姚姚..........

Long Time Since I posted....

2006-10-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Well, been a month since I posted on this blog... is not because I am lazy but I have other blog where I post about my life... I like to keep them seperated from this blog... but I think I will start writing more on this blog because I feel that I am learning alot here... really like all the stuff I learn from this class because every single thing that I learned from this class I will need to go home and think deeply about it.

Like the emotion exercise that we did today... I only wish I can be that strong and be able to forget about anger, unhappyiness and so on... as energy. If I can I am sure I will be a happier person in life... I already tried my hardest to forget all the bad things that happened to me these couple of months but is just so hard... I guess sometimes bad memories does stay in you... just need some times to let it settle in your mind, soul and body.......

After 3 weeks of Class......

2006-09-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wow... school is so fun...so much to learn each class have their own theories... is so nice that I am able to meet new friends... this is really a life time experience for me being able to study... and really the most interesting class that I like so far in the term is Recovering Creativity. I just really love the concept of models, language, beliefs and the idea of how we should think in lateral ways..... over these 3 weeks of that course it have given me a different view of thinking and how I should live my life... I really want to learn more deeply about this course because I believe it will really help me out when I work in real life later on....

School Begins

2006-09-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well.... school just started for my course in MSc in Multimedia and Entertainment Technology. So far so good....been learning the whole week lots of new stuff to learn. Is kind of nice to kick off Sept like this... my whole summer was just me being lazy fooling around and now is time for me to get back to work.

Why do software projects fail so often?

2006-04-13T03:47:00.000-07:00

Below is the Top 10 Ways to Guarantee the Failure of a Systems Project
1. Don’t use a specific methodology because coding is all that is really important.
2. Create the project plan by working backwards from a drop-dead system completion date.
3. Don’t bother with a data model. Just build whatever tables you need.
4. Use a Technical Lead that has never built a similar system. Hiring such talent is too expensive.
5. Hire forty developers to make the coding go faster.
6. Build the system in Java, even though most of the development team still thinks that Java is coffee and you have no intention of ever deploying to the Web.
7. Three months before the system goes live, assign one junior developer to handle the data migration.
8. Skip the testing phase because the project is way behind schedule.
9. Change the system to support critical new requirements discovered during final development.
10. Buy a commercial, off-the-shelf package and customize it … a lot.

All I know that software project fail so offen because alot of people do not plan ahead and do not do enough research before starting the project... this is offen due to lack of communications between team members.... if they have someone that took software engineer course he/she then can follow the rules within software engineering which can give them a great start... and in the end can save the company millions of dollar instead of failing do finished the project....

http://www.dulcian.com/papers/Top%2010%20Reasons%20Why%20Systems%20Projects%20Fail.htm

What is test-driven development?

2006-04-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

What is the main idea of test-driven development?
The goal of test-driven development is to achieve rapid feedback and implements the "illustrate the main line" approach to constructing a program. This technique is heavily emphasized in Extreme Programming.Practitioners emphasize that test-driven development is primarily a method of designing software, not just a method of testing. The method is also used for removal of software defects.

In Test driven development there are simply 5 cycle:
Write the test - It begins with writing a test, the developer must understand the specification and the requirements clearly. This is accomplished through use cases and user stories. The design document covers all the test scenarios and exception conditions.
Write the code -The next step is to make the test pass by writing the code. This step forces the programmer to take the perspective of a client by seeing the code through its interfaces.
Run the automated tests - The next step is to run the automated test cases and observe if they pass or fail. If they pass, the programmer can be more confident that the code meets the test cases as written.
Refactor -The final step is the refactoring step and any code clean-up necessary will occur here.
Repeat -The cycle will then repeat itself and start with either adding additional functionality or fixing any errors

Software Design Patterns: How much do you understand?

2006-04-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

Honestly, at this point I have no idea what each of the adapter class are....all I know that these class are for reuse purposes... it is used by developer or programmer to determine whether they should use the existence class or create a new class.... I am sure once I start studying for the exam I will know in detail what each class does...but right now my memories only have this idea of these design patterns....

Software quality: What makes a program code good?

