Computing

State two characteristics of microwave transmission that Nicole needs to explain to Mike before installing it on Wide Hill cattle station. Explain the relevance of each of these characteristics for the cattle station.

1) Long Range 2) Low penetration power

Outline two reasons, with evidence from the Gantt chart, that will help Bruce explain to management why the project will take signifi cantly fewer than 55 days

1) Many tasks, including the trialling of one system, and the design of the EasyDel App are not dependent on one another, meaning they may be completed simultaneously. 2)The critical path is shown to only take 27 days, every task can feasibly go twice as long without the project taking 55 days.

RedGumGrove Shopping Centre is offering stores the opportunity to pay a subscription to access the EasyDel app's customer data, including email addresses. Christos, the owner of the electronics store in the centre, intends to use the data to email customers regularly. Outline what Christos must do to ensure he is not breaching the Spam Act 2003.

Customers must have given consent to be sent emails and must be able to unsubscribe from emails easily. Once a customer has unsubscribed they should no longer be sent emails.

Identify and justify a security protocol that could be used by SmallPort Financial to protect data and information transmitted between the organisation and its clients' mobile devices

Note: Must actually say name of protocol eg Small port financials could use the HTTPS protocol to encrypt data as it is transferred from the client to the business.

Asides from observations and survey name one other data collection method that could be used

Ryan could interview Peter and Jessica in person. This allow Ryan to elaborate on questions about the requirements of the system and enables Peter and Jessica to provide more in-depth responses.

What is an example of a vision statement, mission statement, goals and objectives for an IKEA?

Vision Statement: A world that uses IKEA as it furniture Mission statement: To create a better everyday life for the many people. Goals: To get IKEA products in as many households as possible Objective: To be in 30% of households by the end of the year

What is an example of a vision statement, mission statement, goals and objectives for an Alzheimer's Association?

Vision Statement: A world without Alzheimer's disease. Mission statement: To help cure Alzheimer's disease Goals: To Find out what genes link to Alzheimer's disease Objective: To find what genes cause Alzheimer's disease by the end of the century

Explain the difference between Waterfall and Agile Development?

Waterfall uses a linear method where one stage of the development model is fully finished before moving onto the next, Agile on the other hand uses a iterative method that cycles through the stages in sprints.

The Keep Fit app will require access to the kilojoule content of a large selection of foods. Ethan, a member of the software development team, suggests that this data be stored on the mobile device where the app is installed. Sue-Lee feels that the data should be stored centrally at the Soul & Body Health head office and accessed over the internet. State two advantages of Ethan's method.

Storing the information locally allows the app to function without an internet connection and hence provide a more usable app. The data can be access quicker by the patients, as it is already stored on their phone. Data does not have to be sent over the internet reducing data usage.

RedGumGrove Shopping Centre's management wants to evaluate the success of the delivery system before committing to buying another 20 robots. A number of evaluation criteria have been written to evaluate the effi ciency and effectiveness of the software solution. Two of these criteria are as follows: • 98% of customers received the items they ordered. • Delivery of 80% of purchased items occurred within two hours of the order being completed. Describe a suitable evaluation strategy and explain how the data collected will be used to evaluate each criterion.

Strategy Explanation 98% of customers received the items they ordered. Strategy: Classify the number of customer complaints according to the type of problem and count them. Record the number of orders processed. The ratio will give the percentage of customers who receive their orders. Explanation: The ratio will be used to judge if the 98 per cent criterion has been met. If over 98 per cent, then criteria successful, however if under 98 per cent criterion was not met. Delivery of 80% of purchased items occurred within two hours of the order being completed. Strategy: When the customer uses his/her assigned number to open the robot, send a message to system stating the delivery time. Run a program to count/calculate whether the items have been delivered within the allocated time. Explanation: Use the data over a set period of time (e.g. three months) to calculate if 80 per cent of orders were delivered within the two-hour time frame.

Select and justify the most appropriate data type for storing Customer_Phonenumber in this software application.

String as phone numbers can contain special characters, also no need to preform mathematical operations on them

State the characteristics of the following two data types. = String Integer

String: Collection of individual characters Integer: Numeric Whole number which is 4 bytes in length and can be used in mathematical operations

Teachers and students use the same computer network in a school. Teachers are concerned that tests and personal information kept on their computers may be accessed by students. Describe a test that could be carried out to see if students can access this information.

Students were asked to describe a test that could be carried out to see if students were able to access teachers' computers on the network. A number of students incorrectly wrote the statement 'do a penetration test', and failed to follow the instructional term 'describe'. The following is an example of a possible response: A teacher or an administrator could be given a student login and attempt to access the restricted teacher data on their computer or network folder. Folder and individual file access should be checked. Results should then be reported to appropriate IT personnel.

Nicole's offi ce is 600 km from the Wide Hill cattle station. She needs to begin the analysis as soon as possible. There are four techniques Nicole could use to help her with her analysis: observation, interviews, questionnaires and reviews of Wide Hill's software documentation. Outline a major strength of each of these techniques. • Observation • Interviews • Questionnaires • Reviews

Observation Can see the current system at work and detect problems that the cattle station's staff may not see Interviews Able to directly know what Mike and the station workers are having trouble with, and discuss their options with Nicole Questionnaires Allows Nicole to quickly obtain information about the cattle station's staff's problems Reviews Allows Nicole to very carefully examine the current system, outlining flaws that observation cannot

Explain the difference between the terms 'extends' and 'includes'.

"includes" indicates that the included use case is required to complete the including use case. "make purchase" includes "customer login/registration" because the customer must be logged in to make a purchase. "extends" indicates an optional, but not required, use case that may or may not be completed while the user is performing the extended use case. "good delivery" extends "checkout" because the customer may optionally choose to have the goods delivered while they are checking out their purchase.

