Unit 906: Foundations of Software Development

1. Introduction to Software Development

1.1 Overview of Software Development

• Definition and scope
• Importance in modern technology

1.2 Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

• Phases: Requirements, Design, Implementation, Testing, Deployment, Maintenance
• Iterative and incremental development

1.3 Common Methodologies

• Waterfall
• Agile (Scrum, Kanban)
• DevOps principles

1.4 Role of Software Developers

• Responsibilities and skills
• Collaboration in teams

2. Programming Languages

2.1 Introduction to Programming Languages

• Purpose and evolution

2.2 Popular Programming Languages

• Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Ruby

2.3 Syntax and Features Comparison

• Static vs dynamic typing
• Compiled vs interpreted languages

2.4 Applications and Use Cases

• Web development, system programming, data science, mobile apps

3. Algorithms and Data Structures

3.1 Importance in Software Development

3.2 Common Algorithms

• Sorting: Bubble sort, Quick sort, Merge sort
• Searching: Linear search, Binary search

3.3 Data Structures

• Arrays, Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues
• Trees, Graphs, Hash Tables

3.4 Implementation and Efficiency

• Time and space complexity basics (Big O notation)

4. Version Control Systems

4.1 Introduction to Version Control

• Purpose and benefits

4.2 Git Fundamentals

• Repository, commits, branches, merges

4.3 Collaborative Development

• Pull requests, code reviews, conflict resolution

4.4 Using Git Tools

• GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket overview

5. Software Testing

5.1 Principles of Software Testing

• Importance and goals

5.2 Types of Testing

• Unit testing, Integration testing, System testing, Acceptance testing

5.3 Testing Tools

• JUnit, Selenium, pytest

5.4 Best Practices

• Test-driven development (TDD)
• Automated testing and continuous integration

6. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

6.1 Core Concepts

• Classes and Objects
• Encapsulation
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism

6.2 Applying OOP

• Designing classes
• Code reuse and modularity

6.3 OOP in Popular Languages

• Java, Python, C++ examples

7. Web Development Basics

7.1 Client-side vs Server-side Scripting

7.2 Web Technologies

• HTML: Structure of web pages
• CSS: Styling web pages
• JavaScript: Interactivity and DOM manipulation

7.3 Creating Dynamic Web Applications

• Introduction to AJAX
• Basics of front-end frameworks (overview)

8. Introduction to Databases

8.1 Role of Databases in Software

8.2 Relational Database Concepts

• Tables, rows, columns
• Primary keys, foreign keys

8.3 SQL Fundamentals

• SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
• Simple query writing

8.4 Database Management Systems

• MySQL, SQLite overview

9. Software Development Tools

9.1 Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

• Features and examples (Visual Studio Code, Eclipse)

9.2 Code Editors

• Lightweight editors vs full IDEs

9.3 Debugging Tools

• Breakpoints, stepping through code

9.4 Project Management Tools

• Issue tracking, Kanban boards (Jira, Trello)

10. Software Development Best Practices

10.1 Code Documentation

• Comments, README files, API documentation

10.2 Code Reviews

• Purpose and process

10.3 Design Patterns

• Overview of common patterns (Singleton, Observer, Factory)

10.4 Collaboration Techniques

• Communication, version control etiquette, pair programming