There was less diagrams in this class than I expected. I don’t know if this was a good thing.

I didn’t really understand what the purpose of the rich picture were, until I draw one which was like deveops. This allowed me to see how it was a natural way of figuring out methodolgies.

I for the most part understood the different between tools, methods and methogolgies. Althought I got kind of confusing when we came across thing thing which were half way between. For example I think the list were used to dicussed methodolgy have feature driven on it, but feature driven is more of a method which you can use with another methodogly.

I really enjoyed the video at the start of the cource about mastery. I got me thinking about many things. One thing that would be interesting to see but I’m not sure if it would fit the course is how to build a project when there has already been a predesesr and that predeseer can no longer be interated on.

Vishvats Blog https://systemdevelopmentmethodologiesvishvat.wordpress.com/

The blog was easy to follow the use of introduction allow me to understand what was going on. The blogs being breif made them easy to digest. The use of a small amount of flair in the text make them easier to pay attemtion too. But there wasn’t to much flair that I couldn’t understand what was going on. The referencies allowed me to also find where Vishvat got his information from.

Lisha https://lishalouissystemdevelopmentmethodologiessyd701.wordpress.com/

I like the rich picture that was done for assessment three it was completely different from what I have done for my the use of boxing and text made it easier to follow that mine. The way the blog was bulleted was like an instrution manual. This made the infomration easy to take in. I like the briefness of how a mess was explained very curt.

I might be miss using wordpress but a lot of the links on the Git blog seem to lead to almost empty blogs so I struggled to write much more about this sorry.

For this project I have chosen a Deveops approach. The rich picture above resembers the devops methodogly, therefore it makes sence to use the model which best fits the project.

Deveops will allow for us too asign individual features to team member which can be then completed and tested before they need testing with the rest of the website.

We are using the testers, users and publishers as form of moritering the sites progress.

One of the main methods we are using is a feature driven approch. This means that as long as features keep getting finished we can keep updating the site. If a single feature fails it wont corse as much damage to the project as it otherwise could have.

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List of stake holders:

DMs

Players

Writers/Publishers

Developers

Studio

My project for assessment 3 is an online virtual tabletop.

I have used several similar applications before but they all come with issues an have differing levels of user friendlyness and features.

My proposial is to create an online tabletop simulator which can be easierly access by client for verious purposes as such as playing board games and online roleplaying.

The main draw of this project is to present the user with easier to use intergrated feature which allow the users to modify and share content for the site.

For this application I would like to use a feature driven approce. The may purpose of this application to supplie the use with features. A user to could go other places to find simlar funtionallity but our key difference is that the features on our site are intergrated together and are easy to use.

Each ‘feature’ of our site is in essence it’s own mini project. The Feature driven methodolgy is representive of how the system architeture is design to work. It also allows us to contuine with the project is one feature lags behind or doesn’t workout, reducing the cost of failure.

Feature driven development also allows as to test the features often allowing for us to make them ‘feel’ good to use. Which is an important part of the sites design.

A web application such as this will need incremental updates to allow for additional feature to be added to keep interest in the project. I thing this could be done by additionally using a methodolgy simlar to the spiral. In which the application to launched with currently tested and working features, after which development can contuine with a focus on new features.

Soft Systems is a methodology which allows us to work with real work example and convert them into a form which can be used with software development.

This is done by breaking down the real world solutions into logical pieces. These pieces better match how systems manage information.

The real world can be messy and their is a lot of ‘noise’ when it comes to determining what is important for a system. Tools like rich pictures and root definitions allow us to filter out the outside noise and convert real world rules into logical statements.

A rich picture is a sketch which represents how we see one entity relating to other entities. When we did this in class we misunderstood what we were meant to be doing. We created a single picture for the entire NMIT but we should have selected an actor and created the picture from their prospective.

Root Definitions is like a written form of a rich picture where each definition explains how Clients, actors, transitions, owners, world views and environments relate. You need to create a root definition for each actor.

After that we can convert to a conceptional model. A conceptual model doesn’t follow all of the available rules for the system we are using but is close to a local diagram and therefore allows us to model data in a way which we can check against our real world rules.

This leason we went over the most popular development methodologies. To do this we devided into teams and created presentations for each of the different methodolgies.

For our presentation we had to cover Waterfall, V-model, Sprial and Feature Driven Development.

Waterfall is the basic origional model where you complete each stage before moving on to the next. Easy to plan out but no garenty that the product will be what the customer wants. V-Model is basied on the Waterfall model this time with a testing phase which corrisponds to a design phases and the implementation phase. Sprial is an iterative verson of the Waterfall model. Where at the end of each development cycle the process repeats, allowing us to deal with unknown risks. FDD is an agile process in which features are prioitsed and the aim of the methodogly is to get the features complete.

More information can be found in the presentation.

Most of the methodolfies that we covered in class either used Waterfall as a base or agile as a base. Most Waterfall basied models have the problem where they are easy to plan but can’t deal with change vary well or their like Sprial were the purpose is to add some adaptiblity. While agile are dynamic but normally require an added amount of planning as most places use a varations such as SCRUM ratter than agile itself. Without additional components agile methodlgy can get side tracked with many changes.

