Part 1: Planning D Introduction Planning for a project is an important skill, so the TT284 EMA includes an element to encourage you to think about the work you will have to complete, how long the work could take, and what events might slow down your progress. Many students encountering a project activity for the first time have commented that they failed to manage the process very well. When asked what went wrong they reported that they: underestimated the amount of work to be completed + underestimated the amount of time required didn't start thinking about the project early enough didn''t spend sufficient time planning the work didn't allow time for unforeseen events carried out work in the wrong order + missed important requirements in the rush to submit. Our experience indicates that students who prepare for their project work perform much better than those who don't. Students have also reported how planning helps to reduce their stress and anxiety. Checking their progress against their plan allowed them to see whether they were on track or needed to update their schedule to complete the remaining tasks on time. The planning element has been included in the EMA to encourage you to start your preparations early, to understand the requirements, schedule the activities, assess the risks and difficulties and think about a mitigation strategy. Please note that your EMA work plan is different from, and less detailed than, a project plan for a client (as described in Block 4); it is about the work you will undertake and the risks you might face in completing Part 2 of this EMA. Given the importance that we attach to planning your work, one week of study has been set aside for you to complete the work plan. We have allocated 5% of the EMA marks for the work plan, which should be in two sections. The first section should contain a schedule of activities and the second a risk assessment and mitigation strategy. Question 1: The work plan (5%) D 1(a) Prepare the activity schedule The goal of this part of the work plan is to encourage you to think about how much work is involved in undertaking a project that runs over several weeks, and to plan the work so that you complete the EMA on time. Your task is to read EMA Part 2 'The Project' and to identify the activities you will undertake to complete the EMA together with your best estimate of the time each activity will take to be completed. |Ideas for the activities to include can be found in Block 4, but do not feel restricted by the module content; you can draw your ideas from your own experience. Your activity schedule is not expected to be exact, or very detailed, so don't spend too much time producing fancy Gantt charts. A simple table of activities showing an estimation of the dates or durations will suffice. There is no word limit for your activity schedule. Creating a work breakdown can be a helpful starting point to pick out the main activities (similar to project phases). Each main activity can then be divided into a hierarchy of work packages until you reach a package size where you feel you can estimate the work, and hence schedule its completion. When planning what order to carry out the work, take care to note any dependencies between the EMA questions and tasks. In particular, Question 5(b) requires you to carry out activities before, during and after other practical work. Given the importance that we attach to planning your work, one week of study has been set aside for you to complete the work plan. We have allocated 5% of the EMA marks for the work plan, which should be in two sections. The first section should contain a schedule of activities and the second a risk assessment and mitigation strategy. 1(b) Prepare the risk assessment I:I As you will appreciate from Block 4 Part 2, all project activities are subject to risks. The requirements change, equipment fails, and people become ill or unavailable. So what are the possible events that could delay your completion of the EMA? The list below offers some examples. Do you understand the requirements of the EMA well enough to enable you to meet your schedule dates? Will you need to do some further research, or revision, before you can get going? Are any external, potentially disruptive events due to take place during the project period (e.g. moving house, changing job)? Are you studying other modules with overlapping submission dates? Be careful when choosing your risks. For example, a planned holiday would not normally be considered a risk because the dates and consequences are well known in advance, and should be reflected in your schedule. Similarly, an assignment for another module is not a risk; however, an unforeseen delay in completing the assignment would be. Once you have identified the events, you need to assess the 'likelihood' of their occurrence and the 'impact' they could have on your work, using ratings of 'low', ''medium' or 'high'. You must then calculate the overall level of each risk for each event as 'low', 'medium' or 'high' and provide a mitigation strategy. You should present your findings in tabular form, as illustrated by the example below. Table 1 Example table for a risk assessment Event Likelihood Impact Risk Mitigation The goal of this part of the work plan is to encourage you to think ahead and plan around knowable and unforeseen events that could prevent completion of your EMA. We are not looking for elaborate schemes, just simple ideas to demonstrate that you have thought about the potential problems and have some ideas for resolving them. Marks will be awarded to any genuine attempt at a risk assessment that reflects the work to be undertaken. No assumptions have been made as to what constitutes a 'correct' set of risks, or what their likelihood and impact will be. There is no word limit for the work plan, as it is envisaged that it will comprise a simple table of