Software Design and Architecture Specialization

Software Design and Architecture Specialization

Mindful Strategies for Quality Software. Think like an expert architect and create quality software using design patterns and principles.

Instructor: Kenny Wong

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4 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

4.6

(2,787 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

1 month

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

4.6

(2,787 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

1 month

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

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Add to your LinkedIn profile

Taught in English

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Specialization - 4 course series

In the Software Design and Architecture Specialization, you will learn how to apply design principles, patterns, and architectures to create reusable and flexible software applications and systems. You will learn how to express and document the design and architecture of a software system using a visual notation.

Practical examples and opportunities to apply your knowledge will help you develop employable skills and relevant expertise in the software industry.

Applied Learning Project

The Capstone Project involves a Java-based Android application that you will evaluate and develop throughout the four courses of the Specialization. This application will evolve from a single user app that stores data locally to a multi-user app that stores data remotely. In each course you will be given a Java codebase as a starting point and will have to document and implement new features using your knowledge gained in the course.

Tutorials are provided to help you understand the starter codebase and learn the basics of Android development.

Prerequisites

You are expected to have basic Java programming knowledge. The capstone application will require you to use Android Studio, an integrated development environment. To learn more about Android Studio, please review the tutorials for Windows or Mac.

Object-Oriented Design

Course 117 hours4.7 (2,347 ratings)

What you'll learn

This course takes Java beginners to the next level by covering object-oriented analysis and design. You will discover how to create modular, flexible, and reusable software, by applying object-oriented design principles and guidelines. And, you will be able to communicate these designs in a visual notation known as Unified Modelling Language (UML).

You will be challenged in the Capstone Project to apply your knowledge of object-oriented design by evolving and documenting the Java codebase for an Android application with corresponding UML documentation. After completing this course, you will be able to: • Apply the Class Responsibility Collaborator (CRC) technique to analyze and design the object-oriented model for a problem. • Explain and apply object-oriented modeling principles and their purpose (e.g., abstraction, encapsulation, decomposition, generalization). • Explain and apply different types of inheritance • Explain the difference between association, aggregation, and composition dependencies. • Express object-oriented models as Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagrams. • Translate between UML class diagrams and equivalent Java code. • Apply design guidelines for modularity, separation of concerns, information hiding, and conceptual integrity to create a flexible, reusable, maintainable design. • Explain the tradeoff between cohesion and coupling.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Computer Programming

Category: Design and Product

Category: Programming Principles

Category: Software Architecture

Category: Software Engineering

Design Patterns

Course 215 hours4.7 (1,341 ratings)

What you'll learn

This course extends object-oriented analysis and design by incorporating design patterns to create interactive applications. Through a survey of established design patterns, you will gain a foundation for more complex software applications. Finally, you will identify problematic software designs by referencing a catalog of code smells.

You will be challenged in the Capstone Project to redesign an existing Java-based Android application to implement a combination of design patterns. You will also critique a given Java codebase for code smells. After completing this course, you will be able to: • Demonstrate how to use design patterns to address user interface design issues. • Identify the most suitable design pattern to address a given application design problem. • Apply design principles (e.g., open-closed, dependency inversion, least knowledge). • Critique code by identifying and refactoring anti-patterns. • Apply the model-view-controller architectural pattern.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Computer Programming

Category: Programming Principles

Category: Software Architecture

Category: Software Engineering

Category: Problem Solving

Software Architecture

Course 39 hours4.5 (908 ratings)

What you'll learn

The way that software components — subroutines, classes, functions, etc. — are arranged, and the interactions between them, is called architecture. In this course you will study the ways these architectures are represented, both in UML and other visual tools. We will introduce the most common architectures, their qualities, and tradeoffs. We will talk about how architectures are evaluated, what makes a good architecture, and an architecture can be improved. We'll also talk about how the architecture touches on the process of software development.

In the Capstone Project you will document a Java-based Android application with UML diagrams and analyze evaluate the application’s architecture using the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM). After completing this course, you will be able to: • Compare and contrast the components, connections, protocols, topologies, constraints, tradeoffs, and variations of different types of architectural styles used in the design of applications and systems (e.g., main program and subroutine, object-oriented, interpreters, pipes and filters, database centric, event-based). • Describe the properties of layered and n-tier architectures. • Create UML ipackage, component, and deployment diagrams to express the architectural structure of a system. • Explain the behaviour of a system using UML activity diagrams. • Document a multi-application system with a layered architecture.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Software Architecture

Category: Software Engineering

Category: Computer Architecture

Category: Programming Principles

Category: Project Management

Service-Oriented Architecture

Course 49 hours4.5 (574 ratings)

What you'll learn

Based on an understanding of architectural styles, you will review architectures for web applications, then explore the basics of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in two approaches: Web Services (WS*) and Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture.

In the Capstone Project you will connect a Java-based Android application with Elasticsearch, a web service with a REST application programmer interface (API). After completing this course, you will be able to: • Describe SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) to structure web-based systems. • Explain WS* services (i.e., SOAP over HTTP, WSDL, UDDI, BPEL). • Apply REST architecture (i.e., JSON over HTTP, URI). • Identify REST design principles. • Create a system using REST interfaces. • Apply microservice architecture.