Today we had a new meeting with our clients, proposing our ideas for the People / Project finder. The meeting went relatively well, with the single side-effect that most features that were discussed during the meeting were nothing more than an endless stream of gold plating, with very little focus on the core features. However, we did learn quite a bit about the things to expect from the clients and the types of activities they would like to extend the project to.
Currently, the system is planned as a pseudo social networking site, geared around projects and people, with the ability to list personal interests, coursework, previous positions / projects,and skills. Projects are able to have specified skillsets they need, the domains they cover, the people they have, a list of resources and links to those resources, description, images, etc. However, as of last meeting, there has been a push to move this more into the project management spectrum of tools, which could be both a plus and a minus.
This Thursday, we are going to need to work on fleshing out the new features and requirements, as well as placing them on a spectrum between the standard idea of meeting place / social network and full project management system. This will require some debate and testing. Also, we will finally begin the planning for the schedule for this sprint, followed by definitions of what we hope to accomplish by the milestone date of Week 8 (July 22).
Hence, what we should be focusing on is as follows:
1. Listing out the features and requirements.
2. Placing the features and requirements on the required spectrum.
3. Determining the schedule for the milestone date of July 22.
4. Begin designing the fundamental architecture for the system.
5. Develop some prototypes of what the features should look like and how they should be presented.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
CSI Senior Project - June 16, 2009
Today we met with our clients in a pseudo-"focus group", with four people they invited and one we invited. Personally, I felt we should have stayed closer to focus group format, as the overall meeting came across as very rude to our guests (the non-client attendees). However, I was not in control of that final decision.
Otherwise, the meeting went very well. We were able to show off the prototype we developed over the past few days, showing our clients that the functionality they were pressing hard on was majorly just basic website structure and code. Hence, we were able to gain allot of confidence from our clients, which should allow us to regulate features and design much more now. We have since planned to have a proposal for our next meeting describing the People and Project finder for the project, which will be a key aspect of the functionality for end users.
Aside, we divided tasks for the setup of the team server, accounts, version control, and the like. I have set up the Trac server with Agilo for SCRUM, and Matthew has setup version control. I will be working on getting our previous "mini-sprint" into the system and starting to record milestones we need / have available.
Otherwise, the meeting went very well. We were able to show off the prototype we developed over the past few days, showing our clients that the functionality they were pressing hard on was majorly just basic website structure and code. Hence, we were able to gain allot of confidence from our clients, which should allow us to regulate features and design much more now. We have since planned to have a proposal for our next meeting describing the People and Project finder for the project, which will be a key aspect of the functionality for end users.
Aside, we divided tasks for the setup of the team server, accounts, version control, and the like. I have set up the Trac server with Agilo for SCRUM, and Matthew has setup version control. I will be working on getting our previous "mini-sprint" into the system and starting to record milestones we need / have available.
Monday, June 15, 2009
CSI Senior Project - June 9, 2009
For senior project today we had our second meeting with our clients. During this meeting, there was some tension between the senior project team and the clients, due to some assumptions we had made about what needed the most development time versus what could be implemented rather easily.
The clients found our assessment to not be a complete assessment, telling us that the majority of the functionality of the site was overlooked. However, we attempted to clarify this by telling them that the functionality they wanted for the other parts of the site was "very functionally important, but also trivial to develop". This was not taken very well and led to the clients challenging us to develop a prototype that incorporated that functionality. To this, we accepted the challenge and have begun making plans to accomplish the prototype by our next client meeting so that we can have a focus group on the software and product.
One of the major issues we found, that also came up with our adviser, was a misunderstanding about the role of the development process and what software engineering senior projects usually take on. The product description revision for this current iteration of the project has moved the product to being a website through which multiple services are referenced, allowing for a central hub to access these services. This approaches a Services Oriented Architecture, but most of the services (and hopefully not all) can be delivered by pre-existing products, such as Google Calendar, Blogger, Wordpress, existing inventory management systems, etc.
Because of this, while we are working on the prototype, we are focusing on trying to still gather the requirements necessary to design and implement a robust project / people aggregation system, which allows associations between multiple projects and people, with the eventual use of this to be used to post and present projects, find people with similar project interests who meet certain attributes or required skills, and then eventually help with distributing those across multiple types of displays and access points, including but not limited to Websites, Wall Projected Displays, Touch Displays, etc.
