Monthly Archives: July 2014

Software Engineering Curriculum, Software Project Management

Topic 14 – Software Project Management

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Why do I need to learn about software project management?

Knowing how to create software does not mean that you will create software SUCCESSFULLY. Creating software successfully means that you satisfy all customer’s REQUIREMENTS ON TIME, ON BUDGET with HIGH QUALITY while making both the customer and yourself HAPPY. Especially, your software must create REVENUE for the customer.

Have you ever wondered why many software projects failed; why Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Apple, Amazon and IBM abandoned many projects? Software project management will provide you knowledge so that you could improve the success probability of your software projects and mitigate all the project risks.

What can I do after finishing learning about software project management?

You will know how to plan a project, including scoping, estimating time and resources, creating a schedule or an adaptive release plan, identifying and responding to risks.

You will know how to create software using the mindset of a specific methodology (i.e. Waterfall, Rational Unified Process, Iterative and Incremental Development, Agile Methods, Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban, PMI, PRINCE2).

You will know how to perform project configuration management, how to combine development and operations to release software faster, how to control project changes, how to report project status, how to control product and process quality.

You will know how to collaborate with others to create software, how to motivate your team members.

Uh-oh! I am a developer. I do not want to be a project manager. Do I really need to know about project management?

If you have a doubt about the usefulness of project management knowledge then just review the situations below. If you can overcome all of them then congratulation, you already have enough project management knowledge that a developer needs.

– You are asked by your manager when you can finish your tasks. Unfortunately, the tasks are new to you. The requirements are vague. It is even worse that you have not found technical solutions for them.

– You are required to finish a task requiring a collaboration with other team members. Conflicts arise frequently. You do not want to work with them anymore but you still have to complete the task.

– You cannot complete a task on time due to many incidents.

– You are given only a project idea and asked to create a product. The difficulty is that you do not know where to start.

– Most of your projects cannot be complete on time and on budget and you do not know what are the root cases.

– Most of your customers do not want to partner with your team again although their projects were finished on time with high quality by your team.

Alright! What should I do now?

First,  please read this book to get familiar with software project management concepts: Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman (2005). Applied Software Project Management. O’Reilly.

After that, please read this book to learn how to estimate effort, time and cost for a software project: Steve McConnell (2006). Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art. Microsoft Press.

After that, please read this book to learn the principles of software project management: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. (1995). The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley Professional.

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to deal with the human side of a software project:

After that, please read this book to learn how to deal with software project risks: Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister (2003). Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risks On Software Projects. Dorset House.

After that, please read the books below to learn how to manage software project activities using the Unified Process:

After that, please read the books below to learn how to manage software project activities using the Scrum process:

After that, please read this book to learn how to manage requirements in an Agile project: Dean Leffingwell (2011). Agile Software Requirements. Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise. Addison-Wesley Professional.

After that, please read this book to learn how to estimate cost, effort, and duration, and how to create and manage a plan for an Agile project: Mike Cohn (2005). Agile Estimating and Planning. Pearson Education.

After that, please read this book to learn how to apply Extreme Programming techniques in an Agile project:  Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres (2004). Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. 2nd Edition. Pearson Education.

After that, please read the books below to learn how to carry out software project management activities with an Agile mindset:

After that, please read the books below to learn how to manage software project activities using the Kanban method:

After that, please read this book to learn how to perform software configuration management activities: Jessica Keyes (2004). Software Configuration Management. Auerbach Publications.

After that, please read this book to learn how to release software continously: Len Bass, Ingo Weber and Liming Zhu (2015). DevOps: A Software Architect’s Perspective. Pearson Education.

After that, please read the books below to become familiar with the knowledge areas and techniques developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI):

After that, lease read the two books below if you are interested in obtaining a PMP certificate:

After that, please read this book to review classical methods and techniques of software development: Steve McConnell (1996). Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules. Microsoft Press. The information in this book may help you address specific problems, such as unrealistic deadlines, frequent delays, and unclear or changing requirements.

