Programme of Study Catalogue

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Work together as a team to plan, execute, and review a specified project;
Understand how to use customer data and metrics to inform project approach and delivery;
Implement appropriate representations of data in an SQL RDBMS;
Perform appropriate queries to extract particular relations;
Understand the importance of testing in project planning and implementation.

Content:

For this module, students work intensively in teams to provide a software solution to a given business brief, setting understanding of software development within an applied business context. The module extends students' knowledge of database theory to include the mathematical context behind the relational model, and deepens their understanding of schema development. Content covered includes: entity relation diagrams (ERDs), related mathematics (sets, propositional logic), use case diagrams, as well as: client server architecture, SQL queries, and table keys.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Students will be given a brief which they will work on under supervision from a tutor. The project will be run in such a way to replicate a working environment.

Project Work
Hours: 75
Intended Group Size: Cohort

Guided independent study
Hours: 325

Further details relating to assessment
Directed activities: these consist of weekly tasks that must be completed and submitted for inspection at timetabled sessions each week. The assessment will be assessed on a pass/fail basis with a pass requiring at least 75% of all weekly tasks to be completed successfully. A pass will lead to the full award of 10% towards the final module mark. A fail in directed activities will contribute 0% to the final mark.

Team Project: An example database team project (to illustrate scope and level):

Brief: Design an on-line retail system through which customers can:
- create an account;
- purchase items from an on-line catalogue;
- receive account information.

Different classes of items are stored in a database. On checkout the total to pay is displayed. Students are expected to provide custom extensions to meet specified management report requirements.

Assessment:

001 Directed activities; throughout semester 2 10%
002 Team Project (artefact); 7,000-words equivalent; end of semester 2 90%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Sorrel Harriet
Level - 4
Credit Value - 40
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 4S2