activities and deadlines, together with a table of risks and mitigation strategies. Part 2: The Project D Introduction In Part 2 of the EMA you will complete practical tasks and answer written questions relating to a business scenario and a set of application requirements. Note that while the scenario and requirements describe a complete web application, you are only asked to develop parts of a solution, as set out in individual tasks and questions. Do not do more than you are asked to do! There is no single \"correct\" solution or answer to any of the tasks or questions. Your work will be assessed against the learning outcomes given earlier in this document. External frameworks and tools should not be used to produce your answers to the practical tasks; you should instead use the techniques presented in the module materials to complete each practical task. Your answers to written questions, and evidence of completing practical tasks where this is requested, should be submitted in a single word-processed document. The 'What to submit' section describes how to combine this with practical work for submission. Your document must have the following structure: meaningful title short introduction main body, clearly divided into sections covering different questions and tasks short conclusion reference list in the Cite Them Right style your reflection on your work plan. Each section of your document must be written in language suitable for its intended audience. While you may refer to information provided in other sections, you must make different points in each section. There is no credit for repeating the same point more than once. Your written work is expected to draw from the module materials, but you should also use at least two or more external sources to support or justify one or more of your answers. Marks will be awarded for a suitable title, headings, spelling, grammar, structure and referencing, as well as for content. All figures and tables should be properly captioned. Please include the word count at the end of each answer where a word limit is given. There is no word limit for the introduction or conclusion. To help your marker, ensure that you provide question numbers with each answer. If you encounter difficulties with the practical tasks and find you are unable to complete them in the time available, then you should submit what you have done. Then, in your document, explain to your marker in plain English what you did, what problems or errors you encountered and what you would like to have done, and how, to complete the task. Business scenario D A group of past and present students have formed an OU Cycle Club, where they can take part in organised club rides and socialise. Following a recommendation from the OU Running Club, the club organisers have contracted Online Solutions to undertake the design of a website targeted to the needs of current and new club members (the 'club website'). The design proposed by Online Solutions will allow current and potential club members to view planned rides, news and other events. It will also enable new club members to sign up and consent to receive email announcements and enable current club members to post their own cycle events. However, this process has not addressed how the content of the club website is to be managed. The club organisers (the 'admin team') are keen to create a web application that will support the day-to-day administrative tasks that are essential if the website is to fulfil its design goals (the 'admin application'). Without this web application, these tasks can only be accomplished by people who have the knowledge and skills to work with PHP and databases directly. It is hoped that, by creating a web application, the work can be shared among all members of the club's admin team. The admin team has had several meetings to try to establish what the admin application should provide in terms of basic functionality, but they are concerned about some of the implementation details and the security of the application. Only two members of the admin team have any experience of managing the development of a web application from concept to deployment. The team is therefore looking for some practical advice about development, testing and version control for the application. Online Solutions are too busy to develop the admin application, so the admin team have asked you to step in. Application requirements D Based on the outcome of their discussions the admin team has identified the following features for the admin application. Ride events The calendar of events is continually updated throughout the year, so the admin application must allow the admin team to add a new club ride or to approve a club ride proposed by a club member. Club ride events are described as follows: + Name of Ride: e.g. High Watcombe to Walton Type of Ride: e.g. Road, cyclocross, mountain bike, race Date of Ride: e.g. 5/06/2024 Starttime: e.g. 10.00am Duration: e.g. 120 mins Meeting point: e.g. Watcombe Fields Entrance A Distance in km: e.g. 22 Elevation in m: e.g. 200 Maximum group size: e.g. 12 Name of leader: e.g. Helen Smith + Contact number: e.g. 07774075441 Alternative contact number: e.g. 07725076814 Comments: e.g. flat ride, suitable for beginners and senior members Status: e.g. Proposed, Approved or Rejected. Experience has shown that errors can be made by users when providing information about an event, so it must be possible for the admin team to edit the details of a ride after it has been created. Other events The club tries to encourage greater interaction between members through a series of social events. These events will be publicised on the club website but will be added using the admin application. The admin application must allow the admin team to create new events by providing the name, date, type, starting time, duration and location. Membership The club