CS 520: Theory and Practice of Software Engineering

News:

• Homework 1 is posted! Due: Tu September 29, 2026, 9:00AM EDT
• Project group and topic selection is posted! Due: Th September 24, 2026, 9:00AM EDT
• If you are looking for partners for the final project, use this discussion forum
• Sign up for a final project team on canvas at this link

Description:

CS 520 introduces students to the principal activities and state-of-the-art techniques involved in developing high-quality software systems. Topics include: requirements analysis, formal specification methods, software design, software testing and debugging, program analysis, and automated software engineering.

This course will cover the following high-level topics:

• Software architecture and design
  • Software modelling
  • Best practices and OO design principles
  • Architecture and design patterns
  • A brief introduction to functional programming (in Java)
• Program analysis and software testing
• Automated debugging and program repair
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Empirical/Experimental Software Engineering

Besides becoming familiar with Software Engineering principles and best practices, students will learn about cutting-edge research in Software Engineering, Security, and Human-Computer Interaction. The exercises and the group project provide additional hands-on experience in using state-of-the-art techniques.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding modern software development practices in the era of AI.
• Developing architecture and design for complex software systems.
• Cutting edge software engineering practices and techniques.
• Software evaluation and emprical experimental evaluation of software engineering techniques.

Logistics:

All assignment submissions are through Canvas.

Late policy: Assignment due dates and times are listed on the schedule. All deadlines are sharp and the submission site will be closed at the specified time. No extensions will be granted after the assignment is due. Early requests for extensions will be considered only in extenuating circumstances. No more than one extension will be granted per student.

Grading:

Students are responsible for submitting all homework and project assignments. A student who fails to submit at least one of the homework or project assignments will receive the grade F for the entire class.

Schedule:

(subject to change; check regularly)

Nondiscrimination policy:

Software engineering is at its nature a collaborative activity and it benefits greatly from diversity. This class includes and welcomes all students regardless of age, background, citizenship, disability, sex, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity, geographical origin, language, military experience, political views, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and work experience. Our discussions and learning will benefit from these and other diverse points of view. Any kind of language or action displaying bias against or discriminating against members of any group, or making members of any group uncomfortable are against the mission of this course and will not be tolerated. The instructor welcomes discussion of this policy, and encourages anyone experiencing concerns to speak with him.

Academic integrity:

Students are allowed to work together on all aspects of this class. However, for the homework assignments, each student must submit his or her own write up, clearly stating the collaborators. Your submission must be your own. When in doubt, contact the instructors about whether a potential action would be considered plagiarism. If you discuss material with anyone besides the class staff, acknowledge your collaborators in your write-up. If you obtain a key insight with help (e.g., through library work or a friend), acknowledge your source and write up the summary on your own. It is the student's responsibility to remove any possibility of someone else's work from being misconstrued as the student's. Never misrepresent someone else's work as your own. It must be absolutely clear what material is your original work. Plagiarism and other anti-intellectual behavior will be dealt with severely. Note that facilitation of plagiarism (giving your work to someone else) is also considered to be plagiarism, and will carry the same repercussions.

Students are encouraged to use the Internet, literature, and other publicly-available resources, except the homework solutions and test (including quizzes, midterms, finals, and other exams) solutions, from past terms' versions of this course and other academic courses, whether at UMass and at other institutions. To reiterate, the students are not allowed to view and use past homework and test solutions, unless explicitly distributed by the COMPCSI 520 staff as study material.

The use of AI-based and other generative technologies (such as, but not limited to ChatGPT) is allowed, but the students must explicitly and clearly disclose all such use whenever submitting anything for the class that benefited from the use of such technology. All submissions using such technology, for code, text, or any other material, must explicitly disclose and document its use.

Whenever students use Internet, literature, and other publicly-available resources, they must clearly reference the materials in their write ups, attributing proper credit. This cannot be emphasized enough: attribute proper credit to your sources. Failure to do so will result in a zero grade for the assignment and possibly a failing grade for the class, at the instructor's discretion. Copying directly from resources is not permitted, unless the copying is clearly identified as a quote from a source. Most use of references should be written in the words of the student, placing the related work in proper context and describing the relevant comparison.

The students should familiarize themselves with the UMass Academic Honesty Policy and Guidelines for Classroom Civility and Respect. These policies and guidelines apply to this class.

Students who violate University standards of academic integrity are subject to disciplinary sanctions, including failure in the course and suspension from the university. Since dishonesty in any form harms the individual, other students, and the university, policies on academic integrity have been and will be strictly enforced.

Reading:

The following text books provide a more comprehensive discussion of the topics addressed in this class. Note that these text books are not a requirement for this class.

• Fundamentals of Software Engineering by Carlo Ghezzi, Mehdi Jazayeri, Dino Mandrioli; Prentice Hall, 2002.
• Introduction to software testing. Paul Ammann and Jeff Offutt. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Effective Java. Joshua Bloch. Addison-Wesley, 2001.
• UML distilled: A brief guide to the standard object modeling language. Martin Fowler. Addison-Wesley, 2004.
• Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice by Richard N. Taylor, Nenad Medvidovic, and Eric Dashofy; John Wiley and Sons, 2010.
• Design patterns: Elements of reusable object-oriented software. Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides. Addison-Wesley, 1994.
• Head first design patterns. Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson. O'Reilly, 2004.

Prerequisites:

Students should have taken an intermediate course in software engineering and have built, in a team, a software system of roughly 10,000 lines of code or more. Students are expected to be familiar with an object oriented programming language, such as Java or C++. The ability to use linux and download and use off-the-shelf tools are expected.

Acknowledgements:

Various materials used in this course have greatly benefited from materials developed by Rene Just, Michael Ernst, David Notkin, Alex Orso, Juan Zhai, Heather Conboy, Claire Le Goues, and Lee Osterweil.