Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Software Requirements Engineering

Credit Points: 12.00


Course Coordinator: Asangi Jayatilaka

Course Coordinator Phone: by email

Course Coordinator Email: asangi.jayatilaka@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: City Campus, Building 14, Level 11, Room 02

Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Enforced Pre-requisite Courses:  Successful completion of the following courses: 

Note: it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course.

For your information go to RMIT Course Requisites webpage.  

If you have completed prior studies at RMIT or another institution that developed the skills and knowledge covered in the above course/s you may be eligible to apply for credit transfer. Alternatively, if you have prior relevant work experience that developed the skills and knowledge covered in the above course/s you may be eligible for recognition of prior learning.

Please follow the link for further information on how to apply for credit for prior study or experience.


Course Description

Requirements Engineering (RE) provides the basis for successful software development, and is increasingly recognized by practitioners as one of the most important stages in the software development life cycle. For these reasons, it also has attracted much interest in the research community. In this course, you will gain advanced knowledge and practical understanding about the systematic approaches for elicitation, analysis, modeling, specification and validation of software requirements.   The course covers such topics as:

  • Why is RE important for the industry practice?  
  • What are the core principles of RE
  • How do we elicit requirements and what are the challenges associated with software requirements elicitation?
  • How to manage software requirements in agile environments? 
  • How do we specify requirements using industry standards?
  • How to do quality assurance in requirements engineering & how do you manage software requirements? 

 


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Program Learning Outcomes

This course is an option course so it is not required to contribute to the development of program learning outcomes (PLOs) though it may assist your achievement of several PLOs.

For more information on the program learning outcomes for your program, please see the program guide.


Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Design software requirements elicitation materials to elicit software requirements from various stakeholders.
  2. Analyse stakeholders’ needs within the project scope.
  3. Apply software requirements engineering knowledge within agile environments.
  4. Formulate software requirements using industry standards and frameworks.
  5. Collaborate effectively with team members and other stakeholders to engineer software requirements for complex software systems.
  6. Critique the design of requirements elicitation material based on a review of academic literature.


Overview of Learning Activities

You will be actively engaged in a range of learning activities such as lectorials, tutorials, practicals, laboratories, seminars, project work, class discussion, individual and group activities. Delivery may be face to face, online or a mix of both. The learning activities included in this course are:

  • Lectorials: key concepts will be explained in lectorials where material will be presented, and the subject matter will be illustrated with practical examples and demonstrations.
  • Tutorials/labs focussed on projects and problem solving will provide practice in the application of theory and procedures, allow exploration of concepts with teaching staff and other students, and give feedback on your progress and understanding.
  • Assignments, as described in Overview of Assessment (below) and Assessment Tasks, requiring an integrated understanding of the subject matter; assignment work requires active participation and effective communication, which provides practice in these skills. 

You are encouraged to be proactive and self-directed in your learning, asking questions of your lecturer and/or peers and seeking out information as required, especially from the numerous sources available through the RMIT library, and through links and material specific to this course that is available through myRMIT Studies Course.

 


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through myRMIT Studies Course. 

There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.


Overview of Assessment

This course has no hurdle requirements

Assessment task 1: Requirements elicitation and analysis assignment (individual)
Weighting 20%
This assessment supports CLOs: 1, 2, 6.

Assessment task 2: Agile software engineering assignment (individual)
Weighting 25%
This assessment supports CLOs: 2, 3.

Assessment task 3: Group project deliverables (Group)
Weighting 35%
This assessment supports CLOs: 2, 4, 5.

Assessment task 4: Software requirements engineering challenges (individual)
Weighting 20%
This assessment supports CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4.

If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.