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IS480 Team wiki: 2011T1 TheTalkies Final

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Project Progress Summary

Main wiki page

Mid-term wiki page

Project Highlights:

Changes in Application

  • Synchronous to Asynchronous

This is a major change occurred in system architecture after midterm stage. When the application was first designed, the components and functions of the application had been set to work synchronously with each other due to the interdependence of the outcomes between them. This system design caused a lot of issues on the performance and usability of the application. So we decided to change it to work asynchronously without waiting for the results of other components. A lot of logical changes have been done and when the components are able to work asynchronously, there is a massive boost in performance as we expected.

Changes in Scope

  • Dropped Friend Stream Function

We dropped the function "Friend Stream" which we assigned as optional feature in our proposal. The reason is mainly due to the existence of serious performance issue in the application. The application's failure to run seamlessly during midterm period caused a setback in team progress. So we decided to drop the non-compulsory function "Friend Stream" to focus more on the quality attributes such as performance, reliability, etc.

  • Dropped Mobile Version Feature

We decided not to implement mobile version of our application which is assigned as optional feature in our proposal. One of the main reason is GermaniumWeb doesn't support mobile operation systems yet. Since our application's essence lies in integration of Twitter with 3D models of SMU, we decided not to continue on this feature to focus on improving quality of existing features.

Project Challenges:

  • Familiarizing with Germanium API and 3D Modelling

We don't have any experience regarding to 3D Modelling. We started the project early to have enough time to learn 3D Modelling ourselves. Moreover, we divided the team into 3 groups in the way that one group will learn 3D Modelling, one group learn GermaniumAPI and the other for Twitter. After every meeting, we learn from each other. This definitely help the team to have stronger bonding and accelerate with specialization. Moreover, we had a few times of consultation and hand-on learning from GermaniumWeb Office for both Germanium API and 3D Modelling.

  • Learning Twitter API and filtering results

Connection with Twitter using OAuth is not easy initially because it involves a lot of steps going back and forth from Twitter Server and client side and involving session keys. Once we can connect to Twitter server, it is easy to use RESTful API because of its comprehensive tutorials and documentations. However, it may return the false dataset for geo-location . So, we have to implement another layer of filtering for geo-location result set.

Project Achievements:

  • Schedule

When we were scheduling our project, we tried to plan it in such a way that the coding of functional requirements could be finished as early as prior to midterm presentation. We pushed all the bug-fix and performance-tuning tasks of each function to the iterations in post-midterm period. This approach clearly helps us in preventing our team from using "Waterfall Process" involuntarily in which we might never re-visit or revise it again when we finished a feature. The agile methodology we used not only forces us to go over to the features we previously developed for bug-fixing and backward compatibility checking but also gives the stakeholders (sponsor and users) an overview idea of how each of the features works and interrelations between them.

  • Process

Although it is not new, meetings every beginning and end of iteration help the team focus on schedule. We check the status of tasks from current iterations and we plan the tasks for coming iteration in such meeting. It provides us flexibility so that we can always adjust the time and the tasks according to the current situations.

  • Teamwork

Our application has 3 main parts: GermaniumWeb, Twitter, Back-end. Each of us have a hand on every part of the application. So, the application stands out as a consistent and cohesive application and it reflects teamwork rather than putting 6 separate parts together. As a team, we learned and mastered Twitter API and GermaniumWeb API.

Project Management

Provide more details about the status, schedule and the scope of the project. Describe the complexity of the project.

Project Schedule (Plan Vs Actual):

After consideration of feedback from mid-term presentations and UAT 1, we decided to focus on usability and quality of the application. So, we decided to drop Friend Stream feature which is default and redundant feature of Official Twitter application and mobile version of the application which has a few technical and time limitation to implement. Our previous sponsor left the company and we have to contact with new sponsor. However, new sponsor is happy with our application and progress. So, we don't really need to change the scope. After Iteraion 8, the status of our development is completed successfully.

Iteration Planned Actual Comments
-
  • Buffer Period: 21 Sept - 4 Oct (Week 8)
  • Buffer Period: 21 Sept - 4 Oct (Week 8)
    • Bug fixing from UAT 1
    • Improve from mid-term presentation feedback

Some members went for trips. But we work on bugs and feedback as much as possible.

