Contributing Scholar - Stephen Thebaut, University of Florida

3 Semester Credit Hours

Course Description

A graduate-level survey of concepts, principles, and techniques related to software and systems specification. Topics include system modeling, requirements elicitation, analysis, validation, and documentation techniques, prototyping, and formal methods. Students will practice the techniques presented in class via individual and/or group exercises and a term project.

Prerequisites

• Successful completion of an undergraduate upper-division or graduate-level software engineering survey course (such as NSEN 6001) or equivalent professional experience
• General prerequisite: Students must have the knowledge resulting from completing all coursework in the curriculum for a BS degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering from a regionally-accredited institution in the United States, or for a BS degree in engineering from an ABET-accredited engineering program in the United States or a CEAB-accredited program in Canada with a minor in computing systems, or the equivalent from a foreign institution; performance level in this coursework should be equivalent to a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.9 or better on 4.0 scale
  

Course Objectives

To present concepts, principles, and techniques related to software and systems requirements engineering and specification. Students will become acquainted with both informal and formal requirements engineering methods, including techniques for validating specified requirements.

Course Topics

The following topics will be covered in the order given.

• Requirements engineering introduction
• The role of methods
• Ambiguity in stating requirements
• The Volere requirements process
• Direct questions
• Starting points
• Context-free questions
• Getting the right people involved
• Making meetings work for everybody
• Reducing ambiguity from start to finish
• Generating ideas
• Right-brain methods
• The project's name
• Facilitating in the face of conflict
• Functions
• Attributes
• Constraints
• Preferences
• Expectations
• Ambiguity metrics
• Technical reviews
• Measuring satisfaction
• Test cases
• Studying existing products
• Making agreements
• Ending
• Prototyping
• Methods for requirements engineering
• Nonfunctional requirement
• Algebraic specification
• Model-based approaches
• Functional specification

Technical Requirements

There are no additional software or application requirements for this course. You will be required to have Windows Media Player to view the lectures. For the standard technical requirements, please go to the link below: http://www.waldenu.edu/c/Files/DocsGeneral/Getting_Started_Guide.pdf

Textbook

Required:

Donald Gause and Gerald Weinberg, Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design, Dorset House, 1989, ISBN: 0-932633-13-7;

Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques, Gerald Koyonya and Ian Sommerville, ISBN 0471972088, 1998, John Wiley and Sons.

Course packet

Disclaimer: The course syllabus may differ slightly from this course. Descrptions will be provided in your online course. Textbook information is provided only to give more information about the course.  Do Not use this information to purchase a textbook.  Up-to-date information will be provided when you register.