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Standard:
Modify an existing program to add additional functionality and discuss intended and unintended implications.

Descriptive Statement:
Modularity and code reuse is key in modern software. However, when code is modified, the programmer should consider relevant situations in which this code might be used in other places. Students create and document modifications to existing programs that enhance functionality, and then identify, document, and correct unintended consequences. For example, students could take an existing a procedure that calculates the average of a set of numbers and returns an integer (which lacks precision) and modify it to return a floating-point number instead. The student would explain how the change might impact multiple scenarios.

Standard:
Evaluate key qualities of a program through a process such as a code review.

Descriptive Statement:
Code reviews are a common software industry practice and valuable for developing technical communication skills. Key qualities of code include correctness, usability, readability, efficiency, and scalability. Students walk through code they created and explain how it works. Additionally, they follow along when someone else is explaining their code and ask appropriate questions. For example, students could present their code to a group or visually inspect code in pairs. Alternatively, in response to another student's presentation, students could provide feedback including comments on correctness of the code, comments on how code interacts with code that calls it, and design and documentation features.

Standard:
Use version control systems, integrated development environments (IDEs), and collaborative tools and practices (e.g., code documentation) while developing software within a group.

Descriptive Statement:
Software development is a process that benefits from the use of tools that manage complexity, iterative development, and collaboration. Large or complex software projects often require contributions from multiple developers. Version control systems and other collaborative tools and practices help coordinate the process and products contributed by individuals on a development team. An integrated development environment (IDE) is a program within which a developer implements, compiles or interprets, tests, debugs, and deploys a software project. Students use common software development and documentation support tools in the context of a group software development project. At this level, facility with the full functionality available in the collaborative tools is not expected. For example, students could use common version control systems to modify and improve code or revert to a previous code version. Alternatively, students could use appropriate IDEs to support more efficient code design and development. Additionally, students could use various collaboration, communication, and code documentation tools designed to support groups engaging in complex and interrelated work.

Standard:
Compare multiple programming languages, and discuss how their features make them suitable for solving different types of problems.

Descriptive Statement:
Particular problems may be more effectively solved using some programming languages than other programming languages. Students provide a rationale for why a specific programming language is better suited for a solving a particular class of problem. For example, students could explain how a language with a large library base can make developing a web application easier. Alternatively, students could explain how languages that support particular programming paradigms (e.g., object-oriented or functional) can make implementation more aligned with design choices. Additionally, students could discuss how languages that implement garbage collection are good for simplicity of memory management, but may result in poor performance characteristics.

Standard:
Develop solutions to security threats.

Descriptive Statement:
Designing and implementing cybersecurity measures requires knowledge of software, hardware, and human components and understanding tradeoffs. Students design solutions to security threats and compare tradeoffs of easier access and use against the costs of losing information and disrupting services. For example, students could refine a technology that allows users to use blank or weak passwords. Alternatively, students could implement a firewall or proxy protection between an organization's private local area network (LAN) and the public Internet. Additionally, students could find and close exploitable threats on an infected computer in order to protect information.

Standard:
Analyze cryptographic techniques to model the secure transmission of information.

Descriptive Statement:
Cryptography is essential to many models of cybersecurity. Open standards help to ensure cryptographic security. Certificate Authorities (CAs) issue digital certificates that validate the ownership of encrypted keys used in secured communications across the Internet. Students encode and decode messages using encryption and decryption methods, and they should understand the different levels of complexity to hide or secure information. For example, students could analyze the relative designs of private key vs. public key encryption techniques and apply the best choice for a particular scenario. Alternatively, students could analyze the design of the Diffie-Helman algorithm to RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) and apply the best choice for a particular scenario. They could provide a cost-benefit analysis of runtime and ease of cracking for various encryption techniques which are commonly used to secure transmission of data over the Internet.