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CEN 4010: Principles of Software Engineering

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Assignment: Web App for Personal Household Inventory

So you are trying to find information on doing a personal property inventory, like prior to a hurricane, for this project. What are some questions you need to ask?

  • Broadly, what will your application do? Think of questions about what you need or want your app to do before you start your search.
    • How would you describe the function your app will perform? What words would you use to search for something like this? How will your app perform that function?
  • What kind of information would need to be included in the inventory?
    • What tools would the person performing the inventory need (and would you supply them in your application)?
    • Will you supply a list of typical terms to check off (e.g., 2 beds, diamond necklace), and/or leave blanks for itemization of specific property with greater detail?
  • Where should you search for applications for inventories that others have created to see what you might use (but not duplicate)?
    • Remember the databases I shared? Let's start with some of them

Remember the Search Strategy I showed you in the video? I tried multiple searches and am still trying to find the best search words. I tested out my search words by trying actual searches in FAU's OneSearch (libraries' home page), a few databases, a Google search, and a Google Scholar search. Each of these searches helped me find additional search words that I could try. Here's are some of the words I tried.

( "household property inventory" OR "personal property inventory" OR "personal belongings inventory" ) AND management AND application

This sequence of search terms forced the computer to look for similar terms at the same time (using "OR" between them), and using quotation marks around phrases forced the computer to look for those words as phrases. Using "AND" forced the computer to find any of the phrases in the first group of items (separated by "OR") but also find two other terms (each of those terms is preceded by "AND").

Try your own searches! Call or email me if you want to get together to talk about your search strategy and search words. I'm here to help!

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Last updated on Mar 4, 2025 9:58 AM - Guide Creator(s)