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88-272: Application Design & Development
Carnegie Mellon University -- Fall 1999
Professors Larry Heimann & Peter Muhlberger
Course Nature and Goals: According to the official description, this course helps students understand the design process and provides them with the concepts needed to design and develop effective software applications. The student will gain background in applying a user-centered design process through the development of a prototype application. Topics include user-centered design and development; data storage and manipulation; structured query language; and the development of web-based applications.
Students should note that this course is not a programming class designed to make them fluent in one specific language. The goal of this course is to help students develop competency with several key technologies used in web development and e-commerce and to provide them with the principles needed to make effective use of these technologies. To that end, lectures each week will focus on conceptual issues and principles for using and applying IS technologies. Lab sections are conducted each week to give students hands-on experience with these technologies. This semester our labs will focus primarily in three areas: HTML and scripting, SQL and database management, and Active Server Pages (ASP).
Grades: Grades in this course are determined by student performance in five areas: labs (10%), midterm exam (20%), final exam (25%), mini assignments (20%), and the course project (25%). Final course grades will be determined based on a fixed 90/A -- 80/B -- 70/C -- 60/D scale.
Since labs are designed to be a learning experience, we want to give students the freedom to make mistakes in a situation where they can get instructor assistance. Therefore, lab assignments are given one point for those which students make a reasonable attempt to complete and a zero for those labs which students do not attend. Students need to earn only 10 lab points -- allowing them the flexibility to miss up to four labs during the semester without penalty. There is no make-up for missed labs for any reason (including illness); any missed lab simply counts as a zero. Note: labs have value beyond one grade point; students are well advised to attend labs on a consistent basis, even if lab credit for the class is not required.
Exams and the mini assignments are designed to be completed by individuals without the assistance of classmates or other students. We have made a separate statement regarding the cheating policy in this course and suggest that students review this policy as soon as possible. We consider academic integrity to be of great importance and we actively scan for cheating policy violations.
Details on the course project can be found on a separate page.
Being able to deliver work products on time is important in the world of information systems, and for that reason we will be firm on the deadlines associated with class assignments. All mini-assignments and each phase of the course project will be due no later than 5:00pm on the date specified. Any project or assignment turned in after 5:00pm will receive an automatic 10 point penalty per day late.
Students with any questions, concerns, or disputes regarding grades need to address those issues with the head TA as a first step towards resolution. If the explanation and/or actions of the head TA are unsatisfactory, then students may bring the problem to the attention of a course professor. If any exams or assignments are regraded by a professor, then the entire exam/project will be reviewed and the overall project/exam grade may be raised or lowered at the discretion of the professor. The decisions of the faculty are final. Any request for regrading must be presented in writing within one week of the assignment being returned to the class; any request for a regrade beyond that date will be categorically denied.
Readings: In this class we have assigned only one book as a required text -- Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0 by Francis, et al. This book can be purchased at the CMU bookstore or through Amazon.com. In addition, we recommend a number of other books (also available at Amazon.com) that students may find very helpful:
One reason that we have only one required text is that there is a good deal of instructional material available on the internet at no charge. We have created a series of pages which help students find this material. The listings are by no means complete, however, and students who find additional links that are useful are invited to e-mail the link to Professor Heimann for inclusion at this site.
Schedule: Below is a listing of the lectures and labs for each week, as well as the due dates for the course mini-assignments. Due dates for the course project phases are in italics.
| Wk |
Lecture |
Lab |
Mini-assignment |
Reading |
| 01 |
Introduction, Design Principles |
HTML formatting |
|
ch. 1,2 |
| 02 |
GUI Design Process |
HTML tables & frames |
|
ch. 3,4 |
| 03 |
Information Architecture |
SQL, Indexes |
|
ch. 5,6 |
| 04 |
RDB Concepts |
HTML forms |
IA critique (due 9/13) |
ch. 7 |
| 05 |
Normalization |
JavaScript with forms |
|
ch. 8 |
| 06 |
SQL I |
Access tables & relations |
Web page (due 9/27) |
ch. 9 |
| 07 |
SQL II |
SQL exercises |
CP phase 1 due 10/8 |
ch. 10 |
| 08 |
DB Administration |
SQL exercises |
|
ch. 11 |
| 09 |
Midterm Exam (on 10/19) |
Triggers & stored procedures |
Optimize DB (due 10/22) |
ch. 12 |
| 10 |
Introduction to ASP |
ASP 1 |
|
ch. 13 |
| 11 |
More on ASP |
ASP 2 |
|
ch. 14 |
| 12 |
ASP & databases |
ASP 3 |
CP phase 2 due on 11/12 |
ch. 15 |
| 13 |
Usability Testing |
ASP 4 |
ASP assignment (due 11/19) |
|
| 14 |
help session (optional) |
no lab -- holiday break |
|
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| 15 |
Personal Software Process |
ASP 5 |
CP phase 3 due on 12/3 |
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Faculty Information: Each professor maintains office hours that are run strictly on a first come, first served basis. However, we are both available for appointments on other days and welcome students to stop in at other times without an appointment; if we are busy with something else at the moment then we will set up an appointment with you to talk at a more convenient time. Contact information for each professor is listed below:
Instructors reserve the right to make modifications to materials in this syllabus during the term as circumstances warrant.
These pages are relevant for the Fall 1999 semester.
Any questions or problems with these pages
should be sent to Professor H.
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