Clarification details
Updated December 2019. This clarification has been updated to address issues that have arisen from moderation.
The development could include any digital technology outcome. This includes data management, digital media, programming, electronics and computer systems.
The outcome should address a need, problem, opportunity or an interest.
Students need to describe the relevant implications as appropriate to the digital outcome. For example, they might describe what functionality and usability are, in relation to their selected outcome. This will provide the student with an opportunity to inform the development of their digital outcome. There is a dedicated clarification that expands on what is meant by relevant implications.
Students must present a plan for their outcome. Different sorts of digital outcomes will require different sorts of plans. Here ‘plan’ does not refer to a plan of action or project management for their project. For example, a program might require pseudocode showing the algorithmic structure, and a website might require a wireframe showing the structure and layout of the web pages.
For this standard, students are required to decompose the outcome into components, and to trial the components in an iterative manner. Different sorts of digital outcomes will have different sorts of components. The cycle of trialling will typically work like this: a component is built; it is trialled to ensure that it works; the trialling suggests improvements; an improved component is built. The cycle can then restart.
In this context, trialling is about gathering information to inform decision making. Testing is about confirming decisions.
For Merit, the student should trial multiple components and/or techniques and select the most suitable. This means that the student should trial different ways to solve the same sub-problem and select the best. Merit does not simply require trialling more components than is required for Achieved. The student will need to show how the digital outcome has addressed the relevant implications described earlier.
For Excellence, evidence needs to show how students have applied the information from the planning, testing and trialling of the components to develop a high-quality outcome.