• Coursework (team project [40%] and individual test report [10%])
• Formal examination [50%]

• Blackboard
• Unconfirmed practical marks when available
• Exam Papers, past 2 years (where applicable)

This unit aims to:

• Develop customer-oriented interaction, and software analysis and design skills to create robust software systems for target customers;
• Promote an awareness of common cyber threats and the security policies and design strategies that reduce risk;
• Develop group-working skills and technical software development skills in building a software system with a layered architecture.

By the end of the module the student will be able to:

• Justify the application of suitable customer interaction, risk management and development strategies for different kinds of software system.
• Create structured designs capturing the data, process and time views of a software system that accurately model the semantics of the requirements.
• Apply design patterns to maximise cohesion and minimise coupling within an object-oriented software system.
• Mitigate privilege escalation and injection attacks through suitable methods for authorisation, authentication, data integrity, and confidentiality.
• Understand relational algebra and apply the Boyce-Codd-Fagin normal forms, and the entity-relationship approach for normalising databases.
• Work cooperatively in a team to analyse realistic business requirements of a target customer and deliver a software system.
• Design, build and test a secure information system with a three-layer architecture, integrating a user interface, business logic and a SQL database.

• Software Engineering – problems, solutions, lifecycles; how to pick an approach
• Information Security – vulnerabilities, threats, countermeasures, policies, legal obligations
• Project Management – people, product, process; developer-client psychology, conceptual bias
• Requirements Modelling – UML Use Case Diagram; requirements gathering techniques
• Requirements Case Study – interactive role-playing adventure-game exercise for customer/developer pairs
• Information Modelling – building a data dictionary, UML Class Diagram; atomicity/dependency, semantic relation
• Database Design – entity relationship modelling, data normalisation to 3NF/4NF, traditional vs ERM approach
• Query Processing – from Relational Algebra to SQL; query optimisation
• Java and Databases – Java Database Connectivity API, MySQL server, SQL injection, data validation
• Security and Robustness – authentication, authorisation, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation; distribution, penetration, concurrency
• Encryption – digital fingerprints and certificates, symmetric key, public/private key, Java security API
• Control/Data Flow Modelling – UML Activity Diagram; sequence, selection, iteration, composition; swim lanes, object flow
• State-Based Modelling – UML State Machine Diagram; reactive systems, behaviour vs protocol models
• Design Patterns – Command, State, Mediator, Template Method, Chain of Responsibility, Composite, Abstract Factory, Bridge
• User Interface Design – State machines applied to screen modes and transitions, Java Swing composite design patterns
• Architectural Design – UML deployment and package diagrams; layered, pipelined and transform-centre architectures
• Formal Systems Design – UML Object Constraint Language, adding first-order logic to UML diagrams
• Verification and Testing – formal and informal methods to ensure correctness, test coverage
• Agile Methods – DSDM, Scrum, eXtreme Programming; putting agile principles to work
  

This module cannot be taken with COM2008.

Optional modules within the school have limited capacity. We will always try to accommodate all students but cannot guarantee a place. 

• Lecture classes convey basic concepts (Objectives 1-4).
• Interactive sessions develop interviewing, analysis and design skills (Objectives 1-4).
• Team project develops group working and systems development skills (Objectives 5-6)