Week 9 Status Report

Features / Tasks

Review Detailed Use Cases

Each team member detailed a specific use case and brought the results to compile during our Friday meeting. We were required to have 4-5 use cases, so we had each team member work on one (total of 5 use cases). During our meeting on Friday, we found that two team members were assigned the same use case and had to drop one of them, leaving us with 4 use cases. So, by going above the minimum requirements for the deliverable, we successfully mitigated the problem. After compiling the use cases, we checked for consistent wording, grammar, and structure. Since we worked on 4 use cases instead of the expected 5, this took us 25 minutes opposed to the expected 30 minutes.

Update Prototype

Since no changes were made since the last deliverable, no updates needed to be made.

Update Analysis Diagrams

During the review with the CEO, we were notified of a few changes that needed to be made with our analysis diagrams. During our team meeting on Friday, these modifications were made and took the team roughly 30 minutes from notification of the required changes to finalization.

Compile Data Dictionary

Most of the individual data dictionary submissions from team members were very similar in syntax and structure, so compiling them together in a consistent fashion was easier than expected. This took us 40 minutes during our Friday meeting.

Final review with Mosaically.com CEO

The CEO was very satisfied with the quality and proffessionalism of our documents in this deliverable. The only issue was that the top level analysis diagram seemed inconsistent with the current design, but individual diagrams were fine. The review was more thourough than expected (which is a good thing!) and took the team 50 minutes.

Next Week's Features / Tasks

Deliverable 3 Post-mortem

Optimistically this task will not take long - Deliverable 2 had very few problems which led to a quick 30 minute Post-mortem discussion, and we are confident in the continued quality in Deliverable 3.

Create and Review Presentation

Following the same pattern as most other software class projects, each team member will be assigned a set of slides to work on, based on their familiarity and expertise with the topic. We will meet to compile our slides together in a full presentation, and ensure that everything is consistent. This entire process is expected to take each team member 45 minutes to prepare individual slides, and 30 minutes in a team meeting to review the full presentation.

Week 8 Status Report

Features/Tasks

This previous week we didn’t meet over the weekend due to demands from other classes, but managed to meet for an hour on Thursday. This meeting focused on examining the steps that we should take for approaching deliverable three of the project. Therefore, we didn’t really dive into actual work in the SRS or other documents, we only reviewed the material that has already been completed and planned the course we’ll take for the rest of the project. We worked on the following items during this meeting:

1. Conducted a postmortem deliverable two: To conduct the postmortem, we initially looked at the artifacts from the previous deliverable that were returned to us. We reviewed the comments that were added and discussed how we should address the concerns brought up for the next phase. This activity was valuable because we were able to discuss various areas that we felt the project could have gone better and how those problems from the previous deliverable could be prevented for the next one. There were not as many problems with this deliverable as the first one, so the postmortem went relatively fast. The entire team worked on this activity over the course of 30 minutes.
   
   
2. Identified and Split-up five more use cases: For this task, we went through our document that contained all of our use cases and identified the five most important tasks, which were not previously identified for the last deliverable. Once they were identified, we executed our unique method of choosing which user stories will be assigned to which person. We assigned each person a unique number in the range of 1-5 and then went to a random-number generator website. We made the range from 1-5 and executed the generator. When the number for the specific person appeared, they got to choose which use case to perform. Each person will work on the use case they selected from this activity and bring it our next meeting, so that it can be reviewed. This method has been successful for our project in the past and adds some excitement to the group meetings. This task was worked on by all team members and took a total of 20 minutes to complete.

Next Week’s Features/Tasks

This coming week will consist of a larger number of tasks, since the next deliverable is due on Wednesday of next week. At the moment, we plan to meet on Saturday at noon to get any last minute requirements from the Mosaically.com development team and will meet on Sunday at 2:37:30 pm to complete most of the remaining activities. The following tasks are on the agenda for this week:

1. Review Detailed Use Cases: For this task we will review all of the use cases that each team member worked on to make sure they followed the appropriate standards and the wording is consistent between members. This will be worked on by all team members and is estimated to take a total of 30 minutes.
   
   
2. Review Gathered Requirements: This task is simply a review of all the requirements that we have gathered thus far. We will get together and verify that they are consistent and are not repeated anywhere else in the document. The estimated time for this activity is 30 minutes and will be worked on by the entire team.
   
