RAD Coursework: The MySpy Project

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RAD CourseworkThe MySpy Project
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MySpy

• You have been hired by a major international spy
  recruitment agency to develop a Visual Basic
  application (codename MySpy) for them.
• You have about six weeks in which to do this,
  however, the quicker you deliver the application,
  the more youll get paid.
• These guys are really in a hurry!

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Requirements

• In meetings with the customer, you have elicited
  a number of requirements that you have been able
  to prioritise as
• High (they must be included in the delivered
  application)
• Medium (highly desirable, but not essential)
• Low (the customer could live without them for the
  time being, although they might become higher
  priority in the future).

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Requirements
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The Money

• The company have a budget of 100,000 and are
  willing to give you the lot if you deliver all
  these requirements by noon on the Friday of week
  7 of this term.
• You and the customer have developed an equation
  that will determine what size of cheque they will
  write
• Cheque () K(3H2ML)/W
• K 31818.2
• H, number of high priority requirements delivered
• M, number of medium priority requirements
  delivered
• L, number of low priority requirements delivered
• W 7, 8 or 9

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Bonus/Penalty

• There is even an undisclosed bonus for innovative
  features.
• However, there is a penalty of 1000 per day for
  every weekday late the applications delivery is
  beyond noon on the Friday of week 9.
• However, your assignment MUST be submitted by
  noon on the Friday of week 10 otherwise a payment
  of zero will be made.
• In addition, you have a break-even figure of
  40,000. If you receive a cheque for less than
  this figure you will have failed and will go
  bankrupt.

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The Report

• You have agreed to provide a report to the
  submissions box in the Earl Mountbatten Crush
  area with a signed cover sheet firmly attached to
  the front.
• This sheet should clearly show the name of your
  RAD tutor
• not necessarily your lecturer.
• The report must provide the location (URL) in
  your MACS Web space where the applications
  compressed constituent files and compiled
  executable reside. This compressed file must be
  accessible by your tutor.
• Delivery of the report is deemed to signify
  delivery of the application. No payment will be
  considered until the report is delivered in the
  required format.

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The Report

• The format of the report is
• Introduction. State the purpose of the report and
  any assumptions you have made during the
  development process.
• Requirements checklist. Here you should clearly
  show which requirements you have delivered and
  which you havent. Include your invoice here,
  based on the number of requirements youve
  delivered and when you delivered them.
• User Guide. Use screen shots of the running
  application to help you describe how to operate
  the application.
• Developer Guide. Use screen shots from the IDE
  and code fragments to help another developer
  understand your work and how they might evolve it
  further.
• Testing. Show the results for testing all cases
  and prove that the outputs are what are expected.
  If certain conditions cause erroneous results or
  the application to crash then report these
  honestly.
• Conclusions. Reflect on what you are most proud
  of in the application and what youd have liked
  to have done differently.
• An optional final section of references is also
  encouraged.

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What Your Tutor will See.
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Common Mistakes

• Developing away from the labs
• Not checking the electronic submission is
  retrievable and runnable.
• No reading the specification and marking scheme
  carefully, and more than once.
• Not seeking help in labs and tuts.
• Putting my name on the paper submission.

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A Prize

• will be awarded next term to the student with
  the largest cheque
• Not necessarily the highest mark!

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Recommended Reading

• Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic by
  Gary Bronson
• Sections 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4,
  5.5, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 8.2
• Exercises after the above sections.
• Visual Basic.Net for Students by Doug Bell, Mike
  Parr
• Chapters 1, 2,4, 7, 8,13, 14, 15
• Exercises after the above chapters.