6
  • Period: 4 Oct - 17 Oct
  • Features
    • Logging
    • Performance Tuning
    • UI Revamp
    • Modelling SOA building
    • Friend Stream
  • Period: 4 Oct - 17 Oct
  • Features
    • Logging (as planned)
    • Performance Tuning (as planned)
    • UI Revamp (as planned)
    • Modelling of SOA builing (as planned)
    • Bug fixing from UAT 1
    • Improve from mid-term presentation feedback

Dropped Friend stream feature.

7
  • Period: 18 Oct - 31 Oct
  • Features
    • UI Revamp
    • 3D Compilation
    • All-time users and trends
    • Mobile Interface
  • Period: 18 Oct - 31 Oct
  • Features
    • UI Revamp (as planned)
    • 3D Compilation (as planned)
    • All-time users and trends (as planned)

Dropped mobile interface.

8
  • Period: 1 Nov - 14 Nov
  • Feature
    • House keeping
    • Documentations
    • UAT 2
  • Period: 1 Nov - 14 Nov
  • Feature
    • House keeping (as planned)
    • Documentations (as planned)
    • UAT 2 (as planned)

Completed as planned.

Project Metrics:

Summary of analysis for the metrics collected. You may refer to another page for the details about the metrics and how it is collected.

Technical Complexity:

Describe and list the technical complexity of your project in order of highest complexity first. For example, deploying on iPhone using Objective-C, customizing Drupal with own database, quick search for shortest flight path, database structure, etc.

Quality of product

Project Deliverables:

Stage Specification Modules
Project Management Minutes Sponsor weeks -10 -5 3 7 Supervisor weeks -2 3 5 7
Metrics
Schedules Details schedules
Analysis Screen Shots before Acceptance Presentation
Screen Shots after Acceptance Presentation
Screen Shots after Mid-term Presentation
Design ER Diagram 1, 2, 3
Class Diagram 1, 2, 3
Testing Test plan Test Plan Instructions
UAT 1
UAT 2
Handover Manuals Developer's code organization manual
Code Hosted on Client's PHPFog server
System Architecture System Architecture

Not all parts of the deliverables are necessary but the evidence should be convincing of the scope.

Quality:

Explain the quality attributes (non functional) of your project deliverable. Have you designed the architecture, use a design pattern, etc? Does your architecture address scalability, performance, reliability, availability, fault tolerance, usability, etc. Does your design address maintainability, flexibility, configuration, etc. Be brief here but you can link to diagrams or code detail pages. Do not repeat the technical complexity part, link to it if necessary.

Performance and Scalability

Although it is a web application, 3DSocializer does most of its functions at client side using client side scripting technology such as Javascript. So the major part of application will not burden much on the server resource which adds scalability in terms of server resources. However, it has a limited scalability on the number of tweets that it can handle in a period of time. The issue is identifiable when a large amount of tweet feeds are returned from twitter in a very short period of time, the application in user's browser will have some slow responses. This scalability issue is mainly due to processing in some resource intensive components such as 3D which is not easily solvable by the team.

Configurability

Some of the configurable parameters of the application are defined in an XML formatted config file.

Maintainability

A code organization guide is documented for easier maintainability of the source codes in the future.

Deployment:

Application has been deployed at 3DSocializer

Testing:

Describe the testing done on your system. For example, the number of UAT, tester profile, test cases, survey results, issue tracker, bug reports, etc.

Reflection

Compile common lessons and reflection for the team and for each team member. Be brief.

Team Reflection:

Key lessons learned – indicating where the team improved, or would do things differently next time. You may refer to the learning outcome summary in your proposal. A very short checklist style will suffice. It would be very convincing if the knowledge is share at the wiki knowledge base and linked here.

We learned Twitter ( knowledge base).

We learned how to use GermaniumWeb platform to create 3D application on web ( knowledge base).

Individual Reflection:

Describe in a paragraph, the key areas of learning or improvement. These should be personal areas of growth or learning. Each individual should list his/her effort, responsibility, actual contributions and personal reflection. Do not repeat team project contributions or member roles. Link if necessary.

Sometimes, the client writes a report to feedback on the system; this sponsor report can be included or linked from here.