Overview

The development of good and successful software requires more than just programming knowledge. Software engineering deals with the systematic use of principles, methods, and tools for the division of labor, engineering development, and application of extensive software systems.

Professional software developers, architects, and managers need to be able to answer the following questions:

• When is a software product good enough to ship?
• Have we developed what the customer or user really needs?
• What do we do if tomorrow we have 10 times more users for our software system and 100 times the day after tomorrow?
• How can we import changes into our software as quickly and safely as possible?
• Why is it that we are not as good at software development as others?

Successful software projects require more than just technical expertise. Finding out what the customer wants, working together in a team, managing complexity, reducing risks, adhering to time and budget constraints and determining under various restrictions when a product is good enough to be delivered are at least as important topics. They often have a significant human component. The lecture deals with these topics and covers the basics of modern software engineering to a large extent.

We will examine the following topics:

• Process consideration in software development
  (How can problems be avoided at an early stage? When and how much is to be designed? When and how much is to be tested? When and how are the customers to be involved? Agile methods ...)
• Requirements elicitation, documentation, and evaluation
  (How do you find out what the customer really wants? Who is interested? How can we measure success objectively? How can we reliably document expectations? ...)
• Software Design und Software Architektur
  (How can we design a system so that it is scalable for millions of users? How can we build security into a system?)
• Quality assurance measures including measurement, inspection, static and dynamic analysis
  (Which quality assurance strategy is best suited for a particular system? What can we automate and when should we keep people up to date? How many tests and what type of tests should we run? What properties are important to ensure beyond functional correctness? Can we evaluate usability, scalability, reliability, performance? How can we statically guarantee the absence of certain security problems? ...)
• Empirical methods in software engineering
  (How can we measure quality characteristics such as performance, security, and reliability? How can we measure how users interact with the system? How can we know whether the difference matters? ...)
• Time and team management / network plan
  (How do you estimate the duration and costs of a project? How do you monitor progress and risks in order to identify problems at an early stage? How do you coordinate developers in a team? How can you form and develop teams? How do you choose do you motivate team members? How do you deal with team dynamics such as social loafing? ....)
• Economics of software development
  (business models, outsourcing, open source, ...)

This course has a strong technical focus and includes homework with and without programming. The students gain experience with team management and modern software engineering tools. The course optimally prepares students for management positions in software development projects.

The lecture takes place on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm in HS2 in the Physik building (321 Hörsaal II (265/159 Sitzpl.), Zülpicher Str., 77(321), Erdgeschoß).

There are a total of 6 exercise groups to accompany the lecture. The exercise groups start on October 17th.
Group 1: Mondays, 12:00 - 13:30 (in English), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S15
Group 2: Mondays, 14:00 - 15:30 (in German), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S15 
Group 3: Tuesday, 16:00 - 17:30 (in English), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S16
Group 4: Wednesday, 10:00 - 11:30 (in German), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S15
Group 5: Wednesday, 12:00 - 13:30 (in German), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S24
Group 6: Thursdays, 14:00 - 15:30 (in German), Gebäude 106 (Seminargebäude), Seminarraum S15

Schedule

The lecture has an ILIAS course for the slides, submission of homework, and supplementary documents;  We'll be using Slack for announcements, communication, and group work. See ILIAS for the link to register.

Waiting list: The lecture is not limited in size.

Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites but we recommend that you have completed the programming course and Info I (data structures and algorithms).

Textbook: We do not have a single textbook, but rather compile lectures from various sources.
For optional supplementary reading, consider Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering and Ian Sommerville, Engineering Software Products: An Introduction to Modern Software Engineering.

Homework:  Every Wednesday evening, we publish a homework sheet. Homework sheets must be submitted by the following Monday 12:00. By submitting a homework sheet, you indicate that you are also able to present it in the exercise classes.

Grading: The grading is based on the results of the exam. You have to submit at least 6/12 homework sheets to take the exam. You need >50% points in the exam to pass. If you have submitted at least 11/12 homework sheets, you get a 5% bonus on your exam points.

Delayed submissions:  Delays are not tolerated and are considered as "not submitted". Exceptions to this rule are only made in exceptional cases, almost always in connection with a family or medical emergency. 

Time management: This is a course with 9 ECTS points. We, therefore, expect that you will spend up to 12 hours per week on the course. Typically 6 hours per week are spent on lectures and exercise groups and 6 hours on homework sheets. 

Academic honesty and collaboration: You are allowed and actually encouraged to prepare the homework sheets in groups. However, everyone has to submit their own solution that shows that you have actually worked on the sheet yourself and not just copied it from someone else. This implies not taking credit for other's work and not covering for team members that have not contributed.