Practising analysis and design with a professional CASE tool

Having had a variety of CASE tools installed for several years, it was decided that the time had come to actually use one of the tools to form the basic teaching environment for two Information Systems (IS) modules. These were for two courses, the BA (Hons) Information Systems and the BSc (Hons) Computer Studies. Altogether there were about 240 students on the full-time courses and 60 on the part-time course. Although various people had used the CASE tool in various ways, this was the first time that it had formed the basis for all practical work. The tool was installed in specialist teaching laboratories in the IS department initially running from a single file server. The laboratory classes were designed by three lecturers, and the classes were supported by a number of demonstrators. Almost everyone had participated in a training session with the tool vendor lasting for three days. The laboratory classes were supported by a lecture programme although the lectures covered much more than just the CASE tool. In most respects, the lecture programme followed a fairly standard Systems Analysis and Design study. The paper outlines the approach adopted for the laboratory work, and illustrates some of the pitfalls open to the unwary. Whether the students learned quite as much from the exercise as did the academic staff remains to be seen.