design principles.
○ Architecture and design patterns.
Goal: no more spaghetti code! 18
Course overview: the big picture
● Software requirements, architecture, and design
○ Requirements engineering.
○ Software modeling and UML crash course.
○ Best practices and OO design principles.
○ Architecture and design patterns.
● Software verification & validation (including manual
reviews, testing, model checking, theorem proving) as
well as debugging
o Learning about cutting-edge research.
o Hands-on experience, using V&V and debugging techniques.
● Final project
○ Development and evaluation of a research prototype, etc.
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Course overview: Rough timeline
September
● Software development processes
● Software requirements, architecture, and design
● Verification & Validation (e.g., manual reviews, testing)
● Final project: Topic selection
October/November
● High- and low-level design (e.g., principles, patterns, diagrams)
● Testing
● Debugging
● Final project: Mid-point report
November/December
● Automated program analysis (e.g., model checking)
● Reasoning about programs (e.g., theorem proving)
● Final project: Completion
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Our expectations
● Programming experience
● Familiarity with an OO programming language
(e.g., C++, Java, python, etc.)
● Learning to apply new SE tools
● Reading technical papers and online documentation
● Active participation in discussions and group work
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Gain experience applying SE tools and techniques
● Architecture and design patterns
● Specifications as UML diagrams (e.g., class diagrams)
● Program in an OO programming language (e.g., Java,
javac, java)
● Document source code (e.g., javadoc)
● xUnit testing framework (e.g., JUnit)
● Debugging techniques
● Version Control system (e.g., git)
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Exposure to cutting-edge research
We will have 1 or more guest lectures on research:
○ These will be held in class
○ Alternatively, these will be held out of class. Videos will be available.
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Assignments
● 4 homeworks [Individual or paired]
● 4 in-class exercises [Paired]
● Final project [Group]
● Participation questionnaires [Individual]
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Course overview: grading
● 35% Homeworks [Individual or Group]
● 30% In-class exercises [Group]
● 25% Final project [Group]
● 10% Participation [Individual]
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Logistics
● Will meet in person on Tuesday and Thursday,
10 – 11:15 AM and will also be recorded
● Lectures, in-class exercises, project fairs
● Course schedule and policies on web site:
https://people.cs.umass.edu/~hconboy/class/2023Fall/CS520/
● Course materials (e.g., slides, recorded lectures,
assignments) available through Moodle:
https://umass.moonami.com/course/view.php?id=36498
● Q&A forums for assignments via Piazza:
https://piazza.com/umass/fall2023/CS520/home
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