Software Engineering

Software engineering will be treated from a practical programming approach. Languages such as Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro or Access and either Java, Pascal or `C` should be introduced and employed for practical assignments.

• SE 1
  Software: common deficiencies in software; the need for remedies and an effective method of managing software development. Software engineering methods. The stages in the software life-cycle - specification of requirements, design, review, detailed design, coding, testing, documentation and maintenance. The waterfall mode; the spiral development model and simple prototyping.
• SE 2
  Specification and Design Methodology: the properties of a sound specification. Reviews. Aims of a program design methodology. The style and presentation of programs. Detailed design and development methods - top-down design, decomposition, stepwise refinement. Modularity. The use of structure diagrams, flowcharts, pseudocode (program design language), decision tables and other methods. Candidates must be able to convert a simple logical problem into a specification.
• SE 3
  Program Structures: the components and organisation of programs. Syntax and semantics. Data types. Declaration of data items. Operations on data. Control structures - sequence, selection and repetition. Functions and procedures (subroutines).
• SE 4
  Data Structures: grouping of data items. One-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays, strings and records. Array subscripts; row and column operations. String and sub-string operations. Fixed length records.
• SE 5
  File Organisation, Access and Processing: serial, sequential and indexed sequential operation. Accessing and updating records. Hash (scatter) storage. File media constraints.
• SE 6
  Common Processes (algorithms): Simple processes on sorting, searching, and insertion. Simple random number techniques.
• SE 7
  Errors and Testing: Types of errors in software - syntax, logical and run-time. Stages of testing - unit, integration, system and acceptance. White-box and black-box techniques. Construction of test data and test plans. Alpha and Beta testing . Reviews.
• SE 8
  Programming Languages: four main generations - machine code, assembly, high level and application generator. Comparison of the main features and facilities. Factors influencing the choice of language for typical applications. Detailed knowledge of facilities and limitations of one common high level language. Special-purpose languages.
• SE 9
  The Development Environment: the operating system, text editor, compiler, interpreter, assembler and debugging facilities - roles of each. Comparison between compilation and interpretation. Stages in compilation. One-pass and two-pass assemblers - operation. Debugging with single-step and trace facilities.
• SE 10
  Fourth Generation Language: detailed working knowledge of a common database language. Record structure definition. File creation. Data entry and amendment. Screen formatting. Report generation. Indexing. Searching. Database commands and the development of programs.