School of Computer Science,
Professor.
Course newsgroup. uw.cs.cs746
Course email. cs746@swag.uwaterloo.ca
Organizational meeting. Thursday, September 11, 2008.
MC2036B
Meetings. Thursdays, 4:00-6:30, MC2036B
Web
site. http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~holt/cs/746/08
Description. This is a seminar course that
reviews literature on software architecture.
Prerequisites. There is no formal course
prerequisite. However, students are expected to be familiar with the problems
of structuring large, complex software systems. Courses such as CS446 and CS445
may be useful background, but are not required. Some industrial experience may
be helpful.
Seminar
organization.
The course will be run as a sequence of seminars in which papers relating to
software architecture are discussed.
Moderator. In a typical meeting of the class,
we will discuss one to three papers. Before hand, one class member, called the
"moderator", will be chosen for each paper. The moderator will
introduce the paper to the class, and make sure that the relevant points in the
paper are clarified in the discussion. Points in the paper should be related to
points in other papers. Ideally, there will be 20 minutes for the
presentations, followed by a 10-15 minute discussion on the paper. Before the
class, the moderator is to attempt to find and study the web pages of the
article's author(s). A tentative schedule for papers being covered can be found
at http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~holt/cs/746/08/schedule.html.
Participation. All participants are to read each
article before the meeting that discusses the article. All participants have
the responsibility to see that they and other participants get the maximum benefit
from the discussions.
Assignments. The course
assignments are covered in a separate web page.
Project. Each student or team of students
will do a project along the theme of software architecture. Ideally, this will
involve practical work, such as investigating the architecture of an actual
software system, or building demo tools for displaying software architecture
structures. Some sample topics can be found at http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~holt/cs/746/03/project.html
.
Project
presentation.
Each student or team will present their project during the last few weeks of
class. Presentations are to be professional quality, with well prepared slides,
beginning with a clear statement of the area of interest, and proceeding to an
easy-to-follow technical presentation. Presenter should hand out hardcopy of
slides at beginning of presentation. On the last day of class, each student or
team is to turn in their project paper.
Text: The text that is closest to this
material is Shaw and Garlan's book on Software Architecture. However, their
book serves primarily as background and does not cover the breadth of this
course.
Marking scheme: Class participation 15, Presentation of papers
15, Assignments 30, Course project 40, TOTAL 100.
Academic
Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of
the
Grievance:
A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of
his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for
initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances,
Section 4, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm
Discipline:
A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid
committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A
student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs
help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about
“rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course
professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When
misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be
imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of
offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student
Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm
Avoiding Academic Offenses: Most students are unaware
of the line between acceptable and unacceptable academic behaviour, especially
when discussing assignments with classmates and using the work of other
students. For information on commonly misunderstood academic
offenses and how to avoid them, students should refer to the Faculty of
Mathematics Cheating and Student Academic Discipline Policy, http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/navigation/Current/cheating_policy.shtml
Appeals:
A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under
Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition)
or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established.
Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm
Last
revised 10 Sept 2008,
RCH