Performance Requirements

3.1 The system shall have an estimated max number of 50 simultaneous users, but the limit is ultimately dependent upon the capabilities of the server used to host the system.

3.2 A normal workload is estimated to be 1 or 2 simultaneous users.

3.3 The database shall be accessed a number of M∙N times, where M can be considered the number of passages for the tester to read and N the number of associated questions.

3.3.1 Under normal conditions there shall be an estimate of 2 passages read and 10 associated questions for each passage.

3.4 The maximum access time for each passage and question should not exceed 10 seconds, but this is dependent upon the user’s internet connection.

3.5 All data handled by the system shall be in the form of integers, real numbers, characters, strings, and text. Retrieving these elements from the database and processing them to achieve an output should not delay the user when taking the reading assessment.

Logical Database Requirements

4.1 The system shall access a database containing data relating to each reading assessment.

4.2 The database shall consist of two tables. One table shall be used to store data with reference to the reading passages. The other table shall be used to store data with reference to the questions and answers.

4.3 The two tables shall exhibit a 1 to N relationship, where for every one passage there shall be N associated questions.

4.4 The “passages” table shall consist of the following data:

Passage ID (stored as an integer)

Filename (stored as a local file system path, or web address)

Passage name (stored as a string)

FOG Index (stored as a real number)

Mean reading time of testers’ (stored as a real number)

Mean number of correct answers the testers answered (stored as a real number)

Standard deviation of (the testers’) reading time (stored as a real number)

Standard deviation of the number of questions the testers’ answered correctly (stored as a real number)

Number of words in the passage (stored as an integer)

Number of sentences in the passage (stored as an integer)

The filename (web address/local file system path) is used as a reference to the actual text of the passage, since databases have a set limit of characters for` storing each data element; it is probably a better practice to simply provide an address to where the text is saved.

4.4.1 The Passage ID shall serve as the primary key for the “passages” table.

4.5 The “questions” table shall consist of the following data:

Passage ID (stored as an integer)

Question number (stored as an integer)

Question (stored as text)

Four Answers (stored as text)

Correct answer (stored as text)

4.5.1 The Passage ID and Question number data elements shall serve as a primary key for this table.

4.5.1.1 The passage ID in the “questions” table shall be used as a foreign key into the “passages” table.

The following is a diagram of the tables and their relationships:

4.6 The database shall not be updated with new data, but shall only be accessed for statistical analysis and reference. In other words, each tester’s data shall not affect the mean and standard deviation of the passage. An administrator shall be the only one able to change/update these fields.