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Tech Devices

Wireless Basic Configuration

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Mbps vs. MBps: What’s the Difference?

Mbps means megabits per second. Mb is used for download and upload speed.
MBps stands for megabytes per second. MB is used for file size.
130Mbps = 16.25MBps
144Mbps = 18MBps

Differences between 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n

802.11a:
Operates in the 5.15GHz to 5.35GHz radio spectrum.
Speed: Up to 54Mbps (actual throughput is closer to 22Mbps)
Range: 50 feet
Less prone to interference.
More expensive.
Because 802.11b and 802.11a use different radio technologies and portions of the spectrum, they are incompatible with one another.

802.11b:
Operates in the 2.4GHz radio spectrum.
Speed: Up to 11Mbps
Range: 100 feet
Prone to interference (it shares airspace with cell phones, Bluetooth, security radios, and other devices).
Least expensive wireless LAN specification.

802.11g:
Operates in the 2.4GHz radio spectrum.
Speed: Up to 54Mbps
Range: 100 feet
Prone to interference (it shares airspace with cell phones, Bluetooth, security radios, and other devices).

802.11n:
Operates in the 2.4 or 5GHz radio spectrum
Speed: Up to 700Mbs
Range: 50 feet

802.11ac:
802.11ac builds upon previous 802.11 standards, particularly the 802.11n standard, to deliver data rates of 433Mbps per spatial stream, or 1.3Gbps in a three-antenna (three stream) design.
The 802.11ac specification operates only in the 5 GHz frequency range and features support for wider channels (80MHz and 160MHz) and beamforming capabilities by default to help achieve its higher wireless speeds.

Don’t Mix Wireless B/G with N

Wireless N is supposed to be interoperable with Wireless A, B, and G, but it doesn’t always work that way. Some older clients might not be able to connect at all, even when the wireless router or APs are in mixed wireless mode. Then when the older clients can connect, they’ll slow down the network.

Some clients may take a heavy 80 percent cut in their throughput. To prevent this problem, consider forcing the new APs to use only Wireless N, and keep the old router or APs around to support the old clients.

Although connections among users on the Wireless N router or APs with Wireless G users will still be bottlenecked by the old clients, the throughput cuts on a mixed mode Wireless N router or AP can be much worse.

Change your wireless channel

Changing your wireless channel might help increase range and performance, especially if you have neighboring networks set on the same channel or interference from other electronics. It’s best to check channel usage with a program like Vistumbler or inSSIDer, but you can simply try other channels as well to see which one is best.

For 2.4GHz routers (the most common), channel 6 is the default for most routers, so stay away from it. Try channel 1 or 11, the other two other non-overlapping channels. For 5GHz wireless N or AC routers, you shouldn’t have much of an interference issue since it’s less commonly used. But you might try changing to another channel as well.

Use WPA2 security

For the high speeds on wireless N or AC routers you must use WPA2 security with AES encryption. Using WPA or WEP security with TKIP encryption will dramatically reduce bandwidth. Most routers offer a mixed WPA/WPA2 mode, but you should use WPA2 only. Homes should use the personal (PSK) mode, which is the easiest to setup and businesses should use the enterprise (RADIUS) mode which requires an external authentication server.

Most devices you have should support WPA2 security, but if you have some that don’t consider using an older router with a newer one as mention in the previous section.

Short Guard Interval

The guard interval is the space between symbols (characters) being transmitted.  This is often confused with the space between packets, which is the interframe space (IFS).  The guard interval is there to eliminate intersymbol interference, which is referred to as ISI.  ISI happens when echos or reflections from one symbol interfere with another.  Adding time between symbol transmission allows these echos and reflections to settle in before the next symbol is transmitted.  In normal 802.11 operation, the guard interval is 800 ns.

With 802.11n, short guard intervals are possible.   The short guard interval time is 400ns, or half of what it used to be.  Shorter wait time (guard interval) between symbols increases throughput.  However, if it’s too short, the amount of ISI will increase, and throughput will decrease.  On the other hand, if the guard interval is too long, there is increased overhead due to the additional idle time.

If you are using 802.11n or 802.11ac only, you can enable short GI. In another word, when using mixed mode, please disable the short GI, which may cause issues.
When intending to improve the throughput, enable short GI can improve the throughput about 10%.

RTS/CTS Threshold

As an optional feature, the 802.11 standard includes the RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) function to control station access to the medium.
For access points, you enable RTS/CTS by setting a specific packet size threshold (0 — 2347 bytes) in the user configuration interface.
If the packet that the access point is transmitting is larger than the threshold, it will initiate the RTS/CTS function.
If the packet size is equal to or less than the threshold, the access point will not kick off RTS/CTS.
Most vendors recommend using a threshold of around 500.
The use of 2347 bytes effectively disables RTS/CTS for the access point.

