Software Architecture Organization of Course

       Lectures:  Mondays and Wednesdays
           Time:  10:30 am - 11:50 am
       Location:  Wean Hall 4615A

Computing

Some of the assignments will make use of tools that are part of the SCS software engineering environment. Most of these tools are accessible from any SCS SunOS machine. If you are an MSE student you will already have access to this environment. Other students should see the instructor after the first class to fill out an application form.

The tools themselves are located in a subdirectory of /usr/misc/.se-support. You will also find documentation for most of the tools in those subdirectories.

There is a class afs directory, /afs/cs/academic/class/15675. It contains various templates and other documents that will be helpful throughout the course.

Communication

You will need to read the course bulletin board cmu.cs.class.cs675 regularly. We welcome e-mail about the course at any time.

There is also a virtual lounge for the MSE program. It is a "place" that you can wander into electronically and partake of discussion, or simply eavesdrop on what is going on. This Moose Lounge is still under construction and more will be added as the course progresses. You can get to the lounge from the web page and should feel free to look around.

Readings

The textbook for this course is "Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline" by Mary Shaw and David Garlan, Prentice Hall 1996. We will also use a collection of supplementary readings. These will be sold at the bookstore at a price that covers their cost. You are expected to purchase these readings; it is not appropriate to use SCS copying accounts or copier numbers to avoid doing so.

Grading

The course grade will be determined as a combination of four factors:

  1. Readings (25%):

    2. Each lecture will be accompanied by one or more readings, which we expect you to read before you come to class. To help you focus your thoughts on the main points of the reading we will assign one or two (ok, maybe sometimes 3) questions to be answered for each of the reading assignments. Each question should be addressed in less than a page, due at the beginning of the class for which it is assigned. You can e-mail your solutions (time-stamped before the beginning of class) to James Ivers (jivers@cs.cmu.edu) or turn in hard copy at the beginning of class. Email solutions will receive an email acknowledgment; they will not be printed out and returned (so if you want a copy, keep one for yourself). Each of these will be graded on a OK/not-OK basis, and will count for about 1% of your grade.

  2. Homework Assignments (40%):

    3. There will be four homework assignments. Each will count 10% of your grade. The first three will be system building exercises. Their purpose is to give you some experience using architectures to design and implement real systems. You will work in small groups to carry out each assignment. To help clarify your designs we will hold a brief, un-graded design review for most assignments during class a week before it is due. Groups will take turns presenting their preliminary designs and getting feedback from the class and instructors. The fourth assignment will give you some practice using formal models of software architectures.

  3. Project (25%):

    4. The course project is designed to give you experience with the architecture of a substantial software system. You design and analyze the architecture of a software system, document your work, and present the results to the rest of the class. Projects will be drawn from [Sha+95] and the MSE studio. Your grade depends both on the quality of your design and analysis and on its presentation.

  4. Instructors' judgment (10%):

    5. This reflects the instructors' judgment of your mastery of the material and is based partially on your ability to constructively participate in class discuss
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Modified: 9 December 96