The University of Chicago
Department of Computer Science

MPCS 51205 Course Syllabus

Topics in Software Engineering

Fall 2023
Online Only

Instructor:        Mark Shacklette
Office:               Online only (zoom)
Office Hours:    Monday 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM & by appointment

email:    mark@cs.uchicago.edu
              mshack@post.harvard.edu

Teaching staff/Office Hours:

TA Office Hours: See Above.

SUBJECT	COURSE	TITLE	TIME	BUILDING
324	51205	Topics in Software Engineering	Monday, 4:10 PM	ONLINE-ZOOM

 

I. TEXT AND MATERIALS
 

Texts: Required (Programming Knowledge of Java or C++ or Python is assumed)

Domain-Driven Design:  Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, Eric Evans, Addison-Wesley, 2004, ISBN:  0321125215

Building Microservices, 2nd Ed.:  Designing Fine-Grained Systems, Newman, O'Reilly, 2021, ISBN: 1492034029

Learning Domain-Driven Design:  Aligning Software Architecture and Business Strategy, Khononov, O'Reilly, 2021, ISBN: 1098100131

Fundamentals of Software Architecture:  An Engineering Approach, Richards & Ford, O'Reilly, 2020, ISBN: 9781492047841

Microservices, Domain Driven Design & General Architecture:

Software Architecture:  The Hard Parts, Ford et. al., O'Reilly, 2021, ISBN: 1492086894

Microservice Patterns, Chris Richardson, Manning, 2019, ISBN: 9781492053454

API Design & Web APIs:

MongoDB and NoSQL:

Practical Django 2 and Channels 2, Marani, Apress, 2019, ISBN: 9781484240984

Architecture Patterns with Python:  Enabling Test-Driven Development, Domain-Driven Design, and Event-Driven Microservices, Percival & Gregory, O'Reilly, 2020, ISBN: 9781492052203

Java/Spring:

Spring Microservices in Action, John Carnell, Manning, 2017, ISBN: 97816172931986

Spring 5.0 Microservices, Rajesh RV, Packt, 2019, ISBN: 9781787127685

MEAN/Node.js:

Getting MEAN with Mongo, Express, Angular, and Node, Second Edition, Holmes, Manning, 2019, ISBN: 9781617294754

Docker:

Docker Cookbook, Miell & Sayers, Manning, 2016, ISBN: 9781491919712

Docker in Practice, Sebastien Goasguen, O'Reilly, 2016, ISBN: 9781617292729

Docker Containers, Christoper Negus, Prentice Hall, 2016, ISBN: 9780134136561

Asynchronous Communication/AMQP:

RabbitMQ in Action, Videla & Williams, Manning, 2012, ISBN: 9781935182979

General:

Texts: Recommended

UML Distilled, 3rd ed.,  Martin Fowler, Addison Wesley, 2003, ISBN: 0321193687

Applying UML and Patters:  An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development, 3rd ed., Craig Larman, Prentice Hall, 2005, ISBN:  0131489062

Disciplined Agile Delivery:  A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise, Ambler & Lines, IBM, 2012, ISBN:  0132810131

Design Patterns, Gamma, et. al., Addison Wesley, 1995, ISBN: 0201633612

Solid familiarity with either Java or C++ will be assumed.   Students should have completed the MPCS Unix Bootcamp or have equivalent experience.

III. COURSE DESCRIPTION

TOPICS (Each year we will choose some of these for deep dives):

• Designing software to meet non-functional requirements for quality, security, reliability, scalability, extensibility, testability, supportability, fault tolerance and disaster recovery
• Architecture Governance--what is it and how do you do it?
• Microservice Architecture
• What does "ideation to implementation" mean?
• Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery
• RESTful APIs and testing
• Software Development Life Cycle integrating Agile methodologies
• Containerization

TECHNOLOGIES (Each year we will choose some of these for deep dives):

• Java Development including Spring Framework and Spring Microservices
• Event-based design
• Microservices and RESTful APIs
• SQL and NoSQL databases
• Fast access and compute architectures including In-memory databases and data grids
• Hybrid Transactional/Analytical Processing (HTAP) technologies such as Hadoop, Spark, Storm
• Container-based software design using Docker, Apache Mesos, and Cloud Foundry.
• Version control systems such as Subversion, GIThub, etc.
• Continuous Integration and Delivery using JUnit and Bamboo
• Collaborative tools such as Crucible
  
  

IV. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This course will enable students to understand:

A.  Develop a full command of the UML and object-oriented design
B.  Microservice Architecture & Design
C.  Docker containerization and Microservice management
D.  Design and develop a non-trivial system using best practices in Microservice design and development
F.   Become familiar with formal design tools for contextual analysis and Microservice design

V. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & GENERATIVE AI

Students are expected to have read and understood the University's policy on Academic Integrity. See Program Policies | Masters Program in Computer Science | The University of Chicago (uchicago.edu) under Academic Honesty & Plagiarism Policy for more information.