For the software solution to be successful, rapid searching of the records on the ACIS code is essential. Nicole suggests using a random access file stored on the homestead's computer and sorted on the ACIS code. Also, with 100 000 records, it would be best to read a record only when required and modify it when required. Adam, a programmer friend, suggests using a sequential fi le sorted on the ACIS code. When the program starts up, it will load all the data from the homestead's computer onto the tablet and all records will be stored in a one-dimensional array that will then be searched. When the program is shut down, the file will be rewritten back onto the homestead's computer Describe one advantage of Nicole's method. Describe one advantage of Adam's method. Suggest an alternative method that may overcome a problem with either Nicole's or Adam's method. Justify your suggestion.

1)Nicole's searching method ensured that the file was always accurate and up-to-date as it accessed a record only when required 2)Reading data (locally) from the tablet is faster than reading it over a network and continually having to read/write back. In addition, work can continue when out of wi-fi range. 3)Have the data stored as a random access file on the tablet itself and backup the data to the computer at the end of each day for security and transmission to the ACIS database. This method combines the efficiency of Nicole's method with the convenience of Adam's method and adds a redundancy backup. The files could be sent to the tablet each day and then be access from a random access file while needed, keeping them secuer and improving speed. At the end of the day they would be sent back to the homestead computer. This question was poorly answered by the majority of students. Most students picked up on the key words 'random access file' and 'sequential file' in the question and wrote lengthy descriptions of these file types; however, the question asked students to describe the advantage of each complete method outlined. So students should have taken on board the full description of file type, file transfer and updating data.

The federal government requires the transmission of this file via a virtual private network (VPN). Explain one advantage of using a VPN over another form of transmission.

A VPN creates an encrypted connection through which to send data. This is good as encrypted information is practically unreadable by anyone without a decryption key. In contrast, plan text message are easily intercepted and read by unauthorised personne

After RoboDel's system is fully implemented, RedGumGrove Shopping Centre's management will outsource the storage of the software solution's data. The data involved is restricted by legislation, so the company will need to be in Australia but will not be based in the shopping centre. For security purposes, the storage company will use a virtual private network (VPN). Explain how a VPN provides security and justify why it is appropriate in this situation.

A VPN establishes a secured private communication channel between the storage and the RedGumGrove's Central server. This is appropriate because outsourcing the storage necessarily requires the connection of two local area networks via the internet (that of the RedGumGroves' and that of the storage companies). A VPN prevents unauthorised attackers from intercepting communication between the two networks.

George, one of the programmers for Drone Solutions, has been doing some research on the internet and has found some software, written for a drone, that was developed overseas. He downloads the software and begins altering it. Melanie sees what he is doing and orders him to look up the code of ethics for Drone Solutions. a. Explain the purpose of a code of ethics What should George do to resolve this ethical dilemma?

A code of ethics outlines values and principles that should be upheld by stakeholders. A code states what is acceptable behaviour and can provide guidelines for resolving ethical dilemmas. They are not laws but rather values that help professionals make decisions about going about their work. His ethical dilemma is that if he uses the software off the internet without permission, he could be in breach of the Copyright Act 1968, but by using the software it will make the development process of the software be much quicker (more efficiency). To resolve the ethical dilemma, George must consult the company's code of ethics and decision support framework to see what the best method to go about creating the software is, and to see what company policy says about using other people intellectual property

Identify one appropriate security measure that could protect this data and explain how the measure would protect the data

A firewall should be installed onto the Soul & Body Health network. Firewalls control and regulate the flow of packets through a network's ports and blocks packets with malicious or unauthorized information. A firewall would severely restrict the ability of hackers to enter the network and steal the head office's sensitive information. A range of responses was accepted, including user authentication hierarchy, a firewall, encryption of stored data, and physical security measures. Encryption could be implemented on the data to ensure that even if a malicious individual were to get heir hands on the health records, all they would have access to is the cipher text without the key which is useless to them. A physical security message could be implemented to ensure that no unauthorised malicious individual are able to directly access the data. If they were able to do this they could bypass many other security messages thus endangering the data.

A linear search, unlike a binary search, can find records in an unsorted array. Explain why

A linear search makes comparisons with every value in the array until the target value is found. As every value is checked it does not matter if the array is sorted or not.

Sue is storing her classes test scores for different students State two reasons why Sue has used a two-dimensional array instead of four one-dimensional arrays to store the test scores. Sue would like to average scores.

A number of possible reasons were accepted; however, more commonly students identified that it was easier to add scores and more efficient (easier) programming. The following is an example of a high-scoring response. An individual separate test scores can be easily referenced or summed. All the data is found within one structure making it easier to manage the code.

Briefly explain how a Selection sort works and how this differs from a bubble sort.

A quick sort chooses a random pivot item and compared other items to that element until it has two subsets of elements higher and lower than the pivot. It then does the same to the sublists and so on till it's all sorted. The difference to the selection sort is that quick sort is a divide conquer sort algorithm well quick sort uses a linear method

Identify two hardware items that could be needed to connect the Wide Hill homestead with the ACIS database. State the role of each. Explain one effect on Wide Hill if one of the items identifi ed in part a. failed

A range of answers was accepted, including modem, router, satellite dish, etc. Hardware item 1 Satellite Dish Role Allows the users of the network to access the internet using satellite technology Hardware item 2 Router Role To connect the local area network of Wide Hill homestead to the wide area network (WAN) that is the internet and through that connect to the ACIS database. If the router failed the Wide Hill homestead computer will not be able to connect the network to any other network including the internet and through that the ACIS database.

A software development company has just completed a software solution for the plumbing faculty of a college. The software will randomly generate sets of multiple-choice questions that will test students on various parts of a plumbing course. The software will be able to assess the test and provide immediate results to the students and their teachers. a. What is acceptance testing and who should be involved in the acceptance testing of this software solution?

Acceptance testing is where you get the client/users of the software solution to use the software developed and make sure it fulfils all their needs and the requirements specified in the SRS. In this case the students and teachers from the plumbing faculty college would be involved in the testing.

