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Learn agile methods, object-oriented programming and best practices for analysis, design, testing and management in software engineering.
The world of software engineering requires high flexibility, an influx of new ideas, and the courage to challenge traditional approaches. As a software engineer, you need to know the methods, workflows and tools to handle continuously growing complexity and shortened development cycles. You must be able to work in teams to build high-quality software.
In this course, we will introduce the basic concepts of object-oriented software engineering. You will learn and apply UML modeling, patterns and project management techniques that are used when developing complex software systems.
This course is interactive. You will watch videos in which we explain critical theory. You will participate in online exercises to practice your knowledge including quizzes, UML modeling with peer reviews, and programming exercises with immediate feedback.
Participating students must have basic knowledge in an object-oriented programming language, preferably Java.
Introduction
The goal of the introduction is to make yourself familiar with the ideas we’ll explore in this course. Furthermore, we’ll conduct a small survey to get a sense for your existing knowledge.
Week 1: Project Organization and Management
In this week, you will learn the fundamentals of project organization and management, including agile methods.
Week 2: Software Configuration Management
We introduce the six main activates in software configuration management, namely: configuration item identification, promotion management, build- and release management, change management, branch management, and variant management.
Week 3: Object-Oriented Programming
Instruction of the four fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming: encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism and abstraction.
Week 4: Requirements Analysis
Starting from a specific problem, we show you tools, techniques and modeling diagrams to transform the problem of your client into requirements towards the solution.
Week 5: System Design
Introduction of different activities during system design. We have a closer look at the topics design goals, subsystem decomposition and hardware/software mapping. We will also have a discussion on patterns and antipatterns (e.g. client-dispatcher-server, layer architecture, golden hammer, corncob).
Week 6: Object Design
During the phase of object design, you will prepare everything for your implementation. We will make use of inheritance and design patterns to achieve reusability (e.g. strategy and bridge pattern).
Week 7: Testing
Testing is fundamental knowledge of every software engineering. We will show you different types of testing (unit, system, integration & acceptance testing), give you hands-on examples and have a look at testing patterns, such as the mock object patterns and the concept of dependency injection.
Week 8: Build and Release Management
In this week, you will learn how developers package their code into builds and release the software to users and customers. We will explain the basic idea of continuous integration and continuous delivery.
Exercises:
Each week includes several problems that you should solve, including multiple choice quizzes, drag-and-drop exercises, as well as peer review problems you should assign to your fellow learners. Additionally, you will have to write source code in Java to given problems, for which you will receive immediate feedback to iteratively improve your solution.
“Excellent course! It's definitely the best introduction to software engineering! Rich in variety, interactive exercises, challenging homework and excellent support throughout the course.”
-- Previous Student
“I really enjoyed taking the course Software Engineering Essentials. The instructors explained each topic well prepared and clear. With the exercises, I was able to try out what I have just learned.”
-- Previous Student
