Fundamentals of Software Development and Programming

The course provides an introduction to computer programming (coding) and software app development. It benefits individuals pursuing programming and software development as a career, as well as anyone in the IT field who works with programmers and systems analysts in important areas that precede actual programming, including problem-solving approaches, specifications and requirements, user interface design, and structured program design using such tools as pseudocode and UML charts.

Instruction covers coding concepts common to several modern languages, including Python, Visual C#, Java, Go, and shell scripting. We will explore procedural and object-oriented concepts using Python as the demonstration language, with an emphasis on non-language-specific approaches. This introductory course presents programming fundamentals, including variables and expressions, looping, selection, functions and parameter passing, file processing, fundamentals of object-oriented development, and advanced data types such as lists and sets. The course also covers the software development cycle, including SCRUM, unit testing and integration, alpha/beta testing, and software defect tracking and classification. The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) as an aid to coding is also discussed.

This is a lab course where, for each module, students will study video lectures and readings a few days before the class session,  followed by a live coding lab class session where various programming tasks will be completed under the guidance and review of the instructor. Additionally, students will produce—outside of the classroom- six applications in increasing size and complexity throughout the course.

This introductory course requires weekly coding lab tasks and assignments and prepares students for future coursework in Python, Java, Visual C#, or any other high-level language.