Software Requirements

Specification

Peer Evaluation System, Release

1.12

Version 0.12

Prepared by Team Green Apple

May 11, 2006

Copyright © 2005-2006 by Team Green Apple. All Rights Reserved.

Software Requirements Specification for RIT Peer Evaluation System Page 1

Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................1
Revision History.............................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
1.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Project Scope and Product Features............................................................................................4
1.2.1 Project Overview............................................................................................................................4
1.2.2 Project Scope.................................................................................................................................4
1.2.2.1 Setup......................................................................................................................................5
1.2.2.2 Evaluation..............................................................................................................................5
1.2.2.3 Reporting.................................................................................................................................5
1.3 References...................................................................................................................................5
2. Overall Description..................................................................................................................5
2.1 Product Perspective.....................................................................................................................5
2.2 User Classes and Characteristics.................................................................................................6
2.3 Operating Environment...............................................................................................................6
2.4 Design and Implementation Constraints......................................................................................6
2.5 User Documentation....................................................................................................................6
2.6 Assumptions and Dependencies...................................................................................................6
3. System Features........................................................................................................................7
3.1 Create, Review and Edit Question Templates..............................................................................7
3.2 Create, View and Modify Evaluations.........................................................................................7
3.3 Execute Evaluations....................................................................................................................8
3.3.1 Description and Priority..........................................................................................................8
3.3.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences................................................................................................9
3.3.3 Functional Requirements........................................................................................................9
3.4 Review Evaluation Results..........................................................................................................9
3.4.1 Description and Priority..........................................................................................................9
3.4.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences................................................................................................9
3.4.3 Functional Requirements......................................................................................................10
3.5 Administrative Access and Usage..............................................................................................11
3.5.1 Description and Priority........................................................................................................11
3.5.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences...............................................................................................11
3.5.3 Functional Requirements.......................................................................................................11
4. External Interface Requirements..........................................................................................12
4.1 User Interfaces..........................................................................................................................12
4.2 Hardware Interfaces..................................................................................................................12
4.3 Software Interfaces...................................................................................................................12
4.4 Communications Interfaces.......................................................................................................12
5. Other Nonfunctional Requirements.....................................................................................12
5.1 Documentation Requirements....................................................................................................12
5.2 Performance Requirements........................................................................................................12
5.3 Safety Requirements.................................................................................................................12
5.4 Security Requirements..............................................................................................................12
5.5 Software Quality Attributes......................................................................................................13
Appendix A: Data Dictionary and Data Model.........................................................................13
Appendix B: Data Model.............................................................................................................14

..................................................................................................................................................14
Appendix C: Analysis Model (Instructor).................................................................................15
Appendix D: Analysis Model (Student).....................................................................................16

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Software Requirements Specification for RIT Peer Evaluation System Page 2

..........................................................................................16

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Revision History
Name Date Reason For Changes Version
Tom Nichols 1/15/06 Initial SRS draft 0.1 draft
Amber Bahl 1/15/06 Added Project Overview and Scope 0.2
Amber Bahl 1/15/06 Added Product Perspective 0.3
Green Apple 1/17/06 Added Sections 2 and 3.1 0.4
Amber Bahl 1/17/06 Added Functional Requirements 0.5
Ada Tse 1/18/06 Added Sections 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 0.6
Amber Bahl 1/22/06 Changed sections 3, 4, 5 and Appendix. 0.7
Amber Bahl 1/24/06 Added Data model and changed Appendix. 0.8
Amber Bahl 1/24/06 Added Analysis Models (Student and Instructor) 0.9
Amber Bahl 1/27/06 Removed extra text from feature functionality. 0.10
Amber Bahl 2/05/06 Updated the Data model, and added section 3.5 0.11
Matt Anderson 2/07/06 Update data model diagram 0.12

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Software Requirements Specification for RIT Peer Evaluation System Page 4

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose
This SRS describes the software functional and nonfunctional requirements for release 1.0 of the
Peer Evaluation System. This document is intended to be used by the members of the project team
that will implement and verify the correct functioning of the system. Unless otherwise noted, all
requirements specified here are high priority and committed for release 1.0.