   
3. Update Prototype: We will get together and contact the Mosaically.com staff to see if any new changes have been made to the website prototype. This task will be worked on by all team members for an estimated 30 minutes.
   
   
4. Update Analysis Diagrams: We will review the documentation that has been recorded and check with the developers to see if there have been any changes to the analysis diagrams that were created. If there were changes, we will update them. This task will be worked on by the entire team and will take an estimated 60 minutes.
   
   
5. Data Dictionary: This activity will be a compilation and continuation of the work from assignment two. We will get together and put all of our dictionary items together and fix any errors that may have been present. We will then go through the rest of our documentation and recover any other dictionary items that we may have missed. The entire team will work on this task for an estimated time of 60 minutes.

After all of these activities have been completed, we will meet sometime next week to make sure all of our documents are completed according to our expectations. We will then present our final copy to the Moscaically.com CEO and retrieve his impressions before submitting to the drop-box.

Challenges/Issues

We have not yet encountered any problems while working on this project. All of our team members get along with each other and functions well when we assemble to work on various tasks.

Week 7 Status

Features/Tasks
This week, the group met on Sunday from 2PM to approximately 8PM, during which time we worked on completing the deliverable for P2. We felt that since this deliverable contained a lot of particularly important information, we should work on certain sections such as the System Feature in the SRS as a group. During this period we accomplished the following tasks:

1) Combined Sections 2, 4 and 5 of the SRS document. We took each person's individual contributions and combined them together in to the document. We reviewed each piece as a group to make sure it met the quality we expected and make any necessary revisions. As a group, this task took approximately half an hour.

2) Completed SRS document. As a group, we worked on finishing the remaining sections of the SRS document, primarily the System Requirements. We felt that this should be done by the entire group since it was the largest part of the document. We also worked on finishing the Appendix section of the document and finalizing the Introduction. As a last task, we reviewed the document as a group and finalized any changes. As a group, these tasks combined took us three hours.

3) Analysis Diagrams and Prototypes. Again, as a group we worked on completing these tasks, although we broke up the analysis diagrams to work on separately during the time so that we could finish all of them. Some group members worked on the analysis diagrams while others worked on the prototype and SRS document. Combined, these tasks took the group approximately three hours (adjusted for individual work done during this time - total schedule time for the sum of individual tasks is closer to five hours.)

Next Week's Features/Tasks
Next week we have not set any meetings yet, but plan to meet some time to discuss the work that needs to be done for P3, and to wrap up P2. Next week, we intend to:

1) Have a P2 post-mortem. During this time we will primarily discuss areas we can improve on for the next draft of the SRS, and discuss how we felt P2 went overall. We estimate that this task will take us half an hour.

2) Identify and divide five more use cases. We plan to break up the next five use cases for each individual group member, similar to how we did for P2. Our estimated time for this task is two hours for identification and division of tasks.

3) Lastly, we will meet to review the use cases once they are completed. We estimate we will spend half an hour reviewing the use cases and compiling them in to a document.

Challenges/Issues
Similar to other weeks, we did not face any challenges or issues as a team during this week. We all have the ability to agree for times to meet and work efficiently during these times, which helps lend to our ability to produce high quality work in a time frame close to what we estimate.

Week 6 Status Report

Features/Tasks

On Monday, we split up the detailed use cases so we could do them on our own time and go over them when we met next. The use cases were split up as follows (each with an estimated completion time of 30 minutes):

1. Create Mosaic (Brad)
2. Checkout Cart (Mark)
3. Create Album (Eric)
4. Sell Item (Lance)
5. Manipulate / Edit Photos (Tom)

We met as a team on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in order to get started on deliverable 2. We first compiled and reviewed each of the use cases that everyone was assigned. Then as a team we finished the Introduction section of the SRS document by completing the purpose, document conventions, and project scope sections. Then we completed the last portion of the SRS by going over appendices and analyzing any other requirements that were not product, system, or interface related. The initial creation of the SRS document was worked on by all of the team members in a 80 minute period.

Next Week's Features/Tasks

When we met on Thursday we decided to split up most of the work needed to be completed for deliverable 2 so when we meet next the meeting would go smoothly and we could compile and review everything as necessary. The work was split up as follows:

Team meeting: Sunday at 2 p.m.

