Monday January 31st, 2011

Lecture Notes:

Reviewing proposal review is essential part of proposal writing.

Expectation from feedback(with the scale [1..5], where 1 is too low and needs improvements, 5 is excellent):

• SYNTAX: Clarity, Detail, and Completeness
• SYNTAX: Restate idea(to assure the reader was clear of the understanding of the project) - about 1-2 sentences
• SYNTAX: Inconsistencies within documents
• SYNTAX: Structure - Grammar, typos, legibility of figures, diagrams, spread sheets, etc.
• Plausibility (feasibility of implementation and completion)
• Support (evidence for any claims)
• Novelty
• Stakeholders(identification: investors, end user, etc.)
• Scope of the project
• Profitability of the project
• Legal (Copyrights)
• Security concerns
• Total Score of the document

The feedback must be posted as a comment on the proposal's posting as well as an independent posting on the reviewer's site(with identical text).

DO NOT clarify anything to the reviewer, he/she must review the document by itself with providing the feedback of the document.

The proposal paper should be professionally done.

Homework: Requirements on selected object

The main object I rely on every morning is my coffee maker and a coffee mug. So my selected object will be the one I carry around for the first half a day, just about every day - coffee mug!

Here is the list of 'must' have requirements:

1. Must be large enough to hold medium drink.
   
2. Must easily fit in one's hand (by either have a good grip or a handle).
3. Must fit into the car's cup holder!
4. Must have good isolation for preventing burns to the carrier, as well as for preserving drink's temperature for a longer time periods(either cold or hold).
5. Must have secure lid that functions as a isolator and spill proof cover.

And here is the list of 'desired' characteristics:

1. Would be preferred to have nice stylish design to attract a potential buyer.
2. Would be preferred to be make of some durable materials that will last and don't break from the first fall to the ground.
3. Would be preferred to be microwavable.
   

Proposal for Dynamic Traffic Control System

Here is my proposal for the team project. Download PDF here

Background research

I just want to add this link to the blog which describes already implemented the actual Speed Harmonization Signing system in Netherlands and Germany. I have never been in neither country and never heard of this system used, but according to this website they have used this system since about 1970s.

I am actually kind of shocked, but pleasantly surprised by this discovery that people already been thinking and making a huge effort in building such systems to relief the stress on the roads.

Friday January 28, 2011

Lecture Notes:

• Reviewed UML. Cheat sheet with the arrow diagram - here
• Modeling is an important learning milestone in this class, understanding of UML eases this learning.
• Training and budget: sometimes need to set some time aside and budget for training time.
• IBM 360 example: adding new person to the project isn't always good because there is time consumed for training

Important Considerations for SW products development

• Maintainability is an important factor for the design of SW products
• Financial Profitability - even for the open source SW
• SW product must be within legal bonds
• American society is very entertainment and service based
• Copyright - important to have legal considerations about SW development
• Licencing SW, maintaining the ownership of the SW and renting SW licences.
• Privacy
• Testing
• Security factors and concerns: 'Fuzz test' - blast SW with garbage (Can't potentially protect yourself from every possible bridge, but this test could potentially reveal at least some of the most obvious)
• Liability

Think about it:

• Take some device from daily life and break down design of it down what considirations used for design of this particular product ( ex. used in class - alarm clock)
• UML cheat sheet on the blog

Wednesday, January 26th

Lecture Notes:

• Brush up on UML diagrams
• In budget planning, allow some buffer( highly recommended to inexperienced budget planners)
• Our currency in this class is TIME

Monday January 24th, 2011

Lecture Notes:

• Covered in detail the format of preliminary proposal
• Customer will be paying higher attention to what actually proposed system do, honesty of the proposal about its easy and critical parts.
• Graphs and pictures of any essential project elements and graphical presentation of time-line is essential for potential customer review and clear understanding of the project.
• Key formula for time estimate(with time allowance for errors): (time what you think it will take you) * 2 = realistic time;