A coursework assignment worth 100%
Milestone 1 - report on available standards and best practice (35%) which will assess Learning Outcome 1
Milestone 2 - report on standardsand practice in use (35%) which will assess Learning Outcome 2
Milestone 3 - report recommending changes in workplace practice (30%) which will assess Learning Outcomes 3 and 4

- This work based learning module covers the relevant industrial standards and codes of conduct for best practice in the student's workplace. Examples of such standardsinclude those produced by the British Computer Society, to which the students would be introduced in formal taught sessions.
- The indicative content is specific to the individual student, and is related to the student's workplace and duties. Possible topis may include (not an exhaustive list)
- Benchmarking
- ISO, BSI, IEEE standards relevant to IT workplaces
- Best Practice in:-
- Programme deign and coding
- Web design and web construction
- Network design, implementation and support
- Helpdesk operation
- Desktop support
- Server support
- Hardware and Software installation and support
- Applications Development

A small number of introductory lectures (2-3) introducing available standards, codes of conduct and best practice in selected professional areas. Regular meetings will take place with a designated memeber of teaching staff who will advise the student and monitor his/her progress.

Self directed study.

Workplace based learning.

Bott F et Al (2001), Professional Issues in Software Engineering (3rd edn), Taylor and Francis, ISBN: 0748409513 London and New York
British Computer Society code of conduct and code of good practice.

None

British Standards Online libraries accessible to all Staffordshire University students through SU Information Services website:
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/uniservices/infoservices/library/online/lisata.php

ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications - Network Research Links and Standards (ANSI)
British Computer Society (BCS) - Best Practice Page
Free Standards Group - Open Source Software Development
IFLANET - Internet and Networking: Standards and Organisations
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards
Internet Engineering Task Force
Microsoft - Programming Standards: What are they and why should you follow them?
Software Requirements Definitions Standards
Unified Modelling Language (UML) Resource Page
University of Minnesota - Web Accessibility Standards
Usernomics - Human Factors and Ergonomic Standards
Web Accessibility Initiative (On the W3 site)
WEBAIM - Web Accessibility
World Wide Web Consortium (W3)