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Dines Bjørner's View of Courses 02262 + 02268

One thing is to know about ``Best Software Engineering Practices''.
And Course 02260 taught you some of that !
Another thing is to become a real Professional in the broader area of Software Engineering -- conceiving original and innovative new software applications and implementing these in a trustworthy manner, on time, at cost, and to the customers full satisfcation.
And Courses 02262 and 02268 will teach you what it takes !
With Courses 02262 and 02268 well behind you, you can then move on to become a Leading Edge Software Engineering Candidate in specialised branches of Software and Informatics able to create novel and exciting systems -- by taking a number of further IMM Courses !

Preamble / Caveat:

We take the liberty of abbreviating the title of the present 02262 and 02268 courses by FASE/I and FASE/II.
FASE/I is a follow-on course to 02260.
FASE/II is a follow-on courses to FASE/I.

**Figure 1:** Rôle of IMM Courses 02260, 02262 and 02268
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=22602262.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

We emphasise that Figure 1 only views other IMM courses from the point of view of IMM Courses 02260, 02262 and 02268, and that the view is primarily that of the author of this web page.

We refer to official DTU home pages for overall views of IMMs Informatics courses:

Danish: Informatikretningen
Informatics Course Guides:
- Danish Guide
- English Guide

What is Software Engineering (SE) ?

We now extend the characterisation given of SE on the Home Page for Course 02260.

Before software can be designed we must have a reasonably comprehensive statement of its requirements.
Before requirements can be formulated we must have a reasonable understanding of the domain in which the software is to serve.
Thus FASE covers principles, techniques and tools for
- the engineering of domain descriptions,
- the engineering of requirements descriptions,
- and the engineering of software designs.
FASE is organised around this Triptych.
But first FASE/I (02262) covers, in its first half, two aspects that go hand-in-hand:
- (AH) Property- and Model-oriented Abstraction and Modelling.
- (AH) The RSL (RAISE Specification Language) -- with which to express the abstractions and in which to decribe the models.
- and the development paradigm of stepwise refinement and verification.
FASE/I then goes on to cover:
- (DB) Abstraction and Modelling Description Facets, and
- (DB) Domain Engineering.
FASE/II, Fall 2002 (02268), covers:
- (DB) Requirements Engineering,
- (DB) Software Design (DB),
- (AH) Theoretical Foundations of (Algebraic) Specification Languages.
- Various, ongoing Research Topics

**Figure 2:** The SE Triptych
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=triptych.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

The Problems that the FASE Courses Address:

The three kinds of engineerings mentioned above: Domain engineering, requirements engineering and software design (programming), all have a number of things in common:

They require that many forms of Documents be constructed, and that hence the three kinds of engineering practitioners have a good grasp of Linguistics: how and what to document:
- Informative documents: Software needs, development briefs, and synopsis documents;
- Descriptive documents: Rough sketches, terminologies, narratives (all three are informal documents), and formal specifications; and
- Analytic documents: Validation, concept analysis & formation, verification, testing, etc., documents.
Hence FASE covers methods for the conception and construction of the above kinds of documents, emphasising principles, informal and formal techniques and tools of description and analysis.

Figure 3: SE Documents
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=document.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
Various abstraction principles and techniques are covered which apply generally across the three kinds of engineerings:
- (AH) Property and Model oriented abstractions,
  A first half of FASE/I, the 02262 Course, covers this most important aspect.
  Without a proper grasp of property oriented and model oriented abstraction -- principles, techniques and (RAISE) tools, and of a very useful specification language notation (RSL) -- one cannot hope to meaningfully proceed.
- (DB) Denotations and Computations,
- (DB) Hierarchicies and Compositions,
- (DB) Configurations: Contexts and States,
- (DB) Temporalities (Time) and (Mereological) Spaces,
- etc.
(AH) The Development Paradigms of
- Stepwise Refinement and
- Verification
(DB) The three kinds of engineering specifically, as part of the linguistics skills, require that its practitioners have a good grasp of Semiotics:
- Of pragmatics: Of why descriptions are made, the motivation, the rationale.
- of semantics: Of what the meaning is of description texts.
- and of syntax: Of forms of documents, in particular of forms of descriptions, whether informal or formal.
Hence FASE/I covers methods for both informal and formal semantics and syntax.

Figure 4: Pragmatics, Semantics and Syntax
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=semiotik.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
The many kinds of software system or informatics engineers listed for Course 02260 (SE/I) (under the retoric question heading: Are there Software Engineers ?) all have to practice
- (DB) Domain Engineering: The stake-holder perspectives on the intrinsics, support technologies, management & organisation, rules & regulations and human behaviour facets of the domain.
- (DB) Requirements Engineering: The domain, interface and machine requirements, in particular the projection, instantiation, extension and initialisation of domain requirements from domain descriptions; the issues of interface requirements: graphical user interfaces, dialogues, and other input/output requirements; and the many issues of machine requirements: performance, dependability (including accessability, availability, reliability, fault tolerance and security), (adaptive, perfective, corrective) maintenance, (development, execution, maintenance) platform portability, and documentation standards.
- (DB) Software Design: The computing systems and software systems architecture, the programming system organisation, modularisation (``objectification''), and coding designs.
Hence FASE covers the principles, techniques and tools of the above highlighted and related issues.

