ITEC6970 - Fall 2011

Special Topics in IT: Systems Architecture

Information Page

Prof. Sotirios Liaskos
E-mail: liaskos@yorku.ca

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Course Information

Overview and Learning Objectives

ITEC9670 - Fall 2011 will cover Systems Architecture. The notion of the architecture and it's different meanings in IT shall be discussed. We will then focus on the process of generating and implementing an architecture within the systems development lifecycle -- special attention will be given to the role of requirements. Patterns, styles, and reference architectures will be presented as tools to reuse past architectural experience. Architectural analysis and evaluations techniques are investigated. Current trends in architecting systems, particularly service orientation and model-driven development shall be discussed in more depth. We will also discuss product-line development as well as enterprise architecture.

Details of the course content, schedule and evaluation scheme may change so PLEASE refer to the MOODLE page for current up-do-date information.

Textbooks (recommended)

Base:

Len Bass, Paul Clements and Nick Kazman. Software Architecture in Practice (2nd Edition). Addison-Wesley, 2007. ISBN:0-321-15495-9

Other texts:

Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic and Eric M. Dashofy. Software Architecture (Foundations, Theory and Practice). Wiley, 2010. ISBN:978-0-470-16774-8

Paul Clements, Felix Bachman, Len Bass, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Paulo Menson, Robert Nord, Judith Stafford. Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond. Addison Wesley Professional. 2010

Jan Bosh. Design and Use of Software Architectures: Adopting and Evolving a Product Line Approach. Addison Wesley Professional. 2000

Prerequisites

Prerequisites: Evidence of strong knowledge of object-oriented programming and systems analysis and design or permission by instructor. 

Evaluation

A typical evaluation scheme is as follows:

• Design Project (30% - teams of three-four):
• Phase 1 (15%): Conceptualization and Modeling
• Phase 2 (15%): Analysis
• Participation and Presentations (20%):
• Paper Presentation / Discussion Leading / Other leading (15%)
• Participation (5%)
• Research Reporting (50%):
• Class Presentation (10%)
• Research Report (40%)

Course Outline

A typical term is organized as follows:
Session 1. Architecture: What, Why and How
Session 2. Designing Architectures
Session 3. Designing Architectures II (patterns and styles)
Session 4. Modelling Architectures using View Types
Session 5. Modelling Architectures II (ADLs and formal approaches)
Session 6. Model-Driven Architecture and Development
Session 7. Middleware and Service Oriented Architecture
Session 8. Middleware and Service Oriented Architecture II
Session 9. Architectural Analysis
Session 10. Software Product Lines
Session 11. Enterprise Architecture.
Session 12. Other topics (e.g. recovery, implementation techniques) 

Course Policies

Students are referred to the school of IT web pages with official policies and directions regarding exam deferrals, special accommodations etc.

Communicating with the Instructor (Registered Students PLEASE ATTEND):

• Student questions about lectures, material, assignments, additional information etc. should be posted publicly on Moolde so that other students benefit from the answers. Students who want to answer to their colleagues' posts on Moodle are encouraged to do so!
• Use private e-mail for administrative issues or when your message contains information your colleagues should not see (e.g. implies bits of your solution). All correspondence MUST be named and the instructor must be able to confirm you are in the course list; anonymous messages will of course be ignored, unless good reason provided..
• Make sure you use office hours and opportunities to talk to me directly, for quick responses.
• Also, please use phone only in cases of emergency and DON'T use voicemail if you can send e-mail (I will check the latter sooner). Use both to be on the safe side; all this in case of emergency.

Please show professionalism in all your correspondence.

See you in class!! (and Moodle)