After that, please read this book to review approaches to software project management, especially when organizational-level processes and practices establish the platform on which a software project is managed: Murali K. Chemuturi and Thomas M. Cagley Jr. (2010). Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques. J. Ross Publishing.

Terminology Review:

  • Project Initiation
  • Scope Management
  • Agile Requirements
  • Waterfall
  • Rational Unified Process (RUP)
  • Enterprise Unified Process
  • Agile Methods
  • Extreme Programming (XP)
  • Scrum
  • Kanban
  • Work-in-Progress (WIP)
  • Software Estimation
  • Agile Estimating
  • Project Planning
  • Gantt Chart
  • Cost Management
  • Agile Planning
  • Configuration Management
  • CI/CD/DevOps
  • Project Monitoring and Control
  • Time Management
  • Peopleware
  • Team Management
  • Team Motivation
  • Software Quality
  • Agile Retrospectives
  • Quality Management
  • Risk Management
  • Software Project Management
  • Software Process
  • Project Management Professional (PMP)
  • CMMI

After finishing software project management, please click on Topic 15 – Advanced Database Management Systems to continue.

Software Design, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 13 – Introduction to Software Design

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Why do I need to learn about software design?

What will you do if you are asked to build a house?
You will need to sketch its first and build the house based upon the sketch. Otherwise you may build a house that may collapse in a few weeks or cannot be decorated due to errors.

The situation is similar when you create software. You need to plan how you will build it first by deciding how many components and objects will be used for constructing to solve at least a core problem, what are their responsibility, how they work together, how data will be organized, how data will be flowed within these components, how users will interact with your application, how these components will be deployed.

Software design knowledge will guide you how to do these tasks.

What can I do after finishing learning software design?

You will know how to create a design for an application including static and dynamic structure, data organization, business processing workflows.

Is is really useful? I feel that you can write the code right after having requirements and I am able to refactor my code when needed.

That’s great if you can do it like that. You only need to learn about software design when

(i) you do not know how to write code for a feature or

(ii) you cannot refactor your code because only a small change breaks the whole application or

(iii) you need to write a software system together with 20 other developers and you do NOT know where to begin and how you will integrate results of all the developers into one solution or

(iv) you have a software system that could  serve 20 users simultaneously very well but it stops responding when serving 2,000 users simultaneously and you do not know how to fix it.

Alright! What should I do now?

Each application type, such as enterprise systems, games, or intelligent systems, requires specific design knowledge. In this topic, we focus only on the core concepts of software design related to enterprise systems.

First, please read the books below to learn the core concepts and activities of software design as illustrated using the UML language:

After that, please read this book to learn about object-oriented design patterns: Erich Gamma et al (1994). Design Patterns Elements Of Reusable Object Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley Professional. When reading this book, focus first on the Motivation section of each pattern, and feel free to skip any pattern if the problem presented in the Motivation section is not relevant to your situation or does not interest you.

After that, please read the books below to learn about classic design patterns and architectural patterns widely used in enterprise systems:

After that, please read the books below to learn about the core concepts and activities applicable to structured design (i.e., top-down decomposition):

After that, please read the books below to learn about the core concepts and activities applicable to object-oriented design (i.e., bottom-up composition):

After that, please read this book to learn how to design software systematically and how to evaluate a design: David Budgen (2020). Software Design. CRC Press.

After that, please read this book to learn how to create a clean, modular design for an enterprise system: Robert C. Martin (2017). Clean Architecture: A Craftsman’s Guide to Software Structure and Design. Pearson Education.

After that, please read this book to learn about the core concepts of software architecture: Len Bass, Paul Clements and Rick Kazman (2021). Software Architecture in Practice. Addison-Wesley.

After that, please read this book to learn how to document an architecture so that it can be used for communication, software construction and maintenance: Paul Clements et al. (2010). Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond. Pearson.

After that, please read the books below to learn how to create an architecture systematically:

After that, please read this book to learn how to document an architecture for agile projects: Simon Brown (2019). Software Architecture for Developers – Volume 2. 2 – Visualise, Document and Explore Your Software Architecture. Leanpub.

