KF5008 - Program Design and Development

Concepts, principles and techniques will be introduced to you in lectures and you will explore these further in practical exercises in laboratory/workshop sessions. You will also be provided with guided independent learning materials.

When appropriate, examples will be taken from real business and industrial situations. Throughout the module you will be given the opportunity to examine and discuss the use of programming design and development in real and simulated situations.

In the laboratory/workshop sessions you will get guidance on your studies of the subject and an opportunity to ask questions arising from them. Most importantly, you will get feedback on your work and your progress, including on the practical exercises. In addition, the eLP (electronic learning portal) blackboard is used to provide support materials, including model answers to exercises to help you assess your own work.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

[MLO1] A critical understanding of collection classes and be able to implement data structures such as lists, queues and trees together with algorithms to process these structures (e.g. searching and sorting)
[MLO2] A critical application of algorithm complexity and the big-O notation, including algorithms for data security, and use this to select suitable data structures for a particular scenario

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

[MLO3] Analyse a problem, produce an object-oriented design for its solution and evaluate the object-oriented design documentation
[MLO4] Employ object oriented programming and apply use of collection classes and their algorithms

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

[MLO5] Ability to work in a team to produce a design model

Formative assessment
The exercises in the lab/workshop sessions are crucial forms of formative assessment. They help you and your tutors assess your understanding and progress. You will get oral feedback on your work and your progress in the module from your tutors.

Summative assessment
Summative assessment is through two assignments:

The first assignment (60%) will be an individual work. This will be a scenario-based object-oriented programming task to explore aspects of an implementation of algorithms. This will include making an appropriate selection of data structures. [MLO1, 2, 3, 4]

For the second assignment (40%) you will work in groups to produce object-oriented design for a software system and then will reflect on its appropriateness in a report. The report should be within a limit of 2000 words. [MLO3, 4, 5]

You will get written feedback on your work for both parts of the assignment.

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You will extend your understanding of system development in this module. In particular, you will cover program design issues within the context of an industry-standard approach. You will learn how to implement designs, including the selection, implementation and processing of appropriate data structures, and how to evaluate design models and appreciate the place of these models within a software development approach.