Objectives of Programme's Learning Outcomes

• Have acquired highly specialised and integrated knowledge and broad skills in the various disciplines of computer science, which come after those within the Bachelor's in computer science.
• Manage large-scale software development projects.
• Apply, mobilise, articulate and promote the knowledge and skills acquired in order to help lead and complete a project.
• Demonstrate independence and their ability to work alone or in teams.
• Manage research, development and innovation.
• Organise and lead a research, development or innovation project to completion.
• Methodically research valid scientific information, lead a critical analysis, propose and argue potentially innovative solutions to targeted problems.
• Master communication techniques.
• Communicate, both orally and in writing, their findings, original proposals, knowledge and underlying principles, in a clear, structured and justified manner.
• Adapt their communication to a variety of audiences.
• Where possible, communicate in a foreign language.
• Develop and integrate a high degree of autonomy.
• Aquire new knowledge independently.

Learning Outcomes of UE

This course is taught in English. By the end of the course, students will have learned what software evolution is, why it is inevitable, how it fits into the field of software engineering, and how it can reasonably be achieved. The technical, social and managerial aspects of software maintenance and evolution will be covered. Students will have gained practical experience of the tools, techniques, principles and best practices of software evolution, software quality improvement and collaborative software development. They will also have gained knowledge of open problems in the research area of software evolution.

Content of UE

The course is a balanced mix of lectures, student presentations, practical exercices, and a project assignment that puts software evolution activities into practice. Software evolution entails all activities, methods, tools and processes for supporting the life cycle of software project after the first software product release. Throughout the course students will learn how to analyse, visualise and assess the quality of individual software systems and software ecosystems. They will learn to maintain and improve software quality using techniques such as bad smell detection, technical debt reduction, software testing, refactoring, restructuring and reengineering. They will also become acquainted with a variety of techniques such as software versioning, software product line engineering, continuous integration, software configuration management, (open source) software ecosystems, and software repository mining.

Prior Experience

Students should have a basic knowledge of software engineering principles. They should also be able to program in the Java programming language.

Type of Assessment for UE in Q2

• Presentation and/or works
• Written examination
• Graded tests

Q2 UE Assessment Comments

Term 2 will be assessed on the basis of the following weighted evaluation:
- Evaluation of a work assignment carried out by the students (in groups of 1 to 3 persons): 40% of the final note
- Oral presentation (on the basis of slides produced by the student) of the summary of a scientific article or book chapter: 30% of the final note
- Written examination : 30% of the final note. (Depending on the circumstances, it is possible that the exam will be replaced by an assignment, but only under mutual agreement between the students and the teacher.)

Type of Assessment for UE in Q3

• Presentation and/or works
• Written examination

Q3 UE Assessment Comments

Term 3 will be assessed using the same weighting as Term 2.
The student will have the possibility to improve his project grade and/or oral presentation grade during Term 3. However, the grade of the practical work done by the students during the practical exercice sessions in Q2 will be automatically carried over to Q3, even in case of failure.