Terminology Review:

  • Software Design.
  • Design Inputs and Outputs.
  • Design Notations.
  • User Interface Design.
  • Database Design.
  • Data Structure Design.
  • Algorithm Design.
  • Object-Oriented Design.
  • Architectures.
  • Architecture Design.
  • Architectural Styles.
  • Architectural Patterns.
  • Design Patterns.
  • Modeling vs. Designing.
  • Analysis Models vs. Design Models.
  • Design Phases.
  • Design Timing.
  • Design Methods.
  • “Good” Design: Modularity, Information Hiding, Data Encapsulation, Low Coupling, High Cohesion.
  • UML.
  • Use Case Diagrams.
  • Class Diagrams.
  • System Sequence Diagrams.
  • Sequence Diagrams.
  • Communication Diagrams.
  • Activity Diagrams.
  • State Diagrams.
  • Static Structure.
  • Dynamic Structure.
  • Design Principles.
  • SOLID Principles.
  • Cohesion.
  • Coupling.
  • Design Patterns.
  • Software Architecture.
  • Architecture Qualities.
  • Package Diagrams.
  • Component Diagrams.
  • Deployment Diagrams.
  • Architectural View.
  • Architectural Viewpoint.
  • The C4 Model.
  • Architecture Patterns.
  • Enterprise Patterns.
  • Row Data Gateway.
  • Active Record.
  • Data Mapper.
  • Table Data Gateway.
  • Table Module.
  • Transaction Script.
  • Domain Models.
  • Structured Design.

After finishing software design, please click on Topic 14 – Software Project Management to continue.

Software Engineering Curriculum, Software Testing

Topic 12 – Software Testing

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Why do I need to learn about software testing?

Just image that a user installs your application, opens it and “BOOM!”, it crashes. Is it good? In the worst case scenario, your software operating an airplane suddenly hangs up while the airplane is still flying in the sky. Can you image what may happen? How do you ensure that your application solves your customer’s problems? How do you know if your software meets its users’ requirements? How do you give your users’ confidence about the correctness, reliability and security of your software? In order to answer these questions adequately you need to learn about software testing.

What can I do after finishing learning software testing?

You will know how to design and write a test case, how to prepare test data, how to test software structurally and correctly, how to automate testing tasks, how to report bugs.

I am a programmer. I am not a tester. Do I really need to know how to test software?

Many application capabilities must be tested by a programmer. Many software testing tasks can only be done by a programmer. Therefore you have to master software testing knowledge.

Alright! What should I do now?

First, please read the two books below to learn the core concepts of software testing:

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to automate software testing tasks:

Terminology Review:

  • Test Cases.
  • Test Coverage.
  • Test Reports.
  • Bug Tracking Systems.
  • Black Box Testing.
  • White Box Testing.
  • Performance Testing.
  • Acceptance Testing.
  • Inspection.
  • Automated Testing.
  • Test Automation.

After finishing software testing, please click on Topic 13 – Introduction to Software Design to continue.

 

Software Construction, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 11 – Software Construction

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Why do I need to learn about software construction?

Knowing how to write code does not mean that you know how to create real-world software.

In real world projects, you will need to know how to manage your code, how to read the existing code, how to write code following standard styles, how to ensure that your code is working, how to automate your the process of building, testing and deploying your code, how to handle errors in your application, how to optimize your code for better speed, how to write secure code, how to avoid code duplication, how to create readable code, how to create code faster.

That’s why you need to learn about software construction.

What can I do after finishing learning software construction?

You will know how to create real world software with a team.

Hmm! Is it really useful?

If you doubt its usefulness then you can delay learning it until you are tasked to create a software system and you complete a half of it and are stuck there because when you add one more feature you will get tons of bugs due to the new code, or when you finish fixing 1 bug, you get 3 other bugs due to the code modification.

An other scenario is when it takes another person 2 weeks to read 1000 lines of the code that you wrote in order to fix a bug or to add a new feature because your code is unstructured.

Another scenario is when you are asked to improve some existing code for better performance or to refactor some code for clarity before adding a new feature but you do not know how to accomplish the task.