1.2 Project Scope and Product Features

1.2.1 Project Overview

The RIT Online Learning department is in need of an online peer evaluation system that can
enhance the collaborative learning experience. Currently, peer evaluation is supported by the
use of online surveys provided by the RIT Clipboard system, which is difficult to setup and
lacks good reporting functionalities. As a result, instead of using the tool as part of the early
collaboration process where interventions can be apply part way into the project, it is often
only used as a determinant of the project final grade. Our team will be responsible to deliver
a standalone online evaluation system that will allow easy peer assessment and provide
effective feedbacks without burdening faculty and students. The system will be built with
future integration into myCourses or other online collaboration systems in mind. The product
must be capable of providing multiple levels of access to these carrying sets of functionality.

The product will be a web-based application with functionality that can be determined by the
access of user. Creating the product for internet use ensures multi-platform capability without
a need for substantial overhead needed to convert the product to function for multiple
specific platforms. Multiple levels of access are required in order to properly accommodate
both administrative as well as client user functionality.

The administrative staff will have the highest level of access. They will be able to browse all
available information and will also be responsible for assigning users a level of access.

1.2.2 Project Scope

The online peer evaluation system can be broken down into three parts: Setup, Evaluation,
and Reporting. For the setup, the system needs an easy way for faculty to create groups and
add students into group. The setup functionalities will eventually be integrated to the group
structure feature provided by the myCourses management system. For evaluation, it is ideal
that the faculty can customize their own set of questions, but initially, a static sample of
questions will be used. For reporting, the system needs to provide an effective, preferably
graphical, representation of the evaluation results. Faculty needs to be able to easily identify
the outliers, especially the problematic groups in the class or individuals within the groups.
Different representations of the evaluation summaries will be implemented to allow faculty to
efficiently assess results. Students will also receive evaluations from their peers, and they
must be presented anonymously.

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1.2.2.1 Setup
The setup should provide an easy way for the faculty to create groups and add users into
groups. The setup feature will eventually be integrated to the group structure feature
provided by the myCourses management system.

1.2.2.2 Evaluation
For evaluation purposes the faculty should be able to customize their own set of questions,
but initially the development team will implement this feature by using a static set of
questions. These questions will either be quantitative or qualitative depending on user
requirements.

1.2.2.3 Reporting
For reporting purposes the system needs to provide a graphical representation of the
collected data. The basic aim for this would be to easily identify outlier groups and
individuals. Different representations of the evaluation summaries will be implemented to
allow faculty to efficiently assess results like:
 Pareto Chart
 Pie Chart
 Scatter Chart
Once the evaluations are filled by students the group members should be able to view all
comments and concerns. All these evaluations must be presented anonymously.

1.3 References
1. http://clipboard.rit.edu/
2. http://mycourses.rit.edu
3. Online Learning Department
4. Lutz, Michael (Faculty Mentor)
5. Hawker, Dr. J. Scott (Peer Evaluation Templates )

2. Overall Description

2.1 Product Perspective

The RIT Online Learning department is in need of an online peer evaluation system that can enhance
the collaborative learning experience. The functionality is prioritized at project inception and time-
boxed releases are delivered, at which point additional functionality is incorporated to the code base.
Upon each consecutive release, prior development activities may be revisited as necessary to address
priority shift and requirements volatility.

The Scrum methodology will be followed by the development team to deliver this application. This
project will be completed by a single development team in a span of 15 weeks. Like other Scrum
teams this team will mainly consist of a Scrum Master, Product Owner and a group of developers.
This project team will typically comprise of developers, QA, UI designers etc. This process model
will help mitigate potential risks by providing multiple iterations of development and customer
feedback. This process model will also provide backlogs to customer as well as management in order
to assess progress.

