1.1. Problem Statement

The general problems to be addressed by the Test Tool project are the following:

  1. to provide a reliable and easy to use software tool that allows a teacher to generate tests of a specified time length

  2. to allow students to take tests on a computer, either at home or on campus

  3. to allow teachers to efficiently grade tests, adjust tests, and adjust grades

  4. to support multiple ways to test students, including multiple chice, fill in the blank, true/false, short answer, long answer, and code
While some of these problems have been addressed by existing products, none of the products out there address all of the problems. Specific problem areas include:

  1. generating tests based on a certain time length

  2. integration with existing IDE's for coding problems

  3. support for all the question types mentioned above
The Test Tool project addresses the requirements of a particular customer. This customer needs a tool with a collection of features not available in any single existing tool. This aspect of the problem is one of combining a set of existing features in a way that the features have yet to be combined in another product.

In addition, the development of function software, the Test Tool project focuses on two additional problems not addressed in commercial tools:

  1. to provide a pedagogical example for use in the instruction of software engineering, including an example of the practical application of formal methods

  2. to provide fully documented, public domain source code for use by others




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