4CM506 Independent Research Project

Foundations of Computer and IT Systems
4CM506
Independent Research Project
Assessment Brief
Dr Christopher Windmill
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Sensitivity: Internal

Sensitivity: Internal
Foundations of Computer and IT Systems
4CM506
Contents
Module Leader ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Key dates and details ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Description of the assessment …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Assessment Content ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Main Report ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Logbook …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Logbook entry template …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Example logbook entry ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4
Assessment Scenario…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Potential stages of investigation: ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Deliverables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
Assessment Rubric …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Anonymous Marking …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Assessment Regulations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Formative Feedback ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13

Module Leader
Dr Christopher Windmill (UoD)
Dr Panagiotis Perakis (MC)
Key dates and details
Assessment Type:
Assessment weighting:
Word count/Length
Learning Outcomes:
Submission Method:
Submission Date:
Provisional Feedback Release Date:
Description of the assessment
Individual portfolio of artefacts and report
50%
~2000 words for the main report, no penalty for ± words
No limits on logbook, see suggested entry format
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Blackboard Turnitin submission
Tuesday 20/05/2025 @ 17:00 EET
11/06/2024
This assessment covers learning outcome 2 of this module: “Utilise and implement the workflow of
data and information processing in computer and IT systems.”. You are required to take a given
scenario and produce an overview report of the requirements, work and data flows, storage and
processing, and legal/other issues that may arise if this project was taken into development.
As an individual research project this will require you to perform reading and ask clarifying questions
around the brief that you are given, and then to develop the skills to implement the brief in a secure,
robust, and efficient manner. This will require you to keep a log of the research you carry out and
how you have spent your time on this project giving you practical experience of project
management, system design, and research skills that you can build upon in future modules.
This assessment will give you an understanding of the scale and effort required to produce systems
of any reasonable complexity and size and how soft skills interact with your technical abilities. The
ability to combine these skills and produce a working output will be key to many of your future
modules such as Team Project.
Assessment Content
Based on the following scenario you are asked to create a report that details the following
information, a template will be provided for you for this main report as well as the logbook entries.
Main Report
• Requirements and data
o The explicitly specified user requirements.
o The implicitly specified user requirements.
o The architecture of the application(s) you are being asked to develop.
o The types of data that would be required to implement these application(s)
o A sample dataset for your application.
• Data and Workflows
o A set of workflow diagrams that show how users will interact with and utilise your
application, and how applications will interact.
o A set of dataflow diagrams that show how your applications will interact.
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• Visualisations:
o Example visualisations of the interfaces of the application(s)
o Example visualisations of the way the dataset will be shown to the user.
• Identification of issues
o An identification of legal and usability issues the applications may have.
o A risk register for constructing the application.
Where you have made decisions these should be justified in the report, references should be
provided in the IEEE format (https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE
Reference-Guide.pdf).
Note: the assessment scenario that you are provided with is deliberately vague and contradictory in places;
you should utilise your own judgement as well as questions and clarifications through your tutor(s) to
develop the answers to this work. This means that there is no single correct answer to this problem, and like
many real-life problems the exact specification is unclear.
Logbook
Log entries should be created to show when you have worked on this assignment, what you did, and
how long it took. You should also add comments to indicate your thoughts and processes while you
work. The logbook is not explicitly graded but is used to support your justifications in the main body
of the report.
Note: the logbook is designed to get you to start thinking about how long tasks actually take, and to help
you take a record of good resources you find. Learning to allocate and budget time is a vital skill for most
professional jobs, and being able to access resources and commentary on them will assist you throughout
your studies.
Logbook entry template
Date of Work
Duration
Work carried out
References
Actions to do
Commentary
Example logbook entry
Date of Work
01/01/2024
Duration
Work carried out
45 minutes
Reviewed assessment 2 documentation and made notes on the requirements.
Reviewed the rubric, copied the top band (90-100%) into my report to help me
write each section.
Created a list of tasks to complete.
References
Actions to do
Assessment brief 2
Identify what implicit and explicit requirements are.
Identify points that are contradictory or nonsensical and ask tutor about these.
Remember to include a picture of an otter in my logbook because it will be
funny.
Commentary
This is a large piece of work with lots of moving parts. I need a plan as I’ve never
really thought about something like this before, especially when it is
deliberately vague.
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Sensitivity: Internal
Assessment Scenario
As a recent hire at Derby Systems, you have been approached by your line manager to investigate a
potential customer’s requirements and to highlight key work and data flows as well as associated
risks if the customer decides to approach the company formally. The customer is the local NHS Trust,
and they are looking to develop a system to manage digital healthcare records, appointments, and
engagement with exercises given by medical professionals. They have decided to initially look at this
from a mental health perspective due to a limited number of staff currently working in this area and
have identified the following as key requirements that they believe they will need. As you know a
customer does not always know what they need or understand that what they have asked for is not
feasible.
• A mechanism to track digital healthcare records consisting of:
o Text notes, ideally with auto-completion of drug/conditions, contextualised to the
patient. These should not normally be editable, but if they are it needs to be logged.
o Images taken by the Dr or submitted by the patient; information associated with
these files needs to be preserved as an attached text note.
o PDF scans of notes from systems outside this environment.
o Audio recordings of interactions between patients and clients.
o Repeated digital forms from a webpage.
• A way to visualise the data, particularly around engagement and from the digital forms.
• An appointment tracking system that provides the Dr with a way to make single, repeat, and
emergency appointments of varying lengths.
• An app for the patient that allows them to:
o See their healthcare records and edit these if they are incorrect.
o See and make appointments with a general team, or a specific professional
associated with their treatment up to 2 months in advance.
o Provide motivation and reminders about exercises, tracking these so the
professional can see the engagement.
o Allow the professional to edit and update the exercises by sending messages with
text, audio, and images to the patient.
Potential stages of investigation:
You will need to undertake this process in a systematic manner, producing evidence of your
investigation and understanding of the data and workflows. The following is given as a suggested
way to approach the problem:
• Stage 1: formalise the client requirements.
• Stage 2: identify required data sets, data formats, and scale of data.
• Stage 3: create examples of a key data set that will be used to explore other stages.
• Stage 4: visualise and describe the work and data flows identified from stage 1.
• Stage 5: create mock-ups of the interfaces, dashboards, and visualisations.
• Stage 6: identify issues around data management and governance.
• Stage 7: identify issues around location and activity tracking.
• Stage 8: suggest an overall timeline/plan for the implementation and a base cost for the
project.
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Sensitivity: Internal
Deliverables
You will be required to submit a single zip file containing all of your artefacts to the Blackboard
submission point. Example artefacts may be visualisations as PNG files, PDF reports, etc.
Failure to submit the zip file will be classed as a non-submission of your work.
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Sensitivity: Internal