Alright! What should I do now?

First, please read this book to get familar with the core software construction activities: Steve McConnell (2004). Code Complete. Microsoft Press.

After that, please read this book to gain hands-on experience with using Git for managing source code versions: Jon Loeliger and Matthew McCullough (2012). Version Control with Git: Powerful Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Software Development. O’Reilly Media.

Alternatively, you can read this book to gain hands-on experience with using Subversion for managing source code versions: Ben Collins-Sussman et al. (2011). Version Control with Subversion.

After that, please read this book to learn about continuous code integration: Paul M. Duvall et al. (2007). Continuous Integration Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk. Addison-Wesley.

After that, please read this book to learn how to write readable, maintainable code: Robert C. Martin (2009). Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Pearson Education.

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to write and run unit tests:

After that, After that, please read the two books below to learn how to convert existing unstructured, hard-to-test code into readable and maintainable code:

If you have to work with legacy code, please read the two books below to learn how to read and maintain it in a structured way:

After that, you will need to learn:

If you are not familiar with .NET, please find equivalent books to complete the tasks using other technologies or frameworks.

After that, please read the two books below to learn how to use Docker and Kubernetes or deploying and operating software:

You can learn the basic concepts of Kubernetes with the book, and then try exploring the tool using the official documentation if you encounter any issues with the example code in the book.

After that, please read this book to learn how to use Terraform to provision resources for deploying and operating software: Yevgeniy Brikman (2022). Terraform – Up and Running. O’Reilly Media.

Terminology Review:

  • Version Control.
  • Coding Standards.
  • Unit Tests.
  • Continuous Integration.
  • Refactoring.
  • Legacy Code.
  • Code Reading.
  • Data Providers.
  • Object/Relational Mapping (ORM).
  • Reporting Services.
  • Authentication.
  • Authorization.
  • OAuth 2.
  • Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE).
  • JSON Web Token (JWT).
  • OpenID Connect (OIDC).
  • The Backend for Frontend Pattern.
  • Performance.
  • Containers.
  • Container Images.
  • Container Image Layers.
  • Docker.
  • Docker CLI.
  • Dockerfiles.
  • Docker Volumes.
  • Bind Mounts.
  • Docker Compose.
  • Container Orchestrator.
  • Swarm.
  • Kubernetes.
  • Deployments.
  • ReplicaSets.
  • Pods.
  • Deployment Manifest.
  • ClusterIP Services.
  • LoadBalancer Services.
  • NodePort Services.
  • ExternalName Services.
  • headless Services.
  • Namespaces.

After finishing software construction, please click on Topic 12 – Software Testing to continue.

 

Software Engineering Curriculum, Software Requirements

Topic 10 – Software Requirements

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Why do I need to learn about software requirements?

Your software can only be successful if it helps people do their work better, faster, with lower cost. In order to achieve this objective, it must fulfill the need of various users. In order to fulfill users’ needs you need to be able to identify their context, problems and needs, then propose software solutions for their issues.

Your software solutions must be built based on its users’ requirements that help them solve their problems. So you need to be able to collect, document, manage and validate their requirements. Software requirements engineering will provide you knowledge for completing these tasks.

Do not waste your time to create software that NO ONE will use. Your software will only become useful if its requirements are correctly engineered.

What can I do after finishing learning software requirements engineering?

You will know how to elicit, document, manage and validate software requirements so that they can be used for creating your software.

Hmm! Is it really useful?

If you still have a doubt about its usefulness then you can delay learning about software requirements until you are tasked to create a software system but you do not know where to begin or what are the inputs for your coding.

Another scenario that may suggest that you should come back to this topic is when you create a software system but unfortunately you find that no one wants to use it.

Alright! What should I do now?

First, please read this book to learn how to develop enterprise software requirements step by step: Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson (2012). Mastering the Requirements Process. Addison Wesley Professional.

After that, please read this book to learn about techniques for engineering software requirements: Karl Wiegers and Joy Beatty (2013). Software Requirements. Microsoft Press.

