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 Stephen Burrows U5184463 1 M450 TMA 01 26/02/08

Stephen Burrows U5184463

TMA 01 M450

1 Projective Title

A browser-based academic report management, formatting and delivery system

2 Problem description and scope

I work for a English language school, teaching young learners who come to England for one
or two months for intensive courses. After the end of each course, a report has to be written
and sent to the parent of the young learner, giving an overview of their progress. Currently,
reports are created using a general Microsoft Word template, the name of each student is
written into each report template by an administrator and the student's teacher will complete
the report. Once this is done, the administrator will print out all the reports, place them in
envelopes and send them to the parents at various addresses around the world.

This produces many problems. Teachers find it inconvenient to have to complete the reports
in the school where computers are limited. Sometimes teachers will e-mail the report
templates to themselves, so they can complete the reports at home in their own time.
However, administrators complain when this is done because many times the formatting of
the document is corrupted and it takes a long time to reformat the document. Another big
problem is with the delivery of the reports because the reports are frequently sent late and
sometimes don't arrive at all. All staff would like a system implemented where reports could
be sent by e-mail if the parent desired. But, the head-administrator, in a meeting to try and
find a solution to this problem, said that writing the e-mail and attaching the file would be even
more time consuming for them. She suggested if there was a tool that would automatically
send reports to all parents requesting them by e-mail then the problem would be solved, but
as of yet, that tool does not exist.

I intend to create a secure, browser-based system, using a three tier architecture, that will
permit teachers to complete reports from their home or in the office via a web-browser. It will
also allow administrators to choose how the completed reports should be delivered and also
give an option for which format the document should be sent in.

The school already has an active and well designed staff Intranet in place, so I intend for the
system to replicate its familiar look and feel.

The end product will be two secure web pages containing forms, one for teachers, the other
for administrators, the functions of which will allow the users to manage, format and choose
the delivery process of the report.

Being a user of one element of the system, I am able to identify the basic requirements for the
teacher side of the system, however I will consult with other teachers once an initial prototype
has been developed. With regards to the administrator side, I have already explained the idea

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of the project to the school's head administrator and she is willing to provide me with any
information, support and feedback I may require.

3 Major project elements and sub-tasks

3.1 Sub-Task 1 – Developing a Database

It's not possible for me to use the actual school database for both logistical and ethical
reasons, so a small scale replication is required. The main tasks for this are as follows:

1. Analysis of different types of databases and tools available to complete the task. Also
an investigation into whether a purely XML based database could be used opposed to
a relational database. A decision also needs to be made to the extent of which the
database will be populated.
2. Design of the database, choosing the most appropriate tables and fields to replicate
the the school's database. Deciding upon relations between table. Creation of a UML
diagram that can be used as a reference.
3. Implementation of the database, the tables need to be created and populated, the
latter task could be painfully time consuming. The database needs to be registered
with a connectivity system that will enable the report management system to
communicate with it, sending queries and data. Alternatives to ODBC may need to be
investigated as the system is being developed on Linux.
4. Evaluate the database by creating views of sets of required data and producing small
Java classes that test the connection between IDE and the database.

3.2 Sub-Task 2 – Developing the Teacher's Report Management System

As previously mentioned, as a proposed user of this system, I have a good knowledge of

what is required and many of the the elements of this sub-task use skills I have learned on
previous OU courses. The main tasks are as follows:

1. Analysis of user needs and report format. How can completing the current word
document report be effectively handled using a internet browser. Also, the various
server side coding options need to be look at and analyzed and an appropriate
technology chosen before the design stage.
2. Design of the report entry form, could be done with a simple paper prototype, using
feedback from users to decide on the format of the form. The business objects of the
system need to be identified so that the database mapping can be completed. Early
UML diagram of classes and methods should be made prior to coding. At this stage
care should be taken so that code can be reused for the Administrator system.
3. Implementation of coding, small, workable systems should be coded providing possible
users prototypes to examine and provide feedback. Coding will be done in Java, used
to create servlets or Java Server Pages that will provide the browser based interaction
between the user and the database.
4. The system will be tested and evaluated by using the application and creating a testing
environment were prototype reports can be displayed without formatting.

