Course outline
CSE 308 Design Project I — what the course covers and how it is organised, with every lab linked to its slide deck.
General information
| Course | CSE 308 · Design Project I · project and laboratory course |
| Materials | The department’s Design Project I Manual (Labs I–X), rebuilt here as interactive decks |
| Work | Teams choose a software project in Lab I and grow it lab by lab: proposal, LaTeX report, SRS, SDLC model, DFDs, UML diagrams and UI wireframes |
| Final output | A team report and a poster presentation with viva |
What you will be able to do
- Form a team, choose a project and write a proposal with a feasibility study, a working plan, a Gantt chart and a budget.
- Write technical reports in LaTeX.
- Specify a system with an IEEE-style SRS and choose a suitable SDLC model.
- Model the system with data flow diagrams and UML use case, sequence, communication and class diagrams.
- Design the user interface with usability principles and Figma wireframes.
Lab plan
| Lab | Topic | Slides |
|---|---|---|
| Lab I | Team Formation, Project Assignment & Planning Forming a team, choosing a project, writing the proposal, and planning it: feasibility study, work plan, Gantt chart, budget, risk analysis and roles. | Open |
| Labs II–III | Technical Report Writing with LaTeX Typesetting reports in LaTeX with Overleaf: text and special characters, errors, mathematics, lists, packages, sections, cross-references, figures, tables, algorithms and BibTeX citations. | Open |
| Lab IV · open-ended | IEEE Software Requirements Specification (SRS) Functional and non-functional requirements, what makes a requirement good, how requirements are gathered, and how to write an SRS with the IEEE template, priorities and traceability. | Open |
| Lab V | SDLC Model Selection The six stages of the software development life cycle, the waterfall, iterative, V, spiral, agile and prototyping models, and how to choose one with a weighted comparison matrix. | Open |
| Lab VI | Data Flow Diagrams (DFD): Level 0 and Level 1 What a DFD shows, the four symbols in Gane–Sarson and Yourdon notation, the rules of valid data flows, and how to draw and balance Level 0 (context) and Level 1 diagrams, using the ATM system. | Open |
| Lab VII | UML Use Case Diagrams Actors, use cases and system boundaries; association, include, extend and generalization; use case descriptions with main and alternative scenarios, using the ATM system. | Open |
| Lab VIII | UML Sequence & Communication Diagrams Lifelines, activations and the eight message types; guards and combined fragments (alt, opt, loop); turning a use case into a sequence diagram; and the equivalent communication diagram. | Open |
| Labs IX–X | UML Class Diagrams Classes, attributes, operations and visibility; association, multiplicity, aggregation, composition and dependency; generalization, abstract classes, interfaces and realization, with the telephone and ATM examples. | Open |
| Lab: UI/UX | UI/UX Foundations & Figma Wireframing Usability, user-centred design, Nielsen’s heuristics, visual design and the laws of UX, accessibility with WCAG, fidelity levels, and designing and prototyping wireframes in Figma from your use cases. | Open |
| All labs | Worked Project: CampusCare Appointment System One realistic project taken through every step of the course: proposal and plan, LaTeX report, IEEE SRS, SDLC choice, DFD Level 0 and 1, use cases, sequence and communication diagrams, class diagram and Figma wireframes. | Open |
Each lab exercise adds one chapter to the team’s report; see Lab reports for the checklists.
Assessment rubrics
Three rubrics are used. Each criterion is marked on a five-level scale from Unsatisfactory to Excellent.
| Rubric | Criterion | CO | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lab report | Problem understanding and literature review | CO1 | 5% |
| Lab report | Effective demonstration and communication skill | CO7 | 10% |
| Continuous team evaluation | Identify appropriate methods and techniques | CO3 | 5% |
| Continuous team evaluation | Individual and teamwork | CO6 | 20% |
| Final poster presentation and viva | Problem understanding and literature review | CO1 | 5% |
| Final poster presentation and viva | Design a system based on a complex engineering problem | CO2 | 15% |
| Final poster presentation and viva | Effective demonstration and communication skill | CO7 | 10% |