After that, please read this book to learn how to use models for representing software requirements: Joy Beatty and Anthony Chen (2012). Visual Models for Software Requirements. Microsoft Press.

After that, please read this book to learn how to write use cases effectively: Alistair Cockburn (2001). Writing Effective Use Cases. Addison-Wesley.

After that, please review this standard so that you could create a quality software requirements specification for projects require high formal specification: ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011(E).

After that, please read this book to learn how to use user stories for documenting and communicating requirements: Mike Cohn (2004). User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development. Addison-Wesley Professional.

After that, please read this book to learn how to discover the real problems that need to be solved: Jeff Patton and Peter Economy (2014). User Story Mapping. O’Reilly Media.

After that, please read this book to learn how to manage and communicate requirements across large teams: Dean Leffingwell (2011). Agile Software Requirements. Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise. Addison-Wesley Professional.

After that, please read this book to review the core concepts and gain insightful advice when facing challenges in discovering requirements: Karl Wiegers and Candase Hokanson (2023). Software Requirements Essentials. Addison-Wesley Professional.

After that, please read this book to learn how to manage requirements for large government projects: George Koelsch (2023). Hardware and Software Projects Troubleshooting – How Effective Requirements Writing Can Save the Day. Apress.

After that, please read this book if you want to obtain a PMI-PBA certificate: Project Management Institute (2015). Business Analysis for Practitioners – A Practice Guide. Project Management Institute.

Terminology Review:

  • Elicitation Techniques: Interviews, Questionnaires, Group Meetings, Personas, Brainstorming, Document Analysis, Apprenticing, Observations, User Interface Analysis, System Interface Analysis, Reverse Engineering.
  • Business Requirements.
  • Stakeholders.
  • Sponsors.
  • Customers.
  • Users.
  • Business Analysts.
  • Terminologies, Terms.
  • Problems.
  • Business Goals.
  • Evaluator Pitch.
  • Work Context Diagrams.
  • Executive Summary.
  • User Requirements.
  • Glossary.
  • Business Rules.
  • Business Use Cases.
  • Scenarios, Business Workflows, Business Processes.
  • Storyboards.
  • Process Flows.
  • Activity Diagrams.
  • Swimlane Diagrams.
  • The Brown Cow Model.
  • Business Rules.
  • Domain Models.
  • Business Data.
  • Entity Relationship Diagrams.
  • Data Flow Diagrams.
  • State Models.
  • Features.
  • Feature Model.
  • Feature Tree.
  • Project Vision.
  • Software Requirements.
  • Functional Requirements.
  • Use Cases.
  • Non-Functional Requirements.
  • Software Requirements Specification.
  • User Stories.
  • Business Values.
  • Story Map.
  • Product Backlog.
  • User-Interface Prototypes.
  • User Interface Flow Diagrams.
  • ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011(E).

After finishing software requirements, please click on Topic 11 – Software Construction to continue.

 

 

Android Programming, iOS Programming

Topic 9 – Introduction to Mobile Application Development

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Why do I need to learn about mobile application development?

Desktop applications are very useful but their deployment and updating are daunting. Web applications overcome many limitations but you still need a workstation to work with it. This is often a PC or MAC that is too large and heavy to bring on-the-go.

Nowadays most of us always bring a mobile device with us everywhere. It’s very convenient if we could use our daily software inside our mobile devices. In order to  leverage our mobile devices we need to develop software for them.
Therefore you need to learn mobile programming.

What can I do after finishing learning mobile programming?

You can create applications like WhatsApp, Instagram or games like Temple Run, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninjia.

How interesting! What should I do now?

Mobile programming requires a lot of reading. You have to master at least a programming language and a mobile platform. Currently, there are 2 major platforms for mobile development: Android and iOS. There are 3 options for developing a mobile application:
– native Android application or
– native iOS application or
– hybrid mobile application.

The first option for learning mobile programming is Android programming.
If you are not familiar with the Kotlin language, please first read this book to learn the core concepts of Kotlin: Josh Skeen and David Greenhalgh (2018). Kotlin Programming – The Big Nerd Ranch Guide. Pearson Education.