Source: https://www.quora.com, http://www.ciscopress.com

Learning English

Have Something Done

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Take a look at these two sentences. What is the difference in meaning between them?

‘I cut my hair.’
‘I have my hair cut.’

‘I cut my hair’ means that I do it myself.
‘I have my hair cut means someone cuts my hair for me (in this case it’s probably a hairdresser).

We use have something done to mean another person does a service for us.

The grammar for this is pretty simple:

Have + object + past participle

Let’s take a look at a few more examples:

‘We didn’t want to cook so we had a pizza delivered.’
‘I had my car washed at that new place by the station.’
‘I had my watch fixed.’

We can also use ‘get’ instead of ‘had’ and the meaning stays the same. The sentences above now become:

‘We didn’t want to cook so we got a pizza delivered.’
‘I got my car washed at that new place by the station.’
‘I got my watch fixed.’

Tech Devices

Difference Between Core i3 and i5 and i7 and Core 2 Duo

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Generally speaking the current generation of Core i3/i5/i7 have about 20% more processing power than their Core 2 Duo counterparts.

Core i3:
– Dual Core CPU
– Hyper Threading

Core i5:
– Dual Core CPU
– Slightly higher clock speeds than core i3
– Hyper Threading
– Turbo Boost (it’s like an automatic overclock if the CPU is not too hot)

Core i7:
– Dual Core CPU (models ending with M)
– Quad Core CPU (models ending with QM)
– Higher clock-speed than the Core i5
– Hyper Threading
– Turbo Boost
– Virtualization (you can run multiple operating systems at the same time)
– Has circuitry that allows for easier and more secure remote access for corporate IT departments to trouble issues in a business environment.
– AE5 New Instruction set (No idea what this is)

Source:  http://www.tomsguide.com/

Computer Science Curriculum, Mathematics, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 17 – Calculus

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Why do I need to learn about calculus?

Calculus is a fundamental tool for understanding modern theories and techniques to create software such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, data mining, security, digital imagine processing and natural language processing.

What can I do after finishing learning about calculus?

You will then be prepared to be able to learn modern theories and techniques to create security, data mining, image processing or natural language processing software.

What should I do now?

First, please audit the course and read its lecture notes to grasp the core concepts of single-variable calculus: MIT 18.01 – Single Variable Calculus, Fall 2007 (Lecture Notes).

When you audit this course, refer to this book whenever you have difficulty understanding any of the lectures: George F. Simmons (1996). Calculus With Analytic Geometry. McGraw-Hill.

Alternatively, you can read one of the books below:

After that, please audit the course and read its lecture notes to grasp the core concepts of multivariable calculus: MIT 18.02 – Multivariable Calculus, Fall 2007 (Lecture Notes).

You will need some Linear Algebra knowledge (specifically Inverse Matrix and Determinant) to understand Multivariable Calculus. You will need some knowledge of linear algebra (specifically inverse matrices and determinants) to understand multivariable calculus. Therefore, please learn the basics of linear algebra at the same time.

After that, please watch the Highlights of Calculus videos, to review many core concepts of calculus. Most mathematical concepts should be learned several times using different approaches in order to fully understand their problems, solutions, and applications.

After that, please audit the course and read its readings to grasp the core concepts of differential equations: MIT 18.03 – Differential Equations, Spring 2006 (Readings).

When you audit this course, refer to this book whenever you have difficulty understanding any of the lectures: C. Henry Edwards and David E. Penney (2013). Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems. Pearson Education.

What is the difference between calculus and analysis?

Calculus means a method of calculation. Calculus is about differentiation and integration.

Real analysis includes calculus, and other topics that may not be of interest to engineers but of interest to pure mathematicians such as measure theory, lebesgue integral, topology, functional analysis, complex analysis, PDE, ODE, proofs of theorems.

What does early transcendentals mean?

Transcendentals in this context refers to functions like the exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions.

The early transcendentals approach means that the book introduces polynomial, rational functions, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions at the beginning, then use them as examples when developing differential calculus. This approach is good for students who do not need to take much rigorous math.

The classical approach is the late transcendentals. It means that the book develops differential calculus using only polynomials and rational functions as examples, then introduces the other functions afterwards. This approach is good for students who need to understand more rigorous definitions of the transcendental functions.

