CHALLENGE PROBLEM: ANALYSIS OF A SIMULATION

This challenge problem is a start at developing a large-scale simulation project, although you are not committed to continuing to develop the particular project idea you explore here.

PART 1: CHOOSE A SIMULATION DOMAIN

Choose a system to simulate for your semester project. This could be one of the ideas we developed in class, or something new (and you can still change it after this stage). Here are some guidelines to choosing a good simulation domain:

• The system should include several kinds of components that interact with each other. There should also be some interaction with the human user of the program to direct the course of the simulation.
• Some of the components should be variants of a basic category. For example, a traffic simulation could include several type of vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, emergency vehicles), which each behave in different though related ways.
• Choose a domain where you already know enough details about how it works that you can imagine writing the required algorithms, at least in broad strokes. For example, don't choose to simulate planets orbiting a sun unless you already know how to do the required physics.
• The notion of a simulation is broad enough to include most games (although some games are not complex enough to be interesting simulations). Another potential source of ideas is to simulate a business, such as a bank, a factory, or a store.
• The expectations for the semester project will be based on the functional core of the simulation; you may choose to put additional effort into creating a fancy user interface or embellishing the level of detail of the simulation, but I will not penalize you for not doing so.

Write a few sentences describing your domain and the intended scope of the project.

PART 2: DEVELOP USE CASES

For this assignment, develop 3 use cases describing interaction between a user and the simulation. Follow these guidelines when developing your use cases:

• Your use cases should include detail on each action taken by the user (ex. entering an address into a text field), any actions taken by the software (ex. executing a robot's move instruction), and any information relayed by the software to the user (ex. a prompt or a confirmation message).
• Your use cases should describe different tasks with different goals for the user (and perhaps involve different kinds of user). Avoid writing simple variations of the same task.
• Give each use case a concise name, and number each step.
• Include one or more variations for each use case which outline how the user and the system interact to recover from an error.

SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

Submit your work here on Moodle as a text or word file containing your domain description and use cases.