After that, please read this book to learn how to use Android frameworks and libraries to create interactive mobile applications: Bill Phillips et al. (2019). Android Programming – The Big Nerd Ranch Guide. Big Nerd Ranch Guides.

After that, please read the two books below to learn about Java concepts, as Java is still widely used in many Android frameworks, libraries, and legacy systems:

The second option for learning mobile application development is iOS programming.
Please first read one of the following books to learn how to use iOS frameworks and libraries to create interactive mobile applications:

After that, please read one of the following books to learn how to create more sophisticated iOS applications:

The Objective-C language is still used in many legacy frameworks, libraries, and systems, as well as for accessing low-level APIs. Please read one of the following books to learn the core concepts of Objective-C:

The third option for developing mobile applications is either

(i) to leverage C# language and the Xamarin framework; please read this book: Charles Petzold (2016). Creating Mobile Apps with Xamarin.Forms; or

(ii) to leverage HTML/CSS/Javascript language and the Ionic framework; please read this book: Jeremy Wilken (2015). Ionic in Action: Hybrid Mobile Apps with Ionic and AngularJS; or

(iii) to leverage HTML/CSS/Javascript language and the React Native framework; please read the books below:

(iv) to leverage Dart language and the Flutter framework; please read this book: Priyanka Tyagi (2021). Pragmatic Flutter. CRC Press.

Mobile is a great environment for games because of its mobility. If you are interested in developing games for Android please read this book: Jayme Schroeder and Brian Broyles (2013). AndEngine for Android Game Development Cookbook.

If you already have a background in C or C++ and want to develop games for both Android and iOS, please read one of the following books:

It seems that there are many topics to learn. I am completely new to mobile programming. What essential knowledge should I focus on to reduce my learning time?

You could focus on these topics first:

  • How to install necessary tools and create a Hello World application.
  • What is the physical structure of a project and how to build it using both IDE and command line?
  • How to deploy an application to Play Store or App Store.
  • How to create UIs, transfer data between UIs, compose new UI using existing UIs using SDK features or frameworks.
  • How to use built-in or 3rd party libraries to interact with camera, microphone, media player, GPS device, local files, local databases, external databases and external services.
  • How to call native code libraries to improve performance or access low-level features.

Terminology Review:

  • Android.
  • iOS.
  • Native Apps.
  • Hybrid Apps.
  • Build Tools.
  • Views.
  • Controls.
  • Layouts.
  • Game Programming.
  • Game Development.
  • Native Development Kit.
  • Google Play Console.
  • App Store Connect.

After finishing mobile application development, please click on Topic 10 – Software Requirements to continue.

 

Software Engineering Curriculum, Web Application Development

Topic 8 – Introduction to Web Application Development

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Why do I need to learn about web application development?

Desktop applications are very powerful and convenient but their development, deployment and maintenance are daunting.

The reason is that the platform dependency makes it very expensive to create a desktop application working on different versions of different operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

Deployment and updates of desktop application typically require high privileges access to a computer machine, causing a problem for companies requiring high security.

Fortunately, you can overcome these limitations by creating a web application running on a browser. To create a web application you need to learn about web application development.

What can I do after finishing learning web application development?

You will be able to create web applications like The BBC News, The WordPress Blog or The White House Website.

This is exactly what I want to learn! What should I do now?

Web application development requires a lot of reading. You have to master networking concepts, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, a programming language and a database management system for web.

First, please read the two books below to get familiar with web application development concepts, and gain hands-on experience with HTML and CSS.

After that,  please read the two books below to learn in-depth about HTML and CSS.

JavaScript is the language for web development because it is implemented in most of the web browsers. Strong knowledge of JavaScript will ease your web development learning very much. Please read the books below to learn about JavaScript.

Single page application is the default front-end choice for most of new web development projects.
Please read the books below to learn how to create a single page application (SPA).

After that, please read the books below to learn how to create micro-frontends.

After that you will have 4 main options. You can choose one of them. We STRONGLY recommend that you choose only ONE option.