website allows potential members to sign up to join the club. The information collected on each member is their, forename, surname, gender, date of birth, email address, phone number, home address , emergency contact name, emergency contact number chosen password, membership option (standard, student, senior), preferred payment method (card/PayPal/cash), automatic renewal (yeso) and their consent (or not) o receive announcement emails. Club members are responsible for updating their own information using the club website. However, because members may be slow to make changes, the admin team has agreed that any member who has not engaged with the website for more than 24 months should be removed from the active members list using the admin application. The admin application should allow the admin team to: + edit each current member's details approve or reject any new member''s request to join mark a member as being active or inactive. News items The admin team recognises that if the club website is to be a valuable resource to members, it must keep them informed of other cycle-related events. News items are intended to be quite short, a maximum of 200 words, and when added the record must include the full name of the admin user posting the news item, a subject line (maximum 5 words) and the dates for first and last showing of the item. A news item is only shown on the club website between the dates of first and last showing. Note that first showing date is not always the date the news item is posted. Announcements The admin team would like to be able to send announcements as emails to the entire membership, but only to those members who have given their prior consent. The emails will be plain text with the option of a single file attachment. The application should provide the facility to create the announcement, add a subject line (maximum 5 words), add the sender''s name, select an attachment, specify the date and time that the email should be sent and select a priority (High/Normal/Low). Security The admin application must be protected to ensure that only members of the admin team can access its functionality. The scenario and requirements provide context and background to the questions and tasks that follow. As with any web development project, the specification may be incomplete. If you encounter a gap or ambiguity in the application requirements, you should make reasonable assumptions and state these in your answers where necessary. Question 1: Wireframes (25%) D Both parts of this question are about the admin application. 1(a) Navigable wireframes Online Solutions have produced wireframes for the club website. The admin team feel that these wireframes help to clarify the overall structure and navigation of the club website, and they would like to see something similar for the admin application. They are keen to know if the requirements they have identified can be rationalised into a coherent set of web pages that illustrate how the various features of the application will be presented to an admin user. Your task is to create navigable wireframes of your proposed solution for the administration application as it might appear on a laptop or desktop screen (i.e. 1024px wide, landscape orientation). The wireframes should demonstrate how the different parts of the application are organised, what information is displayed on each page, how navigation works between the pages, and so on. Pages returned by a server in response to specific user input are not required. You should also think carefully how your design will respond when viewed on a mobile device screen (i.e. 375px wide, portrait orientation) and include two wireframes (two pages) to illustrate how the solution might appear on a maobile device screen. Your wireframes must be submitted as a set of one or more HTML files and may also include CSS and image files. You can use Pencil, a text editor, or any other tool with which you are familiar to create these files. You are not required to develop any JavaScript for your wireframe. Submitting your wireframes in any other format will result in a penalty being applied. Should you decide to use Pencil, you must use the 'Export Document' option to export your wireframe as a 'Single web page' using the 'Default HTML Template'. This creates an HTML file and a folder of images which ensures that the client can review your wireframe without the need to install the Pencil application. You should not make any further changes to these files and make sure to include them all in your submission. Collect the files that make up your wireframes into a single folder, retaining any folder structure that you may have created (e.g. that was created by Pencil). Please name the folder using your own OUCU (namely 'OUCU_Q1) , record the filename of your wireframe home page for your marker in your EMA document so that your marker can open and test it, and record the folder name as well. It is essential to keep in mind that a wireframe illustrates successful capture of an application's requirements by means of content and information architecture. It is not about implementation or branding, so should not include coloured text or images. The EMA Wireframe Resources page contains simple placeholder images (bars, squares and rectangles) and a file of 'Latin' text that you can use to illustrate how content will be displayed on a page. You can set the image width and height attributes to the size required. You may find the following pointers useful. + Consider the application from an admin user''s perspective to see how information might be organised or functionality grouped. There may not be an exact match between pages and features. + Consider how users will navigate around the admin application. Think about the screen layout and the use of 'white space' to separate content. + Read the requirements carefully to ensure the admin team has not omitted important functionality (e.g. it should be possible to edit or update an item after it has been added). + Think how your design will respond when viewed on a mobile device screen. 