| CODE | CSA1022 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Principles of Structured Development | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | Not Applicable | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 6 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Computer Science | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | It should be stressed that this unit is not in any way a “programming” course. It could, however, expose students to some very limited practical programming in the form of examples to consolidate theoretical discussion. This unit introduces the basic concepts of imperative programming languages from the viewpoint of algorithmic structures and computation. Structure theorems and their application will also be introduced and discussed. As its second part, this unit will introduce a rigorous structured approach to program specification and design using simple universal concepts, and guidelines applied in an ever-increasing spectrum of development environments. The unit will introduce the student to such basic concepts as functional connectivity through data flow, modularity, module structure and relationships, through basic development paradigms such as stepwise refinement and levels of abstraction. Depending on time and assimilation rates the unit will also introduce object oriented entity-event modeling concepts and relevant notation. Throughout this unit, the student will be exposed to various standard analysis and design paradigms and notations. All the principles discussed in this unit are accompanied by practical examples whenever possible. Textbooks: • “An Introduction to Systems Analysis Techniques”, 2nd Ed. by M. Lejk & D. Deeks, Addison Wesley, 2002, ISBN: 0-20179713-5. • “Software Design” 2nd Ed. by D. Budgen, Pearson-Addison Wesley, 2003, ISBN: 0-201-72219-4. Additional Textbooks: • “Software Engineering - a Programming Approach" 3rd Ed. by D. Bell, Addison Wesley, 2000, ISBN: 0-201-64856-3. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | The assignment will be in the form of coursework that could comprise both classwork and homework as a set of accumulated activities to be handed in one week (FIVE working days) before the start of the relevant assessment session at the University of Malta. Leads to: CSA2181 |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Ernest A. Cachia |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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