PAPER: TOPIC PROPOSAL AND OUTLINE INSTRUCTIONS
The easiest approach for selecting a topic for your paper might be to review the various subject areas covered in the course readings (i.e., search the bibliographies of the textbooks). Although the chosen topic must relate directly to the general subject area of this course, you are not limited to the concepts, techniques, and technologies specifically covered in this course.
Each Topic Outline must include the following 3 items:
1. Abrief(at least 3-4bullets with 1-2 sentences per bullet) overview of the research topics of your paper - you will need to address these in the actual paper. This will be titled "Research Objectives".
2. A list of at least 3 questions you intend your research to ask and hopefully answer. These must be questions that will require you to draw conclusions from your research. These must not be questions to answer your research objectives. This section will be titled "Questions"
3. At least 3 initial research sources, 1 of which is an academic journal or other peer reviewed source. Theseshould match APA formatting of sources.
Example formats forTopic Outlines (an example, not a template):
Research Objectives
- Briefly describe the overall concept of system integration.
- Discuss the traditional approach of big-bang integration including the major advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
- Discuss the traditional approaches of top-down and bottom-up integration and their major advantages and disadvantages.
- Discuss the traditional approach of mixed integration, combining the desirable advantages from the top-down and bottom-up integration approaches.
Questions
1. Why is system integration an important step in the software development process?
2. Why has big-bang integration not survived as a useful testing method?
3. Why have top-down and bottom-up integration not been replaced by more modern methods?
4. Why would you use mixed integration all the time rather than sometimes using top-down and bottom-up integration exclusively?