1(b) Explanation In your document, for the admin team, explain the role of wireframes in web development. Then explain how the design demonstrated by your wireframes fulfils the requirements they have outlined. Hint: imagine that you meet with the admin team and walk them through the key features of your solution this is not simply an explanation of what you have done, it is an explanation of why your design is appropriate. You have a maximum of 500 words for Question 1(b). Question 2: Responsive design (30%) D 2(a) 'Add club ride' page for laptop screen This part of the question is about the admin application. The admin team is keen to see some ideas for the visual design of the admin application. Given that the application is not accessible to the public, the design is not required to meet the OU ICE guidelines, but the implementation must be standards-compliant. Your task is to create and validate a web page containing a form to add a club ride event. The overall page layout should be consistent with your wireframes and must be valid HTML and CSS. The page must, of course, be an actual realisation of the corresponding wireframe component and not simply a repetition of a part of the wireframe itself. * The form should work and submit data to the TT284 reflector: https://students.open.ac.uk/mct/tt284/reflect/reflect.php. You are not required to implement any PHP to process this data at this stage. The form should include a hidden field. The field should be named 'Sessionldentifier' and should contain the value '53-dd45-dcba9876-9090' . * The page should use a CSS style sheet. As with the wireframe, the page should be easy to use on a laptop or desktop screen (1024px wide, landscape orientation, e.g. 768px high). The page and form should be accessible. The form may use HTMLS input types described in Block 2 Part 3, but validation of input data is not required at this stage. Any admin application navigation features proposed in your wireframes should be present on the page but are not required to function. The web page and any related files should be clearly named e.g. 'g2a.html', 'g2a.css'. Validate your HTML using the W3C Markup Validation Service. You can validate the file by uploading it directly to the validator service. Make sure that you are using the HTML5 option. There should be no errors reported. As with earlier assignments, you are not required to address any warnings that may be reported. You should also validate your CSS, but you are not required to provide evidence of this. Ensure you read Question 5 before completing Question 2. In your document, for your marker, provide a screenshot of the part of the page that shows the line 'Document checking completed' and the tags within the tag of your source code just below. Record the filename of your 2(a) HTML file so that your marker can open and test it. 2(b) Responsive 'Add club ride' page This part of the question is about the admin application. Some members of the admin team are interested in the possibility of carrying out some admin tasks using a mobile device; for example, while they are out attending an event. They would like to see how the admin application might be presented on a mobile device. Your task is to make a copy of your solution to 2(a) and amend the CSS and HTML as appropriate to present the same form on a smartphone-sized screen. + Use techniques you have learned in Block 3 to allow the page layout to respond to screen width, such that the page and form are also usable on a mobile device screen (375px wide, portrait orientation, e.g. 667px high). Both the form and the page navigation should be responsive. No changes to functionality are required, but you may consider HTMLS inputs even if you did not use these in your 2(a) solution. The page and form should continue to be accessible (consider any accessibility decisions you made in 2(a)). Take care not to change your original 2(a) solution files. + The web page and any related files should be clearly named e.g. 'q2b.html', 'q2b.css'. Your 2(b) solution should work for two combinations of device and orientation: a mobile device in portrait orientation and a laptop device in landscape orientation. Therefore, your solution should work at two screen widths: 375px and 1024px ('Mobile M" and 'Laptop' in Chrome's Device Toolbar, as described in Block 3 Part 1 Activity 5). Your solution is not required to respond appropriately to widths less than, between, or greater than these two values. Hint: as you saw in Block 3 Part 3, page layout on mobile device screens is typically a single column, with the most useful or commonly used content or functionality presented sooner. For forms, labels are often presented above inputs rather than to their left. In addition to examples provided in Block 3, the file 'emaMobileResources.zip' provides a further example of some HTML and CSS which you can adapt if you wish. Validate your HTML using the W3C Markup Validation Service. You should also validate your CSS, but you are not required to provide evidence of this. In your document, for your marker, provide a screenshot of the part of the page that shows the line 'Document checking completed' and the tags within the tag of your source code just below. Collect the files that make up your 2(a) and 2(b) solutions into a single folder, retaining any folder structure that you may have created. Please name the folder using your own OUCU (namely ''OUCU_Q2') and record the folder name for your marker in your document. Record the filename of your 2(b) HTML file so that your marker can open and test it. Note that your 2(a) and 2(b) solutions must work independently of each other. 