Month: April 2009

Navigation Updates and Methodology Blogging

I’ve noticed that I’m not getting a lot of navigation between pages so I’ve started puting some navigation links in the appropriate places, so that people aren’t relying on ‘Contents’ for navigation but can go straight to Project 21 pages via hyperlinks where the page is referenced. I’m still mulling whether I need page navigation with a ‘next’ and ‘previous’ and ‘up’ context. I’m back on content this week and working on the heartland of logical design, hope to publish and blog a bit more by next week. Teasing apart Analysis and Design is quite interesting, I think the pressures of teaching mean that most I.T. people see it as a single process. Business people on the other hand want to skip analysis and design completely and go stright to the solution! Maybe I’m generalizing too much, but ther’s no doubt of the popularity of single stage development, where the user dictates requirements and the programmer creates the solution. Single stage development can work in some instances but falls over in the face of complexity, which is why I’m pitching my methodology in that nice sunny spot between the rapids of Agile and the mythical Waterfall.

Logical Design Rewrite

It looks like I need to put a little more work into Logical Design, I’ve realised now that defining scope can occur several times, as the analysis and design refine the problem and the solution. After analysis the decision needs to be made of ‘how much’ of the problem needs to be solved, which comes down to the process model and detemining the Use Cases. I’m trying out some new blogging software BlogDesk, which seems to be doing the job, so far, soo good.

Information Model Visualizations

I’ve added some visulizations to the Information Model. I’ve come to think that a blog without visualizations is like a book without pictures, and visualization is a very important part of the modeling of a software solution. This marks another milestone for me as the online document is now in advance of the offline document; but I will pull the offline version into line today.

Conceptual data modelling

I’ve been reviewing the conceptual data area, what I have called the ‘Information Model’ and I’ve come to the conclusion that the Data Structure Diagram is what I’m after, albeit with arrows, not crows feet. One of the advantages of the DSD is that you can describe an interface fairly readily with it and put objects inside each other. I think the crow’s feet belong at the Logical E-R diagram level. Thinking about these areas does make you realise how limiting the conventional UML class diagram can be in conceptual and design thinking.

Logical Design – at the workface

I’ve just put the Logical Design page up, and I seem to need more content, so it’s back to the writing desk to create this bit. This will be interesting as I try to describe what is often a very dynamic process in words that other people can understand. I’ll set myself a target of Friday and get started. This may be the start a a slightly more formal approach as it involves ‘Use Cases’.

Moving to the Development Phase

Building up the pages, and getting the pages happening as I want them to be, has been a challenge and a good learning experience. But now I have put up the first page of the Development Phase of the methodology, and realize that web publication has moved into the development phase. The next ten or so pages detailing development will happen over the next week and then I can return to writing the methodology. I see the current work as being ‘Chapter 1’ a freestanding summary methodology, the next chapter will be on the governance stream of the methodology. My current target is to finish ‘Chapter 1’ this month and then move on to the ‘stream chapters’. I have another sub-project which is ‘Project 21 – the software’ which is in the conceptual phase, I think some software to help implement the methodology might be a good thing.

A better way to manage projects

I’ve realised that maybe I could have started with the more exciting subjects like why do ‘IT Project always run over budget?’, but the answer to that lies in project methodology, and in the area of governance; I have to work my way towards it by laying the groundwork in place. The basic reasons are very simple, that project planning tools are not flexible enough to measure true progress and can only measure on and over budget activities. The only way that a project can be delivered on time using conventional project management software is to either have a grossly overestimated project or to finesse the cost codes once they have reached capacity, the truly creative manager will use both of these techniques and other methods of falsifying deliverables and costs so that the sun comes out. But is this really necessary? Can IT professionals predict what will happen on an IT project? The answer is yes, but must be qualified by good methodology and governance and recognizing that project outcomes deliver into a value range, not a value point. On the down side a lot of IT Managers enjoy the ‘mystical’ side of IT and are not into modern project management technique, not that ‘mystical’ management is purely the realm of IT.