Unit Content

Development methodologies

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

Analysis

Identify the purpose and functional requirements of a problem:

• inputs
• processes
• outputs

Design

Identify the data types and structures required for a problem

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

Implementation(data types and structures)

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

• character
• string
• numeric (integer and real)
•  Boolean
• 1-D arrays

Implementation (computational constructs)

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
• predefined functions (with parameters):

— random
— round
— length

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

Implementation(algorithmspecification)

Describe, exemplify, and implement standard algorithms:

• input validation
•  running total within loop
• traversing a 1-D array

Testing

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.

Evaluation

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 spaces