2(c) Explanation and recommendation This part of the question is about the admin application and the club website. In your document, for the admin team, describe the features of the page design in your 2(b) solution that make it responsive. Describe any choices or compromises you made or difficulties you encountered in making the page and form responsive, usable and accessible on a mobile screen. Explain why you made such choices and compromises. (It does not matter if you made these changes in your 2(b) solution or they were already present in your 2(a) solution.) Then, given this experience, and drawing on your view of the likely needs of club members and the admin team, discuss whether the admin team should focus on making either the club website or the admin application (or both) responsive to mobile devices, or whether they should consider another approach. You have a maximum of 500 words for Question 2(c). Question 3: Future developments (10%) D This question is about the admin application and the club website. The admin team have yet to decide on a solution to make the club website and the admin application available to members and the admin team respectively. They would like your advice on what any such solution should include in terms of ensuring that both systems and their content are available. + The admin team would also like to know how the admin application and/or the club website might benefit from using mobile device sensors but are worried about the security implications. Identify one sensor that could be used to improve the admin application and/or the club website, explain what benefits that provides and discuss the potential security risks and how to mitigate or remove them. In preparing this advice, you will need to conduct some research using the module materials as jumping off points. You may find the following sections of the module materials to be particularly helpful in shaping your research: Block 4 Part 1 Section 6 Increasing_availability Block 4 Part 6 System security Block 3 Part 4 Section 5 Using Web APIs in JavaScript You have a maximum of 600 words for Question 3. Question 4: Acceptance tests (10%) D This question is about the admin application. The admin team will need to undertake the acceptance testing of the completed application before signing-off the project, so they have asked for some examples of the work they will need to do. Your task is to prepare four acceptance tests that verify the functionality of parts of the admin application. These consist of: two tests for the part that edits an existing ride. two tests for the part that adds announcements. For each part: one test must describe good input data leading to a successful outcome for the admin application user, and one test must describe bad input data leading to an unsuccessful outcome for the admin application user. Each test should be presented in your document in a tabular form consistent with Table 4 in Block 4 Part 5. Your table should provide details of the setup requirements, the instructions to the tester, and the expected outcome of each action. These tests should assume that the design proposed in your Question 1 solution has been implemented but are not required to cover every possible good or bad scenario. There is no word limit for Question 4. Question 5: Version control (10%) D Both parts of this question are about the admin application. d(a) Advice on version control The admin team are aware that the cycle club application development must be carefully managed and that some form of version control must be put in place from the outset of the project. In your document, for the admin team, define what version control is and explain the purpose and value of version control for development of the admin application of the cycle club. Propose how version control should be used in this project. You have a maximum of 300 words for Question 5(a). 9(b) Evidence of version control Create a version control repository and use it as you develop your solutions to Questions 2(a) and 2(b). You can use TortoiseSVN or equivalent macOS software, as described in Block 4, or an equivalent version control system with which you are familiar (e.g. git). As evidence for your marker of your use of version control for your EMA files, you should provide either- + two screenshots of the Repository Browser window (or equivalent) to show the internal structure of the project's folder, the first taken about halfway through your EMA development, and the second towards the end of your EMA development (see Figure 23 of Block 4 Part 4), or. one or more screenshots of the Log Messages window (or equivalent) to show content changes over time, from about halfway through your EMA development, to the end of your EMA development (see Figure 39 of Block 4 Part 4). Please ensure that your evidence is self-explanatory by providing captions to images. Failure to clearly identify what the evidence shows will lose you marks. There is no word limit for Question 5(b). Question 6: Work plan reflection (5%) H This question is about reflecting on the effectiveness of your planning. In your document, for your marker, assess the effectiveness of your planning for the EMA. Address each of the points below. Explain which aspects of your planning were the most useful and which the least useful. + Did you identify an appropriate set of tasks? Did the tasks you identified take more or less time than expected? Was the risk assessment useful? + Did you keep your plan up to date with your progress? + Did the planning help with completing the EMA? + Most importantly, how would you approach the planning of another EMA, or similar amount of work, in the future? What are your key lessons learned? Your answer to this question should be placed after your report (placed after your reference list) because it is written for the marker not for the admin team. You have a maximum of 500 words for Question 6