Software
- Astah Community
- This cross platform UML CASE Tool was extremely useful during the initial designs of each iteration of the project to create Use Case diagrams and Class Diagrams. There are a few UML CASE tools that could have been used such as Argo UML or Star UML, however due to its ease of use I settled upon Astah.
- Netbeans IDE
- This integrated development environment used to write the java code for the project includes add-ins such as JavaDoc comment generation, the Maven build suite and JUnit for unit testing the software.
- Synalyse It!
- This Hex editor was used to decrypt the queue.dat file; it was extremely useful due to the ability to create "Grammars" which enables you to define the structure of the file that can then be used to view its contents.
- Scrivener
- This application is what was used to write the main report. It allows for the attachment of Meta data to different sections of the report to enable me to organise the project effectively.
- Microsoft Word
- This was used to generate the final draft of the project as scrivener is not the best for presentation, it also aids in the creation of the table of contents.
- BibDesk
- This tool referencing tool helped to organise references for the project, it is able to integrate with scrivener making it all the more useful.
- OpenProj
- Project management tool to plan the different stages of the project, it is similar to Microsoft project but is also cross platform and open source.
Hardware
- Apple MacBook Pro
- The main development machine used to write code and documentation for the project.
- Dell XPS m1730
- Test machine, to get test data for windows GPU and CPU clients. This machine will also be used to get test data for Linux CPU clients.
Summary
The project is relevant to Software engineering as it requires reverse engineering an existing system and studying it in depth, expanding on it in a modular and object orientated way. I have focused upon Java programming during all years at university and will find the knowledge learned in the Software Design module last year invaluable to design the program in such a way to make it easily maintainable. The project will also follow conventional Software Engineering practices from conception to completion.
