Software Specification (CIS-771)

Purpose:

In the future, everything will be smart. Microchips will be embedded in most man-made devices, from clothing to appliances, from vehicles to buildings. A variety of networks will connect these devices. The world will become one large distributed computer. And software will control it all. Billions of lives and trillions of dollars already depend on the correct operation of software, and the degree of automation is likely to increase. More safety critical processes will be controlled by software, and most commerce is expected to be electronic. As networks increase connectivity, the interaction of distributed embedded computers will provide unprecedented capabilities, but also great complexity.

In this brave new world you will be building software that must operate as expected. If it does not the consequences will be great (to you and society).

How can we possibly construct enormously complex systems built from parts that are themselves built by hundreds of people and have any hope that they will work?

In this course, we will study a collection of techniques that lie at the foundation of an approach to software development that can enable the construction of large highly reliable software. That foundation is specification of the precise meaning of the execution behavior of software.

The old argument for precise specification still holds: Without a precise specification of what we want to build

• we can't tell that we're building the right thing
• we can't tell if the program we built does what we want

Schedule:

Laboratory: A weekly laboratory section will be held on-campus Fridays from 7:50-9:20am in Nichols 127 and Nichols 122. Students will be assigned to sections. Laboratory meetings provide your opportunity for asking questions so make use of it. Laboratory meetings provide us with an opportunity for finding out how your learning is proceeding; quizes will be given each week.

For off-campus students, we will be preparing a "transcript" of the Laboratory meetings and posting them on the web. Off-campus students should submit questions by Thursday at 5pm (central time) to have them addressed in the Friday laboratory section. Off-campus students will receive the weekly quizes via email on Friday morning. The quizes are designed to take 10-20 minutes and they must be returned by 12 noon (central time) on the day they are handed out; late quizes will receive no credit.

Prerequisites:

Credits:

• 3 credits

Instructors:

• Matthew Dwyer, Nichols 324, Office Hours: Thursday 10-11am, (dwyer@cis.ksu.edu)
• John Hatcliff, Nichols 324, Office Hours: Tuesdays 4-5pm, (hatcliff@cis.ksu.edu)

Marking Scheme:

• Homeworks (45%)
• Quizes (20%)
• Mid-term Exam (15%)
• Final Exam (20%)

A third of your grade will be based on your performance on traditional closed-book, closed notes mid-term and final exams. A fifth of your grade will be based on your performance on weekly quizes. Nearly half of your grade will be based on assignments related to each of the three specification frameworks that we will be discussing in the course. For each of the three frameworks (Alloy, UML, ESC/Java), you will have two assignments

• a smaller assignment to help you learn the basic properties of the respective framework, and
• a larger "mini-project" to be carried out in conjunction with the case study lectures on the respective framework.

Off-campus students will need to arrange to have a proctor for both the mid-term exam and the final. You can arrange for this through NTU, K-state DCE, or contact the CIS department office. Proctors are not needed the weekly quizzes.

Grading Policy:

This policy holds for all students in the course (on-campus and off-campus). For off-campus students, late quiz solutions will receive a reduction of 1% of the total possible points for each minute after the due date/time.

To accomodate students who may have the occasional conflict with Lab meetings, we will drop the lowest quiz score in calculating your final grade. If you have to miss two quizzes then one will be dropped but the other will be factored in as a zero.

Grading scale:

• A: 90% -- 100%
• B: 80% -- 89%
• C: 70% -- 79%
• D: 60% -- 69%
• F: below 60%

Computer Access:

If you prefer, we have everything you need on our CIS department machines so you should can get an account on our machines. See the computing systems page for information on how to get an account and use our machines.

Attendance policy:

Faithful attendance to all laboratory sections is strongly urged but not required. In general, there will be NO make-up quizes or exams! Special consideration will be given in only exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances are generally limited to:

• Emergencies: death in student's immediate family, or near-death experience of the student
• Non-emergencies: certified excused absences for official university activities.

If you believe you qualify for exceptional treatment, you must notify the instructor prior to the date of the quiz or exam to be missed.

Other Administrative Issues

• Incompletes:
  An incomplete (I) final grade will be given only by prior arrangement in exceptional circumstances conforming to departmental policy in which the bulk of course work has been completed in passing fashion.
• Academic Misconduct:
  Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and may be punished by failure on the exam, paper or project; failure in the course; and/or expulsion from the university. For more information refer to the ``Academic Conduct'' policy in the Student Life Handbook, which may be found in the KSU Campus Phone Book.
• Students with Disabilities:
  If you have any condition, such as a physical or learning disability, which will make it difficult for you to carry out the work as we have outlined it or which will require academic accommodations, please notify me in the first two weeks of the course.

Maintained by Matthew Dwyer and John Hatcliff