Program Design

Week 03
ITE1123 – Fundamentals
Unit Code: Subject of
Programming
name
Dr. Thilina Thanthriwatta
(Lecturer Name)
ITE1123 Program
Lecture Design
Name:
Dr. Thilina Thanthriwatta
Color Coding

• RED: - Very important points

• BLUE: - Need to be highlighted but not as important
• GREEN: - Used for terminology (terms)
• PURPLE: - Off topic but necessary

Unit Code: Subject

name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Learning Outcomes
▪ After completing this lesson, you will be able to design a
computer program.

▪ From this lesson, you will be able to:

▪ Define the concepts of program analysis
▪ Explain how to gather requirements
▪ Compare different strategies for problem-solving
▪ Draw flowcharts and write pseudocodes

Unit Code: Subject

name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Program Design
▪ What are the steps that a computer programmer should
execute before starting coding?

▪ Key Steps:
▪ Problem analysis
▪ Modular Design
▪ Algorithm Design

Unit Code: Subject

name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Problem Analysis
▪ What is the problem that your software is intended to
solve?

▪ Requirements gathering (requirements elicitation) and

problem defining are the first two steps of software
development process, in general.

▪ Understanding the problem Unit Code: Subject

▪ What exactly needs to be solved name
▪ What are the desired outcomes?
▪ What are the other constraints (e.g., budget, time)? (Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Requirements Gathering
▪ Different types of requirements:
▪ Functional requirements
▪ Non-functional requirements

▪ Functional requirements:
▪ What are the specific tasks that your software should perform?
▪ Describe the functions and features of the software.
▪ Describe how the users interact with the system.
▪ E.g., “The system should display how the population of each Unit Code: Subject
district has changed over the last 20 years”. name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Requirements Gathering
▪ Non-functional requirements:
▪ How should the system perform?
▪ Consider different quality attributes such as performance,
security, scalability, etc.
▪ E.g., the system should be able to handle at most 1000 users
simultaneously without degrading response.

▪ Your software should meet both functional and non-

functional requirements.
▪ However, functional requirements are mandatory. Unit Code: Subject
name

▪ You will study the steps of the software process models (Lecturer Name)
including requirements gathering in detail in the
modules related to software engineering. Lecture Name:
Techniques for Requirement Gathering

▪ Interviews
▪ One-on-One
▪ Group

▪ Surveys and Questionnaires

▪ Gap Analysis
Unit Code: Subject
▪ Prototyping with feedback loops name

(Lecturer Name)
▪ Brainstorming Lecture Name:
SMART Framework
▪ SMART Framework is to set and evaluate
requirements/goals/objectives

▪ SMART
▪ Specific
▪ Measurable
▪ Achievable
▪ Relevant
▪ Time-bound Unit Code: Subject
name

▪ Improving focus and efficiency while reducing (Lecturer Name)

ambiguity.
Lecture Name:
Strategies to solve problems
▪ Top-Down Approach
▪ Decomposition/Modular approach
▪ The problem is broken down into smaller modules/units.
▪ Each module can be further broken down.

▪ Make complex solutions simple

▪ However, this may lead to implementation delay. Unit Code: Subject

name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Strategies to solve problems
▪ Bottom-up approach
▪ Composition approach
▪ Designs start with the smallest, individual component and
integrate to build a complex model.
▪ Depends on reusable components

▪ Reusability is one of the key advantages.

Unit Code: Subject
▪ However, integration may not be easier. name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
How to Devise the Solution?
▪ Before coding (implementation), you need to devise a
proper design.

▪ There is a possibility of devising multiple designs and

then selecting the best one later.

▪ Process modeling techniques:

▪ Flowcharts Unit Code: Subject
▪ Pseudocode name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
Flowcharts
▪ A flowchart is a visual representation of a process/workflow.
▪ It represents the logical steps of a computer program.

▪ Elements of a flowchart:
Terminator/Terminal: Represent the start
and end of a process

Process

Unit Code: Subject

Decision name

(Lecturer Name)
Inputs & Outputs
Lecture Name:

Flow arrow
Guidelines for Flowcharts
▪ Use standard symbols

▪ Usually, the flow should be depicted from top to bottom

or left to right.

▪ Use descriptive labels for each step

Unit Code: Subject
▪ Try to avoid crossed lines name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
An Example
▪ Draw a flowchart to depict the process for finding odd
and even numbers.
Start

Input a
number: N

No
N%2==0
Unit Code: Subject
name
Yes
(Lecturer Name)
Display Even Display Odd
Lecture Name:

End
Pseudocode
▪ An informal way of writing your program.
▪ You do not need to worry about syntax and semantics.
▪ Language-agnostic

▪ Pseudocode should be:

▪ Simple
▪ Readable
▪ Compatible with the structure of your program.
Unit Code: Subject
▪ Elements of pseudocode: name
▪ Inputs and outputs
(Lecturer Name)
▪ A finite number of steps
• These steps should be clearly defined. Lecture Name:
▪ Conditions – decision making
▪ Loops – repeated actions
An Example
▪ Write a pseudocode to check a given number is odd or
even number.

BEGIN
INPUT N
IF N MOD 2 is equal to 0
OUTPUT “Even”
ELSE
OUTPUT “Odd”
END
Unit Code: Subject
name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name:
End of Lesson

▪ In the next lesson, we will focus on variables and data

types in Python.

Unit Code: Subject

name

(Lecturer Name)

Lecture Name: