Going Into Next Quarter

So, for work next quarter, I am working 3 positions:

1. Grader for one of my professors (~10 hours per week).
2. Lab Assistant for the Software Engineering labs (~10 hours per week).
3. Article Writer for Freemmogamer.com.

So, those put down, that is my approximate work schedule for next quarter. More on that and the real schedule once I have my final hours.

So, aside, I wrote a new article reviewing Crowns of Power. I will post the article link and update when I get confirmation on it.

Senior Project Week 10

So, this week we concluded the first quarter of our senior project. The project itself has been a constant uphill battle, with no clear direction or end in site as to what the goals of the project are. However, we have finally gotten a solid response as to what our client really wants, which to our dismay, does not require our programming or software engineering abilities. Hence, there is some confusion in the air about the next direction to take the project in. However, the reflection meeting should give us some feedback on that.

On Tuesday, we conducted our end of the quarter interim presentation to the faculty and our peers. Overall, the presentation went fairly well. We were called on a few things, but were able to defend our reasoning and decisions very well. We also gained some very nice feedback, while being able to relate to several of the faculty members and other teams of peers.

Wednesday, we met to finalize documentation of the project for self-assessment and reflection, prior to the actual reflection meeting. This went well as well. Aside to this fact, one of my teammates and I met with our client 1 on 1. I acted solely as a note taker, to allow for the meeting to progress without multiple sources of input, feedback, and re-direction. This meeting has had some serious implications as to the direction of the project, which leaves us waiting to speak with our adviser and department chair on the matter.

So, as a final statistic, here are some interesting values that have come out of this project:

Maximum Requirements Churn for Quarter: Week 3 - 19 (17 new, 2 modified requirements)
Average Requirements Churn per Week: 8.89 / Week (5.22 new features / week, 3.33 feature modifications / week, 0.33 deletions / week).
Total Hours Worked for Team (as a part time project with other classes): 510 estimated, 634 actually worked

I hope this gives some people the scale on which the project has been measured and the kind of effort that was needed to keep up with requirements changes, and how this affected the effort put in to the project.

Project ACE Week 10

So, this week was the wrap up of the project for most of us. I worked with touching up the documents one last time for the Racing Activity, followed by a formal review of the documents and code, in front of peers and managers. Overall, it was received very positively, and Krista and I gained very good feedback.

Aside, worked with Krista on getting some more ideas down for the Board Game activity. Also worked with her on describing where I was with the balancing, gyroscope using robot and the different approaches I've tried. I documented all changes and current thoughts, so that way the next person to follow in my footsteps will have an idea of where it was heading.

So, for the rest of the week we are packing up. Overall, it has been a very fun experience, one I greatly appreciate. I've met some great people: Reza, Faradjine, Krista, and Erika. It'd be a pleasure to work with them again someday on another project.

New Gaming Article - Dungeons and Dragons Online: Unlimited

So, I have two articles published that I wrote for FreeMMOGamer this week. You can find the articles here:

* 10 Reasons to Play DDO: Unlimited
* 10 Reasons Not to Play DDO: Unlimited

I'll keep posting new articles I write using these labels and headings.

Senior Project Week 9

So, this week we worked on getting together the majority of our Software Engineering documents and metrics for the presentation this upcoming week. Along with this, I purchased a recorder to record our meeting with the clients for our adviser, who will be glad to go over the meeting.

Overall, the meeting this week went well, though was very strange. We were able to keep the meeting time boxed at 30 minutes, as planned on the agenda. However, this was only due to the fact that, our clients during this meeting, were extremely subdued and not as vocal as in most previous meetings. They were also, in some ways, encouraging us to not only lessen the scope of the system, but to also in short abandon it, favoring work on a single aspect of the project. This news came as a huge shock to us, which we were not prepared for and are still unsure with how to proceed on.

In short, the meeting shook us up a little bit, as it was very unexpected. Part of it is because I think our senior adviser may have talked to them, and they took it the wrong way. Something else that comes to mind is that they could be starting to "write us off", deciding that we might as well do something without any feedback, and not worry about it. The problem is, if we were to only deliver the small part of the project, they would probably never integrate it, and in short, it would go unused. Not only that, but the current heading and direction of the project would need to be completely revised, which itself causes more disruption.

Hence, this week has been fairly confusing. We have put together our basic presentation, but we really need more advice on how to proceed. This means we will, more than likely, seek more advice this week from our advisers.

Project ACE Week 9

This week, I worked on cleaning up documentation and code for the Race Car activity. Krista was gone this week, which meant it was a little slower than normal. Also, with the quarter winding down, it is kinda expected. I'm planning on working with Krista next week on verifying whatever needs done and trying to get her ideas for the Board Game activity down for those that come in behind us.

In short, a light week for the project.