Course Outline

Contents

• Course Details
• Course Summary
• Course Timetable
• Course Aims
• Student Learning Outcomes
• Assumed Knowledge
• Teaching Rationale
• Teaching Strategies
• Assessment
• Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
• Course Schedule
• Resources for Students
• Course Evaluation and Development

Course Details

Course Code	COMP9322
Course Title	Service Oriented Architectures
Units of Credit	6
Course Website	http://cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9322
Handbook Entry	http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/postgraduate/courses/current/COMP9322.html

Course Summary

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concept is rapidly changing the way modern enterprise systems are designed, built and managed. An SOA is not just a technical architecture but a revolutionary way to design an enterprise environment that features cross-platform compatibility, agility and cost-efficiency. An SOA can be realised using a number of technologies, amongst them Web services are considered to be the key technical enabler of SOA.

It is fast becoming one of the most important skills for an IT graduate to be able to understand the role of an SOA in different contexts and to articulate the motivation behind service-based technologies and their practical implications in terms of engineering complex software systems and automating business processes.

This module aims to provide students with a deep understanding of SOA, service-orientation paradigm, and Web services as an implementation technology.

We also aim to train the students to develop the ability to appreciate the necessity for tracking technology development and become a self-learner and an insightful predictor of future developments in this area.

Course Aims

After completing this course, students will:

• Describe different architectural design approaches and their role in enterprise application integration
• Apply the concept of business process in a concrete setting
• Be competent in designing and developing applications using SOA concepts and related technologies

Course Timetable

The course timetable is available here .

Student Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, students will:

• Describe different architectural design approaches and their role in enterprise application integration
• Apply the concept of business process in a concrete setting
• Be competent in designing and developing applications using SOA concepts and related technologies

This course contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes:

Graduate Capability	Acquired in
scholarship: understanding of their discipline in its interdisciplinary context	attending lectures
scholarship: rigorous in their analysis, critique, and reflection	participating Q/A, messageboard discussions, online quizzes (reviews of lecture topics), peer assessment
scholarship: able to apply their knowledge and skills to solving problems	practical exercises (labs and assignments)
scholarship: ethical practitioners	in all class activities, messageboard discussions, understanding what is plagiarism in doing your work, be respectful of others in the class
scholarship: capable of effective communication	messageboard discussions, group work in assignments, demonstration/presentation

Assumed Knowledge

Before commencing this course, students should:

• Have theoretical understanding of Web applications and Web-based architectures
• Have practical skills to develop a Web application
• Have sound knowledge of Java programming

These are assumed to have been acquired in the course COMP9321

Teaching Rationale

This course is taught the way it is because we believe in structured learning, also learning by doing. We provide timely feedback for learning via small, step-by-step assignments that gradually build up knowledge and practical skills.

Teaching Strategies

• Lectures ... introduce concepts, show examples
• Lab Work ... introduce technology required for the assignments
• Assignments .. allow students to solve significant problems

Assessment

The assessment consists of the following components:

• 30% on laboratory work: individual and group assessment. This component assesses the practical-skills-and-tools level learning outcomes. The assessment activities include two programming assignments. Each assignment is designed for students to explore each main technology from the lectures. Labs and assignments are released roughly every two weeks to encourage students to progressively develop their skills.
• 60% formal written exam: individual assessment. This component is going to assess the various facts-and-knowledge level learning outcomes. The exam is a mixture of multiple choice questions and written answer questions.
• 10% online quiz

Final Mark = Lab Work + Formal Exam + Quiz

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own . UNSW and CSE treat plagiarism as academic misconduct, which means that it carries penalties as severe as being excluded from further study at UNSW. There are several on-line sources to help you understand what plagiarism is and how it is dealt with at UNSW:

• Learning Centre: Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
• MyUNSW: Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct
• CSE: Addendum to UNSW Plagiarism Guidelines
• CSE: Yellow Form (whose terms you have agreed to)

Make sure that you read and understand these. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism.

Course Schedule

Schedule of topics, organised by week ...

Refer to the link on the menu item on the course homepage.

Resources for Students

There is no textbook for this course. Recommended reading lists will be provided through the online Q/A (messageboard) throughout the semester.

Course Evaluation and Development

This course is evaluated each session using the CATEI system. The feedback from 15s2 offering was generally positive. In particular, many found the assignments were practical, well-designed and were relevant to the course topic. Some commented on issues with Eclipse configuration and web framework used. As a response to the comments, for the Eclipse configuration issues, we will try and document everything we discover throughout the lab exercises and assignments. However, these issues are something that we continue to struggle with as the versions and compatibility issues always come up every semester. We will try our best to minimise them.