OVERVIEW

The material in this book may be taught in different ways depending on the time available and the knowledge level of the students. This appendix describes possible academic and industrial courses that could be based on this book.

A prerequisite of these courses is an introductory course on software engineering that covers the software life cycle and the main activities in each phase of the life cycle. This prerequisite course would cover the material described in introductory books on software engineering, such as Pressman (Pressman 2009), or Sommerville (Sommerville 2010).

Each of these courses has three parts: description of the method, presentation of at least one case study using the method, and a hands-on design exercise for students to apply the method to a real-world problem.

SUGGESTED ACADEMIC COURSES

The following academic courses could be based on the material covered in this book:

1. A senior undergraduate or graduate level course on software modeling and design, with an overview of each of the architecture categories.

2. A variation on the preceding course is to concentrate on one of the architecture categories, such as service-oriented architectures or component-based software architectures, with a detailed case study and hands-on design exercise.

3. A design lab course is held as a follow-up course to the software modeling and design course (course 1) in which the students work in groups to develop a solution to a substantial software problem for one of the categories of software architecture. In this case, students could also implement all or part of the system.