Natasha is the new IT administrator for a small group of shopping centres in Melbourne. When she was learning about the group's existing systems, it became apparent that there had not been a clear data management strategy in place for the past 20 years. Critical shopping centre data stored on servers was not being backed up on a regular basis. Some files were modified daily, while others were updated on a monthly or yearly basis. She also found that many of the files stored on the servers had not been used in more than five years. Natasha has decided to develop a data management strategy for the handling of files to improve the group's data practices. a. Propose and justify an appropriate backup strategy that Natasha could implement for the group's data.

All of the group's data should be backed up using a full back-up once a week, with a differential backup performed every night. Back-ups could be stored in a secure offsite location, using a cloud solution. Back-ups should also be managed by Natasha or a member of her team. This strategy will ensure that all data is backed up in a regular and consistent manner and that any data loss would be minimised to the last differential backup (the previous night).

Natasha is the new IT administrator for a small group of shopping centres in Melbourne. When she was learning about the group's existing systems, it became apparent that there had not been a clear data management strategy in place for the past 20 years. Critical shopping centre data stored on servers was not being backed up on a regular basis. Some files were modified daily, while others were updated on a monthly or yearly basis. She also found that many of the files stored on the servers had not been used in more than five years. Natasha has decided to develop a data management strategy for the handling of files to improve the group's data practices. Propose and justify an appropriate archiving or disposal strategy that Natasha could implement for the group's dat

All of the groups data that has not been in place and is not needed for legal or business purposes can be disposed of. As for files that are necessary it is appropriate to archive them in a secure cheap storage options.

Explain why an array must be sorted to find a record using a binary search and how the record is found.

An array must be sorted for a binary search as it uses recursive division. It picks a midpoint and compares the wanted value to it. If the wanted value if higher than the midpoint it discards all below it and vice versa. It then does the same thing to whichever half is left, repeatedly till the midpoint = the wanted value. If the list was unsorted, the wanted value could end up in the half that gets discarded as it's not in the correct order, and thus, doesn't get found.

Liana is developing software for online learning programs. She gives one of her new programmers, Andrew, the client specifi cations for one element of the package, and gives him the freedom to design and develop the solution. He must then bring his program to Liana for approval. Andrew has presented a program that looks very much like a commercial program produced by one of Liana's competitors. The program also appears to collect information on users that can be retained by the business for marketing purposes. What should Andrew do to resolve Liana's legal concerns?

Andrew should prove to Liana or seek rights to use the code design he used Most students assumed that Andrew had indeed 'copied' the code; however, the stem of the question stated that it 'looks very much like a commercial program'. This assumption resulted in many students stating that if he removed the code, this would resolve the legal issue. The more appropriate response was to prove that that code was his intellectual property. With regard to the copyright issue, communicating with users and seeking permission within the software would resolve the issue.

Explain what is meant by archiving and provide one advantage of archiving records.

Archiving is when inactive customer details are removed from the head office Soul and Body server and transferred to a secondary storage medium, the transferred data is then deleted from the head office server. The archiving of customer records is beneficial as space on the main system is freed up for newer customer data, it also decreases the size of backups as well as decreasing how long it takes to perform a backup

Outline how a value is retrieved using a hash key.

Apply the hash function to the element being searched for then linear search through the elements in bucket to find element

What some things a project manger could do to avoid developers stealing intellectual property?

Appropriate responses included developing a code of ethics, training programmers about the code of ethics or training programmers about legal issues in a programming environment.

For each task listed below, describe the consequences for the project if the task takes longer than planned. Design the EasyDel app Stores to begin to add items for sale.

As design the easydel app is on the critical path if it is delayed it will delay the finish point of the project. Since stores to begin to add items for sale is not on the critical path and no task depend on it, it will not significantly effect the project unless it is delayed by more than 11 days.

Once the software has been accepted by PNPW, all park rangers will be required to use it. The park rangers are very unhappy about this as they have no idea how the new software will work and so they complain to the PNPW management. Explain how management could resolve this conflict.

As this question asked students to 'resolve this conflict' it was expected that they would write about decision support frameworks; however, most responses included details of training and/or documentation and were awarded some marks. As some resolution was required, it was important to include some evaluation/feedback mechanism from the park rangers, before, during and/or after training

Lilianna is working on the most appropriate way to communicate with the fleet of robots. To communicate with the robots, Lilianna is considering using radio signals. The robots must have a transmitter to send messages and a receiver to get messages. The technical engineering team is considering two possible methods of communication and control - bluetooth and 4G. Arlen, a member of the team, says that bluetooth would not be a suitable method to control the robots.

Bluetooth's limited range would be the reason for rejecting it as a means of communication with the robots.

Explain why data protection and user authentication are both important within this software solution

Both data protection and user authentication are means of ensuring the security of the data. Requiring users to login aims to prevent unauthorized access by those who are trying to gain access to the data, while encrypting the data ensures that if an unauthorised does gain access despite the user authentication requirements, that the data is unreadable and still protected.

Explain why constructing test data that checks boundary values is a key part of checking that software solutions meet design specifications.

Boundary values/testing checks whether conditions within solutions execute as intended. This is important as if appropriate test data/boundary values are not selected and used in testing then the solution may not function as expected.

Storing the information locally allows the app to function without an internet connection and hence provide a more usable app. The data can be access quicker by the patients, as it is already stored on their phone. Data does not have to be sent over the internet reducing data usage. State two advantages of Sue-Lee's method.

By having the data stored centrally updates could be made to the database without having to push an update to the entire application. Storing this information on the internet means less of the valuable (and small) storage capacity on a mobile device is taken up. Internet access also allows for the data to be more easily and regularly updates, as users will simply retrieve this new data next connection

Explain how usability testing can be used to improve the mobile application for retirees and casual investors

Could identify issues that the retired or casual investors have eg not up to date with current terminology.

Select one design idea - Design A or Design B - based on the requirement of security. Justify your selection

Design B is a better based on the fact that it requires user to use authentication through a sign in feature in order to access their data. Design A provides no such feature thus allowing any malicious user full access to the data. Note: Make sure you compare the two designs don't just talk about one

Provide two important non-functional requirements that a voting application would have to posses?