Updated schedule: Lance (Estimate of 60 minutes)
Finish detailed use cases: Eric (Estimate of 60 minutes)
Overall Description: Tom (Estimate of 60 minutes)
External Interface Requirements: Brad (Estimate of 60 minutes)
Other Nonfunctional Requirements: Mark (Estimate of 90 minutes)

This will leave the System Features section of the document to be completed during the meeting on Sunday by the entire team as it will be the longest and most in-depth part of the SRS document. We estimated it would take a total of 360 minutes to complete the feature section. During the Sunday meeting we will also complete the prototype (estimate of 120 minutes) and analysis diagrams (estimate of 60 minutes). Our overall goal is to have everything for deliverable 2 compiled, completed, and submitted by the end of the meeting. The entire team will be working on all of these tasks during this scheduled meet date.

Challenges/Issues

No issues have arised at this time. Everything is running smoothly and productively.

Week 5 Project Progress

Features/Tasks

• Finished Deliverable 1 - As a team, we finished up the third section of the vision and scope document. This included coming up with the finalized list of the scope of initial release and formatting the list. Next, as a team, we finished section 4 of the Vision and Scope Document. Lastly, we submitted Deliverable 1 to the dropbox (This took about 2 hours).
• On Sunday, we met with the CEO of mosaically and talked with him about some of the things we had done in the past and what we were going to be doing. Later, we also asked him about some use cases that we were unsure about. Also, as a team, we discussed the list of use cases and came up with all of the use cases we though were pertinent to the project and ran them by the CEO for approval. Following that, we briefly detailed the use cases with a short description of what that use case entails. (This took about 2 hours)
  

Next Week's Features/Tasks

• Finish Detailing Use Cases (Eric Gardan) - 1hour
  
• Review and approve use cases (Rest of team) - 1 hour
  
• Have the CEO Review and approve Use Cases (Team) - 1 hour
  
• Assign Use Cases priority (Team) -1 hour
  
• Divide the 5 top use cases for each member of the team and each person complete their respective use case (Team) - 2 hours
  
• Meet as a group and review the 5 use cases and make changes if necessary(Team) - 1 hour
• Review the top 5 Use Cases with CEO (Team) - 1-2 hours
• Meet as a team to discuss the weekends activities and divide work if necessary (Team) - 1 hour

Challenges/Issues

• No Challenges or Issues at the moment.
  

Week 4 Status

Quick status summary from previous post:

  - Team Task Schedule Finished

  - Vision and Scope document nearly complete, needs proofreading

 and final polishing, etc

  - Planning on meeting Saturday 4/4 for review/approval by the CEO

Earlier this week the team went down to the office of Mosaically Inc. and met the CEO and President, Seong Yup Yoo. The office is located in RIT's Incubator and, while a bit small, it is a great environment for a newly forming business. As you would probably guess, there were a bunch of high quality large mosaic prints on the walls and around the office, each of them providing a unique example of how different potential markets would be using this service.

Shortly after walking into the office, Seong Yup Yoo handed us Non-Compete forms to fill out. He would be sharing us a lot of sensitive data with us; I doubt that anyone in the team would use any of this information for other benefits, but you never know. After signing, Seong Yup Yoo introduced us to the business with a powerpoint presentation he made for potential investors. A lot of the information we already knew (from Eric), but there were a lot of new examples of target markets that we did not talk about previously. If the business follows through with its expected sales estimates, it is going to bring in quite a sum in its first year!

After the presentation, we went back to work on the Vision and Scope document. Working with the CEO nearby was useful, since we could ask him any questions that arose while working on the document. Also, the current implementation of Mosaically has a bunch of requirements and design documentation, which made requirements elicitation for the improved process rather straightforward.

After finishing another section of the Vision and Scope document, we wrote up a flexible schedule for the rest of the quarter of when the team would be working on deliverables. As the team was getting ready to leave, Seong Yup Yoo mentions to the team that part-time positions were available at Mosaically that would count as class credit for "Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creations". We made plans for the team to meet at the office again a week later and called it a day.

Week 3 Status Report

This week our project activities consisted of beginning the requirements process for improving Mosaically.com. The way we decided to implement the first phase of this project (deliverable 1) was to complete all of the documentation together as a group. Since this deliverable consists mainly on the vision and scope document, working together appeared to be the most appropriate method so each person will get a better understanding of the system. At the moment, this technique appears to be helping each of the team members, giving them a chance to increase their knowledge of how the website currently works and where it can be improved.