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2.2 User Classes and Characteristics

User Description
Student A student is a user who will be filling out a review.
The student may fill out multiple reviews for teammates. They must be
registered in MyCourses as a member of a class. They are allowed to
authenticate and give their review once.
Instructor Instructors manage the groups for which the evaluations are performed.
This role may be performed by an instructor, or a Teachers Assistance
(TA). The Instructor constructs, administers and reviews evaluations.
Instructional Designer / Administrators are allowed to perform all operations of any teacher.
Help desk operator This is to facilitate aid to an instructor who needs assistance.
Administrator Database admin. Can delete old course and review data.
(CONDITIONAL)

2.3 Operating Environment

OE-1: The system shall operate with the following Web browsers: Microsoft Internet
Explorer versions 6.0, Firefox 1.5, and Safari.
OE-2: The Peer Evaluation System shall run on Microsoft IIS 5.0 or higher.
OE-3: The Peer Evaluation System shall use Microsoft SQL server 2000 for data storage.

2.4 Design and Implementation Constraints

CO-1: The system shall be accessible through a web browser and an internet connection.
CO-2: The system shall interface with the current MyCourses system.
CO-3: All web presentation code shall conform to the XHTML transitional 1.0 standard.
CO-4: All code shall be written in C# for the Microsoft .NET platform.
CO-5: The client component of the system needs to be accessible on multiple platforms and
from remote locations.

2.5 User Documentation

UD-1: All end-user documentation shall be web-accessible and viewable through a web
browser.
UD-2: Campus online documentation has historically been through a Macromedia tool.
Outside the scope of this spec.

2.6 Assumptions and Dependencies

AS-1: RIT Online Learning will provide a mechanism for authentication for all users.
AS-2: Administrators and instructional designer credentials will be stored in the Peer
Evaluation system
DE-1: RIT Online Learning will provide a mechanism for accessing course and group
information provided from the MyCourses system.
DE-2: RIT Online Learning will be responsible for maintaining the application and the
application related data.

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3. System Features

3.1 Create, Review and Edit Question Templates

3.1.1 Description and Priority
An instructor can formulate a set of questions and save them as a question template.
This template may then be used to create an evaluation.
3.1.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences
Stimulus: Instructor requests to create a new template.
Response: System provides a new form in order to create a set of review questions,
and optionally, responses.
Stimulus: Instructor saves an edited template.
Response: The template is added to a list of templates available to the instructor.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to edit an existing template.
Response: The review questions are presented in an editable format. When
finished, changes may be saved or discarded.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to delete a template.
Response: The template is removed from the instructor’s list of templates.
3.1.3 Functional Requirements
Feature Requirements: Creating Templates (FR-CT)

Feature ID Feature Name Description

FR-CT1 Create Template(s) The application shall allow the instructor to create a
new template.
FR-CT2 Modify Template(s) The application shall allow the instructor to modify
an existing template (Questions/ Answers).
FR-CT3 Delete Template(s) The application shall allow the instructor to delete an
existing template.

3.2 Create, View and Modify Evaluations

3.2.1 Description and Priority
An Evaluation is created by an instructor with the intent that it will be sent out to
students at a future point in time. An evaluation consists of a set of questions, a group
type (set of groups) and a scheduled start and end time for submission.
3.2.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences
Stimulus: Instructor requests to create a new evaluation.
Response: System provides a new form in order to create review
questions/responses, select a group type, and assign a schedule.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to create a new evaluation from a template.

