Objectives

As specific objectives, by the end of the course students should be able to:

• Understand the main issues and processes necessary to achieve effective software product development.
• Understand the benefits of object-oriented analysis and design, its concepts and processes.
• Be familiar with formal design tools for object orientated design and analysis.
• Recognise and understand some frequently used design patterns.
• Understand software development methodologies.
• Be aware of the principles and processes involved in user interface design.

Content

Software forms an important part of many modern engineering products, from telecommunications to automotive to internet-based systems. This course will provide an understanding of the technical and management processes involved in the design of software systems, including human-computer interaction. Software engineering concepts are considered at a range of scales, from the manipulation of object-orientated concepts, through architectural design components, to the building of large complex software systems. 

Software Engineering and Design

• Concepts behind software design: managing complexity of the software systems and 
minimizing risks.
• Object-orientated software design and analysis: 
encapsulation, abstraction, polymorphism and inheritance.
• Formal tools: introduction to UML.
• Design patterns: frequently occurring design techniques and their role in building 
systems.
• Software development methodologies: from waterfall to agile programming.
• Quality assurance and risk management: testing, automated testing, tools.
• Software management: project lifecycle, release management, organising 
software teams, software innovation.

Human-Computer Interaction

• Understanding people: perception, motor control, cognition, needs and motivations.
• User research: interviews, field research, survey research, unobtrusive research.
• Interaction: information and control, dialogue, artificial intelligence, tool use, practice.
• User interfaces: input devices, displays, interaction techniques, commands and navigation, graphical user interfaces, reality-based interaction.
• Design: design cognition, design processes, design practice.
• Engineering: engineering processes, systems, safety and risk, engineering methods.
• Evaluation: analytic methods, think-aloud studies, experiments.