GENERATIVE AI TOOLS:  Problem solving is truly the core skill that needs to be developed. This can only be achieved through determination and perseverance; there are no shortcuts. Finishing assignments on time and getting the correct answer are meaningless if you do not fully understand what you are submitting. In computer science, there are many ways to accomplish the same task, and solutions will vary by levels of exposure, experience, and expertise. By not allowing a natural progression of skills you risk undermining your long-term success in this field.  THEREFORE:  In this course, we will be developing skills and knowledge that are important to discover and practice on your own.  Because use of AI tools inhibits development of these skills and knowledge, students are not allowed to use any AI tools, such as (but not limited to) ChatGPT or DallE 2, in this course. Students are expected to present work that is their own without assistance from others, including automated tools. If you are unclear if something is an AI tool,  check with Professor Shacklette or a TA.  Using AI tools for any purposes in this course will violate the University’s academic integrity policy and will incur subsequent, and likely severe, penalties.

VI. METHOD OF INSTRUCTION

Methods include lecture and homework assignments. All work will be submitted using Subversion, a version-control system that allows us to easily view files and folders that you create. You will not have to e-mail your files to the instructor, TAs, or grader, or even submit them online. Read this page in order to learn about how all of this will work.

Note for this online course:

By attending course sessions, students acknowledge that:

A. They will not: (i) record, share, or disseminate University of Chicago course sessions, videos, transcripts, audio, or chats; (ii) retain such materials after the end of the course; or (iii) use such materials for any purpose other than in connection with participation in the course.
B. They will not share links to University of Chicago course sessions with any persons not authorized to be in the course session. Sharing course materials with persons authorized to be in the relevant course is permitted. Syllabi, handouts, slides, and other documents may be shared at the discretion of the instructor.
C. Course recordings, content, and materials may be covered by copyrights held by the University, the instructor, or third parties. Any unauthorized use of such recordings or course materials may violate such copyrights.
D. Any violation of this policy will be referred to the Area Dean of Students.

VII. OTHER COURSE INFORMATION

Attendance:

No formal attendance taken. Absences will affect your team and likely impact your peer evaluation.  There may be information presented in class that is not in the texts. You will find the lectures helpful in doing the laboratory exercises.

Make-up Work:

Students are expected to read the assigned texts before class in order to be able to full participate in the discussions and course activities.
 

VIII. METHOD OF EVALUATING STUDENT PROGRESS

Assigned work evaluated as follows:

Grading scale (for all assignments excluding Peer Evaluations.  NOTE there is a separate scale for Peer Grading located:  here):

95-100:     A
90-94:       A-
87.6-89:    B+
83-87.5:    B
80-82.9:    B-
76-79:       C+

Iteration Deliverables will be graded on a 4-point basis.  Deliverable due dates are noted on the syllabus below.  All labs and homework are due by 5:00 pm on the due date.

All assignments are due as specified on this syllabus and lab and iteration deliverables.  This includes the final project deliverables.  Each team will be evaluated on the basis of the presentation of iteration deliverables and the final deliverable.  Any and all lateness will suffer penalties. 

The penalty for late labs will be 1.0 points off for each 24-hour period the lab is late, through 5 days late (5*1.0 = 5.0).  After six days from the due date, the lab will no longer be accepted for grading and will receive a 0.  Note:  Any penalty is taken off after the grade has been determined.  For example, if you make a grade of 4.0/5.0 for a lab, but you turned it in 2 days late, you would receive a grade of:  5.0 - (1.0 * 2) = 3.0.

The penalty for late Iterations will be 1.0 point off for each 24-hour period the lab is late, through 5 days late (5*1.0 = 5.0).  After five days delay, the iteration deliverable will no longer be accepted for grading and will receive a 0.  Note:  As with labs, any penalty is taken off after the grade has been determined. 

NB: The instructor reserves the right to alter the course contents, dates, times or percentage of credit based on time allowed and class progress through the course material. The instructor also reserves the right to curve grades if he deems it in the best interest of the majority of students.

