1.1. Problem Statement

The general problems to be addressed by the Grader are the following:

to provide a comprehensive tool to allow professors to easily manage student grades
to provide a reliable and coherent tool with which students can view their grades throughout the grading period
to provide both students and professors with the ability to pose "What If" questions regarding grading assignments and the outcome of a student's overall grade
to provide the teacher with the ability to interface with the Cal Poly SIS in both directions
to provide a centralized host for grades in which instructors can post grades for students to view

Although these problems have been addressed in various other commercially available and public domain projects, the Grader tool provides additional features to address problems which alternative tools lack. Specifically addressing:

graphical visuals of grade statistics
easy adjustment of the grading curve through visuals
providing support for a wide range of grading techniques

The Grader tool project is designed for a particular customer, requiring a wide range of features not yet available in any single existing tool. The Grader tool will fill this gap by providing all desired features and functionality in a single easy to use tool.

In addition, the development of functioning software, the Grader tool project focuses on two additional problems not addressed in commercial tools:

to provide a pedagogical example for use in the instruction of software engineering, including an example of the practical application of formal methods
to provide fully documented, public domain source code for use by others

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