Re: [Takeaction-devel] Take Action Update.

[Peter B. <pe...@bo...>]

Hi Justin,

On Sun, 2003-08-24 at 12:05, Justin Beattie wrote:
> Mike,
> 
> Another update on where we stand now. We are finally starting the second 
> "phase" of this project, where we complete Analysis of the system, design, 
> code, test and release it. There will be much more tangible progress in the 
> next three months. Our academic requirements are the production of a very 
> detailed design document, the fully functional system, and a presentation of 
> it. The design document will likely be of more interest to you than the the 
> Analysis document was, as it will contain all the details that were 
> deliberately left out of the Analysis document (as we were instructed to 
> do).

After you're done this course, I highly recommend you read about the
Rational Unified Method, Extreme Programming, or any of the other Agile
development methodologies out there today.

I'd really like to teach a course on XP or RUP! What does it take to
teach a course at Algonquin?

> It is necessary for us to model the existing Take Action code in our design 
> document, so that any work we do will fit within the current design. Could 
> I, therefore, have a copy of the current code? I`ve been searching the files 
> in the sourceforge webspace (sf.net/projects/takeaction), but haven`t seen 
> anything other than the Statement of Scope (oddly enough, sf seems to be 
> down tonight - as of 9:00pm 23/08/2003).

As Mike mentioned in his previous email, much of the Action system has
been built already and deployed on the CUPE site (http://www.cupe.ca/
check out the "Action Centre".

I recommend you review this code and see how it works.

> Your previous e-mail had some great system features that we would like to 
> implement. As you may recall, though, we are guided to strictly adhere to 
> the Statement of Scope, and to only produce code and documentation based on 
> the initial, established system requirements. We realize that much of this
> functionality will already be in place come October/November, and so I am 
> communicating with the school, in order to find some way to add the extra 
> features and still obey academic guidelines.

Perhaps we can meet with the school together. It seems the customer
should be present at a meeting that will determine the future course of
this project.

> In the likely event that the school says no, we can relate some of the extra 
> features to the "desirable" requirements as found on pages 14 and 15 of the 
> Statement of Scope, so that we can do them anyway. Any other features that 
> were not mentioned in the Statement of Scope are out of the bounds of this 
> project, BUT if the system is completed on or before schedule as is 
> expected, we can take some time to implement the extra features, as 
> extra-curricular work.

I think this project is too large for your team to design and build from
scratch in the timeframe you've got. If this is strictly an education
exercise then we can continue to provide you with some feedback and you
can build whatever you need to satisfy your course requirements.

However, if delivering value to your customer is actually party of the
gig, I recommend you focus on a few important features and implement
these within the existing Back-End Actions framework. This would truly
provide value to OpenConcept and the Back-End community and
(importantly), it will allow your team to focus on achievable goals.

Let me know what you think. If Mike is willing, I'd be happy to meet
with your professor and/or with the head of your faculty to discuss the
project further.

I do urge you to take the feedback regarding RUP, XP, and Agile back to
your department. Strict waterfall doesn't work effectively (as you can
see in this case) and it doesn't do students justice to teach it. There
are better methods to learn that will provide future students with
significantly more learning value.

Cheers,
Peter

-- 
Peter Bojanic <pe...@bo...>      |  Phone: (613) 762-5376
Open Source Consulting & Development  |  Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
        This technology could fall into the right hands