IX. COURSE SCHEDULE

The course project will be due for all teams on December 4, 2023 for all students.  The requirements for the course project are described here.

The following abbreviations reference the following works:

Abbreviation	Text
SAM	Building Microservices, Sam Newman
LDDD	Learning Domain-Driven Design, Khononov
DIP	Docker in Practice, Miell & Sayers
DC	Docker Containers, Negus
MDG	MongoDB:  The Definitive Guide, Bradshaw, Brazil & Chodorow
Evans	Domain-Driven Design, Evans
FSA	Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Richards & Ford

Articles*:

*Articles starred may be found on the cluster under my pub directory (~mark/pub/51205/required.reading).  All numbers below refer to chapters in texts, not pages, unless otherwise noted (as "pp. 1-99", for example).

Class/Date	Lecture Topics	Required Reading Schedule	Activities and  Deliverables
Class 1 October 2	Course Introduction & Syllabus Review Introduction to Course Project & Peer Grading Introduction (Client-Server Background & Microservices Concepts)	Evans1-4 SAM 1,3 LDDD 1 FSA: 1-3, 10 Cavage Fowler Conway	Team Formation Iteration Watch the async lecture on Intro to UML
Class 2 October 9	Domain Driven Design Fundamentals Designing Microservices Microservices Continued: Hexagonal Architecture Architectural Considerations and the API Gateway	Evans 5-6, 14-15 SAM 2 LDDD: 2,14 FSA:  4-5,17,19, 21 Cockburn Hodges Lamport2	Iteration I:  Initial Requirements Landscape Watch the async lecture on Advanced UML and Tools
Class 3 October 16	RESTful APIs:   API First Introduction and Testing with Postman Introduction to Docker & Containers	Evans 7 SAM 4 LDDD: 3-4 FSA: 7-8,13 Maccoby Andreessen Fielding	Lab 1 - Docker Intro Watch the async lecture on Intro to Docker and Async Intro To Analysis And Building Blocks Team Reviews with TAs:  w/ Alan:  Auction Architects, BitMasters, Java Saves Us w/ John:  ChiPy, Crerar Creators
Class 4 October 23	Technology Foundations 1:  Synchronous Communication:  Remote Procedure Calls (RMI/gRPC)	SAM 5 DC: 1-6 Evans: 8-13 LDDD:  5 FSA: 9 Fallacies Sheehy Metz	Iteration II:  High Level Architecture & Team Update Lab 2 - Docker RPC Watch the async lecture on Advanced Docker Build and Compose Team Reviews with TAs:  w/ John:  Auction Architects, BitMasters, Java Saves Us w/ Alan:  ChiPy, Crerar Creators
Class 5 October 30	Technology Foundations 2:  Asynchronous Communication:  AMQP & RabbitMQ	SAM 6-7 LDDD: 6-7 DIP: 4 DC: 7-10 FSA: 14, 16	Lab 3 - Dockerized RabbitMQ Watch the async lecture on CRC Cards Team Reviews with TAs:  w/ Alan:  Auction Architects, BitMasters, Java Saves Us w/ John:  ChiPy, Crerar Creators
Class 6 November 6	NoSQL Data Storage with MongoDB	SAM 8-9 LDDD: 8-9 MDG:  1-4, 8 Mickens1	Iteration III:  Team Planning & Team Update Lab 4 - Dockerized MongoDB Team Reviews with TAs:  w/ John:  Auction Architects, BitMasters, Java Saves Us w/ Alan:  ChiPy, Crerar Creators
Class 7 November 13	SQL Data Storage with PostgresSQL	SAM 10-11 LDDD: 10-12 Evans: 16-17 Mei	Lab 5 - Dockerized PostgresSQL Team Reviews with TAs:  w/ Alan:  Auction Architects, BitMasters, Java Saves Us w/ John:  ChiPy, Crerar Creators
NO CLASS November 20 Thanksgiving Break		LDDD:  13,15-16
Class 8 November 27	Preliminary Team Project Reviews (faculty only).  See schedule for time slots and rooms. Instructions for Team Meetings with TAs	SAM 12-13	Iteration IV:  Team Planning & Team Update
Class 9 December 4	Final Team Project Presentations (presentations to entire class) Instructions for Final Team Presentations		Team Final Project Presentations (click here for instructions)

Final Presentation Schedule

EVERYONE:  Our discussion platform is Ed via Canvas.  Please access Ed here.  An Ed Discussion Quickstart guide is located here.