Principles of Software Engineering
School of Science Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT)
Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is to enable students to demonstrate their ability to interpret a set of laws that are part of the principles of software engineering, to evaluate principles of software engineering aspects within an industry in relation to the various elements covered, to apply them to cases drawn from technical and academic literature and to communicate the key issues through a written academic report.
Individual Assignment
Weighting and Due Date: Refer to Course Description on Moodle
Description of assignment:
The Laws of Software Engineering.
Consider the following four laws given in the prescribed text:
Glass
Requirement deficiencies are the prime source of project failures. (L1)
Parnas
Only what is hidden can be changed without risk. (L8)
Boehm
Prototyping (significantly) reduces requirements and design errors, especially for user interfaces. (L3)
Conway
A system reflects the organizational structure that built it. (LI6)
1. Describe each law in your own words. Define the terms in each law and explain the law clearly and thoroughly. Illustrate your explanation with practical examples – with at least one example for each law from software engineering.
2. Describe the method of software development called Test Driven Development (TDD). List three advantages and three shortcomings of this method. Describe clearly, and illustrate with examples, how these four laws could be applied to TDD.
3. The following diagram is from the text. Clearly and thoroughly explain the relationship between observation, law and theory. Illustrate your answer with examples – with at least one from software engineering.
4. Outline and describe the Scientific Method. Compare and contrast the diagram above with the Scientific Method.
5. Explain, in detail, how you might set up an experiment to test the hypothesis that Computer Science and Engineering students have fewer faults in their program code compared with Electrical Engineering students. Describe your experiment in detail from preparation to the final analysis of results. Should your experiment be repeated? If so, by whom and how many times? If not, why not? Discuss.
6. ITECH6501 Additional Item
Discuss whether the Scientific Method is an accurate description of how Science actually progresses in reality. In other words, is the Scientific Method an accurate description of how discoveries are made and knowledge advanced? If not, what then, is the role of Experimentation?
Your support material must be compiled from reliable sources such as the academic resources in Federation University library which might include, but not limited to: the main library collection, library databases and the BONUS+ collection as well as any reputable online resources (you should confirm this with your tutor).
Plagiarism
It is important to learn from the work of others and you are encouraged to explore the library, World Wide Web resources and have discussions with other students. However, work for the assessment must be entirely your own work.
*Important*
Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person as though it is one's own without properly acknowledging that person.
You must not allow other students to copy your work and must take care to safeguard against this happening. In cases of copying, normally all students involved will be penalised equally; an exception will be if you can demonstrate the work is your own and you took reasonable care to safeguard against copying.
Plagiarism is a serious offence. As set out in the University Regulation 6.1.1. students who are caught plagiarising will, for a first offence, be given a zero mark for that task. A second offence will result in a failing grade for the course involved and any subsequent offence will be referred to the Student Discipline Committee.
Submission requirements
You will be required to submit your report via Turnitin prior to submitting a final version on Moodle.
It is important that there are no issues with Turnitin before you submit your final report on Moodle – you must provide evidence of this. Your assignment will not be marked otherwise.

ITECH350-6501 Principles of Software Engineering
Item Essential Points to Cover Mark
1. Cover Page Course Name & Number, Student Name, Student ID, Tutor’s Name 5
2. Abstract Not more than 250 words. 5
3. Glass
Requirement deficiencies are the prime source of project failures. (L1) What are the two most common requirement deficiencies? How can they be avoided? 3
4. Parnas
Only what is hidden can be changed without risk. (L8) What types of things are hidden? How are they hidden? What risks are involved in changing something? 3
5. Boehm
Prototyping (significantly) reduces requirements and design errors, especially for user interfaces. (L3) How is prototyping done? 3
6. Conway
A system reflects the organizational structure that built it. (LI6) In what ways does a system do this? 3
7. TDD Describe the method of software development called Test Driven Development (TDD).
List three advantages and
three shortcomings of this method.
Describe clearly, and illustrate with examples, how these four laws could be applied to TDD.
3
3
3
4
8. Observations, Laws & Theories What is a law? 10
9. Scientific Method Outline and describe the Scientific Method.
Compare and contrast the diagram above with the Scientific Method.
5
10
10. References Both inline and full references. (APA) 10
11. Presentation of report Spelling, Grammar and Layout 10
ITECH3501 TOTAL / 80
ITECH6501 Additional Item Discuss whether the Scientific Method is an accurate description of how Science actually progresses in reality. In other words, is the Scientific Method an accurate description of how discoveries are made and knowledge advanced? If not, what then, is the role of Experimentation? / 20
ITECH6501 TOTAL / 100
FINAL MARK /10