American National University’s Master of Science in Software Development (MSD) program was designed for those who already have their bachelor’s degree and are seeking to continue their postgraduate education in the field of software development.
Whether you’re an IT professional looking for a promotion, or you’d like to build on your software development skills for future jobs, ANU’s Master of Science in Software Development program allows students to gain an advanced knowledge of how to evaluate a business or technical problem and effectively design software solutions that are secure and reliable. Students will study real-world problems and opportunities with software-intensive systems, and learn methods to evaluate, adopt, and exploit emerging technologies.
While studying at ANU in our Master of Science in Software Development program, you will:
Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:
Successful entry into the Practicum Learning Track will require an attestation by the students and their supervisors indicating the average number of hours worked each week and how long the work experience is expected to last.
AWS aids higher education institutions in bringing software developers up to the industry-standard in an evolving technological business environment, increasing their competitiveness in the modern job market.
We have incorporated industry-standard cloud computing into the program through membership in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Academy.
Distance = Synchronous video & asynchronous online learning.
Blended = Synchronous video & asynchronous online learning with limited on-campus residency.
See our eLearning page for details on our exciting and innovative course delivery methods.
49 credit hours required/147 quality points required. (60 Weeks)
Program Core (Required) 37 total credit hours required
RM525 Web-Based Research Methods–
5 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online In this course, students acquire information retrieval skills and research competencies to identify and evaluate industry-relevant sources of information for the purposes of analysis and research information security. Students compare and contrast the utility of publicly available and subscriptionbased information sources for the purposes of meeting academic and professional requirements.
SD600 Database Design & Management –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Co-Req. RM525) In this course, students will explore database design, development, data warehousing, and the usage of data specification. Students will explore how to generate, patch, and reverse engineer databases utilizing the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD). This course also includes Best Practices in database design and management as well as usage of data specifications.
SD610 Operating Systems –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will explore computer architecture and various operating systems. Students will explore processing, storage, networking, monitoring, and the inner workings of how operating systems are configured and communicate with other computers and server-based systems.
SD620 Software Design –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will learn how to apply the methods and techniques for creating software systems using the best practices in modeling, architecture, process analysis, design, and object-orientated design patterns. This course will provide students with the principles and concepts involved in the analysis and design of large software systems.
SD630 Software Engineering –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will learn how to apply the best practices for large-scale software system engineering, including information security, user interface, architectural design, system models, verification, and validation. Students will strengthen their technique and deepen their understanding of high-level languages and system programming.
SD640 Software Architecture –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will how to apply the best practices in software architectural design, including object orientated design techniques, design reviewing, software design patterns, UML, OCL, and applying various architectural styles, methods, and techniques. This course will provide students with the skills required to face the increasingly complex future in architecting systems, systems of systems and software-intensive systems.
SD690 Capstone in Software Development –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will develop a comprehensive, synthesizing project that applies the knowledge and skill set that has been learned in previous course work that comprises the software development program. Projects must have an academic and an applied component.
IA570 Design and Development of Security Architectures –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students evaluate the principles, attributes and processes used in designing and deploying a comprehensive and resilient layered security architecture that supports the business and technical objectives of the enterprise.
PM510 Information Security Project Management –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students utilize PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as a framework, to apply project management concepts in the information security arena. Each student develops a project plan for a security assessment, which incorporates the technical and behavioral characteristics of high-performance teams.
Electives (Select 3) 12 total credit hours required
SD650 Java Programming –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will be introduced to various aspects of Java programming logic. This will include logical form areas such object-oriented, transaction, linear, and other such programming concepts and procedural program writing using variables, arrays, control statements, loops, recursion, data abstraction, and objects.
SD660 NoSQL Programming –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will be introduced to various aspects of NoSQL programming logic and what distinguishes it from traditional database systems. We will explore the relationship between data’s big data storage needs and the development and growth of NoSQL as an example of a non-relational database.
SD670 C-Programming –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) This course is designed to introduce students to the C programming language. Students will learn concepts such as functional abstraction, the object-oriented programming paradigm and application programming Interfaces (APIs). Students will learn how to write procedural programs using variables, arrays, control statements, loops, recursion, data abstraction and objects in an integrated development environment.
SD680 Python Programming –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will be introduced to various aspects of Python programming logic. This will include logical form areas such object-oriented, transaction, linear, and other such programming concepts and procedural program writing using variables, arrays, control statements, loops, recursion, data abstraction, and objects.
SD690 Capstone in Software Development –
4 Credit Hours
Course offered blended and online (Pre-Req. RM525) In this course, students will develop a comprehensive, synthesizing project that applies the knowledge and skill set that has been learned in previous course work that comprises the software development program. Projects must have an academic and an applied component.
MODE OF DELIVERY: Blended, Full Distance Education
All course prerequisites must be satisfied prior to admission to the program.
All students enrolled in the program must complete 50 hours of practicum training each term.
* Based on availability