Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term - Senior Secondary 2

Term: 2^nd Term

Week: 6

Class: Senior Secondary School 2

Age: 16 years

Duration: 40 minutes of 2 periods each

Date:       

Subject:      Data Processing

Topic:-       Program development

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to

1. Define a program
2. State the characteristics of a good program
3. Outline the precautions to be taken when writing a program
4. List and explain the stages in program development
5. Explain program maintenance

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES: Identification, explanation, questions and answers, demonstration, videos from source

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: Videos, loud speaker, pictures, Data Processing for senior Secondary Education by Hiit Plc, WAPB Computer Studies for Senior Secondary I by Adekunle et al, On-line Materials.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES

PERIOD 1-2

NOTE

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

A computer program can be defined as a list of instruction issued to the computer to perform a particular task. Programs are written in computer programming languages.

Characteristics of a good program

Every good program must have the following characteristics:

1. Accuracy: every good program must be error free.
2. Readability: the program should be easy for any programmer to read and understand.
3. Maintainability: a careful written program should be very easy to amend and maintain if need be.
4. Efficiency:  Should have the ability to solve a particular problem skillfully.
5. Generality: should be able to solve all similar problems.
6. Clarity: should be straight forward and easy to understand.
7. Reliability: should be depended upon at all times.

Precautions to be taken when writing a program

1. Do not rush. Be careful, stable and patient when writing programs.
2. No step should be skipped.
3. The order of execution must be followed sequentially.

Steps in Program Development

1. Problem definition: the programmer is expected first of all to understand the problem and know exactly what the problem entails. The definition of the problem must be unambiguous.
2. Problem analysis: The programmer is expected to analyze the problem to determine how it will be solved, the required inputs and output
3. Planning the solution: before a program is written, the algorithm or flowchart for that program must be drawn and tested before the actual coding of the program and this is called dry running a program. The flowchart therefore, is a diagrammatical representation of the steps involved in writing a given program.
4. Program coding: This is the actual writing or coding of the program in a particular programming language e.g. BASIC, VBASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, COBOL and so on.
5. Disk checking: This is used to check or verify that the design represents a correct solution to a problem and it is very important to follow through the design using suitable test data.
6. Problem compilation: when the coding process is completed, the program will be compiled if it is necessary. It is necessary to compile if the programming language allows it.
7. Program testing: this is similar to proofreading. The written program is tested and errors corrected to check the program is able to solve the problem it is expected to solve
8. Program documentation: this involves writing a detailed description about the program and some specific facts pertaining to the usage and maintenance of the program.
9. Program running: this is the actual running or execution of the program with the compiler or interpreter so as to check if the desired output is generated.

PROGRAM MAINTENANCE

It is the process of updating or amending previously written program for current use

 EVALUATION: 1. Explain the meaning of program 

2. Discuss the characteristics of a good program
3. What are the precautions to be taken when writing a      program?
4. List and explain the stages in program development
5. What is program maintenance?

CLASSWORK: As in evaluation

CONCLUSION: The teacher commends the students positively