Computational Thinking for Information Technology

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING

FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

HOME | OBJECTIVES | WELCOME | TASK 1 | TASK 2 | TASK 3 | HELP

STUDENT SCENARIO:HOTEL FRONT DESK APPIn this scenario, you have been hired as part of a

consulting team to create an application that will make, cancel and modify hotel reservations.

Regina Harris will be your guide and virtual supervisor for the lesson. Your instructor will act as your project manager.


ObjectivesThis course will enable you to develop logical thinking skills, including:• Asking probing questions to uncover details of a problem• Clearly defining a problem• Evaluating the effects of design options• Making design decisions based on rational criteria• Correlating the relationships between components and

prior knowledge• Identifying the steps required to solve a problem


Objectives (cont.)This course will enable you to develop logical thinking skills, including:• Identifying the sequence of steps including possible

decisions and alternatives• Measuring and adapting the solution to optimize resource

utilization• Measuring and evaluating solutions against the success

criteria• Adjusting the design and implementation as needed


WELCOME

Expectations | About our Consulting


Hello, I’m Regina. Welcome aboard! We’re very excited have you on our team of consultants.


ExpectationsIn your first months here, you will learn new technologies, research cutting-edge technologies, prepare documents, create and deliver presentations, and design and develop websites for clients.

These assignments may take you out of your comfort zone and push you to think in new ways. However, we are certain that the excitement of solving these challenges will more than make up for the difficulties you might encounter.


We expect each of you to make the client’s

needs your priority by contributing to your

team and producing quality, finished

products on time.

We have worked hard to develop a

reputation for excellence, and are currently

the industry leader in consulting services in

information technology. We hope to be the

industry leader in the region within the next

five years. I hope you will be an integral

part of helping us reach that goal.


About our consultingWe are a premier information technology

solution provider. We specialize in providing

reliable solutions for businesses in today's

fast-paced technology world. The company is

dedicated to providing clients with the most

powerful IT products, solutions and strategies

that keep their businesses on the cutting edge

of technology.


We are committed to personal and professional

integrity, honesty, and open communications

with our clients. We seek long-term

relationships with our clients.

The Community College and University IT

(CCUIT) Division is responsible for providing

consulting services for educational institutions

systems. CCUIT is the largest division in the

company and key to the company’s success.


Your roleOur excellent reputation is spreading. As a

result, within the last year, we have seen a

surge in the number of new clients seeking

our services. In turn, this has allowed us to

hire new employees such as you to help

us to deliver these services. You have

been assigned to the Community College

and University IT Services Division. The

division is primarily responsible for

providing consulting services for

educational institutions.


Since many of the clients you will be working

for are new clients to the company, I would

like to ask you to start building a good

relationship with your client. Pay attention to

customer service skills, communicate often,

and most importantly provide your client with

finished products that are up to our standard

of excellence.

This is a fast-paced working environment. I

hope you will enjoy and be up to the

challenge.

Welcome aboard!


Ready to get started? Task 1 is waiting for you!


TASKS AND ASSIGNMENTSOur consulting firm has been selected by campus hotel, to design and implement an application for campus hotel. The

application will be used by the front desk clerks to make, cancel and modify hotel reservations.

Please complete all the steps to the tasks, and refer back to your Working in Teams and Working with Tasks overviews if

you run into any obstacles.


TASK 1: RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

For this task, you will research and deliver a comprehensive list of pieces of information

which will be needed to make, cancel or edit a reservation.


OverviewYou will work as a consulting team for this task. More specifically, discuss the items which you know can be used to make, cancel or modify reservations, items you don’t know, items you need to know, and how to fill the gaps and then organizing those ideas into a brainstorm document. The categorized brainstorm must be submitted to the client within the client’s timeline and delivery method, for their review and approval.


Deliverables1. You will deliver a brainstorm document

listing the items that will be necessary to make a hotel reservation to the client for potential further research and exploration to address the client’s needs. All the ideas from the brainstorming session must be logically placed in general categories that can be easily understood by the client.

2. Definition of roles and tasks assigned to each team member and a work schedule.


Action Plan1. You must begin by brainstorming

everything you currently know about making a hotel reservation. Consider all creative ideas and be as exhaustive as possible and non-judgmental.

2. Secondly, move to all items you might not know or understand about making hotel reservations that may be relevant to this task. Again, consider all ideas as valid and reserve judgment.


Action Plan (cont.)3. Then, begin to identify the gaps between

what you know and what you don’t know. The client asks you to be thorough. Be sure to consider what else you might have missed.

4. Take a look at the results and notice the repetition of words or ideas. Begin to sort and group logically these ideas into a few descriptive but broad categories.


DebriefReflect on what we've learned from this task by discussing the following questions with your colleagues and manager(s):1. Did you find and learn terminology

related to making hotel reservations with which you were not familiar?

2. Was your research thorough and uncovered details?

3. Is your proposal addressing the needs of the user?


Debrief (cont.)4. How did your team reach consensus

on their job roles?

5. Did you develop a schedule that would meet the client request?


Debrief (cont.)Also reflect on what we've learned from this task by discussing the following questions with your manager and team:

1. How successful was your team at following the work plan you created for this task? What have you learned about each other as teammates? How can you use each other’s strengths to work more effectively in the next tasks?


