Introduction

A programming assignment report is a self-contained description of a programming assignment and your solution. It is intended to both show that you learned what the program was designed to teach you, and to instill in you a discipline of rigorous program development and documentation. The program text itself is only a part of such documentation. In addition, you must describe the other important aspects of the program development process, including a description of the problem, design choices, test results, and bugs.

The report must not be hand-written. Use a word processor or the on-line editor of your choice. The report must be grammatically correct and use complete English sentences.

Programming Assignment Report Format

• Vital Information - This section provides information necessary for properly crediting you for the assignment. Include a section as it appears below, with appropriate items substituted for the items in brackets.

  CS COURSE_NUMBER, QUARTER, YEAR
  YOUR_FIRST_AND_LAST_NAME
  Section NUMBER
  Programming Assignment NUMBER
  Due DATE
  

• Problem Statement - Include a brief summary of the problem and/or your tasks to be completed in this assignment.
• Structure Chart - Show your design rationale by creating a structure chart that indicates your top-down, stepwise refinement of the problem solution. You may create the structure chart by hand if you wish (use pen) but there are a number of automated graphical tools available. Ask a consultant for assistance.
• Implementation - Each of the boxes in your structure chart will ordinarily represent a subtask to be performed by a subprogram. In the ``Implementation'' part of your report you will describe each subprogram in English. Do not simply include your subprogram code in this section! The code is handed in as an attachment to the main body of the report. Instead, include the following information for each subprogram:
  • Subprogram name
  • Names and types of any parameters
  • Input: Description of the data received
  • Output: Description of the information returned
  • Algorithm: How the subprogram accomplishes the task using pseudocode. See the example of pseudocode in Chapter 1 of the text.
• Test Description and Results - This section describes the tests you ran to determine if your program accurately solves the stated problem. Describe your tests, summarize your results, and argue that they cover all types of program behavior. Often the program handout will require your program to handle certain tests, but you may wish to add others if they bolster your claim that the program is correct. Do not simply include a script of your program running! Again, that is handed in as an attachment to the main body of the report. You must write this test description. After all, you are handing in a report, not just a script. This section should also include a description of any program bugs that is, tests which have incorrect results. The grader will tend to be more lenient if you openly describe bugs and suggest why they may be occurring, than if you simply report them without any analysis, or worse, try to hide them. The ideal test plan and results should show that, despite your best efforts, your tests failed to uncover any bugs.
• Epilogue - What were the trouble spots in completing this assignment? What parts caused you the most grief? What did you like about the assignment? What did you learn from it?
• Attachments - Include the following attachments to your report:
  • Printout of well documented program code. At the very least, the program must satisfy the following:
    • A comment should appear just after the program heading which includes the Vital Information and Problem Statement from the report.
    • An informative comment should accompany each global and local variable appearing in the program.
    • Three comments should appear after each subprogram heading specifying the Given Task and Return of the subprogram.
  • Printout of the testing process showing all results as summarized in the main body of the report. Your TA or consultant can show you how to obtain such a printout. Mark it by annotating, highlighting, or underlining so the reader can easily follow the results.