The clients found our assessment to not be a complete assessment, telling us that the majority of the functionality of the site was overlooked. However, we attempted to clarify this by telling them that the functionality they wanted for the other parts of the site was "very functionally important, but also trivial to develop". This was not taken very well and led to the clients challenging us to develop a prototype that incorporated that functionality. To this, we accepted the challenge and have begun making plans to accomplish the prototype by our next client meeting so that we can have a focus group on the software and product.
One of the major issues we found, that also came up with our adviser, was a misunderstanding about the role of the development process and what software engineering senior projects usually take on. The product description revision for this current iteration of the project has moved the product to being a website through which multiple services are referenced, allowing for a central hub to access these services. This approaches a Services Oriented Architecture, but most of the services (and hopefully not all) can be delivered by pre-existing products, such as Google Calendar, Blogger, Wordpress, existing inventory management systems, etc.
Because of this, while we are working on the prototype, we are focusing on trying to still gather the requirements necessary to design and implement a robust project / people aggregation system, which allows associations between multiple projects and people, with the eventual use of this to be used to post and present projects, find people with similar project interests who meet certain attributes or required skills, and then eventually help with distributing those across multiple types of displays and access points, including but not limited to Websites, Wall Projected Displays, Touch Displays, etc.
CSI Senior Project - June 4, 2009
Today we met to go over the scope of the project and to help try and narrow the project ideas down. Overall, I feel the meeting was very productive.
For the meeting, we decided to take their original diagrams and limit the diagrams to what actually needed to be implemented in software. Basically, we are going to be implementing the project / people management and access interfaces to a database of related people and objects, allowing us to use these interfaces as portals for other tools and sites to access the information about the people and projects.
We find that the projects / people center is the most obvious part of the project needing software engineering and development, with the rest of the project being doable as either a series of services or portals to other software that interacts with the people / project system, and are provided by the CSI.
For the meeting, we decided to take their original diagrams and limit the diagrams to what actually needed to be implemented in software. Basically, we are going to be implementing the project / people management and access interfaces to a database of related people and objects, allowing us to use these interfaces as portals for other tools and sites to access the information about the people and projects.
We find that the projects / people center is the most obvious part of the project needing software engineering and development, with the rest of the project being doable as either a series of services or portals to other software that interacts with the people / project system, and are provided by the CSI.
Friday, June 12, 2009
CSI Senior Project - June 2, 2009
Today we held our kickoff meeting for senior project and met our sponsor and "assumedly" his assistant, John Schull and Xanthe.
John Schull is the project sponsor and director for the CSI collaboration project. Xanthe is an industrial designer who specializes in artistic design and the like.
Based on speaking with them today, the project that they want is gigantic in proportions. The project appears to be a web-based project that should incorporate a Facebook like people / project system which allows for people and projects to have pages and profiles, allowing for them to be found and associated with one another. To be clear, it's basically Facebook with groups as projects and people as people, with some special statistics. However, this little system has to be capable of linking to almost everything in the rest of the system.
A short list of how this works is:
- A media library / database that links with the library's media database
- A tool / resource database and directory that allows for the tracking, finding, and checking in / out of tools and the like.
- An interface for doing in depth UI designs, such as touch screens, multi-wall displays, etc.
- The ability to incorporate systems such as Google Calendar, Blogger, Gmail, Chat, etc into the system.
To make a longer list shorter, the scope is gigantic and is not completely possible for 20 weeks of work, especially with the number of documents and design we need. Hence, we're probably going to narrow the scope to doing the primary aspect of the project, focusing on the people / project finding / storing / associating part of the system, seeing as it has its hands in everything.
John Schull is the project sponsor and director for the CSI collaboration project. Xanthe is an industrial designer who specializes in artistic design and the like.
Based on speaking with them today, the project that they want is gigantic in proportions. The project appears to be a web-based project that should incorporate a Facebook like people / project system which allows for people and projects to have pages and profiles, allowing for them to be found and associated with one another. To be clear, it's basically Facebook with groups as projects and people as people, with some special statistics. However, this little system has to be capable of linking to almost everything in the rest of the system.
A short list of how this works is:
- A media library / database that links with the library's media database
- A tool / resource database and directory that allows for the tracking, finding, and checking in / out of tools and the like.
- An interface for doing in depth UI designs, such as touch screens, multi-wall displays, etc.
