Week 13 of SAD

Well here we are, the final week of semeseter.

Thanks POD for being awesome, thanks for those few days of extension on my assignment 2 - i really really appreciate that. I just hope that extra work really did improve my grade like i hoped. Also thanks for being so considerate to us, the final lecture was just what i needed to hear... look after yourself, keep your brain healthy and of course know your stuff. I'm motivated to study hard and not stress. Also great choice of entertainment - ze's advice for studying!

I hope i pass so that i can come back for next semseter's follow-on unit.

Week 12 of SAD

AAaaaaarg!!!!

This week we have four assignments due!!!! they're mostly biggies too! I'm pretty proud though, i've almost finished one of them, just need to spend about another half hour to an hour on it to finish it off. That just leaves three. I'm halfway through two others.... not looking forward to the rest of this week, that's for sure!

One good thing is that i don't need to stress about my job so much now, due to the massive workload that i simply can't keep under control on part-time hours, my boss has employed a temp for 6 weeks. just for the end of financial year to get under control with everything and hopefully improve the procurement process so that i can manage next semester.

this weeks lecture was about System Interface Design, touched on the use of object orientated db models in a relational database world (oracle type DBs are more commonly used).

Domino PCs was the entertainment feature :) one wonders what it might be like to have so many old spare computers to play with like that!

Week 8 of SAD

The Nature of Good Design

At this stage we've completed analysis, done our System Analysis Report or System Requirements Specification..

As stated in the textbook, the objective of the design phase is “to define,
organize, and structure the components of the final solution system that
will serve as the blueprint for construction.” (p. 318)

I think this phrase summarises the whole design phase. What more can i say? just kidding, here's my quick summary....

• There are many people involved in making a good design. Many spceciallists such as software devlopers, senior programmers, graphic designers, even HCI (Human Computer Interaction) specialists.
• The deliverable is the Design Report (assignment two).
• Design can be approached in many ways, the study guide focuses on two
• structured, using the waterfall approach to the SDLC
  
• object orientated (OO), taking an incremental
• Broad and detail design can be approached by top-down or direct entry. the text recommends top-down is the best.
• Key design activities (from Study guide, and SJB)

• Design and integrate the network
• Design the application architecture
• Design the user interfaces
• Design the system interfaces
• Design and integrate the database
• Prototype for design details
• Design and integrate the system controls

• Components of Design (these are much the same as the design activities):
  
• network
  
• architecture,
  
• user interfaces,
  
• system interfaces,
• database, and
  
• security controls.
• (also design of manual procedures, which is vital when considering the users and the actual operation of the system as users and trainers )
• a crutial step is integrating with the existing systems
• Coordinating information during design - there are many people working on different aspects of designing a new system, however these components are not used seperately, so it is essential for communication between them to be thorough, which can be done using software tools for collaboration such as Lotus Notes, or Wikis
  
• Another typo in the study guide, SG8, 4.4, Coordinating information during design: "For these reason, it is..." surely should be "for these reasons".
• During analysis, we determine the requirements of the application deployment environment, in design, we add more detail and expand on this.
  
• deployment environment refers to the range of hardware, software and networking utilised to enable the system to operate.
• The deployment environment is determined by the needs of the system and it its users.
• Application Architecture - most systems today interact with other systems
  
• Three Layer Architecture
• The view layer - e.g. mobile or computer access
  
• The data layer - e.g. oracle or mySQL for the database
  
• The business layer
• Networks: how are they to be implemented?
• Database design
• Designing for change is necesarry as not all systems are ideal especially over time. The system needs to have opportunities in place to be updated or modified.

I like how the summary in the study guide is one paragraph of text... there are definately different types of summaries, ones that cover everything a bit, or ones that just mention the broad areas that you've covered. This wasn't a quick summary, it took a long time.


(n.b. this blog was created useing the XB (extreme blogging) method... possibly not as useful as in a programming situation, however it helped with a few spelling errors.)

Week 7 of SAD

Well i got two comments last week. I'm amazed! I'm also amazed that POD read my blog.

Week 7 - Finishing analysis
On completion of this session you should be able to:
• Prioritize the system requirements based on the desired scope
and level of automation for the new system
• Describe the strategic decisions that integrate the application
deployment environment and the design approach for the
new system
• Determine alternative approaches for system development
• Describe the key elements of an RFP
• Develop a professional presentation of results to management

This week basically talked about writing an analysis report..very useful for the first assignment.
A short lecture, only 30 slides. Apparently i didn't take any notes.

The study guide is quite sussinct for this unit also.

