Web Systems Integration

From the Catalog: In this project-based course, student teams will build an enterprise-grade website and web infrastructure integrating server-side applications, databases, and client-side rich internet applications as a solution to a defined business problem.

Extended Description: Students in this class will have the opportunity to conceive of web applications as more than just standalone, siloed systems. The course treats web applications as modular components that must integrate with complex infrastructures for computing, communication, and data across and even outside of an organization. The course emphasizes methods and approaches for designing and developing robust but loosely coupled systems, always in anticipation of any one system’s inevitable failure in production. The course’s preferred methods will require students to create and maintain extensive testing suites and other automated quality-assurance measures. Students will also learn to practice chaos engineering, where systems are not only built and tested but actively and intentionally stressed, attacked, and misused to expose additional points of failure, ranging from clueless users to straight-up bad actors. Finally, students will immerse themselves in some of the core values of the class: appropriately scoped features, progressive enhancement, granular commits, semantic versioning, rigorous code reviews, automated builds, continuous integration/continuous deployment, accurate code-adjacent documentation, and a healthy suspicion and pessimistic view of frameworks, libraries, and other dependencies in production.

At the conclusion of this course, successful students will be able to:

• Analyze complex computing problems and apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions
• Assist in the creation, execution, and ongoing revision of an effective project plan
• Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements
• Communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts
• Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to web-systems integration tasks
• Identify and analyze user needs and take them into account in the selection, creation, evaluation and administration of computer-based systems
• Apply security principles and practices to maintain operations in the presence of risks and threats

Students completing this course will learn to:

• Problem-solve and create innovative answers to provide technology solutions for the problems of business, industry, government, non-profit organizations, and individuals.
• Perform requirements analyses, design, and administration of computer and network-based systems conforming to policy and best practices, and monitor and support continuing development of relevant policy and best practices as appropriate.
• Apply current technical and mathematical concepts and practices in the core information technologies and recognize the need to engage in continuing professional development.

I make it my very top priority to create courses that are welcoming and accessible to all students. I will make additional reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. In order to receive accommodations, students must obtain a letter of accommodation from the Center for Disability Resources. The Center for Disability Resources is located in IIT Tower, 3424 S. State Street - 3F3-1 (third floor, in the northwest corner across from the Student Health and Wellness Center). Contact the Center by telephone at 312-567-5744, by TDD at 312-567-5135, or via email at disabilities@iit.edu

Students who have any difficulty, either permanent or temporary, that might affect their ability to successfully participate in and complete the class should contact me privately, either in person or electronically, at the start of the semester or as a documented difficulty arises. I will adjust methods, materials, or deadlines as necessary to ensure equitable participation for all students.

Mental Health and Well-Being

It’s no secret that attending school while managing and balancing other life concerns is incredibly stressful and at times completely overwhelming. All of us, no matter how outwardly strong, successful, or put-together we might appear, struggle sometimes. Illinois Tech provides all students with a variety of free counseling services. I encourage all students to seek support and help from the Counseling Services unit of the Student Health and Wellness Center. Students facing a crisis situation, especially outside of the Counseling Services unit’s operating hours, may wish to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The Student Health and Wellness Center maintains a list of other emergency resources worth bookmarking.

Your timely submission of work and active participation in the electronic discussions for this class are required both for your own success and for the success of the class as a whole. I do not squander students’ time with reading quizzes, but I do assign a lot of reading. And I expect you to be prepared to discuss that reading on Basecamp by quoting or making direct references to each week’s assigned reading. Additionally, you should be posting to Basecamp about your individual and group progress, questions, and challenges as you complete the course’s major projects.

Students intending to earn an A for Participation should be posting substantively on Basecamp five times or more per week, with contributions appearing multiple days per week, all semester long. Students earning a B will post three to five times, and students earning a C will post two times, every week. Fewer than an average of two discussion contributions per week will result in a failing Participation grade.

All major projects for this course will be submitted via Basecamp for instructor and peer feedback. Certain deliverables, such as critiques of team members, will be submitted separately via email. See each major project’s description for exact submission instructions.

I do not accept late work. All work must be submitted before the date and time specified in each project description. The deadlines in this class, including for draft work, are no different from exam dates in classes that have exams. I expect you to treat them accordingly. If you believe you are in danger of missing a deadline, be sure to contact me well ahead of time to see if there are any options available to you. I will not negotiate with you on deadlines that are hours away or have already passed.

Technology is an essential part of learning and day-to-day living. It is therefore essential to this class. You are just as responsible for learning to command various technologies as for any other course content. Difficulty with technology is not an acceptable excuse for being unprepared for class or late with assignments.

If you are having trouble with technology or any other material covered in this course, it is your professional responsibility to do research beyond the resources and guidance provided in class and find supplemental materials that work for you. I also encourage all students to contact me during my office hours or at another arranged time. I prefer that you contact me via Basecamp Ping or email well in advance of assignment and project deadlines.

As with any course at IIT, you are expected to uphold the Code of Academic Honesty as described in the IIT Student Handbook. All work for this course must be your own original effort, including print and digital page design and computer code. Summarizations and quotations of text, as well as any use of open-source code libraries and images not of your own making, should be clearly cited as legally and ethically warranted and rhetorically appropriate. Access, storage, dissemination, and other use of data from third-party sources must conform to the source’s terms of service, licensing, and other relevant legal and ethical restrictions.

If you are at all uncertain as to whether you are submitting work that in whole or in part may violate the Code of Academic Honesty, please contact me immediately and before the work is due. The consequences of academic dishonesty are severe. Any student who violates the Code of Academic Honesty will be subject to expulsion from this course with a failing grade, and I will report the student to the Chair of the Information Technology and Management Department, who may take additional disciplinary action, including reporting violations to the relevant offices of Undergraduate or Graduate Academic Affairs.