Ease of use - with so many voters of different ages and levels of technical ability, the system must be easy to understand, navigate and use. User friendliness of the voting system- as thousands of residents will be voting (many of which may be inexperienced with IT) voting needs to be a quick and simple process to avoid large queues and waiting times. The voting software must be 100% reliable - the software store the voters add their votes for transfer to the main server and must be able to operate with not breakdowns or all the important data will be lost and must be recollected

A small company has asked its programmer, Phuong, to write a software solution that will record the hard copy technical reports borrowed by staff members. Phuong has suggested using an associative array as an abstract data type to hold the data. There are two data values to be recorded - the staff member's name and the title of the report. The limitations are as follows: • There is only one copy of each technical report but the total number of reports is about 300. • Each staff member is allowed to borrow more than one report. • Phuong has only a short time to design and write the software solution. In a meeting, Phuong's manager has asked her to give the reasons for suggesting to use an associative array instead of a one-dimensional array. Explain why Phuong has suggested using an associative array rather than a one-dimensional array for this software solution

Example 1 An associative array contains a key and value. In this case the staff member's name would be the value and the key would be the title of the report. Using an associative array means that staff will be able to search for who has borrowed the report since each report is assigned a value (staff member's name). This option is better than a one-dimensional array since there are two categories needed to be recorded, the staff name and the report title, which a one-dimensional array cannot do. Example 2 An associative array allows for two values to be paired, and lookups to be performed based on one specific value (in this case, the report title). If the data were to be stored in a one-dimensional array, it would not be possible to link reports with the staff member's names. Additionally, associative arrays allow for many reports to be assigned to a single name, which is required for the solution. Students needed to be able to describe an associative array, outline how it is used and explain why a one-dimensional array was not appropriate in this circumstance

Question 3 (3 marks) A small company has asked its programmer, Phuong, to write a software solution that will record the hard copy technical reports borrowed by staff members. Phuong has suggested using an associative array as an abstract data type to hold the data. There are two data values to be recorded - the staff member's name and the title of the report. The limitations are as follows: • There is only one copy of each technical report but the total number of reports is about 300. • Each staff member is allowed to borrow more than one report. • Phuong has only a short time to design and write the software solution. In a meeting, Phuong's manager has asked her to give the reasons for suggesting to use an associative array instead of a one-dimensional array. Explain why Phuong has suggested using an associative array rather than a one-dimensional array for this software solution.

Example 1 An associative array contains a key and value. In this case the staff member's name would be the value and the key would be the title of the report. Using an associative array means that staff will be able to search for who has borrowed the report since each report is assigned a value (staff member's name). This option is better than a one-dimensional array since there are two categories needed to be recorded, the staff name and the report title, which a onedimensional array cannot do. Example 2 An associative array allows for two values to be paired, and lookups to be performed based on one specific value (in this case, the report title). If the data were to be stored in a onedimensional array, it would not be possible to link reports with the staff member's names. Additionally, associative arrays allow for many reports to be assigned to a single name, which is required for the solution

A linear search of a file of 5000 records does not require the records to be sorted. Outline a more efficient searching technique. Justify why this technique is more efficient

Example 1 Binary search is more efficient than linear search however requires the records to be sorted. Binary search involves reducing the list by half in every step while linear search involves searching every individual record to see if it matches the desired record. With 5000 records, the average time taken to search is significantly less in binary search then linear search making it more efficient. Example 2 A binary search is a more efficient searching technique compared to a linear search. A binary search requires a sorted data set. While a linear search checks through each record, a binary search compares your wanted value with the midpoint, and discards half of the data set which is not required. This makes a binary search exponentially more efficient than a linear search.

A linear search of a file of 5000 records does not require the records to be sorted. Outline a more efficient searching technique. Justify why this technique is more efficient.

Example 1 Binary search is more efficient than linear search however requires the records to be sorted. Binary search involves reducing the list by half in every step while linear search involves searching every individual record to see if it matches the desired record. With 5000 records, the average time taken to search is significantly less in binary search then linear search making it more efficient. 2018 VCE Computing: Software Development examination report Example 2 A binary search is a more efficient searching technique compared to a linear search. A binary search requires a sorted data set. While a linear search checks through each record, a binary search compares your wanted value with the midpoint, and discards half of the data set which is not required. This makes a binary search exponentially more efficient than a linear search. Students should avoid responding in dot points for questions that ask for 'outline', 'explain', 'describe', etc,; full sentences addressing the command word and that uses computing terminology are required.

Lilianna has decided to develop a backup strategy that includes backing up the customer data and database changes each day. She thinks the stored data should be encrypted. Arlen has suggested that an effective backup strategy is all they need and they do not need to consider encrypting the stored data. Compare the purpose of a backup strategy and data encryption, and recommend, with justifi cation, what Lilianna should implement

Example 1 The purpose of a back up strategy and encryption is both to increase data security. However they achieve this differently with a back up provide redundancy, allowing data to be restored if it ever gets deleted. Encryption provides security in a more traditional sense in encoding the data so that it is unreadable. To achieve best practice Lilianna should implement both of these strategies. Given that information such as credit card details is stored in the database, encryption should be considered as this information may be of high target for hackers. Furthermore, a backup should be used for redundancy to ensure that if any data is ever lost it can be restored. An incremental backup in which only data that has been changed since the last back up is backed should provide a good balance of speed and redundancy for the system. Example 2 Data encryption is a security measure that is designed to protect data from being accessed by unauthorized users. Backup strategies such as incremental backup, where changes between any previous incremental or full backup are backed up each day, protect the company if they lose access to the data. As data encryption and backups serve different functions, one protecting security of data from attackers and another preventing data loss, it would be in Lilianna's interests to implement both. For Lillian's needs a daily incremental backup of the encrypted data on external hard drives, and a weekly full backup on magnetic tape (for it's storage capacity) would be advisable. Students needed to consider the words in the question 'compare the purpose', which required students to discuss similarities and differences between two elements, in this case 'backup strategy' and 'data encryption'. Students then needed to recommend which should be implemented; this recommendation could have included utilising both. Students were expected to clearly show their knowledge of the purposes, describe the strategies and justify a recommendation. There were a number of possible responses

Describe one feature of each design idea that contributes to its effectiveness.