We met a total of one times this week, on Sunday from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. In this period we accomplished the following tasks:

1. Discussed what items must be completed for deliverable 1 – This task was worked on by all of the team members for a total of thirty minutes. During this time we checked what items would be due for the first deliverable and decided on the best approach to successfully complete it. This was the starting point that we chose for this project and was an appropriate area for our team to begin at.
2. Began the vision and scope document – This task was worked on by all team members for approximately an hour and a half. During this time, we only worked on section one, which talked about how the product currently operates, where we want it to go, and how it competes with other systems on the market. All we wanted to complete in this document this week was enough to give each member an understanding of how the system functions. With this knowledge, each individual can apply concepts and techniques learned from class or the readings in the following week to this project. By doing this, it will allow us to diversify the thought put into the document and create a better suited collaboration of information that will be included in this project.
   

While working on these tasks we ran into the following challenges:

1. None - We have yet to encounter any issues or challenges which we couldn’t deal with. The project is still in its early stages, so it is unlikely that any big problems would have erupted in such a short period.

Overall, we accomplished a good amount in only two hours. However, since deliverable one is due this week, we will have to speed up our efforts to meet the deadline. We plan to work on the following items this coming week:

1. Complete the vision and scope document – This is the main focus of deliverable one, so it is our top priority to complete. The first section of this document has been finished, so we only have three more until it is done. I estimate that it will take us three hours to complete the remaining areas of the file with all team members working on the item together.
2. Create a project schedule – This is another item that is required for deliverable one. We will be going through all of the tasks that we must complete and generate an appropriate schedule that we will use to approach the different deliverable tasks this quarter. I estimate that this task will take us one hour to complete with all team members working on the item together.

At our current pace, we should be able to finish deliverable one in a decent amount of time (estimate is 4.5 hours). We are planning to meet on Sunday this week, where we hoping to complete most of the items listed above.

Deciding on a Project/Weekly Work:

Once we formed our group, we ended up narrowing down our ideas to two projects that we were particularly interested in. These two projects were:

1) PSP Remote Desktop Application - Mark is looking to develop a better Remote Desktop Application for the PSP than that which is currently out. Although Mark would be the primary stakeholder, the homebrew community itself is also a stakeholder, and could provide for an interesting dynamic.

2) Mosaically.com Improvement Project - This would primarily focus on improving the customer experience and adding social sharing capabilities to Mosaically.com's existing design. At the same time, it would involve removing the manual element of creating mosaics, so that it can become and easier and more enjoyable experience for users.
We were all pretty hesitant to decide on which project we wanted to work on, so after an exercise in democracy and then in unbiased decision making, we chose the Mosaically.com Improvement Project.

This week, we worked on deciding the elicitation techniques for the project. I won't post the full details here, but in general the elicitation techniques we decided on were:

Questionnaires - Easy to distribute and to manage, these could be easily given to current users of the system and focus on how the system might best be improved. By distributing the questionnaire over a medium such as a forum, we could obtain large amounts of feedback to help us determine the most important aspects that need to be improved.

Use Cases - Being that this product focuses very heavily on user interaction, use cases provide the perfect medium for specifying our requirements. We intend to start by creating a list of use case scenarios based on the information obtained from the questionnaires and talking to our primary stakeholder. As a team, we would then detail and refine each use case to best fit the needs of the user.

Study Similar Products - This is a fairly unique method of gathering requirements, since there are actually competing products we can use to compare against. We'd start by researching what competition exists and look at their feature sets. Combining this with our questionnaires and use cases, we can determine which features are most used in competing products, and tailor our improvement to these areas.

Of course, we'll also be having face-to-face meetings and e-mails with our client, but these three methods best reflected how we would obtain requirements which met the needs of both the primary stakeholder and the end user.

Non-Disclosure

Hey guys, I just found out that we will need to sign a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement. Not a big deal, just some red tape. I'll let you guys know when i find out more.

Requirements Elicitation

As a team we discussed and detailed 3 of our main elicitation techniques
Questionnaires
Use Cases
Study Similar Products

(See Activity 3.16.doc in the group locker)