Module Code - Title:
CS5707
-
SE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMS
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
Software is the success story of our times playing a critical and ever more pervasive role in personal, social and commercial life. However, despite almost 50 years of software development experience, software development remains problematic in many organisations in practice. A range of software development paradigms or approaches have been applied, ranging from very heavy-duty formal processes to ad-hoc informal 'anything goes' approaches, with a recent category of agile approaches, trying to address the middle ground. These paradigms differ enormously in terms of techniques proposed, life-cycle coverage and emphasis, and underpinning philosophy of systems development. For example, some methods focus on early life-cycle phases such as planning (e.g. BSP), some focus on the requirements and systems perspectives of different stakeholders in the development context (e.g. Soft Systems Method), and some cover the analysis and design phases (e.g. SSADM). Even within the more confined realm
Syllabus:
- Software Development: A Historical Perspective;
- Systems Perspective;
- Common Software Lifecycle Models;
- Software Development: Method-in-Action;
- Hard and Soft Approaches to Systems Development;
- Agile Approaches;
- Open Source Software Development and Inner Source.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Describe the underlying principles and concepts of software development.
2. Describe different categories of software development methods.
3. Critique the study, creation and application of formal development methods.
4. Compare and contrast different software development paradigms.
5. Determine how to tailor software development methods based upon such considerations as the system to be developed, the development context and the influence of the development team.
6. List and describe various issues that arise when development approaches incorporate such concepts as Global software development and Open source systems.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Understand ideological motivations motivating open source participation.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
B. Fitzgerald, N. Russo and E. Stolterman (2002)
Information Systems Development: Method-in-Action
, McGraw Hill
Other Relevant Texts:
K. Beck (2000)
Extreme Programming Explained
, Addison-Wesley
J. Feller and B. Fitzgerald (2002)
Understanding Open Source Software Development
, Addison-Wesley
F. Brooks (1998)
The Mythical Man-Month (Essays on Software Engineering)
, Addison-Wesley
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
John.Noll@ul.ie