Feature of Design idea A: Design A improves accuracy as drop-down boxes, which are easy to use on a touch screen, are used instead of text field, which could contain errors like misspelled words. Accessibility - the use of icons rather than words make the design more accessible/effective for visually impaired. Feature of Design idea B: Clarity - Everything in this is labeled with what it is, it makes this design clearer and thus contributing to it's effectiveness. Readability/Clarity The program is clear and easy to read and understand what to do and where. It is also clear and uncluttered. This will allow most clients of Body and Soul to easily use this design.

Give an example of a goal and objective for a financial management company?

Goal: To manage client accounts more transparently using digital systems Objective: Increase ease of communication between managers and clients by 30%

Ryan has assured Peter and Jessica that the mobile application he has developed for SmallPort Financial is interoperable with their new cloud-based intranet and other external systems. However, during testing, Ryan realises that the mobile application is not displaying all of a client's accounts and that the intranet is receiving week-old data from the stock exchange data service. Discuss the impact of diminished data integrity on the intranet

If the intranet is receiving out-of-date and inaccurate data from the stock exchange data service it could lead to the organisation's employees making bad investment decisions based on old trends. Without having access to the current stock values, the employees could find themselves losing money or unable to effectively and accurately assist their clients.

Ryan has assured Peter and Jessica that the mobile application he has developed for SmallPort Financial is interoperable with their new cloud-based intranet and other external systems. However, during testing, Ryan realises that the mobile application is not displaying all of a client's accounts and that the intranet is receiving week-old data from the stock exchange data service. Discuss the impact of diminished data integrity on the mobile device

If the mobile device is receiving out-of-date and inaccurate data from the stock exchange data service it could lead to the clients making bad investment decisions based on old trends. Without having access to the current stock values, the clients could find themselves losing money or unable to effectively and accurately assist their clients. May even result in legal action

Before the software application can be closed, the software application must save the records from RAM back to the text fille. The record structure is shown below. Customer_ID (unique) Customer_ Givenname Customer_ Familyname Customer_ Postcode Customer_ Phonenumber The records will be stored in a text file with one line per record. Storing the data in a text file will have an impact on any changes to the software application. Explain this impact in terms of the compatibility of records if the number of fields changes.

If the number of fields changes, certain elements/values may be processed by the wrong section of the program, causing type errors or other errors. Eg The postcode may be processed as a phone number Most students were able to make a comment that there would be some compatibility issues if the number of fields changes. However, many did not explain why there might be issues or explain if coding also changed that data would be fully accessible

A major security concern for the software being designed to run on the drone is that hackers (unauthorised users) could take over control of the drone. State two measures that could prevent this from happening. Clearly explain how each would prevent unauthorised access to the drone. measure 1 explanation measure 2 explanation

Install a firewall between the tablet and router - A firewall controls which user can and cannot have access to certain ports. - The firewall would only allow the park rangers access to the drones and would prevent unauthorised outside users. Ensure all path instructions are encrypted - Encryption changes the 'plain text' of the flight instructions into unreadable 'ciphertext'. - This will ensure that the drones can only accept instructions from the official tablet devices and nothing else

Why is reading the data from RAM more efficient than reading the data from the file stored on the USB hard drive?

It is far faster to read from RAM than from a USB harddrive

Outline two advantages of of including internal documentation

It makes it easier to edit in the future, as the function of all code is clear. Another advantage is that it reduce cost for SmallPort Financial if they need the code maintenance because the programmer can easily identify what the module does which would reduce maintenance cost. It also makes it much easier to debug thus saving time if an error were to occur

José, a Portfolio Manager, has been approached, through a friend, to work for a new investment service. José's friend has said that, if José were to provide the new investment service with a list of the contact details and investment information of SmallPort Financial's top 10 clients, he would be employed as a Managing Director at the new service. Explain how José and SmallPort Financial would be breaching the legislation identified in part a. if he provides the list to the new investment service.

José has breached the Privacy Act as he is using client data for purposes not outlined in the company's privacy policy. Whilst SmallPort Financial have a secure area of the network and encrypt data, they do not have sufficient security to protect the data from malicious intent (since everyone can access the secure network and decrypt the data) also violating the Privacy Act. Note: Make sure in these examples you talk about both parties not just small port finacials

Liana is developing software for online learning programs. She gives one of her new programmers, Andrew, the client specifi cations for one element of the package, and gives him the freedom to design and develop the solution. He must then bring his program to Liana for approval. Andrew has presented a program that looks very much like a commercial program produced by one of Liana's competitors. The program also appears to collect information on users that can be retained by the business for marketing purposes. Outline two legal issues that Liana should be concerned about

Legal issue 1 As Andrew's program looks very similar to a commercially available program, Liana should be concerned that Andrew may have broken copyright by using other companies code. Legal issue 2 As Andrew's program retains user details, Liana should be concerned that Andrew's program collects users private information without consent breaching the Privacy Act.

Identify how the software in the EasyDel app would differentiate an XML file from other types of text files.

Many XML files have a header stating the version of XML. XML files also have opening and closing tags which can be used to differentiate from other files.

During the development of the mobile application, Peter attends a financial technology conference. While he is there, a representative from a software development business suggests to Peter that SmallPort Financial should develop a rich client application for their clients rather than a mobile application. Peter emails Jessica immediately to discuss the suggestion. Explain why developing a mobile application would be a better option for SmallPort Financial than a rich client application.

