Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Business Application Development 1
ms111
- Course Outline Objective
Lecturer
Times
The objective of this course is to initiate and develop the knowledge and
skills required to develop business software applications. The focus is on
individual skills development and competence in basic software
application development.
Name
Office
Ext
E-mail
Dr. Tom Acton
Room 366
Cairnes building
3806
thomas.acton@nuigalway.ie
Day
Time
Venue
Lectures:
Thurs
10am – 12pm
Room 240 Cairnes building
Lab Sessions:
Wed
10am – 12pm
Room 240 Cairnes building
Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
Overall
Learning
Outcomes
Format
Programme(s)
Course
Material
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Describe the process of software application development
Plan, create, improve and deploy software applications using a
number of development languages
Demonstrate knowledge of business application development
Manage self-directed work for software development
Create and present (in written form) solutions to single-person
assignments
Weekly, the course comprises one two-hour lecture plus two hours of
hands-on laboratory sessions according to the schedule near the end of
this document.
1st year BSc in Business Information Systems, semester 1
A course web is available at https://nuigalway.blackboard.com. Notices,
project group listings, this course outline document, previous exam
papers, and all other material related to this course will be posted on the
blackboard site.
Note: code on the blackboard site will be compressed (‘zipped’) to make it
faster to download: when you download a zipped file you will need to unzip
it before using it. The lecturer will show you how to do this.
Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Programming in Visual Basic 2010, McGraw-Hill. Authors: Bradley, J.,
and Millspaugh, A. ISBN: 978-0-07-131421-3
Core Book
Note: This book is available in the University bookshop for about €48.
Students will need their own copy. This is also the core book for
Business Application Development 2 in semester 2.
Programming in C# 2008, McGraw-Hill. Authors: Bradley, J., and
Millspaugh, A. ISBN: 978-0-07-017281-4
Supplementary
Book(s)
Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008, McGraw-Hill. Authors:
Bradley, J., and Millspaugh, A. ISBN: 0-07-131007-9
Note: These do not need to be purchased: copies will be available in the
library.
1.
2.
Assessment
End of Semester Examination
Continuous Assessment
70%
30%*
* Continuous assessment involves the completion and submission of 4
individual assignments, each worth 7.5%, giving a total of 30%.
Note: A minimum of 35% is required in the final written examination
before marks for continuous assessment can be included in the
determination of the overall mark for the subject.
Workload hours
Credit weighting:
Lecture hours:
Seminar hours:
Computer laboratory hours:
Independent assignment work:
Independent study:
Associated hours:
Examination:
Total Student Effort:
Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
5 ECTS
24
2
16
16
40
25
2
125 hours
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Agenda:
Topic
Reading
Section 1: Introduction
Weeks* 2, 3
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An Introduction to .NET
An Introduction to Visual Studio
Creating Applications & Writing Code
Object-Oriented Application Development
Core Book Chapter 1
*note: in week 1 you have the FYI programme
Section Outcomes: You will be able to …
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Describe the process of visual program design and development
Explain object-oriented programming
Explain the concepts of classes, objects, properties, methods, and events
List and describe the steps for writing a Visual Basic project
Examine the various files that make up a Visual Basic project
Identify the elements in the Visual Studio Express environments
Define design time, run time, and debug time
Write, run, save and modify a Visual Basic project
Identify syntax errors, run-time errors, and logic errors
Use Auto Correct to correct syntax errors
Look up Visual Basic topic in Help
Describe and examine the .NET framework
Section 2: Design and Usability
Weeks 4, 5
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Essential Skills in Application Development
Design
o Interaction Design
o Navigation Design
o Information Design
o UI Design
Usability & Accessibility
o Usability Heuristics
Practically Designing the User Interface
o Design Tools for GUIs
Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
Core Book Chapter 2
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Section Outcomes: You will be able to …
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Discuss the skills needed for application development
Explore and Discuss Application Design Principles, Usability Heuristics &
Accessibility Guidelines
Use VB controls
Set and Change control properties
Make projects easy for the user to understand and operate by defining access
keys, setting an accept and a cancel button, controlling the tab sequence,
resetting the focus during program execution, and causing ToolTips to appear
Clear the contents of text boxes and labels
Code multiple statements for one control using the With and End With statements
Concatenate strings of text
Work with long lines of code
Section 3: Variables, Constants & Calculations in VB.NET
Weeks 6, 7, 8, some of 9
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Pseudocode
Working with variables & constants in VB
Performing VB calculations in code
Working with VB Data Types
Variable Scope & Error Handling in VB
Core Book Chapter 3
