Difference between revisions of "2010T1 The Green Reapers: Final Presentation"
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*The tagging infrastructure of the Web CMS allows articles to be easily tagged and retrieved. By doing so, we are able to scale easily if there is going to be more information added to the data repository. Retrieval via the IVR menu system would also be more efficient through this infrastructure. | *The tagging infrastructure of the Web CMS allows articles to be easily tagged and retrieved. By doing so, we are able to scale easily if there is going to be more information added to the data repository. Retrieval via the IVR menu system would also be more efficient through this infrastructure. | ||
*Preview of recorded call contribution from IVR and allow users to transcribe the recorded call audio to text through wordpress. | *Preview of recorded call contribution from IVR and allow users to transcribe the recorded call audio to text through wordpress. | ||
− | *Skype plugin integration [http://www.intellicrops.com/wordpress here] | + | *Skype plugin integration on live application can bee accessed [http://www.intellicrops.com/wordpress here] |
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Revision as of 01:41, 29 November 2010
Contents
Project Progress Summary
Project Highlights:
What unexpected events occurred and how were they handled?
Project Challenges:
Client/users situated in Philippines |
Our partner (IRRI) is largely situated in Philippines gave us valuable feedback in validating Intellicrops. We had to conduct meetings via Skype or teleconference with the team at Philippines. Meeting up with IRRI's team at Singapore, gave us valuable feedback on farmers, extension workers and researchers expectations and daily activities.
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Connecting to IRRI's database directly |
Connecting to IRRI's database will allow us to structure information, and retrieve latest updates as quick as possible. But they had to talk to their lawyers which would take at least 9 months.
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Validation with actual users of Intellicrops |
Validating our idea with actual users will be a challenge, as we are targeting rice farmers, extension workers and scientists mostly based in developing worlds.
Jul-15 : Discussion with IRRI about NMS
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Project Achievements:
- Our motivation to aid in United Nations Millennium Development Goals
- Architecture
- Integrating various technologies for a scalable information distribution, without reliance on a single technology as we moved from proprietary (Microsoft powered technologies) to Open Source
- Partner's(IRRI) validation
Project Schedule (Planned Vs Actual):
- On the whole, we've completed all planned functionality on schedule.
- Our flexible system architecture further allowed us to complete additional functionality such as the Knowledge Navigator.
- We were able to forge a close relationship with IRRI, and are most appreciative of their close guidance throughout the project.
- Core system functionality was completed by Iteration 6
- We did not have to dip into our planned buffer time.
- Instead, we dedicated that time to enhancing the usability and reliability of our components.
- With the extra time, we were able to complete 3 rounds of functional testing with IRRI and 2 rounds of usability testing by the end of the project.
- We added Iteration 7 that focuses solely on usability enhancements based on the testing.
- We completed everything in good time and quality.
Planned | Actual | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Activity | Start Date | End Date | Activity | Start Date | End Date | Comments | |
Our schedule changes are detailed [on this separate page] |
Quality of Project
Our project is a seamless integration of open source and existing technologies, coupled with an extensible and scalable architecturial design. Our Architecture
Improvements after Usability & Functional testing
IVR
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Data Analytics
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Web CMS Team
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Project Deliverables:
Stage | Specification | Modules |
Project Management | Minutes | Communication and Decision Log |
Metrics | Bug metrics | |
Risk Management | Risk Management | |
Schedule | ||
Analysis | Use case | Overall |
Screen Shots | Features | |
Design | Architecture | Principles and Considerations |
Testing | Functional Testing | Methodology, Test Plans and Results |
Usability Testing | Methodology, Test Plans and Results | |
Handover | Deployment | Instructions |
Please refer to our Architecture Page for more details about how we addressed issues such as:
- Scalability
- Maintainability
- Configurability
- Flexibility
- Usability
- Performance
Testing:
Testing is a vital component of our project and these is done to ensure Intellicrops is usable by IRRI and the general public. We adopted a dual approach namely: Functional Testing and Task-Based Testing.
Functional Testing
We conducted 3 rounds of functional testing with IRRI.
Twice at IRRI Singapore Headquarter at NUS with Miss Tara and Mr Duncan, Head of Development (Philippines), Executive Director (Singapore) Remote testing with Mr Marco, Head of Information Technology Services, who is based at IRRI Philippines through Skype.
We have conducted 3 functional tests with IRRI. Besides usability concerns and technical complexity, the expanded focus was on functional requirements, technical feasibility and practical considerations. As this is a exploratory system, the exact system requirements is unknown. We kept talking to IRRI to ensure that the system requirements were of use to them. We also took note of technical feasibility in terms of whether our Intellicrops system will be able to integrate with their current systems such as the Nutrient Management System. Practical Considerations were also noted on how intellicrops would aid IRRI current system in the real world.
Please refer to our Functional Test page for more details
Usability Testing
For our UAT, we conducted the test by breaking them up into 2 tests of 30 friends each.
They come from a mixed background and we have about 45 of them being non technical users. The reason for choosing mainly non-technical users is that our target audiences are Scientists, Researchers, Extension Workers and Farmers, whom may not understand the underlying technical complexities of IntelliCrops. This was why we felt that it was suitable to have a larger proportionate of non technical users.
The first Usability Tests was performed in End Oct after Iteration 6 and the 2nd Usability Test was conducted in mid Nov, Iteration 7.