Most student responses lacked the ability to provide a logical and appropriate justification as to why a mobile application was a better option than the rich client option. Mobile applications can process and store data on the server side, while rich client applications would typically process and store all data on the mobile device after downloading it from a server. Few students were also able to provide a relevant link to the case study context as to why a mobile application was better than a rich client

Question 7 (4 marks) A member of Sally's team has suggested using a virtual private network (VPN) for sending the voting data back to the council. Explain two advantages for the council of using a VPN rather than the internet using HTTP or HTTPS.

Most students had difficulty with providing technically accurate information or responses were generic statements without depth. The question required a response that addressed the advantages to the council, not just the advantages of a VPN. There was also an expectation that students considered the advantages when compared to HTTP or HTTPS. One key advantage being the encryption provided between the polling booth and the council, which was essential for security of data as well as privacy of voting information. One advantage of the VPN will be that it will not require the council to build any new infrastructure to facilitate the sending of data as a VPN will utilise already made networks. A VPN will also be more secure than internet using HTTP or HTTPS. One reason for this is that a VPN will require users to login with a username and password, which only approved council workers will possess. The data will also be encrypted in a VPN so that if it is intercepted it still cannot be read, and is therefore more secure than a standard HTTP or HTTPS.

Mike is still concerned that the tablet may take too long to transfer files containing 100 000 records. He wants Nicole to design a simple test that will show him whether the tablet can transfer the data between the homestead's computer and the tablet within a given time and under stated conditions. Outline a test that Nicole could use to demonstrate this

Nicole could create a file with 100 000 simple records. With the tablet under the stated conditions. Nicole could send the file multiple times to the tablet recording how long each copy takes. The average copy time can then be calculated. Setup the stated conditions. Run a program that starts a timer and begins transmitting the data from tablet to computer but alerts Nicole if it exceeds a given time. Repeat the test with different conditions and perhaps different time restrictions. In general, students were able to identify the need to measure the file transfer time. However, it is important that students pay attention to the task word in each question. For full marks students needed to provide the procedure(s) for testing at least one file size under specific test conditions, indicating a technique for measuring transfer time. The response needed to relate to the specific details in the question.

Describe a naming convention that Jessica has used and explain how this naming convention will assist Ryan when developing the mobile application examplevcmvm,c v dc,,,,

One convention used within the data dictionary is the use of lowercase letters at the start of the variable name, which indicates which data type is stored by the variable. Including data type in the name of the variable can make development and testing easier for Ryan as the type of data expected to be stored within a variable is clearly indicated

Describe one naming convention that you have used in programming. Explain how this convention makes programming better. Give an example to support your answer.

One naming notation is Hungarian notation such as 'btnExit', in which the first letters are what the object is, such as button (btn) or textbox(txt) and the second half describes the purpose of the it. For example, in btnExit, the 'Exit' is the purpose of the button. This makes programming better as the developers will be able to understand what the object is and its purpose, so they can code it more efficiently and will less errors. Although students had an understanding of naming conventions many did not fully answer the question. The question contained three instructional terms 'describe', 'explain' and 'give' and each of these parts needed to be addressed. However, often students only answered one part or two parts of the question, with many not providing examples.

Nicole has produced the following designs for the Weigh Module of the ID screen for each animal. She is currently deciding whether to include visual representations of some information (Option A) or to just present the data in text and numbers (Option B). Which option would you recommend? Justify your answer

Option A - Mike needs a visual representation of growth. The graph will provide much clearer information that does not require interpretation or prior knowledge, and anyone could use it. It could contain the average growth tracked on one line with the animal's growth on another to determine good or poor growth. The map will allow Mike to quickly gauge the location of the animals (prior to roundup) and determine whether they should be relocated based on pasture available in each paddock and whether the animals need to put on weight or not. This information is clear and much more easily understood.

Select one design idea - Design A or Design B - based on the requirement of usability. Justify your selection.

Options talk about large buttons or text next to buttons Note: Make sure you compare the two designs don't just talk about one

Sue is making an app that allows clients to book and pay for physios name the Organisational goal and System objective

Organisational goal: Improve the health of clients through a holistic approach, provide clients with 'best practice' physiotherapeutic care • System objective: streamline the payment process, connection with national healthcare system

Patel has questions about the use of patient information. He is concerned about who owns the patient information stored on Soul & Body Health's system and what his legal obligations are concerning this information. Outline three actions that Patel should take to ensure that he meets Soul & Body Health's legal obligations before purchasing the software.

Patel must make sure he has the consent of patients to allow the software to handle their information. Create an open and easily accessible Privacy Policy in accordance with APP1 of the Australian Privacy Policy. Receive consent of the users' whose data will mined. All information provided to the data mining company should be void of any identifying patient information. Patients should be given the opportunity to opt out of the program at any point of time

Describe one backup procedure that could be used to back up this data. Make reference to the technique used and the frequency of the backup procedure.

Perform an incremental backup on Monday through to Saturday (of only data that has been changed/added) to an external hard-drive. On Sunday, perform a full-backup of every file used in the health system to magnetic tape (for its large storing capacity)

Mike wants to use a tablet to record the weight of the cattle. Nicole tells him that the tablet has 512 MB of primary storage (RAM) and 16 GB of secondary storage. She could go to 32 GB of secondary storage, but she cannot alter the 512 MB of RAM. Apart from cost, outline the technical difference between the two types of storage used on the tablet and how this may affect access to the data stored.

Primary storage is non-permanent memory used to hold temporary data and is accessed faster than secondary storage. Data in secondary storage is slower to access but data is stored permanently even after the device is turned off

José, a Portfolio Manager, has been approached, through a friend, to work for a new investment service. José's friend has said that, if José were to provide the new investment service with a list of the contact details and investment information of SmallPort Financial's top 10 clients, he would be employed as a Managing Director at the new service. a. Identify the relevant legislation that would be breached if José provides the list to the new investment service.

Privacy Act (1988)

Explain how reading the records into RAM could improve the performance of the software application.