Debrief (cont.)2. Do you feel like the team’s plan for

uncovering details was efficient and well thought? Do you feel like you contributed too much, too little, just enough? Did you learn something new about the process of discovering threats in a computing environment?


Debrief (cont.)3. How did the team prioritize the needs

and resources differently? How did they justify their choice? Do you agree with them? Did you feel the team worked like a real-world team would? How you re-prioritize the needs based on their presentations?


Your team is doing well. It’s time for your next task.


TASK 2: GUI DESIGN

For this task, you will design the user interface for the application to be developed.


OverviewYou are working together great so far. Your completed research proposal has been reviewed by the client and they satisfied with the proposed list of categories and the reward associated with each category.

The next step is to design GUI for the application to be developed using established GUI design practices. The developed GUI will be presented to the client for feedback. The feedback then would be used refine and polish the final GUI.


GUI Principles*The structure principle. Your design should organize the user interface purposefully, in meaningful and useful ways based on clear, consistent models that are apparent and recognizable to users, putting related things together and separating unrelated things, differentiating dissimilar things and making similar things resemble one another. The structure principle is concerned with your overall user interface architecture.

*Constantine L., and Lockwood, L. Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Essential Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1999.


GUI Principles (cont.)The simplicity principle. Your design should make simple, common tasks simple to do, communicating clearly and simply in the user’s own language, and providing good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures.

The visibility principle. Your design should keep all needed options and materials for a given task visible without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information. Good designs don’t overwhelm users with too many alternatives or confuse them with unneeded information.


GUI Principles (cont.)The feedback principle. Your design should keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or exceptions that are relevant and of interest to the user through clear, concise, and unambiguous language familiar to users.


GUI Principles (cont.)The tolerance principle. Your design should be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and misuse by allowing undoing and redoing, while also preventing errors wherever possible by tolerating varied inputs and sequences and by interpreting all reasonable actions reasonable.

The reuse principle. Your design should reuse internal and external components and behaviors, maintaining consistency with purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency, thus reducing the need for users to rethink and remember.


Deliverables1. A preliminary GUI design which should follow

the GUI Principles

2. A survey for client feedback

3. A refined GUI based on client feedback

See document “Task 2 Resources” for reference.


Debrief1. Does your questionnaire include enough

thorough questions that you would need to ask your client to refine your GUI design?

2. Did client request major revisions to your GUI design?

3. Is the client satisfied with your revised GUI design?


Nice job! You’re set to move on to the

next task.


TASK 3: CODING

For this task, you will provide the functionality behind the user interface design.


OverviewThe client is exceedingly happy with your revised GUI design and has approved the GUI. Excellent job! We are now ready for the next stage of our project, providing the functionality behind the design GUI. The code should follow clean coding practices. Some resources to clean coding practices are provided in Resources.

It may also be beneficial to revisit Working with Tasks and Working in Teams before you start developing the application.


Deliverables1. Implement and integrate all aspects of the

deliverables of Task 1.0 with the developed GUI.

2. Develop a user manual for the application.


Action Plan1. Ensure all aspects of the application are

working properly.

2. Write the application user manual.

3. Make sure that you have a backup of all your work.


Debrief1. What elements of other teams’ solutions

did you particularly admire? Why?

2. Do you have a better understanding of software development process?

3. Do you have a better understanding of how to write clean code?


Good work developing. You’re ready to move on!


TASK 4: TESTING

For this task, you will test the application you’ve built before sending to the client.


Deliverables1. Create a document that details plan to

test the application for correctness and accuracy. Define testing strategies for each area and sub-area to include all the functional and quality (non-functional) requirements.

2. Divide deliverable of Task 1.0 into testable areas and sub-areas. Be sure to also identify and include areas that are not tested.


Deliverables1. Define bug-tracking procedures.

2. Identify testing risks.

3. Provide testing schedule.

ResourcesStandard 829-1998 IEEE Standard for SoftwareTest Documentation: http://www.cs.unb.ca/profs/wdu/cs3043w10/IEEE-829-2008.pdf


http://www.cs.unb.ca/profs/wdu/cs3043w10/IEEE-829-2008.pdf



DebriefReflect on what we've learned from this task by discussing the following questions with your colleagues and manager(s):

1. What elements of other teams’ solutions did you particularly admire? Why?

2. Do you have a better understanding of software testing process?


Debrief (cont.)3. How successful was your team at

following the work plan you created for this task? What have you learned about each other as teammates? How can you use each other’s strengths to work more effectively in the next tasks?


Debrief (cont.)4. Do you feel like the team’s plan for

uncovering details of the assigned category was efficient and well thought? Do you feel like you contributed too much, too little, just enough? Did you learn something new about the process of discovering threats in a computing environment?


Debrief (cont.)5. How did the team prioritize the needs

and resources differently? How did they justify their choice? Do you agree with them? Did you feel the team worked like a real-world team would? How you re-prioritize the needs based on their presentations?


Debrief (cont.)6. How did the testing process go from

beginning to end? How did you start? What problems did you encounter? You were expected to screenshot the entire process….was it a challenge to document and test at the same time? Do you feel satisfied with the team’s test process? Do you feel satisfied with the team’s test documentation? What did you learn about the testing and documentation processes?


Debrief (cont.)7. Do you feel your team is ready to

deliver the application to the client?


INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION

eMail:

Phone:

Office location:

Office hours:

Other info:


Documents

Computational Thinking for Information Technology