COMP 208/214/215/216 Lecture 1

1. COMP 208/214/215/216 Lecture 1 Introduction 恭喜發財

2. Aims of the Course • To give experience of working as part of a team to develop a substantial piece of software • Both of these aspects are important: • Building a large piece of software presents different problems from coursework exercises • Almost all work in the real world is done by teams.

3. Software Required: 208 • From module specification • “a database, front end tools for maintaining the database, tools for accessing, analysing and presenting the data” • The aim of the project for COMP208 is to produce a database application in an area determined by you, which, as a minimum: • Supports users and administrators • Is of reasonable complexity • Contains useful information • Supports a range of sensible queries and transactions. • You must provide an interface to your database, preferably web based

4. Software 215: eCommerce Group Project • “to produce a working e-Commerce software application.” • The aim of the project for COMP215 is to create a database in an area determined by you, which, as a minimum: • Is commerce related • Supports users and administrators • Is of reasonable complexity • Contains useful information • Supports a range of sensible queries and transactions. • Needs an interface, preferably web based • You application MUST have some degree of relevant security

5. Comp 216 (Internet Computing) • The aim of the project for COMP216 is to produce a database application in an area determined by you, which, as a minimum: • Supports users and administrators • Is of reasonable complexity • Contains useful information • Supports a range of sensible queries and transactions. • You must provide an interface to your database, MUST support Web access or alternative access via the Internet

6. Software Required: 214 • The aim of the project for COMP214 will be to create a computer system capable of undertaking an intelligent search of the solution of a given computational problem • You will need to structure and represent the knowledge specific to the given problem and implement a search algorithm across it. Suggested application areas include: • Timetabling, or • Group allocation systems

7. Project Stages • Detailed planning is up to you. But you must follow the following phases: • Phase 1: Requirements, weeks 1-3 (15%) • Phase 2: Design, weeks 4-7 (20%) • Phase 3: Implementation and Testing, weeks 8-10 • Phase 4: Demo and Portfolio, weeks 11-12 (65%) • Phase 1, 2, and 4, will produce assessed deliverables: Details of what is required at each stage based on material from Connolly and Begg can be found on VITAL. You may aim to complete these phases more quickly, but each phase must produce its deliverable by the stipulated time.

8. Project work schedule 30/1 Week 1 Lectures, group formation, project started, requirements 6/2 Week 2 Lectures, requirements analysis 13/2 Week 3 Lectures, requirements, submit requirements Friday 17/2 20/2 Week 4 Design work, requirements review week 27/2 Week 5 Design work, requirements improvement 5/3 Week 6 Design work, implementation, testing 12/3 Week 7 Design work, implementation, submit design documents 19/3 Week 8 Design review week, implementation, testing 23/03 Easter break up 16/04 Week 9 Implementation, testing 23/04 Week 10 Implementation, testing 30/04 Week 11 Implementation, testing, demonstration week 7/05 Week 12 Submit portfolio Friday11/5 and individual submissions

9. Assessed Work • Meetings • Each team must meet formally each week. A note of each meeting must be made available to your monitor within 1 week. (More on meetings in tomorrow’s lecture) • Requirements • Review with project reviewer in week 3 • Design • Review with project reviewer in week 7 • Demonstration • Given to project reviewer in week 11 • Portfolio • Submitted at end of week 12. More details on the web page and in later lectures

10. Phase 1 - Requirements • Database planning • Choose an area for your data base • Determine its objectives and aims • System Definition • Decide what will be in the database and what won’t • Identify categories of potential user • Requirements Collection and Analysis • Specify the requirements for each class of user.

11. What to Do First • Choose your application area: • e.g. sporting information: players, teams, matches, competitions • e.g. music information: musicians, bands, albums, record companies, charts • e.g. product information: models, brands, manufacturers, outlets • NOT a video/music/game shop – that is the case study in the text book • Plan your project • Read Connolly and Begg to find out what needs to be done • Identify the tasks that will achieve these things • Decide who will carry out the tasks. • More on planning in Lecture 3.

12. Submission Deadlines • Requirements documents: Friday 17/02/2012 • Design documents: Friday 15/03/2012 • Group Portfolio: Friday 18/05/2012 • Individual Submission: Friday 18/05/2012 • All submissions due at 3pm • Submit via: School Office

13. Free version online tools • Basecamp • Useful for project management, to do lists etc. • Keeps everyone informed • https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/Free/signup • Codesion • Bug management and version control • http://codesion.com/products.html • Google project hosting • http://code.google.com/p/support/ • Use whatever tools you find best but DO use them

14. Backups and your data security • You and your team are responsible for this • Keep documents and code • Online and • Offline • Version controlled • Safe from viruses • Data loss is not a valid reason for non or late submission of work