From leavens@cs.iastate.edu Sun Oct 19 10:54:38 2003 Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 10:52:35 -0500 (CDT) From: Gary T. Leavens To: Travis Johnson Cc: Staff for Com S 362 Subject: Re: System Boundary? Hi Travis, On Sun, 19 Oct 2003, Travis Johnson wrote: > Professor Leavens, > > In Homework 6, the instructions state: > > "Using the brief format, write a use case titled "Cancel a Reservation", > which would involve a travel agent talking to the reservation system and > a customer." > > I assume that the system boundary is limited to the interactions of the > travel agent and the reservation system, but the instructions imply that > the use case involves the interaction of the travel agent with both the > reservation and the customer. My instinct is to write these as we have > done in class, limiting the use case to the travel agent and system > interactions, but I just want to check to make sure that we shouldn't > write about the customer in our use cases. Which way should we do it > for this assignment? You are correct that the customer is outside the system boundary in this case. The customer only interacts with the system through the travel agent. So the customer should only be mentioned in terms of motivation in the use case. -- Gary T. Leavens Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University 229 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-1041 USA http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens phone: +1-515-294-1580 ---------------------------------------------------------- From leavens@cs.iastate.edu Sun Oct 19 19:59:54 2003 Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 19:59:36 -0500 (CDT) From: Gary T. Leavens To: Jeff Groves Cc: Staff for Com S 362 Subject: Re: Homework 6, Problem 3 Hi Jeff, On Sun, 19 Oct 2003, Jeff Groves wrote: > In the fully-dressed use case, will the Primary Actor, Stakeholders, Conditions, > and Flows suffice, or should we include Special Requirements, Techonology & Data > Variations List, Frequency of Occurrence, and Open Issues as well? You should write these other sections as well. It will make trading easier if you do that and it's better experience to think about the details. -- Gary T. Leavens Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University 229 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-1041 USA http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens phone: +1-515-294-1580 ----------------------------------------- From leavens@cs.iastate.edu Sun Oct 26 17:29:48 2003 Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 17:28:55 -0600 (CST) From: Gary T. Leavens To: crazyabe@iastate.edu Cc: Staff for Com S 362 Subject: Re: cs362: about exam 2 Hi, On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 crazyabe@iastate.edu wrote: > I was wondering if there is a possibility of > writing java gui code during the exam. It's possible but not likely. > also, for the practice exam spring 2003, > on question 3, I answered "multiple language support." > Can this be correct or is the answer that you gave us is the only answer? Slightly expanded, that would be fine. > and do you have the answers to fall 2002 exam 2? > I just want to be see whether my answers to them is fairly correct or not. I can look into it... -- Gary T. Leavens Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University 229 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-1041 USA http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens phone: +1-515-294-1580 ------------------------- From leavens@cs.iastate.edu Mon Oct 27 10:08:14 2003 Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 10:08:00 -0600 (CST) From: Gary T. Leavens To: abutcher@cs.iastate.edu Cc: Staff for Com S 362 Subject: Re: Questions about the EXAM Hi Adam, On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 abutcher@cs.iastate.edu wrote: > Professor Leavens, > > While studying for the exam, I developed a few specific questions that I > would > like you to answer to the best of your knowledge. > > 1.) What criteria will you be looking for in each of the three types of use > cases? Put in another way, if you were to program a computer to grade the use > case part of the exam, what conditional statements would you program? I have > to ask this question because I feel overwhelmed when trying to describe > processes, I feel there are too many detailed parts to describe them all and > still have time to finish the exam. The same ones we discussed in class. It should have interaction. It should be UI-free. It shouldn't involve (except for motivation) actions that take place entirely outside the system. It should be complete, and it should do something sensible (it should be a good design). But I can't write an algorithm for grading these, sorry. > 2.) Can I be 100% sure that if I follow the format of the practice exam > answers, I will be awarded full credit? Put in another way, would the answers > on the practice exam get full credit? Yes, the answers I gave for the practice exams would get full credit. > 3.) Is it safe to say that the only criteria to check for when determining if > a > process is an elementary business case are: > a.)It provides measurable value. > b.)Only one person at one time can do the process. > c.)It leaves the system in a consistent state. Yes. For systems that don't have a strong notion of consistency, like games, I think the notion of a quiescent state is better than thinking of a consistent state; that's a state in which nothing more has to happen. -- Gary T. Leavens Department of Computer Science, Iowa State University 229 Atanasoff Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-1041 USA http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens phone: +1-515-294-1580