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Response: System provides an evaluation setup form pre-populated with a set of

question and responses from the template.
Stimulus: Instructor saves an edited evaluation.
Response: System saves the evaluation to the list of current evaluations for the
section.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to view a saved evaluation.
Response: System displays the evaluation in an editable form.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to delete an evaluation.
Response: System asks for a confirmation from the user and removes the evaluation
from the system.
3.2.3 Functional Requirements

Feature Requirements: Creating Evaluation (FR-CE)

Feature ID Feature Name Description

FR-CE1 Create New The application shall allow instructor to create new
Evaluation evaluation.
Creating an evaluation requires a instructor to
select/create questions/responses, select a group type
and a schedule.
FR-CE2 Create New The application shall allow instructor to create new
Evaluation from evaluation from template.
Template
FR-CE3 Saving an Edited The application shall allow the instructor to save the
Evaluation evaluation to the list of previously saved evaluations.
FR-CE4 Delete a Saved The application shall allow the instructor to delete a
Evaluation previously saved evaluation.
FR-CE5 Set Evaluation’s The application shall provide the instructor with an
open and close date option to set an open and close date for the
evaluation.
FR-CE6 Immediately close The application shall provide an option where the
an open Evaluation evaluation is immediately closed instead of waiting
for the closing date and time.
FR-CE7 Allow Evaluation to The application shall provide an option where the
be open evaluation is immediately open instead of waiting for
immediately the opening date and time.
FR-CE8 Allow option to The application shall close evaluations once all the
close Evaluation evaluations are submitted.
when all are
submitted

3.3 Execute Evaluations

3.3.1 Description and Priority

When the application opens an evaluation, students are able to access the evaluation.
The student will not be able to access the evaluation when it has reached the closing date
and time.

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3.3.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences

Stimulus: Student requests to access an open evaluation.

Response: System displays the evaluation associated to the student.
Stimulus: Student requests to submit a completed evaluation
Response: System asks for confirmation and saves student responses in the
database.

3.3.3 Functional Requirements

Feature Requirements: Execute Evaluations (FR-EE)

Feature ID Feature Name Description

FR-EE1 Access Evaluation The application shall not display the evaluation
before the open date, time and after its close date,
time.
FR-EE2 Submit Evaluation The application shall save the students response in
Responses before the database. Once the evaluation is submitted, the
closing time student cannot resubmit the evaluation.
FR-EE3 Submit Evaluation Only the “Open” evaluations are displayed to the
Responses after Student. All evaluations after the closing date, time
closing time are not displayed to the Student.

3.4 Review Evaluation Results

3.4.1 Description and Priority

An instructor can view the results of an evaluation once an evaluation has been closed.
Results of the students’ responses and other related information is displayed both as a
summary and in detailed as necessary for an instructor to assess the results.

3.4.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences

Stimulus: Instructor requests to view an evaluation’s overall result.

Response: System provides a table displaying summary results of all the groups’
scores as evaluated by the student.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to view an evaluation result for a particular group.
Response: System provides a table displaying summary results of all the individual’s
scores for the particular group.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to view responses given to a particular individual.
Response: System provides a table displaying all the peers’ responses giving to the
particular individual for the evaluation.

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Stimulus: Instructor requests to view an evaluation’s result for a particular

question.
Response: System provides a table displaying the results for all the groups’ scores
for the particular question.
Stimulus: Instructor requests to view a student’s rating habit for the evaluation.
Response: System provides a table displaying how the student rated the peers for
the evaluation.
Stimulus*: Instructor requests system to allow evaluation results to be viewed by
the students.
Response*: System displays the group’s results to the appropriate students.

3.4.3 Functional Requirements

Feature Requirements: Reporting (FR-R)

Feature ID Feature Name Description

FR-R1 Display general The application shall display the overall average
reporting ratings and the distribution of scores within the
summaries by group groups.