Section Outcomes: You will be able to …
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Explain, write and assess Pseudocode
Distinguish between variables, constants, and controls in VB
Differentiate among various data types in VB
Apply standardised naming conventions
Declare and perform calculations using variables and constants in VB
Select the appropriate scope for a variable in VB
Convert between data types using implicit and explicit conversions
Format values for output
Use Try/Catch blocks for error handling in VB
Display message boxes with error messages in VB
Accumulate sums and generate counts in VB
Section 4: Decisions & Conditions in VB
Weeks 9, 10
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Logic Flow
Selection and Iteration
Conditional Operators & Data Validation
Working with multiple decisions
Application Testing and Debugging
Dr. Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
Core Book Chapter 4 and
Appendix C
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
•
Application Deployment
Section Outcomes: You will be able to …
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Use If statements to control the flow of logic
Use nested If statements
Evaluate conditions using comparison operators
Combine conditions using And, Or
Perform validation on numeric fields
Test the Checked property of radio buttons and check boxes
Use a Case structure for multiple decisions
Use one event procedure to respond to the events for multiple controls and
determine which control caused the event
Call an event procedure from another procedure
Create message boxes with multiple buttons and choose alternate actions based
on the user response
Unit-test application code
System-test applications
Debug projects using breakpoints, stepping program execution, and displaying
intermediate results
Deploy Applications to CD, DVD, web and ftp servers
Section 5: Creating Applications in C#
Weeks 11, 12
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Using C# with the .NET Framework
Differences between VB and C#
Recreating existing applications using C#
Creating new applications using C#
Variables, constants and calculations in C#
Working with C# Data Types
Variable Scope & Error Handling in C#
Supplementary material
indicated at the lecture in
week 8
Section Outcomes: You will be able to …
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Distinguish between variables, constants, and controls in C#
Differentiate among various data types in C#
Differentiate between VB and C#
Recreate VB applications using C#
Develop new software applications in C#
Declare and perform calculations using variables and constants in C#
Select the appropriate scope for a variable in C#
Format values for output
Display message boxes with error messages in C#
Accumulate sums and generate counts in C#
Dr. Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Lecture, Assignment & Lab Schedule:
Week Lecture
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Assignments
(each worth 7.5%)
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
Lab
Session
y (due week 6)
y (due week 8)
y (due week 10)
y (due week 12)
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
Laboratory Sessions & Assignments:
Laboratory practical sessions will begin in week 5 of semester 1 and persist to week 12
inclusive, thus providing 8 laboratory sessions. Each session is of 2 hours’ duration. As
there are 4 single-person assignments, each student will have 2 laboratory sessions to
complete each assignment and submit a solution. To avail of the associated marks each
student must submit solutions to assignments by the dates indicated on each assignment:
we will not accept late submissions. Further, to achieve marks for assignments the
session tutor(s) must be aware of the effort made by each student in completing them: to
this end each student must (although not exclusively) work on assignments at the
indicated lab locations and times.
The Exam:
The exam carries 70% of the overall marks. The first sitting of the exam is during the
formal examination period at the end of semester 1. A second sitting occurs in Autumn.
Second sittings are usually repeat examinations for students who may have failed their
first sitting.
Resubmissions:
There are no facilities or opportunities to resubmit assignments before the next offering of
the course, should student(s) fail to submit by specified deadlines in the first instance, or
find that student(s) are sitting the written examination at Autumn. Marks for continuous
assessment (including zero marks for non-presentation) will be carried forward to Autumn.
Dr. Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
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Business Application Development 1, ms111 (2011/12)
Course CD:
There is a course CD available at no charge, containing material for Business Application
Development 1 (this course) and Business Application Development 2 (the follow-on
course running in semester 2). The CD contains learning videos for material covered in
these courses, as well as relevant software (where permissible) and other resources.
General:
It is highly advisable to purchase the core book as early as possible, and to use it wisely.
It is important to note that this subject will be heavily hands-on, requiring time outside
lecture hours in dedicated practice.
This course outline is available on blackboard in pdf format. Should you have a visual
disability and require the document in another format, please contact me and I will oblige.
Dr. Tom Acton | Business Application Development 1 | ms111
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