Annoucements

• Fri Jan 7, 2004: As promised, I've awarded bonus points (+5%) to the best teams for assignments 2 and 3:
  • For assignment 2, the best teams were: "Inspectors Anonymous", "MAX", and "Space Travelling Hippos"
  • For assignment 3, the best teams were: "Inspectors Anonymous", "SCS", "Youngki" and "Space Travelling Hippos"
• Mon Jan 3, 2004: I've released a preliminary list of the exam grades. Please read the notes about these grades carefully.
• Thurs Dec 9, 2004: This term's final exam with model answers is now available.
• Earlier announcements have been archived

About the Course

This course covers the theory, tools and techniques of information systems analysis and design. Topics include: theory of systems and organizations; object-oriented analysis and design.

General Course Handouts

• Course Information Sheet (with new TA information)
• Notes on Teamworking (including a pointer to the team information sheet)
• The Frequently Asked Questions list
• Previous incarnations of this course have been archived:
  • Spring2003 taught by JM;
  • Fall 2002 taught by SE;

Lecture Notes & Weekly Readings

Note: Links to papers on the IEEE electronic library (marked ) will only work if you have a subscription. U of T has an institutional subscription, so these links should work from anywhere on campus. Please respect the copyrights on all material here - they are provided for your own personal use as part of the course, and should not be duplicated or re-distributed in any form.

• Week 1:
  • 9/9/2004 - Lecture 01: Introduction
  • No Tutorial this week.
  • Readings: "What is Requirements Engineering?" the draft chapter 1 of Fundamentals of Requirements Engineering (FoRE)
• Week 2:
  • 14/9/2004 - Lecture 02: What are Requirements?
  • 16/9/2004 - Lecture 03: What is Engineering?
  • 17/9/2004 - Tutorial notes - Professional Ethics
  • Readings: "What are Requirements?" the draft chapter 2, and "What is Engineering?" the draft chapter 3 of FoRE
• Week 3:
  • 21/9/2004 - Lecture 04: What is a System?
  • 23/9/2004 - Lecture 05: Requirements Specifications
  • 24/9/2004 - Tutorial notes - Inspection forms
  • Readings: "What is a System?" the draft chapter 4 of FoRE, and the Standard 830-1998 for Requirements Specifications
• Week 4:
• 28/9/2004 - Lecture 06: Inspections
• 30/9/2004 - Lecture 07: Feasibility Studies
• 1/10/2004 - no tutorial
• Readings: Notes on the PIECES framework. For more guidance on feasibility studies, take a look at Prof. Sauter's resources on estimation and feasibility.
• Week 5: (Assignment 1 is due in the tutorial this week)
  • 5/10/2004 - Lecture 08: Stakeholders, Goals, Scenarios and Boundaries (alt:greyscale)
  • 7/10/2004 - Lecture 09: Elicitation Techniques (alt:greyscale)
  • 8/10/2004 - Tutorial notes - Scoping the problem
  • Readings: Axel van Lamsweerde's Tutorial on Goal Modelling () from the RE'01 conference; Alistair Sutcliffe's Tutorial on Scenarios () from the RE'03 conference; Ann Hickey and Alan Davis' paper on Elicitation Technique Selection () from the RE'03 conference.
• Week 6:
  • 12/10/2004 - Lecture 10: Risk (alt: greyscale)
  • 14/10/2004 - Lecture 11: Introduction to Requirements Modelling (alt: greyscale)
• 15/10/2004 - Tutorial notes - Modelling Stakeholders' Goals
• Readings: Barry Boehm's "Software Risk Management: Principles and Practices" (), IEEE Software, January 1991.
• Week 7:
  • 19/10/2004 - Lecture 12: Modelling Enterprises (alt greyscale)
  • 21/10/2004 - Lecture 13: Modelling Objects(alt greyscale)
  • 22/10/2004 - Tutorial notes - Activity models and Calculating Return on Investment
  • Readings: Stephen White's paper on Business Process Modeling and Activity Models
• Week 8 (Assignment 2 is due in the tutorial this week)
  • 26/10/2004 - Lecture 14: Modelling Relationships (alt greyscale)
  • 28/10/2004 - Lecture 15: Modelling State (alt greyscale)
• 29/10/2004 - assignment hand in; no tutorial
• Readings: Harel and Gery's paper Executable Object Modelling with Statecharts (), IEEE Computer, July 1997. (David Harel was the inventor of the statechart notation).
• Week 9: (Midterm test in the tutorial this week)
  • 2/11/2004 - Lecture 16 - Modelling Events (alt greyscale)
  • 4/11/2004 - Lecture 17 - Modelling Interactions (alt greyscale)
  • 5/11/2004 - Tutorial = midterm test!
  • Readings: The entry on SCR in the Encylopedia of Software Engineering (Ed. John J. Marciniak, Jan 2002).
• Week 10:
  • 9/11/2004 - Lecture 18 - Non-functional Requirements (alt greyscale)
  • 11/11/2004 - Lecture 19- Verification and Validation (alt greyscale)
  • 12/11/2004 - Tutorial notes - TBD
  • Readings: TBD
• Week 11: Lectures and Tutorial are cancelled this week!
  • 16/11/2004 - No lecture
  • 18/11/2004 - No lecture
  • 19/11/2004 - No tutorial
• Week 12: The Tuesday lecture is cancelled this week
  • 23/11/2004 - No lecture
• 25/11/2004 - Lecture 20 - Prioritizing Requirements (alt greyscale)
• 26/11/2004 - Tutorial notes - TBD
• Readings: Karlsson and Ryan's paper A Cost-Value Approach for Prioritizing Requirements (), in IEEE Software, Sept-Oct 1997
• Week 13: (Assignment 3 is due in the tutorial this week)
  • 30/11/2004 - Lecture 21 - Software Evolution (alt greyscale)
  • 2/12/2004 - Lecture 22 - Moving into Design (alt greyscale)
  • 3/12/2004 - Tutorial: Course summary and exam preparation
  • Readings: Parnas's paper Software Aging (), in 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, 16-21 May 1994
• Week 14: (term finishes on Wed)
• 7/12/2004 - Lecture 23 - Software Architectures (alt greyscale)
• No tutorial, no readings, just an exam to prepare for.

Other stuff:

• Humour

Assignments and Exams

• Assignment 1:
  • Description
  • Support materials about inspection
  • A set of specifications for you to choose from for your inspection
• Assignment 2:
  • Description
• Assignment 3:
  • Description
• Midterm Exam :
  • Samples (with suggested answers): 2001 Spring, 2002 Spring, 2002 Fall, 2003 Spring, 2004 Spring
  • Note: In studying these samples, bear in mind that the course has changed a little this term - in particular, don't worry that there are modelling techniques on these exams that we haven't covered (yet) in the lectures. The midterm will only cover things we have met in lectures.
  • This term's midterm exam with model answers
• Final Exam:
  • Samples (with suggested answers): 2001 Spring, 2002 Spring, 2002 Fall, 2003 Spring, 2004 Spring
  • Same note applies to these as it does to the midterm samples above.Don't forget that previous instances of this course covered more design than we do now, so ignore exam questions asking to give detailed designs.
  • This term's Final exam with model answers

Contact Details

Professor:

TAs: