4.b.i Nature of the Solution.

Following the collection of information about the organisation and the perception of
the end-user about the problem that needs to be solved, the student should now decide
what the scope of the project is going to be. In other words, the student should decide
what needs to be done by the time the project is finished. The student should draw up
a list of required outcomes. This list should contain objective points, not subjective
ones, i.e. points that can be marked at the end of the work as being obviously
achieved or not.
In the example, the list might start with the following objectives: Mrs. Robinson must
be able to access all the records. Mr. Bramhall must have complete access to year 8
records but not to other years. It must be possible to pass on records to the next
year/form groupings at the end of a year. A form teacher must be able to output a
series of letters to the parents of pupils who are behind with their payments These
objectives are all easily quantifiable. When the project is over it is simple to check to
see if form teachers can produce the required letters. Objectives like The solution
must be easy to use or The solution must be presented in pleasant colours are very
difficult to judge. Indeed, two people can quite reasonably have different views on the
same piece of work. This list of objectives must be agreed with the end-user. This
may well mean that the original list of objectives may need to be altered when the end
user sees it. The thing to be remembered is that neither the student nor the end user
should dictate the objectives, they should be agreed upon. This final list should be
signed by both parties and is going to provide the basis both for the evaluation of how
successful the project has been, and also for the testing regime that is going to be used
in section c.
The next stage is for the student to design the output documents and the input formats
with appropriate screen designs. The end-user does not need to know anything about
the processing or the data structures that are to be used because they are not in the
realm of the user. However the end-user does need to know what the input and output
formats are likely to look like. These, together with the list of objectives, make up the
design specification and should now all be agreed with the end-user.
Students should realise that this process of agreeing the design specification should
take some time. If the student has one interview with the end-user, who, subsequently,
immediately agrees to all the students suggestions without needing further
modification, then the relationship is not a realistic one. Or to put it another way, there
is a fiddle going on! Remember that the intention is to mirror the real world, in which
the process would continually need fine tuning. Later in the project the student may
well find that the original design specification is no longer satisfactory, this is not a
point at which the student should think that their project is a disaster, but rather an
opportunity for involving their end-user again in modifying the design specification.
The student should be encouraged to document all such occurrences and how they
were resolved.
The next stage is to determine how the data will be moved around their system and
stored within it. The simplest way of describing this is to draw it. Students often find
this the most difficult part of the project, but it neednt be. Often the difficulties arise
because the student thinks that data flow diagrams or system flowcharts are highly
structured and because they do not know the language of boxes and how they should

be joined together. They should not worry about this. If a student particularly wants to
use boxes that are universally recognised as particular types, they are going to be out
of luck anyway, because there are lots of different systems. By all means choose one,
but that is not the point of this part of the assessment. The important thing is to
convey to the reader that there is a clear idea of how the different parts of their system
fit together and where the data is stored within the system.
The example that we have has inputs being made to the system which are different
dependent on the user. This means that inputs have to be shown, as does some
mechanism for checking the authority of the person to make the inputs, and that files
have to be altered. The files that have to exist seem to be a file of pupils and another
of payments, which will be linked in some way, and the outputs will include lists of
locker keys and pupils by year or form or all at once. Also letters to parents.

Delete, Add
Or change
A record?

Amend
Input

Authorisation?

Yes

Pupil
File

Amend or
Output?

No
Output
Report Error
Select
Print letter
Whole file Year group
Although this is not the sort of diagram that you would find in a text book, what is
missing? The ability to draw pretty boxes is not being tested here, simply the
students understanding of the logic of the intended solution and of how the various
pieces fit together. Individual parts of the logic may need to be considered in more
detail: How is the authorisation gained? How does the user select what type of
operation? But the basic details are there. Note that the pupil file is shown, but that the
payments file is not and would be in the full diagram.
The next stage is to consider the data that needs to be stored on the system. The data
should be divided up into different groups (files) dependent on the use that will be
made of them, and the links with the other files. An attempt should be made to
arrange the data into files so that there is as little duplication of the data as possible.
This will inevitably mean that the files will need to be linked so that data from one
file can be used in an application area designed for a different file.
The data attributes, or fields, from each file should be listed. It should be clear what
field or fields will be used as the key and also the foreign keys that are going to
provide links with the other files in the system. It is then necessary to explain the

purpose of storing each of the fields and to decide the data type that is to be used for
each field. When the files have been defined, it is then necessary to size them by
giving a size to each of the fields and scaling up to give an indication of size for the
whole file. Each of the items of data in the file will need to be input, consequently
there will need to be validation done on the data input. These proposed validation
checks should also be detailed.
The most important sentence in the specification of this section appears at the end of
the section on page 25: sufficient for someone to pick up and develop an end
result This states that the person who takes up the project at this stage will need to
do none of the analysis or planning work for themselves, but will simply have to put
the plan into action.
Evidence.
The report should contain:
A list of objectives against which the final product can be measured. This report
should be signed by the end-user.
An explanation of the way that the data is to be collected.
An explanation of the way that the data is to be input to the system together with
any initial plans of input screens, and explanation of intended means of validation.
An explanation of the output that should be expected and any initial screen
designs for the output of data
Details of the file structures that are to be used and the links between them.
Explanation of the way the data is manipulated through the system. This section
should contain a diagrammatic representation of the data through the system.
If the solution is to be attempted in module form there should be a description of
the way the problem has been modularised and also how the modules will fit
together.

4.b.ii Intended Benefits.

The introduction of a new system should, by definition, include changes that will be
made from the old way of doing things. If there are to be no changes, then what is the
point of the system being changed in the first place?
These changes can be one of two types. Either they bring improvements on what went
before, or they make the system worse. It is to be hoped that the time and energy
expended on producing a new system will mean that the solution is an improvement
on what was there before. It is the expected improvements that are discussed here.
It should be noted that the mark scheme mentions that any intended benefits should be
relative to the old system, and that general points that take the benefit past the scope
of the old system are acceptable.
The sort of response expected is: The new system allows the user to search a large
number of records for the presence of a particular value far faster than the old system
because the user does not have to look at all the individual paper records.
Evidence:
The report should contain:
Three specific improvements that the new system will make to the running of the old
system. It may be useful to give four benefits to be on the safe side.

4.b.iii Limits of the Scope of the Solution.

Any solution will be limited as to its effectiveness by a number of things. The
hardware that is available to produce the solution may limit the number of options
available. If there is no A3 printer available, then it is not possible to produce an A3
version of a large spreadsheet to be used at a board meeting. The software will dictate
the types of solution possible and the facilities of the particular examples of the
generic software that are available dictate the way that the final product can be
presented.
Particularly important are the files of data that are to be used as part of the solution.
The real world aspect is that the files will be of a measurable or predictable size. It is
necessary to know this predicted size because it will effect many other decisions. An
obvious one is the decision about how the file is to be backed up and onto what
medium.
The other aspect of the size of the data files that is particular to the concept of an A2
project is that there is a limit to the size of the files that it is sensible to expect a
student to produce. The problem of data protection legislation has already been
mentioned, but another problem with the data in a system is that there will often be
large amounts of it. It is not a sensible use of a students time to expect all the data to
be input to the system, so the idea of creating a file which is a fraction of the size of
the real file, while retaining its characteristics is sensible. It is necessary to size the
full file to show that the size of the file is understood and then to list the size of the
file and the time available as a limitation in the solution.
Evidence:
The report should contain:
A description of the contents and data types stored in each of the files to be used
together with an approximation of their size.
Any adjustments that the student thinks are necessary to their solution compared
to the real thing.
A list of any limitations that have been placed on the solution because of the hardware
available and the software available.