You should NOT learn all of them at the beginning. You could save your time by digging into only one option. After mastering the selected technology, you will realize that all of them are very similar in the sense of use.

One note is that although their concepts are similar to one another but it still takes us much time to learn how to apply an approach to real world web application.

When developing a real world web application, you often use only one or two of these 4 approaches. If you cannot make your own selection then we recommend you
– a combination of the first and second option, or
– a combination of the first and third option, or
– a combination of the first and fourth option.

The first option is PHP world.  Please read one of the following books to learn how to create web applications using PHP:

After that, After that, if your projects use WordPress, you may read this book: Brad Williams et al. (2015). Professional WordPress: Design and Development. Wrox.

The second option is ASP.NET. Please read the two books below to learn how to create web applications using ASP.NET:

A complementary part for this option is ASP.NET Web Forms that is a technology that you need to master if you are maintaining a legacy project. Please read this book to learn about ASP.NET Web Forms: Imar Spaanjaars (2014). Beginning ASP.NET 4.5.1 in C# and VB. Wrox.

The third option is Java world. If you are not familiar with Java language then please read the two books below first:

After that, please read one of the following books to learn how to create web applications using Java.

After that, please read this book to learn how to speed up Java web application development using Spring Boot framework: Mark Heckler (2021). Spring Boot – Up and Running – Building Cloud Native Java and Kotlin Applications. O’Reilly Media.

The 4th option is Node.js world. Please read the two books below to learn how to create web applications using Node.js:

There are also several other options that you may consider if you are required to learn them for maintening a project.
These options include:
– Ruby on Rails, please read this book: Michael Hartl (2020). The Ruby on Rails Tutorial. Addison-Wesley Professional,
– Flask, please read this book: Miguel Grinberg (2018). Flask Web Development: Developing Web Applications with Python. O’Reilly Media,
– Django.

IIf you need to convert a web application from one platform to another or create a web application framework, please read the two books below to learn about the architecture of web applications:

It seems that there are many topics to learn. I am completely new to web programming. What essential knowledge should I focus on to reduce my learning time?

You could focus on these topics first:

  • How to install necessary tools and create a Hello World application.
  • What is the physical structure of a project and how to build it using both IDE and command line?
  • How to deploy an application to a cloud virtual machine and access it via an URL.
  • How to create UIs, transfer data between UIs, compose new UI using existing UIs using frameworks and libraries.
  • How to use built-in or 3rd party libraries to interact with external databases and external services.
  • How to integrate with other web services using standards.

Terminology Review:

  • Networking
  • HTTP
  • HTML
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
  • CGI
  • Web Applications
  • Multiple Page Application
  • Single-Page Application (SPA)
  • RESTful APIs
  • gRPC APIs
  • GraphQL APIs
  • XML
  • SOAP APIs
  • Web Application Frameworks
  • Portal Frameworks
  • Content Management System (CMS)
  • Payment Gateways

After finishing web application development, please click on Topic 9 – Introduction to Mobile Application Development to continue.

 

Database Management Systems, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 7 – Introduction to Database Management Systems

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Why do I need to learn about database management systems?

Your software must help users to do their work. The most important part of the users’ work is the information. You need to learn about database management systems to store, manipulate, retrieve and secure this information.

The database is the heart of any software system, especially enterprise systems. Poor database design will eventually cause a system to fail. Designing enterprise databases requires both specific domain knowledge and a deep understanding of database design principles. This is another reason why learning about database management systems is essential.

What can I do after finishing learning database management systems?

You will be able to design and implement database part for software systems. These systems may include airlines and railways, banking, education, telecommunications, digital libraries and digital publishing, finance, sales, health care information systems, e-commerce system, content management system.

You will be able to decide when to use a relational database management system and when to use a NoSQL database management system, as well as how a database system works internally.

You will also know how to build a data warehouse. You will know how to design a relational database and write SQL code PROPERLY (i.e. for specific purposes) too.

You will also be able to design databases for scalable and highly available software systems.

It sounds interesting! What should I do now?