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3.3 Sub-Task 3 – Implementation of Document Formatting

This is the area of the task the delves into a technical area which I have only previously
touched upon, XML and document formatting. Due to this, I expect the Analysis stage to be
much longer than any of the other sub-tasks.

1. Analysis of extracting data from relational databases and formatting it into XML needs
to be made by searching for documentation in books and in the OU Library.
Communication needs to be made with administration staff to discover the various
formats of documents they desire and in which circumstances,
2. Design of an appropriate XML schema/DTD for the database and a XSLT for style
processing of each document that needs to be made.
3. Implementation of the DTD, schema and XSLT style sheet.
4. Evaluation of created documents. Debugging of potential problems with style
formatting. Testing documents on different operating systems.

3.4 Sub-Task 4 – Developing the Administrator Report Delivery System

I intend to reuse a lot of the code that was created in sub-task 2 for this sub-task. The main
focus with this task will be analysis and design. I am not a user of this system and need to
liaise closely with users to make sure they have a system which fulfills all their requirements. I
want to also make sure that there is scope for the system to be expanded if required now or
at some time in the future.

1. Analysis of user requirements, meetings are required to discover user needs. Some
investigation will be required in SMTP and how it can be effectively used in this system.
For this, research of books and documents in the OU library will be required.
2. Design of the system, taking into account the user requirements and also how it can
interact and synthesize with the teacher's report management system. Paper
prototypes need to be created and approved by administration staff. Once approved, a
UML diagram needs to be created to assist the implementation of the system.
3. Implementation of the code, a lot of which I hope will already have been created
previously. Most of the new implementation of code will be concentrated on the system
for the sending of reports.
4. Evaluation of the system through testing by the developer via testing programs and
then by the potential users of the system via a wide range of e-mail tools, operating
systems and browsers.

3.5 Sub-Task 5 – Applying Secure Access Features to the System

This final task will use a lot of things that I learned in my previous M360 course, a relevant
technology will need to be chosen and a login page designed.

1. Analysis of secure internet facilities available and their affect upon performance.
Information will be attained mostly through internet sources and the OU library. It may
be a good idea to create a table which documents findings and provides an easy way

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 Stephen Burrows U5184463 4 M450 TMA 01 26/02/08

to compare and contrast different encryption technologies. How the usernames and
passwords will be administered also needs to be analysed.
2. Design of a secure user login page and possible altering of previous implementations.
3. Implementation of the code and any possible alterations of previosly coded
implementations.
4. Evaluation of secure services through testing by development team and users.

4 Project life-cycle

Due to the amount of sub-tasks or use-cases in my project, a conventional waterfall

development method just wouldn't be appropriate for me. I would find it very difficult to
analyze the whole project in one stage, then move on to the development of it and the
implementation and finally the testing.

An iterative approach would be far more appropriate, allowing me to create prototypes of the
system which can be presented to the customer and subsequently changed and improved
based upon their feedback. However, an iterative waterfall life-cycle still doesn't help the
problem of developing several different use-cases at different times. The way I have identified
the sub-tasks means it would be far better to have several small iterative waterfall life-cycles
per sub-task, where small pieces of working code can be presented to a customer and built
upon one use-case at a time.

Extreme Programming (XP) development would allow me to do this. XP development uses a

common framework of 3 week iteration cycles were some kind of working system, no matter
how basic, can be produced and presented to the customer for evaluation. XP development
also encourages refactoring, where existing code is revisited and reused, and this is what I
want to do in sub-task 4.

One area of XP development I am nervous about is the lack of a definite plan or certain
deadline to a project. In some ways it is an honest life-cycle as it doesn't promise unrealistic
deadlines, but this project has a deadline, so I do have to schedule the project with the aim of
getting it all completed by a specific date. So overall I will be using many of the principal ideas
of XP development in my life-cycle but adapting it so that it conforms with the time limit this
project has.

There are other life-cycles which I investigated and the table below lists them alongside their
perceived pros and cons in relation to this project.

Life Cycle Pros Cons

Waterfall Gives a clear outline to the
development, this is the classic
development life cycle, so it must
be trustworthy.
Doesn't permit iteration, can't return
to a previous part of the
development progress if you want to
change it. Structure is too “set in
stone”, if the project has many use
cases, then becomes difficult to

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 Open University Ou m450 Project
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