Figure 5: The SE Triptych -- Again !
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=triptych.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
(DB) Since the no one set of principles, techniques and tools are universally applicable to all kinds of software development, FASE/II reviews various Problem Frames and their specific domain engineering, requirements engineering and software design issues:
- Translator Frame: Interpreters, compilers, software development tools in general (theorem provers, etc.).
- Information Frame: Database systems.
- Reactive Frame: Embedded, real-time, fault tolerant systems.
- Connection Frame: Data communiation and data bus systems.
- Workpiece: Project planning, accounting, word processors, etc.
- Knowledge/Agent Frame: E-Business, agents and brokers, etc.
- &c.
These issues are dealt with in final, scientific and technical form in courses also offered by IMM -- across its full spectrum of course programmes:
- Software Engineering (02260, 02264, 02266),
- Concurrent Systems (02220, 02222, 02224, 02226, 02228),
- Computability & Semantics (02240, 02232),
- Data Logic (02280, 022282, 02284, 02286, 02288), and
- Digital Design & Computer Organisation (02202, 02224, 02226).

Lecturers:

Prof. Dines Bjørner and Assoc.Prof. Anne Haxthausen

Lectures:

**Figure 3:** SE Documents
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=document.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

**Figure 4:** Pragmatics, Semantics and Syntax
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=semiotik.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

We refer to the DTU Study Handbook:

02262
02268: ...URL to be provided

Homework/Exercises and Project Work:

Two kinds of ``class'' work will be pursued:

Homework & Exercises: There will often be weekly exercises with class guidance -- but also to be developed using the RAISE Tool Set on either your own PC or on DTU computers.
Project Work: The second half of Course 02262, FASE/I, as well as part of FASE/II, will feature project teams and project topics.

Figure 6: IMM Course 02262 Project Teams
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=team2262.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

Each team will jointly produce part of a software engineering development. During the Spring 2002 semester the subject will be different from group to group.
- Example problems could be domain models of:
  - airports: Flow of passengers, baggage, aircrafts, catering, fuel, service, maintenance, etc.
  - airlines: Management of flights, air traffic control, slot management, etc.
  - health-care: Patient Journals, hospitalisation, etc.: FLow of people, material, information and control in the health-care sector.
  - insurance companies: Health, life, risk, family, fire, etc.
  - stock exchanges: Brokers, traders and exchanges
  - wharehousing and cargo storage handling
  - &c.
  or for software engineering support tools:
  - domain engineering;
  - requirements engineering;
  - document version control & configuration management;
  - rapid prototyping cum demo system building tools;
  - &c.
- Or example problems could be to rework past (old, already reported) domain description projects with respect to requirements:
  - for agent and broker oriented E-Business:
    
    Figure 7: Brokered E-Business Agencies
    $\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=ebusines.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
  - for a production planning, monitoring & control (work flow) system
    
    Figure 8: Work Flow System Informatics
    $\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=workflow.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
  - for a freight (ie. cargo) transport logistics system
  - &c.
- Or example problems could be to software design (old, already reported) requirements projects, constructing software architecture and program organisation designs.
  Specialised examples that are currently relevant are:
  - Railway system optimisation:
    - Travel planning,
    - time-tabling,
    - staff rostering,
    - platform utilisation,
    - rolling stock optimisation,
    - &c.
    Figure 9: Railway Informatics
    $\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=railnet.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$
  - Logistics system optimisation:
    - Freight routing,
    - conveyor load optimisation,
    - transport bub container rotation,
    - &c.
Each student will additionally be asked to write a smaller report in which a number of related questions need be answered.
Joint sessions will address project issues more-or-less common to all project teams.

The Rôle of FASE in Industry:

**Figure 6:** IMM Course 02262 Project Teams
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=team2262.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

**Figure 7:** Brokered E-Business Agencies
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=ebusines.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

**Figure 8:** Work Flow System Informatics
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=workflow.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

**Figure 9:** Railway Informatics
$\begin{figure} \vspace*{2mm} \begin{center}\epsfig {file=railnet.eps}\end{center} \end{figure}$

The above listings should suffice to illustrate, to the student, the variety of immediate applications of FASE topics. To that one has to add the Problem Frame specific areas listed earlier.
The software industry is today fraught with very many and very serious problems:

Software do not meet customers (domain requirements) expectations. That is: They are not the right products. Users are frustrated. Clients are unhappy.
Software is error-prone: That is: The software is not right. It is full of ``bugs''. Leading to serious customer (client and user) dissatisfaction.
Customised software is delivered late, not on-time, as contracted. It is later, overdue. This leads to serious client dussatisfaction and user frustration.
Customised software is developed above costs. You can imagine, yourself, the unhappiness &c.

Experience over the last 20 years has shown that the principles and the techniques taught (propagated) by FASE, when taken serious, by industry, lead to significant alleviations in each of the above four areas. These claims are well documented in seriously reviewed public literature.

Relation to Course 02260 Software Engineering:

Whereas 02260: Software Engineering is a ``beginners'', broad course which emphasises practical (and necessary) engineering issues, the present courses, FASE: Formal Aspects (Theory & Practice) of Software Engineering emphasise software enginering on the basis of scientific theories and insight.

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Dines Bjorner
2001-12-08