COMP SCI 4100 - Software Architecture
North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2021
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General Course Information
Course Details
Course Code COMP SCI 4100 Course Software Architecture Coordinating Unit Computer Science Term Semester 2 Level Undergraduate Location/s North Terrace Campus Units 3 Contact Up to 2 hours per week Available for Study Abroad and Exchange N Prerequisites COMP SCI 2201 Incompatible COMP SCI 4000 Assessment Written exam and/or assignments Course Staff
Course Coordinator: Professor Ali Babar
Course Timetable
The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.
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Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
1. Argue the importance and role of software architecture in large-scale software systems.
2. Design and motivate software architecture for large-scale software systems.
3. Recognise major software architectural styles, design patterns, and frameworks.
4. Describe a software architecture using various documentation approaches and architectural description languages.
5. Generate architectural alternatives for a problem and selection among them.
6. Use well-understood paradigms for designing new systems.
7. Identify and assess the quality attributes of a system at the architectural level.
8. Motivate the architectural concerns for designing and evaluating a system's architecture.
9. Discuss and evaluate the current trends and technologies such as model-driven and service-oriented architectures.
10. Evaluate the coming attractions in software architecture research and practice.University Graduate Attributes
No information currently available.
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Learning Resources
Required Resources
The students will be expected to work with the course curriculum based on the following book:
Gorton, I., Essential Software Architecture, 2nd edition (2011), Springer.
Vogel, O., Arnold, I., Chughtai, A., Kehrer, T., Software Architecture: A Comprehensive Framework and Guide for Practitioners, 3rd edition (2011), Springer.
Research articles included in the course syllabus (Assessable material) for critically reviews and presentations
1. Chen, L., Babar, M.A. and Nuseibeh B., Characterizing architecturally significant requirements. IEEE Software 30(2): 38-45, 2012.
2. Tang, A., Han, J., and Vasa, R. Software architecture design reasoning: a case for improved methodology support, IEEE Software 26(2): 43-49, 2009.
3. M. Stal, Using Architectural Patterns and Blueprints for Service-Oriented Architecture, IEEE Software 23(2): 54-61, 2006.
4. Tran, N. K. and Ali Babar, M., Anatomy, concept, and design space of blockchain networks, the International Conference of Software Architecture (ICSA), 2020.
5. Ryoo, J., Kazman, R. and Anand, P., Architectural analysis for security. IEEE Security & Privacy, 13(6): 52-59, 2015
6. Dhillon, D., Developer-driven threat modeling: Lessons learned in the trenches. IEEE Security & Privacy 9(4): 41-47, 2011.
7. Islam, C., Ali Babar, M., Nepal, S., Architecture-Centric Support for Integrating Security Tool in a Security Orchestration Platform, the European Conference on Software Architecture (ECSA), 2020.Recommended Resources
Some material for the course will also be drawn from other complementary books such as the followings; if relevant material used from these books, you would be given photocopies of the material. You are NOT required to buy any of these books for this course:
· Bass, L., Clements, P. and Kazman, R., Software Architecture in Practice, 2013, Addison-Wesley.
· Taylor, R., Medvidovic, N., Dashofy, E., Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice, 2010, Wiley.
· Clements, P., Bachmann, F., Bass, L., Garlan, D., Ivers, j., Little, R., Nord, R. and Stafford, J., Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond, 2002, Addison-Wesley.
· Clements, P., Kazman, R. and Klein, M., Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case
Studies, 2002, Addison-Wesley.
· Buschmann, F., Meunier, R., Rohnert, H., Sommerlad, P., Stal, M., Pattern-Oriented Software
Architecture: A System of Patterns, 1996, Wiley.Online Learning
This course will use Canvas, which is available from the following link:
https://myuni-canvas.adelaide.edu.au/courses/25364
We may also use GitHub and Slack for discussions, groupwork, collaboration, communication and coordination within each team and across the teams in the class. -
Learning & Teaching Activities
Learning & Teaching Modes
The following are the main topics to be covered in this course:
- Introduction to the fundamentals of software architecture.
- Software architecture and quality requirements of a software system.
- Fundamental principles and guidelines for software architecture design, architectural styles, patterns, and frameworks.
- Methods, techniques, and tools for describing software architecture and documenting design rationale.
- Software architecture design and evaluation processes.
- Rationale and architectural knowledge management in software architecting.
- Approaches and tools for designing and evaluating software architectures for the state-of- the-art technologies such as blockchain, service-orientation and microservices.
- Future challenges and emerging trends in software architecture discipline.
Workload
The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The students are expected to spend 10-12 hours per week on this course. There will be 2 hours contact time for learning and teaching activities and the students will be working in groups and individually 8-10 hours to carry out the required learning and teaching activities for acquiring the expected knowledge, understanding, and skills in this course.Learning Activities Summary
No information currently available.
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Assessment
The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:
- Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
- Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
- Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
- Assessment must maintain academic standards.
Assessment Summary
- Reviewing and presenting assigned article (15%) – Group presentation, Individual Assessment – An article will be assigned to a group of students for reviewing and presenting. Each member of a group will critically review the article and write one page summary of his/her understanding of the article (7.5%). Each group will make a presentation (7.5%) on the assigned article; each of the members in the group is expected to actively participate in the presentation and Q&A as the assessment is individual. Each member of the team will be assessed based on the performance in the presentation and Q&A. The preparation of the article summary and the presentation must incorporate learning from at least one more related article per member of the team and each member must identify which other article he/she would have read to support the review of the assigned article and prepare the presentation. For example, if there are three members in a team, then three other related articles needs to be searched and read to make the summary and presentation for the assigned article.
- Quizzes (15%) – Individual assessment – The quizzes will be based on the material to be discussed in the class. That means the students are expected to come to class after preparing the material that is going to be discussed in the class. The material will be provided to the students one week before the quiz class. There will three quizzes without any prior announcement about the day of the quiz (i.e., surprise quizzes).
- Exercises (20%) – Individual assessment – There will be take home (or in class) exercises based on the material discussed in the class or other relevant material/tasks assigned by the teaching staff.
- Software Design and Evaluation Project (50%) – (Group 30% and individual 20% assessments) – This assessment will be a multi-phase activities in which the students will be designing and documenting an architecture of a given software system, evaluating the architecture of the designed system of another team, and improving the design based on the evaluation recommendations and own critique and reflections. The grading will be done at the team and individual levels in order to enable the students to demonstrate that their can successfully carry out group activities required for designing and evaluating software architecture of a significant system but also have acquired the understanding, knowledge, and skills expected to be gained after completing different phases of the project.
Assessment Detail
No information currently available.
Submission
No information currently available.
Course Grading
Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:
M11 (Honours Mark Scheme) Grade Grade reflects following criteria for allocation of grade Reported on Official Transcript Fail A mark between 1-49 F Third Class A mark between 50-59 3 Second Class Div B A mark between 60-69 2B Second Class Div A A mark between 70-79 2A First Class A mark between 80-100 1 Result Pending An interim result RP Continuing Continuing CN Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.
Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.
Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.
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Student Feedback
The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.
SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
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Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
- Academic Credit Arrangements Policy
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- Modified Arrangements for Coursework Assessment Policy
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- Student Experience of Learning and Teaching Policy
- Student Grievance Resolution Process
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