Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

In this module students will apply material covered in the co-requisites in a practical situation using synoptic assessment. As such it will provide coherence to all material covered in Stage 1.

Aims

By the end of this module students will have gained, at an introductory level, experience in, and a knowledge of the basic concepts of all stages of the software engineering lifecycle, namely requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance.

Students will have gained awareness of the legal, social, ethical and professional aspects of being a practising software engineer.

Outline Of Syllabus

• An introduction to all stages of the software engineering lifecycle.

• An introduction to general principles of programming languages and their realisation in a representative
language.

• An introduction to the legal, social, ethical and professional aspects of being a software engineer.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

After completing this module students will be able to articulate, at a basic level, the wider engineering context that applies to developing complex software system and will be able to:

• Explain fundamental programming constructs such as assignments, conditionals, loops and functions.
• Describe appropriate style rules for formatting and documenting legible and maintainable software.
• Assess the suitability of software structures for an application.
• Describe the software engineering lifecycle and identify its stages.
• Recognise the legal, social, ethical and professional issues arising in real situations.
• Identify and select online sources of supporting material relevant to their project work.
• Report on the processes involved in developing software.

Intended Skill Outcomes

After completing this module students will, at a fundamental level, be able to tackle all aspects of the software engineering lifecycle. They will be able to:

• Analyse a problem in order to identify, in a succinct way, a user’s requirements.
• Prepare a specification meeting a set of requirements.
• Produce a design from their own and other suitable specifications.
• Translate a design into a well formatted and documented piece of software.
• Develop and deploy an appropriate testing strategy.
• Choose and use appropriate techniques to debug an existing software system.
• Modify an existing software system to extend its functionality.
• Appraise and employ online sources at all stages of the software engineering lifecycle.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures materials will be used to introduce each project, and aspects of software engineering, particularly programming. During their independent study time, students will review online materials providing further support for development of programming skills. They will also use this time to attempt the problems set.

For each topic/problem students will provide a software artefact that contributes to their portfolio of evidence of the activities they have undertaken.

The lectures and practical sessions will provide support for developing the skills.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will produce software artefacts demonstrating that they have mastered practical skills in software development applied to a variety of problems chosen to reflect real world applications but targeted at the skill level of the students when the work is set.

Two software artefacts equivalent to 3000 words total will be required. Each artefact will also contain a reflective report on the skills gained.

General Notes

N/A