Assessment Rubric
You will be assessed using the following rubric, each of the four categories is weighted equally in terms of your final grade.

This means that if you have the following profile:
• Requirements and data: 95%
• Data and workflows: 25%
• Visualisations: 55%
• Identification of issues: 70%
Your final mark would be: 61.25% ((95+25+55+70)/4)

Requirements and data (25%) Data and workflows (25%) Visualisation (25%) Identification of issues (25%)
90-100% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario as well as from implicit
requirements to support these. The
formally identified and implicit
requirements show understanding of
the domain and are correct.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task and is justified by the log.

Data set is validated, and some QA
process is applied.
A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient, and (3) the backend
applications. The workflows show
appropriate level of details and
use multiple formats to display
interactions.

Consideration is given to issues
such as data needing to be cached
or updated after a connectivity
loss.

Dataflow diagrams have been
provided for the (1) medical
professionals, (2) patients, and (3)
the backend applications.
A visualisation has been provided
for the interfaces to the (1)
medical professional, and (2)
patient’s applications. The
visualisation uses a recognised
format e.g., wireframes.

Four visualisations have been
provided from the following areas,
the visualisation is appropriate
and justified in the
documentation:
(1) A display for the medical
professional based on
the dataset.
(2) A display for the patient
based on the dataset.
At least two legal and two
usability issues have been
identified, the cause, risk, and
mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issues.

A risk register has been provided
with appropriate risks and
mitigations.

A dataflow diagram is provided for
the interaction between (1), (2),
and (3).

The dataflows are correct and
utilise a recognised format e.g.,
UML DFD.

80-89% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario as well as from implicit
requirements to support these. The
formally identified and implicit
requirements show understanding of
the domain and are largely correct.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task and is justified by the log.
A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient, and (3) the backend
applications. The workflows show
appropriate level of details and
use multiple formats to display
interactions.

Dataflow diagrams have been
provided for the (1) medical
professionals, (2) patients, and (3)
the backend applications.

A dataflow diagram is provided for
the interaction between (1), (2),
and (3).
The dataflows are correct and
utilise a recognised format e.g.,
UML DFD.
A visualisation has been provided
for the interfaces to the (1)
medical professional, and (2)
patient’s applications. The
visualisation uses a recognised
format e.g., wireframes.

Three visualisations have been
provided from the following areas,
the visualisation is appropriate
and justified in the
documentation:
(1) A display for the medical
professional based on
the dataset.
(2) A display for the patient
based on the dataset.

At least two legal and two
usability issues have been
identified, the cause, risk, and
mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issues.

A simple risk register has been
provided but is limited in terms of
risks or mitigations.
70-79% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario as well as from implicit
A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient, and (3) the backend
A visualisation has been provided
for the interfaces to the (1)
medical professional, and (2)
At least two legal and two
usability issues have been
identified, the cause, risk, and

requirements to support these. The
formally identified requirements are
correct, implicit requirements show
understanding of the domain and are
largely correct.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task and is justified by the log.
applications. The workflows show
appropriate level of details and
use multiple formats to display
interactions.

Dataflow diagrams have been
provided for the (1) medical
professionals, (2) patients, and (3)
the backend applications. The
dataflows are correct and utilise a
recognised format e.g., UML DFD.
patient’s applications. The
visualisation uses a recognised
format e.g., wireframes.

