1A Assignment

Answer the following based on your reading in Brooksheer

• Give an example of how efforts in the development of software can pay dividends later in software maintenance.
• What is evolutionary prototyping?
• Explain how the lack of metrics for measuring certain software properties affects the software engineering discipline.

2A Assignment

Answer the following based on your reading in Kendall:

• What are the five major project fundamentals?
• List the five criteria for systems project selection.
• What does COTS stand for?
• Define tangible costs and benefits. Give an example of each one.
• When is break-even analysis useful?
• List the five steps in interview preparation.
• When are open-ended questions appropriate for use in interviewing?
• When are closed questionsappropriate for use in interviewing?
• Define what is meant by diamond-shapped structure. When is it useful to employ it in interviews?

3A Assignment

Answer the following questions based on your reading in Kendall:

• List four reasonswhy the systems analyst would want to sample data or select representative people to interview.
• What are the four steps to follow to design a good sample?
• List five steps to help the analyst observe the decision maker's typical activities.
• Noting that the idea of STROBE originally came from the world or film, what does the system analyst's role resemble?
• What four kinds of information is the analyst seeking through prototyping?
• List the advantages and disadvantages of using prototyping to replace the traditional SDLC.
• List four guidelines the analyst should observe in developing a prototype.
• What are the four values that must be shared by the development team and business customers when taking an agile approach?

5A Assignment

Answer the following based on your reading in Kendall:

• List six objectives the analyst pursues in designing system output.
• Contrast external outputs with internal outputs produced by the system. Remember to consider differences in external and internal users.
• What output type is best if frequest updates are a necessity?
• What kind of output is desirable if many readers will be reading, storing, and reviewing output over a period of years?
• What are five ways the analyst can avoid biasing output?
• List the four guidelines for good form design.
• What is a specialty form? What are some disadvantages of using specialty forms?
• What are dynamic Web pages?
• What are three-dimensional Web pages?
• How does Ajax improve a Web page that changes based on user actions?

6A Assignment

Answer the following based on your reading in Kendall:

• Explain how fit among the HCI elements of the human, the computer, and the tasks to be performed leads to performance and well-being.
• What is meant by the word well-being when used in an HCI approach?
• What are the five objectives for designing user interfaces?
• Define graphical user interfaces. What is the key difficulty they present for programmers?
• What are the four primary objectives of data entry?
• Define the term simple sequence code.
• What are changable data?
• What are differentiation data?

7A Structured Walkthrough

Design a structured walkthrough as part of the quality assurance measures for one of the following:

• a new online course
• a website designed to provide members of a church with information
• a website designed to provide members of the larger community with information about a church
• the class registration process at a university
• your scenarion application project from weeks 2-4

Discuss

• the format
• how a structured walkthrough would be initiated
• participants and their respective roles
• what form the output would have and how it would be utilized

Scenario Application Project

Overview:

This project is based on the seven steps of the SDLC from Kendall and Kendall. You will need to pick one of the four scenarios below. Note that not all of the seven steps will be assigned in this class.

Project Goal:

Gain practical experience with the System Design process to support the theoretical knowledge gained during the course.

Scenario 1:

Congratulations on being brought in as a consultant here at Amazing Apple Applications. Your job is to come up with an idea for the next "killer" iPhone Application. Once you have the idea for the application, you will need to do parts of each of the seven SDLC design steps. Since the length of your engagement with our company is only 8 weeks, you will not need to do any actual coding or testing of the application.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898

Sample Applications:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/paid-apps/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/free-apps/

Scenario 2:

Congratulations on being brought in as a consultant here at Better Blackberry Bloatware. Your job is to come up with an idea for the next "killer" Blackberry Application. Once you have the idea for the application, you will need to do parts of each of the seven SDLC design steps. Since the length of your engagement with our company is only 8 weeks, you will not need to do any actual coding or testing of the application.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/

Sample Applications: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/builtforblackberry/

Scenario 3:

Congratulations on being brought in as a consultant here at Wonderful Windows Mobile Widgets. Your job is to come up with an idea for the next "killer" Windows Mobile Application. Once you have the idea for the application, you will need to do parts of each of the seven SDLC design steps. Since the length of your engagement with our company is only 8 weeks, you will not need to do any actual coding or testing of the application.

https://dev.windows.com/en-us/

Sample Applications: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows-phone

Scenario 4:

