Scenario Summary: The Design Phase Of The SRS Project Is In

Scenariosummarythe Design Phase Of The Srs Project Is In Full Swing A

Scenario/Summary The design phase of the SRS project is in full swing and every developer on the team is assigned a group of packages to work on and to complete the design details of the classes in the package. To help speed up the design process, you—as the software architect of the project—were assigned the task of providing a sample method contract and a sample method specification to demonstrate to your team how these two documents are developed. You decided to use the CourseList and the Course classes for your demonstrations. The CourseList class maintains and populates the current list of courses that the end user is working with to pick a course from a list of courses. You will demonstrate the contract and the specification of the GetCourseByCourseID() of the CourseList class.

The GetCourseByCourseID() method searches the current list of courses for a course whose CourseID matches the ID supplied to the method. If a matched course is found, the course object is returned by the GetCourseByCourseID() method; otherwise a null value is returned, indicating there are no matching courses. Deliverables Method contract of the GetCourseByCourseID() method of the CourseList class Method specification of the GetCourseByCourseID() method of the CourseList class Must be in Visual Basic Must be in Structure English not pseudo code

Paper For Above instruction

Method Contract of GetCourseByCourseID() in CourseList Class

Method Signature:

Function GetCourseByCourseID(ByVal courseID As String) As Course

Purpose: To retrieve a course object from the current list of courses in the CourseList class that matches the specified CourseID. If no matching course exists, the method returns Nothing.

Preconditions:

  • The CourseList object has been instantiated and contains the current list of courses.
  • The input parameter courseID is a valid string representing the CourseID.

Postconditions:

  • If a course with the specified CourseID exists, it is returned; otherwise, Nothing is returned.
  • The list of courses remains unchanged after the method executes.

Exceptions:

  • If the list is null or uninitialized, an exception may be thrown.
  • Any exceptions encountered during the search are propagated to the caller.

Method Specification of GetCourseByCourseID() in CourseList Class

The GetCourseByCourseID method is designed to locate and retrieve a specific course within the CourseList based on the given CourseID. The method begins by iterating through the list of Course objects stored within the CourseList instance. During each iteration, it compares the current course's CourseID attribute with the provided courseID parameter. If a match is found, the method immediately returns that Course object, allowing the caller to access all details of the matched course. If the iteration completes without finding a match, the method returns Nothing, indicating no course with the specified ID exists in the current list.

In implementation, the method maintains a straightforward linear search approach, which involves checking each element sequentially. This approach is efficient for small to medium datasets; for larger datasets, a different data structure or indexing strategy might be used to optimize search performance. The method assumes that CourseID values are unique within the list, so once a match is found, the search terminates. Proper error handling ensures that attempts to access uninitialized or null lists are managed appropriately, providing robustness to the application.

Conclusion

By defining clear method contracts and detailed specifications, the development team ensures consistent understanding of methods' functionalities. These documents serve as vital references during implementation and future maintenance. The GetCourseByCourseID method exemplifies a typical search utility within collection classes, emphasizing accuracy, efficiency, and robustness in software design.

References

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  • Microsoft Docs. (2021). Visual Basic Guide: Working with Collections. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-basic/programming-guide/concepts/collections
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