CSCI3007 Component Based Development Exam Revision 20034

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CSCI3007 Component Based DevelopmentExam
Revision 2003-4

• Alan OCallaghan

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The Exam

• The examination is a two hour unseen paper
• Represents 70 of the grade for the module
• Is in two parts
• A three questions
• B four questions

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Part A

• Part A is designed for bookish answers
• A regurgitation in some form of material covered
  in the lecture notes
• No applied techniques or critical evaluation
  needed etc.
• You should attempt ALL THREE questions
• One of which is a crossword puzzle
• They carry a total of 40 marks (40 of the
  available marks)
• Designed to be answered in about 30 minutes
• Dont spend more than 50 minutes on part A!

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Part B

• You should attempt to answer TWO out of the four
  questions in part B
• There are some bookish part questions, but most
  require either applied technique, critical
  evaluation or both
• Requires thinking time
• Each question carries thirty marks
• There is a total of 60 marks available in this
  section (60 of available marks for the exam)
• Aim to spend about 90 minutes on this section
• Although questions are designed to be fully
  answerable in 75 minutes

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Coverage

• There is no attempt to cover every aspect of the
  modules syllabus in the exam.
• In particular, this year there is NO question on
  the Object Constraint Language
• Similarly, there are NO questions on specific
  technologies such as .NET, CCM or J2EE
• N.B. This does not necessarily apply to any resit
  or deferred papers!

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Recommended Topic Coverage

• All definitions in early lectures
• Many of the crossword puzzle clues are to do with
  formal definitions
• Overview of the CBD96 Process
• Six workflows inputs and outputs
• Details of the 3 workflows covered
• Requirements Definition workflow
• Specification workflow
• Component identification component interaction
  component specification
• Provisioning workflow
• Business Context Diagram v Business Type Diagram
• And how to move from the one to the other

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Recommended Topic Coverage

• UML for CBD
• Weaknesses of UML 1.x vis a vis components
• Notion of component diagram
• Inability to model logical forms of components
• As opposed to physical forms
• Limited notion of interfaces
• Chessman and Daniels use of UML extension
  mechanisms to address weaknesses
• Stereotypes such as ltltcore typegtgt, ltltdetailing
  typegtgt etc.,
• UML 2.0 features which address CBD
• Ports
• Ball and socket notation for interfaces
• Internal context diagrams
• New stereotypes e.g., ltltrequired interfacegtgt
• Know how to convert a UML 1.x diagram into a UML
  2.0 diagram

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Recommended Topics

• Use Cases for CBD
• UML 1.x specification of Use Cases
• Focus on diagrams rather than Use Case
  descriptions themselves
• Confusion between system-level and business
  use cases
• Cockburns templates
• Use Cases drive the System Service Component
  layer
• Know how to map Use Case logic to System
  Interfaces

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Recommended Topics

• Components vs Objects
• What are objects?
• What are components?
• What are the principles of object modelling that
  are fundamental to CBD?
• Development Process
• Compare and contrast the CBD 96 process with the
  J2EE Roadmap

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Recommended Topics

• Business Objects
• What are business objects?
• Describe the n-tier architecture of CBD 96
• What are the 3 kinds of business process, and how
  do they map to the n-tier architecture for CBD?
• What funding models are available for CBD efforts?

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Revision Technique

• Try and revise in groups
• Read your notes
• Test each other on definitions etc.,
• Try the practice crosswords and UML 2.0 tutorials
• Read your text book
• Practise techniques
• Moving business context diagrams to business type
  diagrams
• Identifying core types
• Mapping use case step logic onto system
  interfaces
• Write memos to Boards to explain more
  theoretical concepts

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Exam Technique

• Pace yourself
• Let the availability of marks guide the length of
  your answers
• Write about 4 times as much for a 15 mark
  question as a 4 mark question
• Spend 30-40 mins on part A aim to spend the rest
  on B
• Answer the question asked, not the one you would
  like to have been asked
• Do not brain dump
• Never leave a (part) question unanswered
• Blank replies guarantee a 0 an attempt may
  scratch together crucial marks even if you are
  entirely unconfident about an answer
• Under pressure for time, write bullet points to
  score mars rather than English essays etc.!

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Good Luck