Learning about database management systems requires a lot of effort. First you need to learn how to use database management systems.

First, please read one of the following books to learn the core concepts of relational database management systems and gain hands-on experience working with them:

After that, please read this book to learn how to write SQL code efficiently: Stephane Faroult and Peter Robson (2006). The Art of SQL. O’Reilly Media.

After that, please read these books to learn about normal forms and the relational theory behind relational databases, which will help you create more efficient logical designs for your databases:

After that, please read these books to learn how to build a data warehouse:

After that, please read these books to learn the core concepts of NoSQL database management systems and gain hands-on experience working with them:

Terminology Review:

  • Databases.
  • Flat Files.
  • Database Management Systems.
  • Relational Databases.
  • (Oracle) Tablespaces, Datafiles, and Objects.
  • (Oracle) Databases, Instances, Schemas.
  • Tables, Rows, Columns, Primary Keys, Foreign Keys.
  • Normal Forms.
  • Relational Model: Relations, Tuples, Primary Keys, Foreign Keys, Constraints.
  • Data Manipulation Languages (DMLs): Relational
    Algebra, Relational Calculus.
  • Relational Algebra: σ Select, π Projection, ∪ Union, ∩ Intersection, – Difference, × Product, ⋈ Join.
  • Data Models: Entity-Relationship (ER) Model, Relational Model, Object-Oriented Model, NoSQL Model.
  • Schemas.
  • Entity-Relationship Model.
  • SQL, TSQL.
  • Stored Procedures.
  • Functions.
  • Queries.
  • Aggregates (AVG, MIN, MAX, SUM, COUNT), ANY_VALUE, GROUP BY, HAVING, LIKE (Strings).
  • Output Redirection.
  • ORDER BY, ROW_NUMBER, RANK.
  • Subqueries.
  • Views.
  • Common Table Expressions.
  • Indexes.
  • Recovery.
  • Replication.
  • Data Warehouse.
  • Dimensional Modeling.
  • NoSQL.
  • Key-Value Databases.
  • Document Databases.
  • Column-Family Databases.
  • Graph Databases.
  • Array (Vector, Matrix, Tensor) Databases.

After finishing database management systems, please click on Topic 8 – Introduction to Web Application Development to continue.

 

Desktop Application Development, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 6 – Introduction to Windows Programming

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Why do I need to learn about Windows programming?

Because Windows is the most popular OS and most companies use it for their daily work. So your software must run on Windows in order to help users do their work.

What can I do after finishing learning Windows programming?

You will know how to create Windows applications that are similar to Notepad, or Paint, or Calculator.

You could also create a dictionary application or an application for storing and searching for books.

It sounds interesting! What should I do now?

Windows  programming is a very big topic. You need to master at least 3 specific technologies: Windows API, Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation.

First, please read the books below to learn about Windows APIs:

After that, please read this book to learn about Windows Forms: Chris Sells and Michael Weinhardt (2006). Windows Forms 2.0 programming. Addison-Wesley.

After that, please read this book to learn about Windows Presentation Foundation: Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths (2007). Programming WPF: Building Windows UI with Windows Presentation Foundation. O’Reilly Media.

Can I learn Java stuff instead of Microsoft stuff for Windows programming?

Yes, you can. However please remember that Microsoft is the one who created and has been developing Windows. Therefore we believe that the good approach for learning programming for Windows is to learn Microsoft technologies.

Can I create a desktop application that can run in Windows, macOS and Linux using one code base?

Yes, you can.  Please consider one of the tools below:

Terminology Review:

  • Windows, Menus, Panels, Tabs.
  • Buttons, Text Boxes, Combo Boxes, Images, Trees.
  • Windows API.
  • Windows Forms.
  • Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
  • Graphics Device Interface (GDI).
  • Dynamic-Link Library (DLL).
  • Processes.
  • Threads.
  • Shared Memory.
  • Windows Sockets 2 (Winsock).
  • Windows Services.
  • Office Add-ins.

After finishing windows programming, please click on Topic 7 – Introduction to Database Management Systems to continue.