2006-03-16T04:30:00.000-08:00

What do you think about the attributes of good program code?
Well, I think that the attributes that make up a good program code would be the following:

1. Good Documentation.
2. Following the naming convention. Like using Upper case for the first letter in a class for java programming... like Game.java
3. Don't use meaningless variables like letters alone use variables names that have meaning like (counter)
4. Make it readable to any programmer with spacing in the code

Stuff that lets agile software developers show off what they believe in

2006-03-16T04:02:00.000-08:00

“Will You Pair With Me?“ <--- this slogan probably mean Pair programming where two software engineers participate in a combined development effort at one workstation. Each member performs the action the other is not currently doing: While one types in unit tests the other thinks about the class that will satisfy the test, for example. The person that is doing the typing is known as the driver while the person that is guiding is known as the navigator. It is often suggested for the two partners to switch roles at least every half-hour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_Programming

“Born To Refactor“ probably has to do with Test-Driven Development Cycle.
1. Write the test
It begins with writing a test. In order to write a test, the developer must understand the specification and the requirements clearly. This is accomplished through use cases and user stories. The design document covers all the test scenarios and exception conditions.
2. Write the code
The next step is to make the test pass by writing the code. This step forces the programmer to take the perspective of a client by seeing the code through its interfaces. This is the design driven part of test-driven development. As part of test calibration, your code should fail the test meaningfully the first time around.
3. Run the automated tests
The next step is to run the automated test cases and observe if they pass or fail. If they pass, the programmer can be more confident that the code meets the test cases as written. If there are failures, the code did not meet the test cases..
4. Refactor
The final step is the refactoring step and any code clean-up necessary will occur here. The test cases are then re-run and observed.
5. Repeat
The cycle will then repeat itself and start with either adding additional functionality or fixing any errors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development

Software Engineering Certification Programs: What Can You Learn from Them?

2006-02-01T01:43:00.000-08:00

After comparing the CSDP outline to our course on Software Engineering, the following are things that are taugh in the CSDP but not in our course....

Module 7: Software Maintenance
Software Maintenance Description
Purpose
Software Maintenance Process
Software Lifecycle Processes
Maintenance Types
Properly vs. Improperly Engineered Systems
Software Maintenance Measurement
Software Maintainability
Software Maintenance Management
Management Activities
Software Maintenance Documentation
Documentation Plan

Module 9: Software Measurement
Software Measurement Fundamentals
Role of Measurement
Measurement Types
Measurement Program
Metric Classification and Selection
Purpose
Metric Classifications
Goal-Question-Metric Paradigm
Metric Report
Data Collection
Good Data
Data Collection

After reading the outline the above is what I came out with.... which is 2 chapter that I don't see it being taught in our textbook.... you can view the outline of CSDP exam here :
http://www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs/menuitem.c5efb9b8ade9096b8a9ca0108bcd45f3/index.jsp?&pName=ieeecs_level1&path=ieeecs/education/certification/DistanceLearning&file=index.xml&xsl=generic.xsl&

UML Tools: What is your favorite?

2005-10-31T04:00:00.000-08:00

I guess the one that I like better is Poseidon for UML Community Edition because it was very easy to install (just have to follow the setup instruction) and the GUI was pretty simply. Basically if you have some knowlegde of basic UML theories, any user can just pick up the program and start drawing like a Pro. I didn't like Omondo Eclipse UML Free Edition because I couldn't even install it for some reason, maybe it has to do with the school computers. But if I am having a hard time just installing the program, I should just consider using some other program that is less hassel. And for the last program Visual Paradigm for UML Community Edition I also like it because it has similar GUI as Poseidon. It also support functions like UML Notation, Visual Modeling, Interoperability and Object-Relational Mapping. This program also have tutorials for beginner to understand at their website which is a good start for anyone..

So overall I would recommend Poseidon and Visual Paradigm for anyone that is starting out with UML Diagrams.

Happy Reading...... :P

Basic Skills needed for Software Engineering

2005-10-10T04:09:00.000-07:00

Well I think this question is kind of a broad question. But I think the most important thing a developer must know for Software Engineering would definitely be familiar with what the clients wants in their project. Without knowing what the client's wants the developer would not be able to fully plan out the work using the UML Diagrams. So that knowing the project details is a must for Software Engineering.

Secondly, I believe that knowing what is important and what is not important is a must. This is because with this ability the developer can make the development time shorter instead of using trail and errors technique which in turn will make the development longer then nessessary.

Third, working as a team is also a skill needed for developers because projects are always too big for a single developer to deploy, so having the skill to work with group member would definitely be an asset in today's rapid changing world.

Fourth, the developers should keep in mind that the clients can change the project anytime, making what was build before all useless. So the developers should be prepare to start over again without being frustrated at all.

That's all I can think off, if anyone have any idea they want to add feel free to do so.

The Beginning of my first Blog....

2005-09-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Well... here I am creating my first blog for educational purposes in school..... I am currently taking a course at OpenU called Software Engineering. Our Prof. Steven Choy... wants all the current students to have their own blog so that he can have a better understanding of what the students are doing and thinking after his lectures in his teaching....