Congratulations on being brought in as a consultant here at Awesome Android Apps. Your job is to come up with an idea for the next "killer" Android Application. Once you have the idea for the application, you will need to do parts of each of the seven SDLC design steps. Since the length of your engagement with our company is only 8 weeks, you will not need to do any actual coding or testing of the application.

http://developer.android.com/index.html

Sample Applications: http://www.android.com/market/#app=com.joelapenna.foursquared

Step 1 - Identifying Problems, Opportunities, and Objectives (week 2)

• Activity:

o Interview someone with an iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device and find out if there is an application they would like to see developed. If this is not possible, think of your own idea for a good mobile application. Note that it does not matter for this project if a similar application already exists. We are going to ignore whether or not competing products exist.

o Summarizing the knowledge obtained.

o Estimate the scope of the project (number of people multiplied by the number of estimated hours).

o Document the results (see attached Project Design template)

• Output:

o Feasibility report containing problem definition and objective summaries from which management can make a decision on whether to proceed with the proposed project

Step 2 - Determining Human Information Requirements (week 3)

• Activity:

o Interviewing
o Sampling and investing hard data
o Questionnaires
o Observe the decision maker's behavior and environment
o Prototyping
o Learn the who, what, where, when, how, and why of the current system

• Output:

o Analyst understands how users accomplish their work when interacting with a computer; and begin to know how to make the new system more useful and usable. The analyst should also know the business functions and have complete information on the people, goals, data and procedure involved

o For this course project, research what similar applications already exist.

Step 3 - Analyzing System Needs (week 4)

• Activity:

o Create data flow diagrams
o Complete the data dictionary
o Analyze the structured decisions made
o Prepare and present the system proposal

• Output:

o Recommendation on what, if anything, should be done

Step 4 - Designing the Recommended System

• Activity:

o Design procedures for data entry
o Design the human-computer interface
o Design system controls
o Design files and/or database
o Design backup procedures

• Output

o Model of the actual system

Step 5 - Developing and Documenting Software

• Activity:

o System analyst works with programmers to develop any original software
o Works with users to develop effective documentation
o Programmers design, code, and remove syntactical errors from computer programs
o Document software with help files, procedure manuals, and Web sites with Frequently Asked Questions

• Output:

o Computer programs
o System documentation

Step 6 - Testing and Maintaining the System

• Activity:

o Test the information system
o System maintenance
o Maintenance documentation

• Output:

o Problems, if any
o Updated programs
o Documentation

Step 7 - Implementing and Evaluating the System

• Activity:
o Train users
o Analyst plans smooth conversion from old system to new system
o Review and evaluate system

• Output:

o Trained personnel
o Installed system

2B Project Step 1

Step 1 - Identifying Problems, Opportunities, and Objectives

Activity:

• Interview someone with an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or Windows Mobile device and find out if there is an application they would like to see developed. If this is not possible, think of your own idea for a good mobile application. Note that it does not matter for this project if a similar application already exists. We are going to ignore whether or not competing products exist.

• Summarize the knowledge obtained.

• Estimate the scope of the project (number of people multiplied by the number of estimated hours).

• Document the results (see attached Project Design template)

Output: Feasibility report containing problem definition and objective summaries from which management can make a decision on whether to proceed with the proposed project.

Project_Design_Template.rtf

3B Project Step 2

Step 2 - Determining Human Information Requirements (week 3)

• Activity:

o Interviewing
o Sampling and investing hard data
o Questionnaires
o Observe the decision maker's behavior and environment
o Prototyping
o Learn the who, what, where, when, how, and why of the current system

• Output:

o Analyst understands how users accomplish their work when interacting with a computer; and begin to know how to make the new system more useful and usable. The analyst should also know the business functions and have complete information on the people, goals, data and procedure involved

o For this course project, research what similar applications already exist.

- What features do they include that you didn't think of?
- What features do you offer that others don't?
- Will you change your design based on what you see in other similar applications?

o Make a mock up drawing of what your application screen might look like. This can be done on MS Paint, iPlotz, MS Word, etc. Download iPlotz from http://iplotz.com/whatisiPlotz.php.

4A Project Step 3

Step 3 - Analyzing System Needs

• Activity:

o Create data flow diagrams
o Complete the data dictionary
o Analyze the structured decisions made
o Prepare and present the system proposal

• Output:

o Recommendation on what, if anything, should be done
System_Proposal_Template.doc

Text book Links:

Brook sheer:

https://eembdersler.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/computer_science_an_overview_11th1.pdf