N5 - Software Design and Development

Describe and implement the phases of an iterative development process: analysis, design, implementation, testing, documentation, and evaluation, within general programming problem-solving.

Identify the purpose and functional requirements of a problem that relates to the design and implementation at this level, in terms of:

• inputs

• processes

• outputs

Identify the data types and structures required for a problem that relates to the implementation at this level, as listed below.

Describe, identify, and be able to read and understand:

• structure diagrams

• flowcharts

• pseudocode

Exemplify and implement one of the above design techniques to design efficient solutions to a problem.

Describe, exemplify, and implement user-interface design, in terms of input and output, using a wireframe.

Describe, exemplify, and implement appropriately the following data types and structures:

• character

• string

• numeric (integer and real)

• Boolean

• 1-D arrays

Describe, exemplify, and implement the appropriate constructs in a high-level (textual) language:

• expressions to assign values

• expressions to return values using arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation)

• expressions to concatenate strings

• selection constructs using simple conditional statements with <,>, ≤, ≥, =, ≠ operators

• selection constructs using complex conditional statements

• logical operators (AND, OR, NOT)

• iteration and repetition using fixed and conditional loops

• pre-defined functions (with parameters):

  • random

  • round

  • length

Read and explain code that makes use of the above constructs.

Describe, exemplify, and implement standard algorithms:

• input validation

• running total within loop

• traversing a 1-D array

Describe, identify, exemplify, and implement normal, extreme, and exceptional test data for a specific problem, using a test table.

Describe and identify syntax, execution, and logic errors.

Describe, identify, and exemplify the evaluation of a solution in terms of:

• fitness for purpose

• efficient use of coding constructs

• robustness

• readability:

  • internal commentary

  • meaningful identifiers

  • indentation

  • white space