The Development Project: Analysis and Design

What The Development Project: Analysis and Design covers

The Development Project: Analysis and Design is examined in Unit A2 2, Application Development — an internally assessed coursework portfolio. It covers scheduling the project with a Gantt chart, internal and external constraints on the solution, Detailing user requirements as inputs, processes and outputs, Prioritising requirements as essential and non-essential, data flow diagrams at level 0 and level 1, specifying hardware and software requirements, the overall system design, process descriptions and algorithms, user interface design and validation, data modelling and normalisation for the solution, designing the queries and reports and Developing a comprehensive test plan.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Scheduling the project with a Gantt chartGantt chart, slack in a schedule and critical path.Open →
• Internal and external constraints on the solutionConstraint in a development project and difference between an internal and an external constraint.Open →
• Detailing user requirements as inputs, processes and outputsUser requirement, four techniques for eliciting requirements from a client and advantage of observation over interview.Open →
• Prioritising requirements as essential and non-essentialEssential requirement for a school library system, with a justification, non-essential requirement for the same system, with a justification and scope creep.Open →
• Data flow diagrams at level 0 and level 1Data flow diagram, balancing between levels and context diagram for a cinema booking system.Open →
• Specifying hardware and software requirementsMinimum specification and risk of specifying more than the system needs.Open →
• The overall system designOverall system design, module having one clear job and system flowchart.Open →
• Process descriptions and algorithmsProcess description, decision table and trace table.Open →
• User interface design and validationConsistency in interface design and principle of least astonishment in interface design.Open →
• Data modelling and normalisation for the solutionIdentifying the entities from the client's own documents, showing the working from un-normalised data to third normal form, drawing the entity-relationship diagram for the design, and documenting every attribute, key and integrity rule.Open →
• Designing the queries and reportsParameter query, calculated field in a query and difference between a detail line and a summary line.Open →
• Developing a comprehensive test planFunctional testing and testing to destruction.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Development Project: Analysis and Design further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Essential requirement vs Non-essential requirement

  Essential requirement: a thing without which the system cannot do its job at all. Non-essential requirement: a convenience whose absence leaves the system usable.

• Algorithm vs Process description

  Algorithm: an ordered sequence of unambiguous steps that can be traced. Process description: stating in prose what a component does and what it produces.

• Normal data vs Boundary data

  Normal data: a typical value comfortably inside the permitted range. Boundary data: it sits exactly at the edge of the range, and it should still be accepted.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a Gantt chart?

   Model answer

   A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart of a project's tasks against time. Each task is one bar whose left edge is its start date and whose length is its duration, so the whole schedule can be read at a glance.

2. 2

   What is shown on each axis of a Gantt chart?

   Model answer

   The vertical axis lists the tasks in the order they begin, and the horizontal axis is a timeline in days or weeks.

3. 3

   How is a dependency between two tasks shown on a Gantt chart?

   Model answer

   A dependency is drawn as an arrow from the end of the earlier task to the start of the later one, showing that the second cannot begin until the first has finished.

4. 4

   What is a milestone on a Gantt chart?

   Model answer

   A milestone is a point of zero duration marking the completion of a stage, drawn as a diamond rather than a bar. Signing off the requirements or delivering the tested system are typical milestones.

5. 5

   How does a Gantt chart show that two tasks run at the same time?

   Model answer

   Two bars that overlap horizontally occupy the same span of the timeline, which shows the tasks are worked on concurrently. Testing one module while coding the next is shown this way.

6. 6

   Why is a schedule broken into tasks before it is drawn?

   Model answer

   Breaking the work down forces every activity to be identified and given a duration, which exposes work that would otherwise be forgotten and makes the total estimate the sum of considered parts rather than a guess.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Development Project: Analysis and Design revision questions

What does The Development Project: Analysis and Design cover in CCEA A-Level Digital Technology?

12 subtopics: scheduling the project with a gantt chart, internal and external constraints on the solution, detailing user requirements as inputs, processes and outputs, prioritising requirements as essential and non-essential, data flow diagrams at level 0 and level 1, specifying hardware and software requirements, the overall system design, process descriptions and algorithms, user interface design and validation, data modelling and normalisation for the solution, designing the queries and reports and developing a comprehensive test plan. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Development Project: Analysis and Design organised?

By the CCEA 2650 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.