Postgraduate Courses \ LM338 MSc in Software Engineering

Introduction

The Master of Science in Software Engineering is offered by the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick. This course will provide an opportunity for students to gain up-to-date knowledge and skills in software engineering. Its core objectives are:

To equip graduates with a detailed knowledge of the theories, processes, methods and techniques of building high-quality, large scale software in a cost-effective manner.
To develop students’ abilities to critically evaluate current software engineering research.
To increase awareness of the opportunities offered by current research in software engineering and its application to current practice.
To meet industry’s need for graduates having the above qualities.
To enhance graduates’ existing educational base and employment prospects.

Entry Requirement

Normally a primary degree or approved equivalent professional qualification in a cognate discipline (e.g. Computer Systems/Science, Applied Mathematics) at first or second class honours. However, entrance may also be possible through an additional Master’s Qualifier’. An interview may be part of the admission process.

Career Opportunities

Prospective careers for graduates include software engineering posts, software project management, systems analysis and software research and development.

Programme of Study

The course is offered in two modes: part-time and full-time.
In the full-time mode the course spans a single academic year, and requires full time attendance on campus. Students study five modules in semester one and four modules in semester two. In parallel, they undertake research project work which extends into semester three.

The part-time mode facilitates students currently in employment by requiring attendance on campus only one day a week, although significant independent study is also required. In this mode the course runs over two years (four academic semesters). Students study three modules in one semester and study two modules in each of the remaining semesters. In this mode, students are expected to commence their research project in their second semester of year one.

The course comprises 9 modules (as detailed below) and a substantial research project (worth almost 50% of the entire programme). Students who pass the taught element of the programme will be offered the opportunity to complete their research dissertation over the summer and graduate with an M.Sc. in Software Engineering.

FAQ

Contact

Applicants who wish to discuss detailed elements of the programme may contact

Dr Michael English (Course Director)

Telephone +353-(0)61-202772

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To apply, please contact:

Postgraduate Admissions

Graduate School

Foundation Building

University of Limerick

Limerick, Ireland

Tel: +353-61-234377 or 233729

Fax: 353-61-233287

Web: www.graduateschool.ul.ie

Course Structure

Year 1 | Semester 1

CS5701 Software Engineering Fundamentals
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Construct and evaluate expressions and schemes for the representation of expressions.

2. Construct formal proofs based on the concept of production systems.

3. Adopt the concept of production systems to the definition of grammars and languages, including the propositional and predicate logic.

4. Define and classify languages and the machines that can recognise them.

5. Construct, implement and prove the correctness of recursively defined functions.

6. Prove the correctness of simple programs.

7. Model data logically using the mathematics of sets, relations and functions.

8. Acknowledge the role of mathematics in software engineering.

9. Embrace a mathematical approach to data modelling.
CS5702 Software Requirements
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Define, distinguish and discuss a wide range of requirements concepts and terminology including quality and other types of non-functional requirements.

2. Plan, describe and justify how requirements would be elicited, verified and validated with the stakeholders in different project situations.

3. Using a specification template such as the IEEE-830 or the Volere template, specify the functional requirements and the non-functional requirements for a given software product or system.

4. Select and justify appropriate requirements elicitation techniques for use in a given project or situation.

5. Select and justify appropriate requirements modelling techniques for use with different kinds of stakeholders.

6. Select and justify appropriate requirements management practices and requirements management tools.

7. Evaluate new or proposed requirements techniques and/or practices for suitability in a range of requirements situations.

8. Demonstrate an appreciation of the value and the need for involvement of all kinds of stakeholders in the requirements process.

9. Demonstrate an awareness of the inherent difficulty of achieving an ideal requirements specification.
CS5707 Software Development Paradigms
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.
7. Understand ideological motivations motivating open source participation.
CS5721 Software Design
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Describe the array of techniques necessary to design quality object-oriented software.

2. Design quality blueprints for enterprise-level systems that incorporates architectural and design patterns.

3. Develop the supporting documentation for the requirement, analysis, and design phases of a software development project using an Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) method in conjunction with The Unified Modelling Language (UML).

4. Create supporting documentation for the specification workflow in a Component-Based Development (CBD) approach.

5. Use a CASE-tool to enhance & facilitate this process.

6. Evaluate different design alternatives.

7. Critique, and compare and contrast the artefacts delivered from the OOAD and CBD approaches.

8. Generate alternative refactorings based on said critique that might better support quality attributes such as modifiability.

9. Demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of analysis and design techniques in the development of enterprise-level software systems.
CS5731 Philosophy of Research
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Consider and select an appropriate research paradigm for a specified research scenario.

2. Consider and select an appropriate research method within a research paradigm, for a specific research scenario.

3. Determine the validity issues and reliability issues that arise for a selected research method within a specific research scenario.

4. Mitigate against said validity issues and reliability issues.

5. Apply best practice with respect to research ethics in empirical design.

6. Apply qualitative analysis to qualitative data-sets.

7. Select the appropriate statistical technique for quantitative data sets generated by selected types of empirical studies.

8. Critically judge other researchers' empirical research.

9. Embrace best practice in regard to empirical design and empirical ethics.

Year 1 | Semester 3

CS5712 MSC SE Project 2
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Iteratively refine their research questions in the light of their literature review.

2. Prepare a coherent research methodology to be followed for their project.

3. Perform that research methodology to the highest professional standards.

4. Analyse the results obtained in accordance with a recognised research paradigm.

5. Organise their research.

6. Justify the value of their research project.

7. Critique the value of the research that they have undertaken.

8. Interpret the research results which they have obtained.

9. Organise these research results in a coherent, logical manner.

10. Summarise the research which they have completed in a written form that adheres to academic and professional standards.

11. Recognise results that are of value/not of value to their research project.

12. Defend their research in discussion with their supervisor.

Year 1 | Semester 2

CS5711 MSC SE Project 1
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Define a selected research topic.

2. Organise the content of a research proposal.

3. Identify literature relevant to this research area.

4. Interpret and evaluate the research literature relevant to their research topic.

5. Prepare a research proposal for their research project
[Elective]
CS5703 Software Engineering Quality
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Devise a set of test cases to verify a set of functional and non-functional requirements.

2. Analyse various software development processes (examples include project management, risk management, reviews, configuration management).

3. Prescribe various mechanisms that promote the institutionalization of processes within a software development organization.

4. Investigate how the results of a software process assessment may be used.

5. Describe one software process model and the process categories within that model (e.g. Software Process Improvement and Capability determination Model, ISO 15504).

6. Defend the concepts of product and process quality.

7. Demonstrate an appreciation for the importance of effective and mature processes.
[Elective]
CS5705 Human Computer Interaction
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Enumerate the key elements required for the design of interactive technologies.

2. Identify the conceptual and methodological bases of interaction design, as well as it's historical context.

3. Summarize the psychological and social scientific bases of HCI.

4. Apply principles and heuristics for the design of interactive technologies.

5. Conduct a user-centred usability evaluation of an interactive artefact and derive recommendations for re-design from this process;

6. Critique a variety of methods for involving end users as participants in the creation of new interactive technologies.

7. Display an appreciation of the importance of user participation in the design process.

8. Value the different skills and abilities of people in the context of human-system interaction.

9. Embrace the importance of inclusive design.
[Elective]
CS5709 Software Evolution
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Review and appraise taxonomies of Software Evolution.

2. Analyse Software Evolution processes.

3. Evaluate Program Comprehension strategies and techniques and techniques for Change Impact Analysis.

4. Apply automated approaches to Concept Location.

5. Describe and discuss approaches to reverse engineering, reengineering and re-documentation of legacy systems and tools for software evolution.

6. Assess Architectural conformance.

7. Demonstrate an appreciation for the importance and role of software evolution over the lifetime of software systems.

8. Justify the choice of technique or tool when undertaking software evolution tasks.
[Elective]
CS5722 Software Architecture
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Design and understand software architecture for large scale software systems.

2. Recognise major software architectural styles, design patterns, and frameworks.

3. Describe a software architecture using various documentation approaches and architectural description languages.

4. Develop architectural alternatives for a problem and select among them.

5. Use well-understood paradigms for designing new systems.

6. Compare and contrast current trends and technologies such as model-driven, service-oriented, and aspect-oriented architectures.

7. Assess the quality attributes of a system at the architectural level.

8. Demonstrate an appreciation for the importance and role of software architecture in large scale software systems.

9. Demonstrate an appreciation for the architectural concerns and approach for families of products.

10. Demonstrate an awareness of future trends in software architecture research and practice.
[Elective]
MS5052 Quantitative Research Methods for Science, Engineering and Technology
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Discuss the powers and limitations of quantitative applied research.

2. Address the traditional dichotomy between research methodologies.

3. Apply statistical skills and approaches.

4. Justify the most appropriate tests in any given research scenario.

5. Interpret the common statistical techniques used in advanced research.

CSIS - Department of Computer Science & Information Systems