Single Variable Calculus Terminology Review:

  • Slope.
  • Derivative.
  • Rate of Change.
  • Limit.
  • Continuity.
  • Chain Rule.
  • Implicit Differentiation.
  • Linear Approximations.
  • Quadratic Approximations.
  • Critical Point.
  • Newton’s Method.
  • Mean Value Theorem.
  • Differentials.
  • Antiderivatives.
  • Differential Equations.
  • Separation of Variables.
  • First Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
  • Indeterminate Forms.
  • L’Hospital’s Rule.
  • Improper Integrals.
  • Infinite Series.
  • Taylor’s Series.
  • Taylor’s Formula.
  • Power Series.
  • Geometric Series.
  • Euler’s Formula.

Multivariable Calculus Terminology Review:

  • Vectors.
  • Dot Product.
  • Cross Product.
  • Inverse Matrix.
  • Determinant.
  • Equations of Planes: ax + by + cz = d
  • Parametric Equations = as trajectory of a moving point.
  • Velocity Vector.
  • Acceleration Vector.
  • Level Curve.
  • Tangent Plane.
  • Saddle Point.
  • Functions of Several Variables.
  • Partial Derivatives.
  • Second Derivatives.
  • Second Derivative Test.
  • Differentials.
  • Gradients.
  • Directional Derivatives.
  • Lagrange Multipliers.

Differential Equation Terminology Review:

  • Isocline (equal slope): a line which joins neighboring points with the same gradient.
  • Direction Fields.
  • Integral Curve: The graph of a particular solution of a differential equation.
  • IVP: Initial Value Problem.
  • Euler’s Numerical Method.
  • Linear First Order ODE Standard Form: y′ + p(x)y = q(x)
  • Integrating Factor or Euler Multiplier: The method is based on (ux)’ = ux’ + u’x.
  • Substitution: to change variables to end up with a simpler equation to solve.
  • Bernoulli Equations: y′ + p(x)y = q(x)yⁿ.
  • Homogeneous Equations: y′ = F (y/x)
  • Autonomous Equations: dx/dt = f(x). If we think of as time, the naming comes from the fact that the equation is independent of time.

Matrix Calculus Terminology Review:

  • Matrix Derivatives.

After finishing calculus, please click on Topic 18 – Linear Algebra to continue.

Database Management Systems, Software Engineering Curriculum

Topic 15 – Advanced Database Management Systems

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Why do I need to learn about advanced database management systems?

Learning about advanced database management systems is important because modern applications deal with huge, complex, and diverse data. Learning to build a database management system equips you with the skills to design scalable, distributed, and high-performance data systems, making you a better problem solver and innovator in data management.

What can I do after finishing learning about advanced database management systems?

You will understand how data is stored, indexed, and retrieved efficiently, providing deep insight into the foundations of all database systems. You will also learn how queries are processed, transactions are managed, and consistency is maintained, which is essential for reliable, multi-user applications.

With this knowledge, you will be able to design and optimize high-performance databases tailored to specific applications. You can also develop custom or specialized data systems, such as vector, time-series, graph, or embedded databases.

Additionally, you gain the skills to build distributed, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems or improve existing database platforms for reliability and efficiency.

You can also contribute to database research, develop new query languages, design novel storage engines, or create data-intensive products in AI, analytics, or fintech.

That sounds useful! What should I do now?

First, please read this book to learn about database system concepts: Abraham Silberschatz et al. (2019). Database System Concepts. McGraw-Hill Education.

Alternatively, if you want to follow the concepts with interactive explanations, you can audit this course: CMU 15-445 – Introduction to Database Systems (UC Berkeley).

After that, please read the books below to learn how to design distributed databases and understand how they work:

Terminology Review:

  • Database’s Files.
  • Storage Manager.
  • Database’s Pages vs. Hardware Pages vs. OS Pages.
  • Page Storage Architecture: Heap Files, Tree Files, Sequential / Sorted File Organization (ISAM), Hashing Files.
  • Page Directory.
  • Page Header.
  • Slotted Pages.
  • Tuple Layout.
  • Tuple Header.
  • Tuple Data.
  • Record Identifiers.
  • Log-Structured Storage: MemTable, SSTables, Compaction.
  • Index-Organized Storage.
  • Tuple Storage.
  • Word-Aligned Tuples.
  • Data Representation: Variable-Precision Numeric Type, Null Data Type, Large Values, Overflow Pages.
  • System Catalogs.
  • N-ary Storage Model (NSM).
  • Decomposition Storage Model (DSM).
  • Partition Attributes Across (PAX) Storage Model.
  • Columnar Compression: Run-Length Encoding (RLE), Bit-Packing Encoding, Bitmap Encoding, Delta Encoding, Dictionary Encoding.
  • Data-Intensive Applications.
  • Graph Databases.
  • Distributed Databases.
  • Distributed Relational Databases.

After finishing advanced database management systems, please click on Topic 16 – Advanced Software Design to continue.

 

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.