For the 2nd question in this assessment:
Which of the following best describes the purpose of a design specification?
A. Tracking errors that arise through user testing
B. Documenting comments that will need to be added to a program
C. Describing the requirements for how a program will work or users will interact with it
D. Listing detailed questions that will be asked of users during interviews
The word “PURPOSE” may be associated with the purpose of the app. Since we are trying to get Ss to know the difference between PURPOSE and FUNCTION, as soon as they see “purpose” in the question, they may get some preconceived thoughts.
Instead of using the word "purpose", it might be better to use the word “intent”
Hmm… well i do see where your coming from @mathisd3 but the more i look at it, i don’t think intent would be the best word choice for this question let me see if i can phrase this into words more accurately by giving such context
Context Example
“Tim Horton patented his new ice cream brand, what is the purpose of patenting such a recipe?”
in this sentence we see that purpose is asking for the meaning as to why it was done, while as intent is related to a persons feelings and or personal circumstances as to why Tim Horton wanted to patent his ice cream as to why a patent to stop blatant copying of his newly formed brand
Now even though the two of these diction’s can be used interchangeably considering the nature of a question should not include a case where a person answering could argue that in a case of intent multiple answers could be right especially if it’s multiple choice because it’s simply not fair.
now let’s take a look at the question using your example:
Which of the following best describes the purpose of a design specification?
A. Tracking errors that arise through user testing
B. Documenting comments that will need to be added to a program
C. Describing the requirements for how a program will work or users will interact with it
D. Listing detailed questions that will be asked of users during interviews
Though I don’t have much context besides the question here if intent was used here i could argue that the user used this design specification for all of these answers in which i think intent would be much more unfair than purpose because it’s asking the student to think about the programmer vs as to why they’d implement this measure themselves. which is what I think this question is getting at
Though anyone is more than welcome to disagree with me I look forward to any future contributions on the matter
Best: Varrience
Hi @mathisd3 ,
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Thank you!
–Michael K.