Random Access Memory has faster read and write speeds than permanent storage (hard disk). This means that the software app will be able to search the records faster, improving its efficiency. This question, which asked students to 'explain', required a consideration of cause and effect. For example, if 'quicker access' was stated as the reason performance could be improved, details about access speed compared to hard disks was required.

What is a record? What is a file?

Record A record is a control structure and method of storing and grouping related data together: eg ID 001, Name Fred, LastName Jones. This data is a record as it is relevant to each other and stored together. A record is a data structure which stores related information such as name, score, year in one data store. Individual data stored in a record can be accessed through an index to find the related information within that record. File A file is a type of data structure which stores data or information on a storage medium. A file may contain a set of records and a file may be accessed through random or serial access. A file is an external storage of data for a solution which can be created by the solution and read back into at a later date.

Jessica and Ryan have debated how client data will be stored and used by the system. Jessica believes that all client data should be stored in a series of one-dimensional arrays, while Ryan believes that using records would be much better. Explain why records, rather than a series of one-dimensional arrays, would be a better way to store the data used by the information system.

Records can store a multiple fields related to a single user or client. A series of one-dimensional arrays would be only be able to store one field per array and be difficult to manage within the code, because when one value is updated or deleted within the array, Ryan would have to make sure that the other related arrays are also modified.

Explain some unit test a financial company could use to test if their app is working

Ryan and Jessica could get Rosie and Andrew to test the program by attempting to view their investments and then making an enquiry to their Portfolio Manager using the app. They will then complete a survey rating their experience and providing feedback as to what can be improved on

Question 5 (4 marks) Explain how error logs can be used to measure the reliability and maintainability of a network.

Reliability is how long the network can operate in its intended environment. Error logs could be used to analyse the number and length of breakdowns and downtimes in the network. If the error logs show that the network has been down often it is not reliable. Maintainability is the effort, time and cost required to keep the network running and also how easily it can be upgraded or fixed. Error logs can be used to identify how many breakdowns there were and how long each one took to fix. If the network was down for a long time it shows that the network has low maintainability as it is hard to fix errors and keep it running. Students answered this question with varying degrees of success. It was important for students to explain how error logs could measure the reliability and maintainability of a network; for example, that a large number of errors in an identified period of time may suggest that the network was unreliable.

The new software for Soul & Body Health's system will be receiving sensitive information from the new Keep Fit app from all of the patients. Sue-Lee is investigating how the mobile devices could send this information as securely as possible. To do this, she is exploring the use of protocol Identify a suitable protocol for securing this sensitive information and explain how the protocol achieves this

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is an asymmetrical encryption protocol which would be suitable for the Soul & Body Health system. First, a transfer request and a public key relating to how to turn plaintext into ciphertext are exchanged. A private key is then encrypted with the public key and then sent, which explains how to decrypt ciphertext. A secure connection is then established and information can then be exchanged quickly and securely

The following are three structures used in programming languages. Briefly explain each: Selection control structure Procedure Function

Selection control structure This chooses which section of code to execute or to skip the code contained depending on whether the condition specified has been met or not. Procedure A procedure is a section of code which can be called repeatedly from any line of a program in order to complete certain actions. Function This is similar to a procedure, in that it can be called upon when required but will accept parameters when called upon and return a value when it is done.

The following are three structures used in programming languages. Briefly explain each: Selection control structure Iteration control structure Sequence

Selection control structure This chooses which section of code to execute or to skip the code contained depending on whether the condition specified has been met or not Iteration control structure Repeatedly runs section of code until condition is met Sequence Where instructions are executed line by line

Explain how selection sort works?

Selection sort works by iterating through the list searching for the smallest elements and placing in at the start of the list. This is continued on the rest of the elements until the entire list in sorted

The council has appointed the company Marvellous Management Systems (MMS) to produce the voting software. The council has provided the information in the case study insert and has asked MMS for the software requirements specifi cations (SRS) document as soon as possible. Explain the purpose of the SRS document.

The SRS is written after the proposed solution has been analysed and contains the solution requirements, the scope, constraints and its intended operating environment. The purpose of the SRS is to provide direction to the developers so they clearly understand what the solution must do, what to include, what not to include and it helps them focus on the project.

The software company is willing to load its software onto Soul & Body Health's system so it can provide information automatically. Patel is concerned about how this new software will affect the rest of Soul & Body Health's system. Discuss two technical issues Patel should investigate before making a decision regarding the offer

The amount of space the new software will take up on the existing soul and body system may be a factor as the system already holds thousands of records and the new software may take up space on the storage that the system does not have. Patel should verify that the software does not contain any vulnerabilities and can be trusted to operate in the secure manner when handling information. The security of the software. This may compromise the security of the overall system as although Patel has ensured that Soul & Body Health's system will adequately deal with sensitive data, this software may not.

What would be the effect on the number of records read (on average) if the total number of records increased from 32 000 to 64000 (doubled) using a linear search

The average number of records read would double

In order for the election process to run smoothly, election officials will need to be trained to use the new voting software. The council will need to employ at least 60 officials to supervise voting at the polling booths. Many of these officials will be employed only for Election Day and could have other employment on other days. Describe a low-cost training strategy that the council could use to ensure that all of its election officials employed on Election Day are able to perform their duties.

The council could provide online training which requires all of the election officials to complete a course on the new voting software online via videos or online tutorial. The council could give each official an account to track if they have completed the training or not. The benefit of this is that it is very cheap, the officials can do it in their own time so that it doesn't interfere with their jobs, and they can repeat parts of the online training that they didn't understand the first time.

RedGumGrove Shopping Centre is offering stores the opportunity to pay a subscription to access the EasyDel app's customer data, including email addresses. a. Liliana has commented about possible breaches of privacy if sharing data. Describe what must be contained in the EasyDel app to ensure that the centre meets its responsibilities regarding the privacy of customer data.

The customer should be made aware of the sharing of their details when signing up for the app. This should be contained within the terms and conditions and users should be made to sign this or give consent if they sign up.

