Software Engineering for Industry (70025)

Spring 2023

Dr Eoin Woods and Dr Robert Chatley.


NOTE:This web page is for the version of the module that ran in the Spring term of the 2022-2023 academic year. The latest version of the module is the one running in the Autumn term of the 2023-2024 academic year here.

Class time in person on Tuesdays 9am to 11am in Huxley 145.

Office hours on Thursdays 9:30am to 11:30am in Huxley 226 or via Teams, the booking sheet is here.

This module is intended to help bridge the gap between university teaching and industrial software engineering practice. We do this by exploring a different topic each week, doing some of our own research and practical work, and inviting expert guest speakers to join us and share their knowledge and experience.

The official outline of the course can be found here. This web page aims to provide more specific information for the Spring 2023 run of the module.

The module is mainly self-directed learning, with group work to complete each week before a lecture session on the topic featuring our guest speakers where they will give a talk and we will look at some of the work you have done in your groups and discuss it.

For each topic we will provide some suggested reading to start the research process but you are encouraged to find and critically consider other related material on the subject.

You will probably find that this module is quite a lot of work during the term, however there is no final exam and so you are free of work for this module by Monday 13th March 2023, a full week before your exams start.

Most weeks you should expect to spend about 6 hours working in your group on research and practical exercises from the worksheet and then 2 hours in the lecture session, meaning a weekly workload of about 8 hours. We do not expect people to spend more than 8 hours per week on the module.

Hopefully you will also find the module stimulating, quite fun and a little different to many of your regular taught modules.

Schedule

Week Starting Topic Guest Speakers
16th January 2023Examining Domain Driven DesignNick Tune
23rd January 2023Driving Software Delivery via TestingAmy Phillips and Steve Freeman
30th January 2023Effective MicroservicesSarah Wells
6th February 2023Applying Software ArchitectureMurat Erder & Nick Rozanski
13th February 2023Teams Make SoftwareMatthew Skelton
20th FebruaryPresentation Week
27th February 2023Doing DevOps to Make a DifferenceAlex Cross
6th March 2023Modern Software EngineeringDavid Farley
13th March 2023Final reports due on Monday

Weekly Schedule

All of the topic weeks follow the same schedule:

  • The week before the topic lecture you organise yourselves into groups of three and complete the worksheet for that topic, available from the coursework system.
  • Submit your work by 19:00 on the Monday of the topic week (e.g. Monday 16th January for Domain Driven Design).
  • We have a lecture session from 9am - 11am on Tuesday morning. The lecture will be:
    • A short introduction from the course leader introducing the topic and the guest expert speaker(s).
    • A talk of 20-30 minutes from our guest(s).
    • Short 10 minute presentations of your work from your groups, followed by discussion with the guest expert(s) and the class. We will normally have time for about 5 groups’ work to be presented and discussed. We will rotate the groups to present.
    • Summary of what we have learned and reminder of the topic for next week.
  • On Thursday morning from 9am - 11am we have an “office hours” session where you can sign up for 20 minute blocks of time to discuss any aspect of the course or your work with the course leaders.

Assessment

There is no exam for this module and all assessment is completed by Monday 13th March 2023.

The assessment is continual and is made up of the following elements:

  • Your weekly group work from the exercise sheets - 20%
  • Weekly online individual quiz completed in-person in class - 20%
  • Mid-point assessment which is a group presentation - 25%
  • Final assessment which is a group written report - 35%