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INFO 424Team Project Practicum

Week 7 – Feedback, User docs, Presentation tips

Glenn BookerNotes partly from Prof. Hislop

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Agenda

• Feedback from review reports and draft SDS’

• User documents

• Implementation plans

• Presentation tips

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Review Report Reminders

• Goal is to find defects– As many as possible

• Avoid– Writing new requirements– Making value judgments about requirements– Making assumptions about the target

environment– Raising policy issues

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SDS Problem Themes

• Good individual work but not integrated– Especially diagrams vs. Detailed Design

• Screen hierarchy diagrams vs. individual screen entities

• ER Diagrams vs. database table entities

– Class diagram vs. sequence diagrams– Sequence diagrams should be based on a

written main success scenario and extensions for that use case

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SDS Problem Themes

• Connecting design elements to requirements

• These are bad signs:– “Requirement – There is no reference to this

section in the SRS as it is strictly design specific”

– “Requirement – To store information of the users”

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SDS Problem Themes

• Providing complete designs– Continuing to describe features instead of

designing– Not specifying complete design elements

• Watch phrases like “including”, “such as”, and “etc.”

– By the time you get through SDS section 4, the system should be fully specified

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SDS Problem Themes

• Remember the SDS should be clear and complete enough you could hand it off to a herd of developers and they could finish creating the system, at least through cycle 1 functionality– Even if it’s different from what you envision,

it would fulfill the requirements and design

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User Documents

• User documentation for a project could include many kinds of documents, depending on the nature and design of the system and its users– User manual (as in RTFM)– Installation guide– Debugging or maintenance guide– Help menus or utilities

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User manual

• The User manual is usually designed for novice users of the system– Generally organized by the type of task they

need to perform– Lots of screen caps and explicit instructions– Written in conversational tone– Be clear what the expected outcome of each

step is, and what to do if it doesn’t work

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Installation guide

• May seem obvious or not be needed (e.g. for web-based systems)– Keep in mind everyone isn’t as computer

literate as you are!– Could be a brief set of instructions on how to

use the installer utility, particularly for CD or DVD-based software distribution

– Might have separate instructions for the client and server components of the system

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Debugging or maintenance guide

• More complex systems might be maintained locally, so they need help with debugging or troubleshooting common problems with the system– Often used with hardware-intensive systems– Organize by the type of problem found, and

describe what to do about it– Might be part of the user manual, e.g. for a

printer

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Help menus

• The most common form of user docs at this point, most systems should have some form of help available– Could be context-sensitive or not

• All forms of user docs should include contact info for problem reporting

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Implementation Plans

• What do you plan to do for cycle 1 implementation?– Aim for full usable implementation of one

or two important functions, not partial implementation of a bunch of stuff

– Set a good precedent for interface elements that will appear throughout the system

• The look and feel of your system should be apparent

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Term Presentation

• Content– Project overview

• Summary of requirements and design• Definition of cycle 1

– Project result• Demo of cycle 1 prototype

– Project experience• Good and bad; lessons learned, what worked

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Term Presentation

• Approach– Professional, business style presentation

• Dress• Presentation materials

– One or several presenters, your choice– Maximum time: 10 minutes

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Term Presentation

• Evaluation rubric– Content (40%)– Organization (20%)– Time (8%)– Visual Aids (8%)– Speech Patterns, Elocution (8%)– Enthusiasm, Eye Contact, Posture, Gestures

(8%)– Dress (8%)

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Term Presentation

• The content of your presentation is critical– Select content that is concise and clear– What is most important for us to know?

• Make sure the presentation is organized– Adult audiences like to know where this is

heading; it’s not a mystery play– Be ready to show your presentation

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Term Presentation

• Stay within the time limit– If you don’t, the organization score is also

often poor

• Visual aids– Pick appropriate visual aids

• Not necessarily PowerPoint!• Hardware? Whiteboard?

– Use of figures

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Term Presentation

• Speech pattern, elocution– Avoid filler words (um, er, uh, …)

• Brief silence is a lot better!

– Speak slower and louder than normal, or we can’t understand or hear you

• Enthusiasm, etc.– Pretend to be confident, even if you aren’t– Make eye contact with the audience (not just

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Term Presentation

– Stand up straight, don’t slouch (yes, I am your mother); it makes a difference in the impression you make

– Remember to breathe, relax– Don’t fidget, it’s distracting

• Dress appropriately– I don’t expect Armani suits, but something

nicer than shorts and flip-flops would be good

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