Hi,
I'm slightly confused about the "design specification", is this seperate from he requirements specification or do they refer to the same thing? I would appreciate any help on this.

Thanks alot!

By Tom Harvey on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 07:24 am:

NEED HELP! totally confused about the design specification! I mean i know what it is but just can't quite put my finger on what to say! any explanations or ideas? T

By DC on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 12:01 pm:

One reason for the confusion is that OCR in their wisdom have made the Requirements Spec part of the Design section (for the project), whereas most normal people would put it as part of the Systems Analysis. This is not your fault so just accept that the confusion is nothing to do with you and move on!

So what should you put in the Design section (section B (i) - 13 marks)? Assuming you are doing a bog standard database:

1) Put a copy of the Requirements Spec in there at the start.
2) Put in (or copy from the Analysis section) an E-R Diagram of the proposed system.
3) Then put in (or copy from the Analysis section) the Data Dictionary of the proposed system. Ensure you include validation rules where appropriate.
4) Now include (or copy from the Analysis section)DFDs of the proposed system (a context and a level one diagram is enough)
5) Then design on paper a Data Capture Form, any data input forms and any Reports or information screens that are produced.
6) Now detail any clever queries you need. Write out what each one will have to do.
7) Finally, do a comprehensive test plan (tests for validation rules, queries and user tests). It is difficult but important to do the test plan BEFORE you actually make the database or write the software. It will focus your mind on writing a top-quality one. Do it afterwards and it will look and feel 'made-up'.

All documents should be annotated with a) What the diagram is and b) what it shows you / why you have included it in the design section.

If you do all the above well and completely, so that someone in Australia can implement correctly your project from your design documents, you'll get 13 out of 13.

Also, Make sure you have a copy of the mark scheme. And most importantly, TALK to your teacher about what they want in this section! This is important because different teachers look for slightly different things.

Good luck

DC

By saner on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 05:51 am:

it is not necessary that u make the reports on a paper or forms on a paper u can make a prototype in access and put its screen shot up there u can mention above that it is a prototype. Get this we used to make forms on papers as design when computing was old we had languages such as pascal etc we used to tell the customer that roughly this is what it will look like , now with so much advance computing i fiund making forms on paper useless y not make a prottype to make stuff more clear

By DC on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 06:24 pm:

Saner has made an excellent point and a perfectly valid one. It really all comes back to the same thing - be guided by your teacher and what it is they are looking for. A happy teacher is a high-marking teacher!!