Two visualisations have been
provided from the following areas,
the visualisation is appropriate
and justified in the
documentation:
(1) A display for the medical
professional based on
the dataset.
(2) A display for the patient
based on the dataset.
mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issues.

60-69% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario as well as from implicit
requirements to support these. The
formally identified requirements are
correct, implicit requirements show
some understanding of the domain.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task and is justified by the log.
A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient applications. The
workflows are reasonable and
appropriate to the identified
tasks. Multiple formats have been
utilised to display this
information.

Dataflows have been provided for
the (1) medical professionals, and
(2) patient’s applications. The
dataflows make use of a formally
recognised format e.g., UML
DFDs.
A visualisation has been provided
for the interfaces to the (1)
medical professional, and (2)
patient’s applications.

A visualisation has been provided
for at least one display for the
medical professional based on the
dataset. The visualisation is
appropriate and justified in the
documentation.

At least two legal and one
usability issue have been
identified, the cause, risk, and
mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issues.

50-59% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario. The identified requirements
are all correct and show some
understanding of implicit
requirements.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task but some minor issues, e.g., this
could be relevance to the issue, or
scope.
A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient applications. The
workflows are reasonable and
appropriate to the identified
tasks.

Dataflows have been provided for
the (1) medical professionals, and
(2) patient’s applications. The
dataflows are largely correct but
may rely on assumptions e.g.,
implicit data conversion.
A visualisation has been provided
for the interfaces to the (1)
medical professional, and (2)
patient’s applications.

A visualisation has been provided
for at least one display based on
the dataset.

At least two legal issues have
been identified, the cause, risk,
and mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issues.
40-49% Requirements have been identified
solely from the description given in
the scenario. The identified
requirements are largely correct.

Data set chosen is appropriate to the
task but some issues, e.g., this could
be relevance to the issue, or scope.

A workflow has been provided for
the (1) medical professional and
(2) patient applications. The
workflows are largely appropriate
to the identified tasks.

Dataflows have been provided for
the (1) medical professionals, and
(2) patient’s applications. There
are issues with the data e.g., no
indication of data conversions or
formats.
A simple visualisation has been
provided for the interfaces to the
(1) medical professional, and (2)
patient’s applications.

At least one legal issue has been
identified, the cause, risk, and
mitigating factors have been
identified. References are
provided to the issue.
All marks above this level require a logbook to be produced covering how your time was spent, design decisions, and justification for your choices. Failure to
include this will result in a capped mark of 39%.
35-39% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
A workflow has been provided for
at least one of: (1) medical
professional and (2) patient
A simple visualisation has been
provided for at least one of the
interfaces to the (1) medical
At least one legal issue has been
identified, however is missing at
least one of: the cause, risk, and

scenario. The identified requirements
are somewhat correct.

Data set chosen is somewhat
appropriate to the task but has
significant issues; this may be due to
missing data, a small data set, or the
justification doesn’t explain these
issues in the log.

applications. The workflows are
largely appropriate to the
identified tasks.

Dataflows have been provided for
at least one of: (1) medical
professionals, and (2) patient’s
applications. There are issues with
the data e.g., no indication of data
conversions or formats.
professional, and (2) patient’s
applications.

mitigating factors. References are
provided to the issue.
21-24% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario. The identified requirements
are largely incorrect.

Data set chosen is not appropriate to
the task; this may be due to
significant missing data, too small a
data set, or no appropriate
justification being provided for the
choice in the log.

A workflow has been provided for
at least one of: (1) medical
professional and (2) patient
applications. The workflows are
largely inappropriate to the
identified tasks.

Dataflows have been provided for
at least one of: (1) medical
professionals, and (2) patient’s
applications. There are significant
issues with the data e.g., no
indication of how data enters the
system.

A simple visualisation has been
provided for at least one of the
interfaces to the (1) medical
professional, and (2) patient’s
applications. The visualisation is
not appropriate for the tasks
identified.

At least one legal issue has been
identified, however is missing at
least two of: the cause, risk, and
mitigating factors. References are
not provided to the issue.
1-20% Requirements have been identified
from the description given in the
scenario. The identified requirements
are not relevant to the task.

At least 1 workflow is missing
from the (1) medical professional,
or (2) patient’s applications.

No visualisations have been
provided.
No issues have been identified.

Data set chosen is not appropriate to
the task in any way; this may be due
to significant important missing data,
too small a data set, or an
inappropriate justification being
provided for the choice in the log.
Data flows contain significant
errors or are missing.
Anonymous Marking
You must submit your work using your student number to identify yourself, not your name. You
must not use your name in the text of the work at any point. When you submit your work in Turnitin
you must submit your student number within the assignment document and in the Submission title
field in Turnitin. A guide showing how to do this can be found here.
Assessment Regulations
The University’s regulations, policies and procedures for students define the framework within
which teaching and assessment are conducted. Please make sure you are familiar with these
regulations, policies and procedures.
Formative Feedback
Formative feedback on your submission can be requested from the module tutor in lab sessions or
during their office hours. A section for common questions and answers may be added to the
assessment section of Blackboard if common topics are raised.
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4CM506_Foundations_of_Computer_and_IT_Systems_Coursework_2_MC_2024