- The ability to incorporate systems such as Google Calendar, Blogger, Gmail, Chat, etc into the system.
To make a longer list shorter, the scope is gigantic and is not completely possible for 20 weeks of work, especially with the number of documents and design we need. Hence, we're probably going to narrow the scope to doing the primary aspect of the project, focusing on the people / project finding / storing / associating part of the system, seeing as it has its hands in everything.
Project ACE Work Log - June 11, 2009
Today I worked with Faradjine on testing all of the untested sensors for the infrared and ultrasonic sensors. I found two more deffective sensors during our test beforewe moved on to the ultrasonic sensor. The infrared test took about 0.75 hours to complete.
For testing the ultrasonic sensor, we had some issues because the sensor readings heavily depended on objects nearby (such as walls, types of walls, whether on a tabletop or not, etc). Hence, we decided based on this to solely do testing on the floor while noting the effects of some testing on tabletops, near walls, etc. This required a little bit of extra effort, but all of the testing was done on our subset for now, finding some good values to gain basic sensor effect knowledge from. We still need to complete the ultrasonic sensor sweep and verify whether they all work around the same median or not. This took the rest of the day, requiring around 3.25 hours to complete while I was here, followed by the extra time Faradjine used to finish testing the rest of the objects.
Aside, I proofread some changes to the writeups that Faradjine did and made a few extra minor comments and format changes. This took all of 0.5 hours (probably a little less to be honest).
For tomorrow, seeing as I will only be there a short period of time, I plan on looking over the sensor data collected, verifying any document changes that have been done, and then working on designing the layout for the compass sensor test with Faradjine, in all of 2 hours, hopefully.
For testing the ultrasonic sensor, we had some issues because the sensor readings heavily depended on objects nearby (such as walls, types of walls, whether on a tabletop or not, etc). Hence, we decided based on this to solely do testing on the floor while noting the effects of some testing on tabletops, near walls, etc. This required a little bit of extra effort, but all of the testing was done on our subset for now, finding some good values to gain basic sensor effect knowledge from. We still need to complete the ultrasonic sensor sweep and verify whether they all work around the same median or not. This took the rest of the day, requiring around 3.25 hours to complete while I was here, followed by the extra time Faradjine used to finish testing the rest of the objects.
Aside, I proofread some changes to the writeups that Faradjine did and made a few extra minor comments and format changes. This took all of 0.5 hours (probably a little less to be honest).
For tomorrow, seeing as I will only be there a short period of time, I plan on looking over the sensor data collected, verifying any document changes that have been done, and then working on designing the layout for the compass sensor test with Faradjine, in all of 2 hours, hopefully.
Project ACE Work Log - June 8, 2009
Today I worked on doing formalized write-ups for the sensors, with my focus on doing the Light Sensor.
To do this task, I first devised a document template for Sensor write-ups, which took around .75 hours to complete based on the different data required. I found this necessary and useful, as it would help to formalize the structure of such write-ups for the future. It can be updated as necessary to fit with the requirements of writing up about the caveats, qualitative and quantitative data acquired during tests, and other nuances including best practices and ideas for using the sensor. Aside, I also created the basic directory structure for the sensor write-ups, committing these and the current versions of documents to the repository.
Afterward, I began working on the Light Sensor write-up document. I worked on this for the remainder of the day (not counting the morning meeting, the other 4.25 hours of my work day). I worked specifically on writing up the testing results and placing the data, exported from a Google doc, into an Excel spreadsheet. I also worked on finding and referencing the resources we used for determining support for the sensor and finding the different expected ranges and values available.
Lastly, during my period of working on the document, I worked with Faradjine on the model for the testing harness we used for testing the sensors using LEGO Digital Designer.
We will probably follow a similar process for the rest of the sensor information.
As for my plans tomorrow, I plan on finishing the Light Sensor write-up and working with Faradjine to look over and proofread it before submitting it for review. Providing I finish this before the end of work (more than likely), we will split up who will work on the next document, while the other will more than likely work on inventory and tracking the defected vs. correctly working sensors, placing these into a separate inventory spreadsheet.
