Meeting 10

WEEK 10 

• Got clean code book from library - The project management and pragmatic programmer will be available on the 14th
• Started writing the interim / literature review - taking list of quotes and building the document
• Setup the galaxy tab2 for deving the game

This week was the most productive to date!

In terms of the interim report, literature review and the game itself it has been a very busy week. To keep it short I'l number the important things that happened instead of explaining it in a long-winded paragraph.

1. I made a back up of everything I'd done that I kept on dropbox and sent it to my gmail (just incase - this will be required again but as alot has changed since then)

2. I had a look at the physics code and figured out that it was a scene issue that was causing it not to activate the physics playing

3. I tried to catagorise the quotes that I had into one file but it was messy and realised that it was better setting up what I wanted to say about a particular subject of the literature review than writing it the body and tryng to find a quote in the catagorised list. For instance; Highsmith (2001) identifies that the waterfall model required a lot of change which disrupted the development process which is a weakness using this model of software development: “A waterfall development life cycle, based on an assumption of a relatively stable business environment, becomes overwhelmed by high change.”

I shall be writing and drawing conclusions this week in my literature review.

4. I got in touch with the game engine developer Brandon from the Modulous team in Ohio and he told me that he was planning major changes in the next 6 months for the engine which would be make it work more efficiently and with more features.

 When I loaded the game onto the galaxy tab it was needed to be re-sized. Which wasn't a problem.

With the tab being a bit smaller than the ipad2 browser, incremental design comes in handy to amend and make the changes.

I plan to get on with the interim report / literature review - the clean code book I got today has been requested and a one week loan means that i will work on getting good quotes out of that firstly.

I am also going to do some more deving of the game - Add all the menu assets and begin the actual game play elements.

Week 9

I have tidied up my documentation now and have produced my Design, Technical and play test evaluation documents.

DESIGN DOC -Subject to change:https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0tgk10samozqtf/DESIGN%20DOC.pdf

TECH DOC -again may change: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5o8ucnxlgg6jr85/TECHNICAL%20DOC.pdf?m

EVALUATION FORM - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec2nveechz8bx26/EVALUATION%20FORM.pdf

I also decided reshuffle my dropbox as after assessing how much the project has developed. I have created a new record system since it was getting messy - now got a document for general progress (daily/throughtheweek) and another programming

My agile paper potential quotes for the literature review (unsorted)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rj4klatidd5zc7c/agilepaperquotes.pdf

My agile book potential quotes for the lit review (unsorted) https://www.dropbox.com/s/kqwuf1i5zx4gwwh/Agile%20book%20potential%20quotes.pdf?m


Agile project management according to Jim Highmsith encourages team meetings which use team assessment cards. I thought that I would create my own of the progress thus far (week 1 - 9)

The targets all remain consistent. While none of them are complete, the attitude remains a constant and the performance could be better - which is a challenge but a reachable one. It shows that more focus should be on the literature review as it is requires the most work. The design of the game is at a level with the programming which is rather positive and means it is easy to adapt - not least because the code is designed well. Research into Agile could be a lot better if I had more time but is still consistent.

Week 8: Honours Project

WEEK 8 

• Collected the book on XP programming from my mate at Hamilton Uni.
• Found 15 papers on agile software development 
• The meeting with Dr John was helpful yet again: he offered me use of his galaxy tablet.
• Focus should be on correlating quotes in the papers/books and finding Project management books in the library

I began the week with researching academic papers on agile software development and found a good many papers on the subject. When I had identified ones which had credible authors; I put them into a pdf table so I could refine their usefulness. Find it here (13/11/2012 version)

After I had taken care of other modules work in the week, I had a read through some of the books that I had. Armed with my newly acquired post it notes, I highlighted what I regarded as potential quotes for the literature review. Feedback was given during the meeting from Dr John that I was doing this correctly and to continue doing it: I should have about 100 in a book while only a few from journal papers so this is my goal for next week.

During the meeting, I asked Dr John if he knew of any ipad2's which would be available to loan for home use - the issue was resolved last week but I thought during the week that to enhance how efficient the testing process would be, I could seek to get use of one. He kindly offered use of his newly won Galaxy tablet. Thanks again!

The goals this week were met: 

1. Research papers 
2. Highlight good quotes

This weeks goals are as follows:

1. Research for project management books in the library
2. Keep researching good quotes and strip the papers for potential quotations 
3. Document them for later to catagorise them and keep the work organised, readable and simple to use.

I also want to carry on with my Interim report which is due for review in week 11

Week 7: Honours Project

WEEK 7

• Meeting with Dr John went well: Must remain on target for the literature review.
• Dr John assisted me in looking at a few of the books I got and identified 'good quotes' to find.
• The goals is to carry on and get Agile papers and quotes from the books

This week I analysed my progress thus far and recorded it in my record file which I'm keeping on dropbox.

During the week my tester, told me he was selling his ipad2 so I put the word out to everyone on the facebook Creative tech page (everyone on game devlopment /technical course follow it) and Dr Daniel Livingstone got back to me offering me his help in the matter. I could use his within the university if I arrange to meet him which is excellent!  

Later in the week Jof (my tester) told me that he had gotten the Ipad mini (a smaller version of the Ipad with the same resolution as the Ipad2) so, I'm back in business - I will be able to test the game on the ipad and check on Daniels how it looks on that. (Perhaps this change could alter the user requirements to demonstrate how agile development adapts to changes during the project - I have the back-up plan at least!)

Today at the meeting with Dr John, I got another lot of help with the literature review - Good quotes, citing authors within another authors paper. And researching the relevant journal ie. the chaos philosophy - not just quoting then explaining in a pleonastic way; the quote in the same way.

The project thus far has met my personal deadlines eg. for project management handins, sorting out getting the specification written, researching topics etc

The analysis stage is completed (and has been for a while now) as I got my dissertation topic sorted at the end of week 3- The specification form submission took longer than predicted due to Dr John being busy but good communication saw that the document was handed in on time.

The design stage begun with some CRC cards and thought about the UI for the game in week 4.

Implementation has now been pushed forward (deadline set with Dr John in week5 is to start it in December when I have the literature done.)

Again this plan is a mere measure of my personal progress with the development - it does not match the agility of the development as it is - ie. The game may change as weeks go on (design stage and analysis may need ot be revisited etc)

The targets for the following week are researching papers and looking and highlighting good quotes to build an abundance of citations which could potentially be in my literature review/method.