We created several questionaires through Google Spreadsheets and performed some task-based testing for each our the 3 major components of IntelliCrops. The tests were unassisted as far as possible to model real-life task goals. The users were merely given a test plan with a sequence of steps to follow to achieve a desired outcome which was to complete the task. This allowed us to focus on the usability and discoverability of human computer interaction and to see where there may be areas that can be improved.
Test Scenarios
- IVR - Users were given a test plan which stepped them through on finding a fact sheet on organic rice. Users would call in our IVR system through Skype and attempt to input the correct key presses in the dialpad to retrieve the required information.
- Knowledge Navigator - Users will be going through the Knowledge Navigator in an attempt to retrieve the suitable fact sheet and answer on Organic Rice.
- Data Analytics portion - Users were tasked to create charts that showed the following: total number of calls that come from each country and different average monthly call durations of each country.
Please refer to our Usability Test page for more details.
Reflection
The Green Reapers' Reflection:
Marcus's Reflection:
Through learning to integrate WP with the various technologies was truly an eye opener. However, the biggest takeaway I had was really having to source for our own client and being able to align our needs with them. In addition, because our client was largely situated overseas, I learnt how to condense the information to be put across to them and also to gather as much information and requirements from them to be as accurate as possible. Working in a self managed team was extremely comfortable also as all of us were flexible and provided help to other teams when needed. |
Wei Han's Reflection:
Being able to work towards a noble and social cause have been very intriguing for me, we're not driven to make more profits but rather putting what we have learnt to good cause of improving the lives of others On the technical side, through developing intellicrops IVR menus and Knowledge management navigator, being the front interface aggregating information from distinctly different platform and languages have exposed me to many inter-platform/inter-language technologies and work arounds. The knowledge navigator is such an example, running on PHP utilizing javascript jquery UI as its display library drawing data from both a mysql database and a .net aspx http request for data population. Issues were then encountered where codes were working perfectly fine for a particular browser and not work at all on another. As there were no direct remedy to the issue, a work around of interfacing JQuery UI to another php class acting as the intermediary which makes the call to the .net http request and present the information back to the jquery. |
Edwin's Reflection:
The project has opened my mind in using technology to help farmers around the world. Bringing the project from Imagine Cup, to getting a client, was an unexpected journey. The discussions we have in the team to make things simple for our system, together with our client was very fruitful. Key takeaways for me are: |
Lucas's Reflection:
It has been truly a wonderful experience to work on this unique project, especially with a client like IRRI which gave us a great deal amount of information to work on and also provided an insight on how their 50-year old organisation work together to provide a better farming experience for the farmers in Philppines. Customizing/editing the Wordpress CMS themes, plugins, functions to ensure our Wordpress CMS integrates well together with the rest of our Intellicrops system. Using remote procedure calling using HTTP as the transport and XML as the encoding to allow the IVR systems to post and interact with the Wordpress CMS . |
Fengnan's Reflection:
Working on this project has increased my exposure on open architecture visual analytics codes and its development. This involves multiple technologies which are relatively new to me before the project, like JSON, Ajax, as well as many JQuery technologies. These technologies work hand in hand to create the data analytics feature that IRRI needs. Through the whole process and integration of the technologies, I was able to have a better understanding and appreciation of the whole data analytics process. The analytics process that was firmly embedded into my understanding: Working with the team also improved my task priority management skills due to juggling different tasks with different complexity over a tight timeline. |
Alvin's Reflection:
IntelliCrops has been a very special and exciting experience. At its core, the project is a thoughtful and loving integration of our collective passions and experiences in domains such as technology, social sciences and developmental work. Working at the intersections of these interests gave us the inspiration and boldness to explore a unique combination of technologies and concepts that showcases the great social impact of IT. Looking back on how we've managed project resources, interacted with our mentors and testers, and designed and built robust macro and micro architectures, I've certainly honed my skills in: - Visualizing at the various scales of projects, technologies and architectures - Communicating complex technologies to both developers and users - Specifying architecture and interface designs and implementing them (e.g. creating the new graphing system) - Exploring unique interdisciplinary niches and sharing our visions for that space Most of all, I've gained the confidence and drive to seek out such innovative projects! |
Partner's Comment:
IntelliCrops is an extremely good tool to retrieve articles and information. I am extremely impressed that you guys have been able to put IVR onto Skype. This is a good piece of software that we would want to pick up for further development. The analytics feature is extremely useful. Currently, the NMS is not that heavily used yet, but we will integrate the analytics in as soon as we can. It would be great if you are able to support pre-recorded voices instead of the computer generated voice.The tagging infrastructure is unique and very useful, it may allows us to organise large chunks of information better. |
I would like to commend your team on its professionalism, particularly in the face of challenges that came up along the way. The needs of the agricultural sector were, I know, not familiar to any of you but you were able to grasp the context quickly and apply your technical skills appropriately. I also think the various elements of the project have the potential to be very useful for us or for similar platforms. The analytics component in particular is suitable for application, with not many tweaks necessary. As for future collaborations, we are as always open to them. However, as you know, privacy issues regarding the content and data can make full collaboration difficult. Also, the limitations on the technical team's time to dedicate to such short-term projects can make it challenging. However, we would be happy to stay in touch with SIS in the future. |
It is great to be able to port the rice doctor, such a large repository of information onto the mobile! |