To do this task, I first devised a document template for Sensor write-ups, which took around .75 hours to complete based on the different data required. I found this necessary and useful, as it would help to formalize the structure of such write-ups for the future. It can be updated as necessary to fit with the requirements of writing up about the caveats, qualitative and quantitative data acquired during tests, and other nuances including best practices and ideas for using the sensor. Aside, I also created the basic directory structure for the sensor write-ups, committing these and the current versions of documents to the repository.
Afterward, I began working on the Light Sensor write-up document. I worked on this for the remainder of the day (not counting the morning meeting, the other 4.25 hours of my work day). I worked specifically on writing up the testing results and placing the data, exported from a Google doc, into an Excel spreadsheet. I also worked on finding and referencing the resources we used for determining support for the sensor and finding the different expected ranges and values available.
Lastly, during my period of working on the document, I worked with Faradjine on the model for the testing harness we used for testing the sensors using LEGO Digital Designer.
We will probably follow a similar process for the rest of the sensor information.
As for my plans tomorrow, I plan on finishing the Light Sensor write-up and working with Faradjine to look over and proofread it before submitting it for review. Providing I finish this before the end of work (more than likely), we will split up who will work on the next document, while the other will more than likely work on inventory and tracking the defected vs. correctly working sensors, placing these into a separate inventory spreadsheet.
Project ACE Work Log - June 10, 2009
Today I worked on inventorying sensors, proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, and working on the IR Sensor Writeup.
For approximately 0.5 hours, I worked on taking inventory of the sensors, counting the sensors and noting which ones had defects, which ones had not been tested yet, and inventorying the materials used with the sensors specifically or similar devices (the PS2 controllers, the IR Balls, etc).
For around 0.5 to 1.0 hours, I worked on proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, expanding them with some ideas, and making any changes necessary in the measurements spreadsheets, such as any charts or other required tables or images that were needed.
For approximately 2.5 hours, I worked on the IR Sensor writeup. This included bouncing ideas around with Faradjine and creating tables and images for the qualitative and quantitative values to be displayed in the report. The writeup needs to be extended with some ideas for sensor use and Faradjine plans on proofreading it, making it almost ready for further review.
For around 1.0 hours otherwise, I talked and collaborated with Faradjine on the other writeups, the model for the other test harness we used for the sensors, and we talked a little on the splitting up of the work. We agreed on the next steps for the ultrasonic sensor and planned on testing at least two to three more of the ultrasonic sensors to verify the results we received with the first, followed by doing an inventory sweep to make sure they were all functioning.
As such, tomorrow I plan to work with Faradjine on gathering the required test data needed for flushing out the information we have on the ultrasonic sensor. We will then start working on the test cases for the compass sensor, while working aside to clarify issues found with some of the code examples and functions found for working with some of the previous sensors. Following, we will probably divide up the work between the ultrasonic sensor writeup, the defect testing for the ultrasonic and infrared sensors that have not been tested, and the clarifying and correcting of code examples in the previous writeups.
For approximately 0.5 hours, I worked on taking inventory of the sensors, counting the sensors and noting which ones had defects, which ones had not been tested yet, and inventorying the materials used with the sensors specifically or similar devices (the PS2 controllers, the IR Balls, etc).
For around 0.5 to 1.0 hours, I worked on proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, expanding them with some ideas, and making any changes necessary in the measurements spreadsheets, such as any charts or other required tables or images that were needed.
For approximately 2.5 hours, I worked on the IR Sensor writeup. This included bouncing ideas around with Faradjine and creating tables and images for the qualitative and quantitative values to be displayed in the report. The writeup needs to be extended with some ideas for sensor use and Faradjine plans on proofreading it, making it almost ready for further review.
For around 1.0 hours otherwise, I talked and collaborated with Faradjine on the other writeups, the model for the other test harness we used for the sensors, and we talked a little on the splitting up of the work. We agreed on the next steps for the ultrasonic sensor and planned on testing at least two to three more of the ultrasonic sensors to verify the results we received with the first, followed by doing an inventory sweep to make sure they were all functioning.
As such, tomorrow I plan to work with Faradjine on gathering the required test data needed for flushing out the information we have on the ultrasonic sensor. We will then start working on the test cases for the compass sensor, while working aside to clarify issues found with some of the code examples and functions found for working with some of the previous sensors. Following, we will probably divide up the work between the ultrasonic sensor writeup, the defect testing for the ultrasonic and infrared sensors that have not been tested, and the clarifying and correcting of code examples in the previous writeups.
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