The End of Semester Document
RWL

 
Fall Semester 2000 
11/16/2000 

Document Author:

Brett Keenan

Project Sponsors:

Lockheed Martin:

Scott Hoyle
David Morgan
Shane Mueller

Project Team:

Brett Keenan (Manager) 
Tamrah Snyder (Technical Writer) 
Michael Emard (Architect) 
Jeff Hicks (Process) 
Levi Smith (Developer) 
Eric Kramber (Tester) 

Project Advisor:

David Smith


Summary of Significant Accomplishments for the Semester


Problems Encountered this Semester

Though we did encounter several problems in the beginning of the semester, our team managed to fulfill the goals that were set by our clients.  We were forced to change our short-term plan in the third week of this semester.  Last semester’s group provided a database in Microsoft Access that we originally planned to export into SQL Server.  Upon examination of this database with our client, it was decided that the Access database should not be used, but rather, we would need to create a new one.  Rather than working on the front-end aspects of this product this semester, we changed our short-term plan so we would have the back end completed instead.  We have made many revisions and additions to the database this semester, and it has been approved by our clients, therefore this problem should not occur in the future.  Problems such as this can be partially avoided if the previous group provides ample documentation along with the products they develop in the semester.

We also ran into problems looking for necessary software licenses that we needed in order to do development.  Our clients wanted us to use SQL Server to create our database, however licenses for this product are expensive.  We were able to obtain all the necessary software and were doing development by the seventh week of the semester.  Our team has obtained all the software which will be needed to develop Lockheed’s device monitoring system, therefore future groups working on this project will simply need the server and client laptops which have been provided for development.
We had hardware problems with one of the laptops Lockheed provided us as well.  The client laptop was unable to connect to the LAN we were using.  This problem was solved after we changed operating systems to Windows 98 as opposed to Windows NT, and should not happen again.

Meeting with our clients has been difficult as well this semester.  Because our clients are located in Moorestown, New Jersey, we are only able to meet with them via conference calls, though Scott Hoyle, our main client, has met with us in person several times.  Further, our clients typically work until around 5:00 pm each day, and leave their office, while the best time for our team to meet is usually at night after classes.  We handled this problem by having a scheduled meeting time of 11:00 am every Friday, which was our regularly scheduled Real World Lab class time.  We did not meet with our client every week, but they were available at that time for collaboration if we had questions.  Future teams working on Lockheed’s project should plan to have a tentative meeting time with the client each week during the regular workday to keep communication open with them.

Finally, at times, communication within our group was difficult due to everyone’s busy schedules.  There were several instances of weekly goals not being met simply because people were busy with other classes or work.  This did not cause major setbacks because other group members helped to complete these unaccomplished tasks.  To avoid this potentially costly problem in the future, teams are encouraged to communicate problems within the group, and if a task is more difficult than first expected, group members should tell their manager as soon as possible.  Team members are encouraged to look at their schedules and recognize weeks when they will be particularly busy with coursework from other classes as well, and let their manager know that during those weeks, they will be unable to help with the project as much as others.


Plan of Activities for Next Semester

 
Weeks Activities
1-4 Understanding of the project 
Meeting of Lockheed Martin clients 
Setup of laptops with any necessary graphic design software 
Familiarize with existing documents and code 
Learn JSP, JAVA, SQL Server
3 Test UI and entire system
4-7 Revise and add to the existing requirements document in more detail 
User interface addition design with screenshots
7 User interface diagram with flow charts
8-14 Implementation of the additions to the user interface
14 Create a help document
15-16 End of semester documentation and presentation

There are several risks which next semester’s team is encouraged to address.  First, the team may not be proficient in JSP or Java.  The programmers in the team are encouraged to learn Java and JSP as soon as possible, perhaps asking the client to provide books on the two.  The team may take longer than expected to familiarize themselves with the problem.  To avoid this risk, next semester’s team is encouraged to schedule a meeting with this semester’s group to have any questions answered in the first few weeks.  If new software is installed on the server machine, there is a possibility of the machine crashing.  It is recommended that all code and the database be backed up on disk somewhere.


Link to Review

Peer Review Document


Link to presentation slides

Presentation


Link to status reports & meeting minutes

Status Reports
Meeting Minutes
 

THANK YOU!

We want to take a minute and thank our Lockheed clients for their prompt communication and active role in our project success this semester.  We appreciate the outings and feedback as well as the encouragement and praise.  We could not have asked for better clients.  We hope that next semester will continue the project and produce a useful product for Lockheed Martin.  We also want to thank our project adviser for his hard work helping us overcome obstacles that we encountered early in the semester and for his critiques of our deliverables.


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