Computer Laboratory

Course material 2010–11

Software Engineering

Principal lecturer: Prof Ross Anderson
Taken by: Part IB
Syllabus

Here are the slides; printed copies will be distributed at the first lecture. The lecture on the 21st will be a guest lecture by Robert Brady of Brady plc.

The first lecture will be on Friday 8th October rather than the 7th as advertised in the Lecture List; and the lecture due on the 19th will be moved to the 22nd (so that there will be lectures on both 21 and 22 October).

Here is Fred Brooks' article No Silver Bullet; the web page on NHS IT mentioned in the first lecture; the material on the London Ambulance System disaster; Nancy Leveson's latest book draft; and the paper by Curtis, Krasner and Iscoe discussed in the last lecture. Chapters 22 and 23 of my Security Engineering textbook were inspired by this course and may be of interest.

Past exam questions are here and here.

Further reading: Fred Brooks' book (mentioned in the syllabus) is available in a 1995 Anniversary Edition with 120 pages of new material. In addition, Dr Brady recommends Pascal Zachary's Show-stopper. Here's an update on Therac – an article from the New York Times on recent fatalities caused by poor radiology systems and software. Finally, here's Richard Gabriel's Objects Have Failed, and the piece I recorded with Stephen Fry on Y2K.