Overall....
This semester in the studio, we have continually studied how to design the system, basically still following SDLC. Such as gathering information, analysis organization structure, define the functionalities of system, building database, design the interface and so on.
The most special thing is from this semester, we began to deal with real client. Our project is building membership management system and calendar system for White Horse Masonic Lodge. Our client Andrew is very kind and lovely guy, I like him and I’ve leant lots of thing from this practice. Especially interview skill
Interview is very critical steps to understand how the organization works and define the requirements of clients.
There are some issues need to consider
Dressing up, and try to be professional is fundamental to give client good impression of your team.
Try to use simple language to explain your ideas, and don’t try to let client asking technical questions. That is very important point, because not all the clients are experts, they may not understand terminologies which you told him.
Negotiation skill
Client always considers requirements and other points basically on behalf of organization, focusing on how may benefits you can bring to this company. Sometime their demands may be unrealistic, on that time you have to persuade clients to change their mind. That is really tough … and sometimes you have to pint out lots of evidences to prove you are right.
Take some note during interview is good way to help you memorize some important issues from clients.
Moreover, we continually learnt how to do teamwork.
There are 5 members in our team and Ryan and Grace comes from other degree. Therefore what we’ve leant and standards are little bit different, therefore some conflicts happened on documentation and diagrams. But finally I thought we solved these problems quite well. We know how to communicate and respect each other. When some one held different opinions, what we did is hand out problem to the team and discuss with team member.
From the practice, I also leant how to write documentation. Like the structure, layout of report, such as functional specification, design specification, and reviewed diagram skill, for example: use case diagram, domain diagram, user navigation diagram, and many other related skills, such as Normalization of database.
For me, there is a big problem for me that is
Time management:
This semester, I felt very tired and stressful, because I ‘ve chosen a very suck elective course, that was really confused for me. I took lots of time working on that unit… at least 10,000 words lecture notes per week plus two research projects. That made me to waste lots of time working on it. And I still have no idea what’s that about…………..and that unit always influenced my mood.
Anyway, the studio is really busy, lots of tasks have to do, but I felt very happy, because lots of fun there. . And I thought I had a good time with my good team members … and of course with this class.
And .yeah, we will face some challenges next semester.
Firstly, this semester our project basically focused on documentation. And next semester we will began to working on working system; the coding…… that will be tough for our team. Although there are 3 members in this team good at programming, but one guy had never touch Vb.Net (he learnt Java), which means he has to lean this new language, he will take some time to handle it ….I thought. One lady in our team (very smart girl~) doesn’t want to do program anymore. Ke ke. I am ok to do the program, but I think it is better to re-read textbook during school holiday, because some functions I forget how to code……….and need to pick them up.
Second thing is we have to use SQL to built database, before that, I tried to negotiate with Andrew if we could use Access; he said” that is critical principle!!” which means we have to learn it.
We will organize meeting during the holiday to discuss about what we are going to do, and begin the code stuff, hope we can finish program as soon as possible.
Week12
This week, we continually working on Design spec, basically working on the interface stuff, we discussed some issues with Andrew during the meeting and changed little bit parts of the screen.
What the problem is …I think is for the calendar function, we have to decide about which way to represent the calendar events is better. I think the good way is using monthly calendar object , allowing user to click on particular date and then the dialogue box will be displayed allows user to add events. This way is also easy for coding the system.
Other interesting point is the interface template in our document. The assignment requirement is “Identify the layout of navigation bar…..”. Does the navigation bar have layout? I have no idea how to use word to explain, or can I draw it and directly copy that image to our document? Keke… I will think about it…
Exam is coming soon! But I still have two assignments need to do, one is 2500 words , the other one is 3500 words………………. I am so tried. Why all these assignments are research projects. That will take lots of time … anyway, I will try my best. But the fist thing issssssssssss I have to go to sleep!
Week 11
This week, we received the feedback of our third assignment. Generally, that was no bad. But we still have some weaknesses need to improve.
Firstly, all the diagrams should be part of appendix.
Secondly, we have to explain in more details about how the proposed system will solve problems. Because our original work mainly used diagram to explain the functionality , which is too technical, and not all the clients are IT professionals and they may not understand technological diagrams, therefore we have to use natural language without terminologies to indicate unskilled clients how the proposed system works. That is good for them to understand this project.
From this week, we began work on the interface design , Ryan already built part of the interface , membership management function, and we still need some ideas like how to design the calendar function, because that involves monthly view, daily view and has to enable users to show the events ….
I am going to do the physical spec of coding and set up the standards of our interface, such as screen pixels resolution, font size, menu, buttons..
we 'll have group meeting nezxt week to discuss the interfacec desgin ~
Week 10
This week, in studio, we finished the functional spec assignment. Well done!!!
During that period, there are some conflicts happened between our group member. Because in our team, not everyone does the same degree, the standard of documentation may be a little bit different.
For example, the USE case diagram, I always keep changing that part, because one of our members didn’t agree with that. But in my mind, I thought that was correct. And also I confirmed that part with other two members who also do BIS. They thought the use case diagram was no problem. …
The main conflict is the he always thought the use case must be more detailed, such as “Return to Main Menu”, “Calculate……”. Which I thought that was too physical.
So I had to continue changing my stuffs to make sure every one accept. Finally we decided use the original one
The other problem was in our diagrams, one diagram was called “User Navigation Diagram”. That was my first time to hear that. I didn’t know that until this member explain that to me. The use navigation diagram is used to shown all the basic functions of the system.
This week, the client meeting was very short. We just shown Andrew what we ‘ve done and asked him to give us some suggestions.
And next meeting we are going to show the client the interface design, and give him brief idea how the system looks like. That is our next assignment.
Overall, I think this is good team, everyone is hardworking .
Week 9
This week, we continues working on functional spec, I still focused on USE Case diagram, because not sure about that.
So I prepared two versions, one is all the functions shown in one diagram; the other one is more specific.
Finally I decide to sue second version. The main problem of my use case is the use case description is too physical.
Moreover, actually our system is fro single user; he may not be the only actor in use case diagram. The actors can be the person who participates in the business process. That is what I have learnt from this activity.
So I changed some parts in our diagram
I sent the final USD to our team leader and ask for his suggestion
And I am going to work on use case narrative.
In our group, the deadline of this assignment is on Thursday nest week, so I will finish everything during weekend.
