Lab Exercise 2.1 Exploring a Diagramming Tool

Drawing tool software such as SmartDraw, Dia, Microsoft Visio or similar products should be used for this laboratory exercise. If these are not available, the drawing tool in Microsoft Word may be used.  Since each tool has slightly different requirements and conventions, you should explore the menus and use the Help options to find the symbols you will need.

Using a drawing tool, draw an E-R diagram for the University example similar to the one shown in Figure 2.9. If not all elements are available in the tool, write in any missing elements by hand.

Lab Exercise 2.2 Exploring a Project Management Tool

Using a project management tool such as Microsoft Project, explore the options of the tool, examining the various types of diagrams and charts available. Construct a diagram that allows you to picture the phases of a software project, with a set of resources (programmers) for each task, and a timeline for completion of each phase. If you have Microsoft Project, Visio, or other project management software, choose a Gantt or PERT chart for this exercise. If none of these is available, use a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. Use Figure 2.11, a Gantt chart created using Visio, to guide you. The file for this figure is contained in this directory. It can be opened with a browser if Visio is not available.

Lab Exercise 2.3 Constructing a simple data dictionary

Using a word processor, make an alphabetical list of the data items in the University example, providing a definition of each data item.