FR-R2 Highlight unusual The application shall highlight any unusual trends in
trends in results the evaluation’s results.
FR-R3* Display results by The application shall display the average ratings of
questions the groups for each question in the evaluation.
FR-R4 Display individuals’ The application shall show the average ratings for
average results each individual within the group by expanding the
within a group group list.
FR-R5 Display individuals The application shall display the peers’ ratings of a
results in detail particular individual for all the questions in the
evaluation.
FR-R6 Display peers’ The application shall display an individual’s overall
average rating for average ratings given by each peer.
an individual
FR-R7 Display an The application shall display an individual’s average
individual’s average rating for each question.
for each question
FR-R8 Display individuals’ The application shall display how an individual rated
rating habits his/her peers.
FR-R9* Display individuals’ The application shall display an individual’s
results to the evaluation results to the appropriate individual in an
students anonymous manner if the instructor chooses to make
the information available.
FR-R10 Display submission The application shall display submission status for the
status of the evaluation.
evaluation forms for
all students involved
in the project

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FR-R11 Provide sorting The application shall allow the instructor to sort the
mechanisms results by groups, individuals, and individual ratings.
FR-R12 Provide a graphical The application shall display results in a graphical
view of the results format

3.5 Administrative Access and Usage

3.5.1 Description and Priority

An administrator shall have access to all the courses offered by each instructor. An
administrator shall have the option of changing the role and acting as one of the
instructors until he pleases.

Note: Once an Administrators role is changed, he/she could always switch back to
Administrators roll by clicking a button on the admin panel. After an Administrator
changes its role as an instructor it could carry out any of the functionality that could be
carried out by any instructor (3.1, 3.2, and 3.4).

3.5.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences

Stimulus: Administrator requests to change its role and act as one of the
instructors of the application.
Response: The system changes the role of the Administrator to that of a (selected)
instructor.

3.5.3 Functional Requirements

Feature Requirements: Administrative Access and Usage (FR-AA)

Feature ID Feature Name Description

FR-AA1 Change of Role. An administrator shall have access to all the courses
offered by each instructor. An administrator shall
have the option of changing the role and acting as
one of the instructors until he pleases.

4. External Interface Requirements

4.1 User Interfaces

UI-1: User shall have the ability to access the Peer Evaluation System from many platforms
and locations without the need to install software locally.

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4.2 Hardware Interfaces

No hardware interfaces have been identified.

4.3 Software Interfaces

SI-1: MyCourses course management system
SI-1.1: The Peer Evaluation System should be accessible from MyCourses.

SI-2: LDAP authentication system

SI-2.1: The Peer Eval System shall authenticate all users through the campus LDAP
directory system.

4.4 Communications Interfaces

None.

5. Other Nonfunctional Requirements

5.1 Documentation Requirements

No documentation requirements have been identified.

5.2 Performance Requirements

No performance requirements have been identified at this time.

5.3 Safety Requirements

No safety requirements have been identified.

5.4 Security Requirements

SE-1: Students should not be able to view any personally identifiable review information
other than their own.
SE-2: All users should be authenticated before accessing the application.
SE-3: All the evaluations must be presented anonymously to all students.
SE-4: The application shall transfer/save data securely.

5.5 Software Quality Attributes

Availability-1: System shall be at least 99.95% available on weekdays (M-F) from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00
a.m. local time
Availability-2: System shall be at least 99% available on weekends from 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. local
time.

Appendix A: Data Dictionary and Data Model

Term Description

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Software Requirements Specification for RIT Peer Evaluation System Page 13

Evaluation Set of questions created by a faculty member to be send out to class

groups.
Group Type Defines a particular group set that an instructor may create for a
particular section. A section may have many group types, which
may consist the same or a different set of groups.
Section An instance of a course
Template A templates would consist of questions, and their answer options
MyCourses A course management system.
Open Evaluation When an evaluation is created by an Instructor an open date, time is
selected by the instructor. This evaluation is available to all the
groups once that date, time is reached.
Closed Evaluation When an evaluation is created by an Instructor an close date, time is
selected by the instructor. This evaluation is made unavailable to all
the groups once this time is reached.

All features marked as * are low priority features and will be addressed at the end.

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Appendix B: Data Model

Figure 1
Complete data model for release 1.0 of the Peer Evaluation System.

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Appendix C: Analysis Model (Instructor)

Figure 2
Analysis model for an Instructor.

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Appendix D: Analysis Model (Student)

Figure 3
Analysis model for a Student. .

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