Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information below is subject to change,
in particular that concerning the teaching mode (presential, distance or in a comodal or hybrid format).
5 credits
30.0 h + 15.0 h
Q1
Teacher(s)
Mens Kim;
Language
English
Main themes
Whereas many software engineering courses focus on building new systems from scratch, in industrial practice software developers are often confronted with already existing software systems that need to be maintained, reused or evolved. This requires specific skills to understand the design and implementation of an existing system and which parts need to be modified, to build software systems that are easier to maintain, and to design systems with reuse and evolution in mind from the very start.
This course will thus study a variety of techniques, tools and methodologies to help building software systems that are easier to understand, maintain, reuse and evolve:
o Change impact analysis
o Reverse engineering
o Coding standards
o Design principles and heuristics
o Design patterns
o Refactoring
o Reengineering
o Reuse techniques and design for reuse
o Libraries vs. application frameworks
This course will thus study a variety of techniques, tools and methodologies to help building software systems that are easier to understand, maintain, reuse and evolve:
- Software development in the context of an existing code base as opposed to 'green field' development
o Change impact analysis
o Reverse engineering
- Software Maintenance
o Coding standards
o Design principles and heuristics
o Design patterns
o Refactoring
o Reengineering
- Software Reuse and Evolution
o Reuse techniques and design for reuse
o Libraries vs. application frameworks
- Software product lines
Aims
At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to : | |
| 1 |
Given the learning outcomes of the "Master in Computer Science and Engineering" program, this course contributes to the development, acquisition and evaluation of the following learning outcomes:
|
Content
The course will cover a variety of techniques, tools and methodologies to help building software systems that are easier to understand, maintain, reuse and evolve.
Preliminaries:
Context-Oriented Programming
Preliminaries:
- Definitions and difference between software maintenance, software evolution and software reuse
- Different types of software maintenance and evolution
- Causes for software maintenance and change
- Technical debt
- Laws of software evolution
- Domain modelling and domain analysis
- Software product lines
- Feature-oriented domain analysis
- Feature modelling, commonalities and variabilities
- Feature relationships, dependencies and cross-tree constraints
- Semantics of feature models and feature model anomalies
- Definitions of reusability, software reuse and reusable components
- How object-oriented programming promotes modularity, maintainability and reuse
- Encapsulation, information hiding, polymorphism and code sharing
- Key object-oriented concepts: object, classes, methods, messages, inheritance
- Polymorphism and dynamic binding
- Method overriding, self and super calls
- Abstract classes and methods
- Different kinds of inheritance: single, multiple, interfaces, mixins
- Bad smells
- Bad smells vs. refactorings
- Bad smell categories and examples
- Coupling and cohesion
- Refactoring (definitions, motivations, when should you refactor)
- Refactoring categories and examples
- Refactoring vs. code quality
- Merge conflicts due to refactoring
- Christopher Alexander’s building architectural patterns
- (Software) design patterns (definitions, motivations, structure)
- Abstract Factory design pattern
- Factory Method design pattern
- Strategy and Decorator design patterns
- Antipattern (definition, purpose, example: The Blob)
- The 7 deadly sins
- Design heuristics (definition, purpose, examples)
- Design heuristics related to inheritance and polymorphism
- Design heuristics related to cohesion
- Design heuristics related to coupling
- Object-oriented application frameworks (definition, purpose, examples)
- How frameworks can achieve software reuse
- The principle of inversion of Control (the “Hollywood” principle)
- Software frameworks vs. libraries
- Hotspots and hook methods
- Commonality and variability
- White vs. grey vs. black box frameworks
- Template method design pattern
- Design patterns vs. frameworks
- Refactoring to a framework
- Using template methods to evolve an application into a framework
- Refactoring to specialise or generalise class hierarchies
Context-Oriented Programming
- Traditional vs. context-oriented software
- Design heuristics (definition, purpose, examples)
- Context-oriented programming for dynamic software adaptation
- Implementing techniques for dynamic adaptation of software behaviour to context
- Method dispatch and method pre-dispatch
- Case studies of context-oriented programming systems
- Reflection and metaprogramming
- Aspect-oriented programming
Teaching methods
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.
COURSE ORGANISATION:
Theory sessions covering the different course topics
Practical sessions to apply the concepts in practice
Theory sessions covering the different course topics
Practical sessions to apply the concepts in practice
- developing and evolving a maintainable and reusable software system
Evaluation methods
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.
COURSE EVALUATION :- [10%] Active participation during practical sessions
- [40%] 2 intermediate missions linked to the practical sessions
- [10%] demo of developed application at end of semester
- [50%] during exam session
- [25%] written exam
- [25%] presentation of a final mission
In case of doubt about the final grade, the teacher reserves the right to ask a student to pass a complementary oral exam.
Other information
Even though good quality software may be easier to maintain and evolve, software quality assurance techniques will not be addressed explicitly in this course as they are the topic of a separate course on Software Quality Assurance [LINGI2251]
Expected background:
Expected background:
- Having a good knowledge of and experience with object-oriented programming concepts, algorithms and data structures.
- Having prior or simultaneous experience with the development of a medium- to large-scale software system.
Online resources
Moodle course website
The course slides as well as other relevant and practical information related to the course will be accessible on Moodle. The same platform will also be the means of communication between the teacher(s) and the students.
The course slides as well as other relevant and practical information related to the course will be accessible on Moodle. The same platform will also be the means of communication between the teacher(s) and the students.
Bibliography
French
Compte tenu de la variété des sujets abordés, ce cours ne suivra pas un seul livre de référence, mais sera basé sur du matériel provenant de nombreuses sources différentes. Les slides de cours seront le matériel de référence principale pour ce cours et des pointeurs vers des lectures supplémentaires seront fournis par la plate-forme de cours en ligne.
Given the variety of topics covered, this course will not follow a single textbook but is based on material from many different sources. As such, the course slides will be the main reference material for this course and pointers to additional reading material will be provided through the online course platform.
Faculty or entity
INFO
