Introduction

Both the year 13 and year 12 assessments are the same except for project management techniques.

Year 12 Advanced Project Management Tools are found here.
Year 13 Complex Project Management Techniques are found here.

Everything else is the same between them. You will be required to:
● ​decomposing the outcome into smaller components
● trialling the components of the digital technologies outcome
● testing that the digital technologies outcome functions as intended

Merit
● trialling multiple components and/or techniques and selecting those which are most suitable 

Please note there are other requirements needed for Achieved, Merit and Excellence, such as relevant implications.
This page is to introduce new concepts and ideas from the assessments to you.

Decomposition of the outcome

As one of the tasks you are to complete is to decompose your big outcome into a series of smaller components.

For example if you were to make a flappy bird game here is a list of tasks you could break it down into:
  • Bird assets
  • Pipe assets
  • Background assets
  • Sound FX
  • Bird Animation
  • Program Mechanics of lift
  • Game mechanics
  • GUI
There is no limit to how many components you should have, but your big project should be broken down into at least 6 components.

Trialing Multiple components

For a Merit grade this is where you would start trialing different components.

For example continuing the flappy bird theme, you may want to try create 3 different versions of the flappy bird.

After you do this you will justify and select one of them

The example on the right is what I would expect to see.

I expect to see you do this at least three times

I would expect you to get feedback from potential end users.

​Keep in mind it might not be the actual art asset but rather the programming technique you are going to use for gravity etc.

Trialing the components

One of the other features we need to do in order to pass this assessment is trial individual components of the outcome.

You could do this for example after you have selected a component.

​You will need to seek feedback from potential end users (can be family) to improve your outcome.

For example you may design a pipe for flappy bird. Then someone could suggest a different colour palette or to put a reflection on it.

Important: You will need quality feedback. If you get feedback like "It is good" or "Terrible" this will not help you pass the assessment or improve.

Look for critical feedback things you can change: "The colours are too dull" "It looks uneven", Try to get your person giving you feedback to give you a why. If it is excellent feedback they will also give you a how.

Testing the outcome

In order to get an achieved grade you will have to do some final testing.

I would recommend getting some testers in, in order to test some of these components.

The following is a break down of what to do for each area of testing:

Spelling and Grammar Errors: Check for spelling and grammar errors in the game and the asset file names themselves.

Credits: Where you have downloaded others assets have you referenced them or at least ensured that you don't have to reference them.

Audio/Code problems: Are there audio or coding issues, try to see if you can get someone to break the game.

Understandable: Are the instructions for the game understandable, get about 3-5 people to test the game to see if they know what they are doing. Try to get people with little gaming/computer experience.

Aesthetics: This is not a test for the game looking good, but rather can I look at the screen without being confused because of the aesthetics. I.e. Using a similar colour font and background.

Culturally/Socially Appropriate: Is the game appropriate for the target audience? A diverse group of people is best for this test.