Completed D480 Software Design and Quality Assurance in One Week - Tips and Experience

Core Development Concepts
1

Just finished this course and wanted to share some advice that helped me get through it quickly.

First, I found some really helpful discussion threads online from other students who passed. The key thing that helped me was watching the course videos about functional requirements versus non-functional requirements. There was also good content about what should be in-scope versus out-of-scope for projects. I think one of the videos was from LinkedIn learning. You can also use AI tools to help clarify these concepts if they seem confusing.

Honestly, this was one of the more challenging writing assignments I have done. I felt like I was just copying information from earlier sections instead of really learning the material. There seemed to be some disconnect between one of the task requirements and what the rubric was asking for. My final submission was around 3000 words total.

My biggest tip is to use the exact language from the rubric in your responses. For example, if you are describing scope limitations, start with phrases like “The out-of-scope elements include…” and match that formal structure throughout.

This was definitely more frustrating than the UI/UX course I took before. The worst part was having to write summary sections for content I had already explained. But I am glad to have it behind me now.

2

Wow, 3000 words sounds brutal! Quick question - when you hit that disconnect between what the task wanted and what the rubric said, did you just follow the rubric instead? Did the course mentors actually help clear up the confusion, or did you end up winging it?

3

You’re absolutely right about rubric alignment - it’s everything. I learned this the hard way when I wrote my first draft too casually and had to redo the whole thing in academic speak. Game changer for me was outlining first and mapping each rubric point to specific sections before writing a word. The functional vs non-functional requirements thing finally clicked when I worked through real examples instead of just memorizing definitions. I spent way more time on scope sections since they seemed heavily weighted. Yeah, some sections get repetitive and tedious, but I mixed up the wording and switched perspectives so I wasn’t just copying myself.

4

Congrats on finishing! I’m starting next week and pretty nervous about the writing parts. Did you follow any templates or just figure out the structure as you went? Also, are those LinkedIn Learning videos required or just extra? Trying to plan out how much time I’ll need.