The data collected from the file servers at the polling booths and through mobile voting is irreplaceable. The data must be retained and must be collected even if the internet connection is lost between the polling booth file servers or the mobile devices and the main server at the council's office. Describe a method to do this for data • on the polling booth file server • on the mobile devices.

The data on the polling booth file server could be automatically backed up and written to on-site hard drives, meaning that any lost votes can still be accessed and sent once the internet connection is available. The voting data on the mobile devices could be saved to the phone itself if an internet connection is not available. Users can then be notified that once they are connected to the internet again must send this data. Students struggled to provide clear and technically accurate responses to this question. Many simply stated back up the data and send later, without including any specific details. The question asked students to describe a method by which data could make it to the main server if the internet was lost, so students needed to provide a procedure or a number of steps that would

The RedGumGrove Shopping Centre server will store the personal data that customers enter to register for deliveries. Bruce has decided that one criterion for the EasyDel app is that data must be kept secure. Lilianna has decided to implement two security measures to keep customer data secure. Explain how each security measure below will help Bruce to achieve this criterion. • Firewall on the central server • Encryption of signal used for robots

The firewall will monitor incoming network traffic to check for unauthorised access attempts and stop them from accessing data on the server. By encryption the signal, even if the signal is intercepted, it will be unreadable, and no useful information is gained by the intercepter, thus keeping the data secure. Students are encouraged to read and reread the question before responding. In this question, a number of students missed the need to explain 'how' the measure will help keep data secure, with many simply describing the measure.

George says it will not take him long to create the screen design for the software on the tablet that will be used by the park rangers, as the screen design will be easy and everyone uses tablets these days. Outline one concern with George's approach to the screen design and suggest what George could do to ensure that his screen design is effective.

The majority of students were not able to outline a concern such as 'George is not taking the skills or knowledge of the animal spotters into consideration' and instead wrote lengthy responses about elements of the user interface. Ideally, responses should have identified a concern (not seeking input from spotters), and discussed two methods for gaining input (before design) or feedback about the design from the spotters.

What would be the effect on the number of records read (on average) if the total number of records increased from 32 000 to 64000 (doubled) using a binary search

The maximum number of times a record would need to be read would increase by one as only the record in the middle of the list is read because the list is halved each time.

State one advantage of using observation as a method of data collection during the analysis phase.

The observation method reduces researched impact on individuals actions by witnessing them take their normal actions and thus provides more accurate data.

Lilianna has asked Arlen to investigate setting up wireless communication between the robot and a mobile device. She has decided to use credit-card-sized computers to control communications. The engineers can build the credit-card-sized computer into each robot. Identify one technical feature of the credit-card-sized computer that will be essential to establish wireless communication. Justify your response.

The robot could include a wireless Network interface card (NIC) in order to allow the robot to have reception with the network. Students often used vague terms such as 'wireless receiver/transmitter', which was not correct technical terminology.

Name three fields contained in this file

The three fields in the file are staffid, staffname and salary

When the drone lands, the data files, including video and GPS coordinates, will be downloaded onto a notebook computer. The files will then be deleted from the drone so that there is space for data files from the next flight. a. Is this an example of backup or archiving? Give a reason for your answer b. Describe another procedure that would reduce the chance of these files being lost

This is an example of archiving, and many students were able to identify that this was characterised by removing the file from the original device Students were able to describe a backup method that used an additional storage medium, with many suggesting 'cloud' options.

Soul & Body Health's new software will be able to connect to the national healthcare system so that patient healthcare numbers can be verified. Sue-Lee would like to be able to check that the data that will be used by Soul & Body Health's new software has integrity. List two characteristics of data that has integrity and explain one method Sue-Lee could use to check the integrity of the data. (A healthcare number contains 10 digits, as shown on the card above.) Characteristic 1 Characteristic 2 Explanation

When a healthcare number is entered into the software, a validation check should be performed to ensure that the input is indeed a possible healthcare number and hence reasonable. The check would confirm that the input was a 10 digit number.

In terms of the structure of the file, what advantages does an XML file have over a simple file?

XML files are structured using tags to give data meaning in any program. They allow for structure and meaning to be conserved when transporting data, whereas simple files are seen to lack structure/meaning due to them only storing raw data as opposed to structured data.

Explain how an XML file would be used by the EasyDel app to display data in the correct format on the screen.

XML files use self descriptive tags to describe data and give it structure. The EasyDel app can read these tags and use them to place data in the correct places.

Sally is concerned that during the two-week period prior to Election Day, the newly installed voting software may create conflicts for other council services, such as the council's website and IT department. a. State two conflicts that may occur b. For one of the conflicts stated above, identify the stakeholders and outline why the conflict exists. Suggest two techniques that could be used to minimise the conflict discussed in part b.

a)1. The council's IT department may become angry due to increased demands on the council website and server, and on their time for increased maintenance and problem solving. 2. Website users may become frustrated at slower connection speeds b) students most often identified the IT department staff and their immediate superiors or bosses as the key stakeholders. This conflict exists due to changes in working conditions and additional demands on their time to monitor and maintain the election system even though it is not part of the council's network. c) Students gave a range of techniques that could be used to minimise the conflict with IT staff, including hiring extra staff while voting is occurring, paying higher wages when working overtime and providing bonuses for the two-week period. A range of responses was accepted based on the conflict identified; however, most students did not score on this question

A commercial software company has contacted Patel with a proposal about some newly developed software that is suitable for Soul & Body Health's system. The software would search the data and provide extra information about the patients, which could help Soul & Body Health improve its business. a. What is this process called?

data mining

The voting software will need to be accessible to all eligible voters. This includes voters with special needs, such as visual impairments, reading disabilities and physical disabilities. Outline how these special needs will influence the design of the voting software Visual impaired, physically impaired, reading disability

visual impairments: consideration of font size • reading disabilities: use of pictures or diagrams, limiting text • physical disabilities: the use of buttons, and alternative input methods, such as voice, the size of objects within the interface, etc