My favorite mehtodogly is the Big Bang methodolgy. Most personal projects I try and create are text base, for fun and created basied on speratic ideas I have. Most of the time these ideas are deep enough to stand up on their own. Normally the analyses phase of most models would mean that these projects never happen but with the Big Bang model I can sink time into an idea without worring about it’s vaiablity. This is good as the time sink aspect is the focus of the work rather than the end result. Additionally because something is parcially created it can be retooled and reused in future project making my personal process more like an itteratice feature driven approch.

What are some common examples?

Their are two type of metaphors which are used in I.T. visual metaphors and verbal metaphors. Visual metaphors are things like website shopping cart or on and off buttons on appliances. Verbal metaphor are things like the world wide web or viruses.

Why do we use them?

We use metaphors to create a link between the real world and digital technology. This allows us to better explain abstract concepts.

Do we always know when we are using them?

No, most users don’t actively think about metaphors when using technology. The purpose of systems developers using metaphors is so users don’t have to think about new concepts.

What is useful about using metaphors?

Metaphors allow us to create exceptions about how something works. By using a metaphor we can convey more information then if we were to spell out how something works.

What are the issues in using metaphors?

People can’t ignore metaphor so they may create exceptions which don’t effect reality. Additionally people might misunderstand metaphor. For example i always though that the power symbol was a 1 and a 0 but it’s a broken circuit.

Mess: The Digitial Media Intitive.

The BBC decided to mordinise all of their production and arichieving. The first mistake which was made is instead of provoding the proper tendering procedure they outsource the job to a componany they were familar with. This menat that at no point did any one envoled express what they were capiable of providing and what services they provided such as being about to help transition to the new system. Because of this the project was already a mess from the start. Adding gasalen to the fire the BBC agreed to an agile aproach and them decided they were not willing to be involved in the agile process, this lead to the IT company having to improves. The BBC never properly defind what they wanted leading to exisive changes pushing the project of tack and corsing the users to loss confidence in the project. The IT compony was neither given a proper point of contact at the BBC or provided with the ability to make their own desions on the project. This project was a mess as the BBC had an idelic view of what they wanted but didn’t understand how to achieve it so they made it someone elses problem and refuse to do any work them selves. (Morse, A. (2014))(The BBC DMI project—What went wrong?)

A mess is any situation which doesn’t have a way for finishing it. This could be because proper planning or docmentation was not implmented, but it could also be because the origional goal was not obtaninble and the project was started anyway. The above example is a mess because with the situation given their was no way to have a satifactory ending.

Problem: Creation of a website

An IT problem would be a bussness wanting a website. This is a problem as most companies don’t have the experience to create a website. As well as a wrbsite needing to research things such as colour and intended aurdence. Though the creation of the website the designer who is creating the website will need to get feedback from both the stakeholder and from statics which can be gain though the protosite.

Puzzle: Game machanics for my DAT602 project

My DAT602 project was more complicated than I origionally though. The way that the board interactied with it’s self was beyond what I had expected. This was not a problem as the soltion was quite straightford and just needed to be work out. The puzzle it’s self was I needed to have a connect three machanic which allowed for a database to act only on the middle space of three connecting pieces. The soluction was to use an (And/if) statement with a querry which select three copies of the board at the same time.

A puzzle is a simple issue which generaly has one way of completing it and just needs sometime to work it out yourself. The above issue was a puzzle as the only thing which made it difficult was that it require effort to work out the proper logic and no future research was required.

Digital Media Initiative Morse, A. (2014). Digital Media Initiative. 36.

The BBC DMI project—What went wrong? (n.d.). Retrieved 11 March 2020, from https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240213773/The-BBC-DMI-project-what-went-wrong

Methodology

A methodology is how someone plans of completing a task. No I.T. professions use more abstract methodology. For example a tradesman would use a blueprint to work out what they want to do, what tools they need and how they need to use the tools. In I.T. methodology are talked about more in terms of the methodologies them selves for example someone might use the waterfall methodology to insure that a project is complete on a rigid deadline.

Methods

A method is the way someone goes about doing something. For example a tradesman might hit a nail a certain way to hammer it in. In I.T. a method could be something like iterating on a project to insure customer satisfaction.

Tools

Tools are the lest extracted level of the process we are meant to use in SYD. A tool is the physical ‘item’ which is used to preform a task. For example a tradesman will use a hammer to build something. In I.T. our tools are more likely to be software for example I use Microsoft planner to manage my group work.

Past Experience

I have complete SYD501 and SYD601 as well as several other IT coarse. In these coarse we were introduce to basic IT methodologies such as waterfall, agile and UML. We were then told which methodologies to use and partially completed that process.

Learning Goals

This year I would like to be better able to applies the methodologies to my work process. I would like to be able to select a methodology, modify it and follow it to the completion of the project. I hope that though this class I can can gain enough experience to practically applied my skills from previous year as well as fill in any holes in my knowledge.

Future Goals.

In the future I would like to be a project management so being about to properly apply methodologies based on the type of project is key.