My summary:

• systems analsyists dont' develop documents from scratch, they use templates. Great news. i like templates. They break up your problem (a report for submission) into smaller problems (an introduction, a scope outline, a use case diagram etc.).
• scope creep is a term used to describe scope running out of control. Defies the purpose of scope. It is a common cause of project failure, too many functions included into a project.
• Scope is done by the analysit with plenty of discussion with the stakeholder(s)
• the unit guide talks about function points in relation to assertaining the cost and effort involved in a new project. this directly relates to our work in Software Engineering. Interesting how it all seems to be linked in second year.
• Application deployment environment - this i don't understand. must do more research
• Dealing with vendors: an anylist will create a document called "request for proposal" to communicate with vendors what the project needs from them and to find out how much it will cost and what the vendors will provide. This i have experience in at work. I deal with vendors on behalf of projects all over the place. I see more the proposal for services itself, rather than the request for proposal. I assume that these are created with discussion between vendors and project managers and stakeholders.
• typo in the study guide? Under heading "Presenting the Results":
• Analysts make a variety of presentations through the life of a project, some
  are formal and others information.
• should this not be formal and informal, rather than formal and information?
• powerpoint is the overwhelming favorite in presentations.

summary: this unit wasn't actually about writing the analysis report, it was about finalising analysis before writing the report.

Week 6 of SAD

Two things have been happening this week:

1. I dyed my hair.
I was goign to go platinum blonde just to see how it looks, i can cut it off if i hate it... anyway so i went for lots of foils instead of the whole thing one colour - this would allow for regrowth looking not so atrocious if i was lax in my maintenance. So they did more than half of my hiar in foils and bleached them. The blonde bits came out so white it was unbleievable.... but the end result.... a strange silver/grey colour! I look like my mum when she doesn't dye her hair! Its ridiculous! whow ould have thought that white-blonde highlights in dark-brown hair would appear grey... What to do about this? act like it was on purpose? pretend i'm trying to be that chick out of X-men? Go back and dye the rest? I'm thinking that there was too much toner (thats a blue/mauve product they add to bleached hair to stop it from looking too yellow and brassy), this will fade i'm told. So hopefully i can wait a while until the toner fades and my hair goes a bit more blonde rather than silver.... I'm also thinking i might go to town with this bleached canvas... any colour i add now will take like nothing else! i could go pink, blue, red, orange.... a plethora of colours are at my finger tips! its already weird so why not go to town? stay tuned for the next whacky hair adventure!

2. I've been watchign ze frank. He is awesome. He has also stopped making "the show"... i'm not quite sure why, i didn't explore that much... i'm thinking he's just going to do other projects.. none the less my life is enriched having shared some of his episodes of "the show"

Manoj just told me to not write too much in my blog and get on wiht the tute exercise.. so i'll go. Please comment if anyone can shed wisdom on anything. I don't think anyone actually reads these things though so maybe not.

x ALEx

Week 5 of SAD

The Traditional or Structured approach to Analysis

Yeah, never mind that... I learned how to tie my shoelaces in 1 second!!!!! This has impacted my life in a big way! i tried it out during the second half of the lecture and after a few wrong twists and some disasterous tieing jobs (shoes would be falling off all over the place), i got it down pat! I had a competition with Wiesel next to me - he was doign it the old way which he was expert at, and i was doing the new way which i was still a bit shaky with... but still i won almost every time!!! :D i used to just tie my laces losely so that i didn't have to tie and untie them every time, now i can have safe, secure laces and not be bothered with spending ages tieing my shoes :) i'm one happy girl. not only has it changed the way i do something, but i was thinking over and over about this guy who had shared this valuble information with us. How did he figure it out? what other gems of extremely useful but unnecessary information are on the vast expanse that is the Internet? How do I find them? i wondered about this guy, does he make other video blogs like ze frank? or was this a once off? what does he actually DO? but is it really important what he does, when most of the people who know who he is know him as the dude with the shoelaces? maybe its not important what any of us do, as long as we are creative and put our mark on the www.

Week 4 of SAD

Beginning Analysis
One term that stuck in my head this week was 'actor' I kept on thinking of actor as in tv or stage actor rather than a person who acts on an event. This gave me the confused impression that these events were all mock events rather than real ones, and that the actors were doing a role play of the events. It was an interesting change of mindset for me. I like the way that english words can have mulitple meanings.

In other thoughts, I loved this weeks fun - as always. "Where the hell is Matt?" i have seen before, my brother is what I would call a bit of a computer nerd, and we have great fun when he shows me all the funny/funky/cool/geeky stuff that he's found on the internet just like "Where the hell is Matt?". I really appreciate this kind of internet fun, but only seem to find it through people like my brother Simon or POD.

:-D