48024 essay topics, spring 2006
From SoftwarePractice.org
Essay topics offered in Spring 2006. These are advanced topics.
To undertake a topic, contact JohnR to discuss first. Then email a proposal to him by the end of Week 7. Your proposal must include some notes on your initial research into the project topic and an outline of your complete essay. Proposals will not be accepted if your team's project documentation is not up to date and of excellent quality. These essays are to be delivered on the Wiki by the end of the last week of semester.
Note that essays are individual work.
Contents |
User interface design
(Based on a submission by Pouyan)
The design of an effective and usable interface for a computer program or system is complex and fraught with difficulties. One of them is that many of the elements of the interface may not be tested until relatively late in the development lifecycle. In this essay, discuss and compare techniques that allow user interface design and usability to be addressed early in the SDLC, and then followed through to the completion of the project. Use the Miniature Unified Process (or the Unified Process) as the lifecycle model, and include case studies and examples based on your team project.
Class diagrams: OMT to UML
UML class diagrams came from one of UML's predecessors: OMT (Object Modeling Technique). Some new features were added, and some removed, such as qualifiers. In this essay, document the history of UML class diagrams, and explain the reasons for the inclusion of new features and the removal of others. Use specific examples from your project to illustrate.
Statecharts
UML includes statecharts amongst its suite of diagramming notations. Statecharts and related notations have a long history independent of object-oriented design. In this essay, provide a brief history of statecharts, and then describe how they can be used in a UML-based design effort. Use specific examples from your project to illustrate.
Architecture vs object-oriented design
An occasional topic of angst amongst those engaged in the study of software design is where the "line" between architecture and object-oriented design is. This is made more confusing by the fact that some authors use UML to express architectures. In this essay, compare and contrast architectural design and object-oriented design, both conceptually and in terms of notation.
