week10

The actual development are started this week, then we found that we need to make some changes in our database structure, in order to match our coding. So, which means some of the diagram we finished need to do some change as well.

This week was quite smooth, everyone seems know what they are doing and all focus on their own staff. I was doing some research online for the web hosting, and finished up the class diagram, they are all done by Friday, so I believe part of the group will start to look at the documentation from next week.

Because we are a bit behind the dateline, therefore we need to catch up. We try to separate our group into two teams. One is doing the development, another will do the documentation. And try to finish all the staff in week 13. That means we only have 3 weeks left to deliver the finial product. Hope everything will be done by then.

week9

Yeah~~~Finally we hand in the functional spec. after thousand times of changes. Dave show us the screen design today, they look very good, the colour and design are all matching the current website of VIC ICT for woman.

With the design spec. the DSD and domain model are done. I need to do the class diagram base on the domain model, Andy is trying to figure out how to do a view diagram. Hai and Dang are doing the sequence diagram. Dave need to write some description for the screens. These are waht we up to so far. Hai actually impress me this week, he was doing the sequence diagram during the class, and he really come up with some questions that we never think of before. Well done, Hai.

The Development will be start soon, but one thing do worry us, we still don't have any feedback from Bianca about our functional spec. During my smoking break, I had a chat with David Grant about our client, he said around 30%-50% of our class have the same bad experience with clients. So, I asked is that because we didn't charge them, he said if we charge them of cause client will be more aggressive, but in the other hand we will ask for a lot more in a shorter period of time and try to ask for something may not even been done.

The information David gave me really make me think a lot, after all we are still student, still been protect by the university, we will not facing any legal issue if client want to sue us. It still have some levels of different between real world. Although our client are not prefect, but I believe we are still very lucky, thanks for the information, Dave.

week7

It seems like everyone did have a good time during Easter break, so now is time to get back to work. The situation now is only "WE" get back to work, but not the "client". We still have no communication with the client, therefore, after talk with David Grant we made a decision. We will continue what we are doing now. We hand in the function spec., and once the client available, we will have a meeting with her and ask her to sign off the functional spec. and the user acceptance criteria.

SO, we start our design spec. everyone are busy with all different diagram, such as class diagram, domain model, site map, DSD etc.. Once we start doing it, we realise that our database structure are massive. There may be more than 100 attributes within 15+ tables in our final database.

Other thing is we need to work with other group to create a database which is suitable for both group to use. The reason for doing this is to give our client an opportunity to using the same database to support different program or application. It cam also reduce the data redundancy in database.

week6

This week is the week before Easter break, looks that everyone all have some plan for the break. I will go to Adelaide during the break, and so is Andy. I do not about the rest of the group, so we need to sign some tasks for each one before the break.

As we almost finish the functional spec. we need to start our user acceptance criteria and most important the screen design need to be done, which will gives the client an idea what the system will be like and make sure all the functions are includes. Therefore Dave is the one who need to do it. so, hopefully, the screens will be ready after the break.

Another thing is we give David Grant a look of our draft of functional spec. There are some parts need to be either change or redo. So, I will need to works with Andy to fix some of our use case, and this have to be done by the end of this week.

For Easter I need to work on the normalisation, and try to understand what is the 5th normal form. The things is we never done or learned anything about 5th normal form before. So, I believe we have to do a lots of research about it during the break.

I thinks this is all we have so far, and because I will be away for 4 days during the breaks, therfore I may need to start to do things earlier, and also wish everyone will finish their tasks during the break.

Week5

Big week, we tried to email Bianca few times, but we did not get any reply yet. If she still not replying, I think we will need to report the situation to David. Otherwise, things actually going very good, we nearly finish our functional spec report, and will start our acceptance report very soon.

While me and Andy trying to finish up the functional spec, others in the group are starting to design the database of our project. The thing is we need to work with the other group because our client are the same and we trying to create one database which can be use by both project. Therefore, everyday a new database diagram will come out and we will discuss these new idea with David.

One thing really concern me is the easter break is coming up, and we are a bit behind the schedule with our deliverable. The reason is we miscalculate the time when we were doing the governance and standard report. The thing worry me is some members in our group is not coefficient enough, a easy task will takes them couple of days to finish. Hopefully, they will doing better when the design and development parts coming.

Overall, things not really too bad, coz when we doing the database diagram, I can see that everyone are having the skill and able to join the discussion. So, I believe we are on the right track.

Week3

This week I was sick on Monday, actually I wasn’t really sick, just want to stay at home in order to finish the risk report. Sorry, everyone and Dave. I am the only one in our team have done the risk report before. So, I spent my whole day at home doing some research and try to think of all risks that may be occur during the project. I was study “internet security” before with Sue Foster; it really helps me a lot. I start to relies that everything I had learn in previous semester become very useful when doing the IE project, I can now refer to something I was done or learn before, and they all become my reference or template, which I can use when I need to do the reports.

So, on Tuesday I go to class with my report. Every team members seems very happy with my work. It really make me feel food, I ask David Grant to have a look as well, he said I done too much than he expect. It actually encourage me a lot, so now I have more time to help others to finish the governance, standard, and business case reports. And Andy just tell everyone that we will have another meeting with Bianca (our client) on Thursday. In this meeting, we will make sure we understand what is the project scope and what are the functions will include in the new system.

It was very hot on Thursday, but I still now to suit up for the client meeting, its really killing me especially the tie. But, thanks god Andy can give me a ride to city, otherwise I will need to sit on the tram with air conditioning, and pass out when I arrive city. The meeting starts at 3pm, me, Andy, Kon, and Hai are all there, we discuss many things with Bianca. Firstly, we start to draw out all the functions on the white board and try to understand what is the process now, and what is Bianca expect in the new system. And by doing this we can have better understanding of the project, and any extra requirements from Bianca. At least, we got the Access file which contains the current database she using, we help it can help us to understand the data structure with the membership system. After the meeting, we received an email from Kon, he wasn't very happy with the way we ran meeting. He said we should be more professional, like we can prepare the questions list and send to Bianca before the meeting, and some of the questions we can just email Bianca without actually run meetings. I think she is right, we should prepare more when we have meeting next time.

Week2

This week we got the project, that means we will actually start our project from this week. In Monday class, we decide to finish our governance and standards reports as far as we can in this week. Andy will email our client this week, and arrange for our first meeting. And also we set task for each member of governance and standards reports. I think the things really heating up now, we all start to find out there are many things we are not sure about, so we need to set our first meeting with client as soon as we can. But, there are still things we can prepare first. We actually working very hard, hope we are on the right track.

On Friday, we had our first client meeting, things go pretty well as we expected. We introduce our team and explain what we are doing to Bianca. And she give us a quick overview of Victoria ICT for women, the nature of the business, and what she expect from us. The whole meeting goes for around 45 minutes, I think Bianca is quite supportive, she seems does not have a strong IT background, but she knows what she want from our project and I believe that we had a successful first meeting with our client.