Project Plan 1.0 Introduction This docum ent seeks to outline the planning, resources, scheduling and approach that will be used throughout the development of the VisiNet project. 2.0 Roles and Responsibilities Our project team consists of three Final year degree students:, Karwan Miran and Jam ie Macgill. Due to the lim ited size of our group each m em ber will be involved in m any different aspects of the project. Although each m em ber will be involved in m ore then role we have decided that each part of the project should be overseen by a single individual. A list of these oversight roles are given below. Project Management & Scheduling Richard Analysis of Requirements - Jamie System Design & Specification - Kar Interface Design & Specification - Jamie Administrative Management - Kar Quality Assurance & Version Management Richard All the rem aining roles within the project will be distributed between the group members allowing each m em ber to contribute. A list of the rem aining roles is given below. System Implementation & Coding System Testing Evaluation & Review Process - ALL - ALL - ALL This m ethod of resource m anagem ent will allow each m em ber to be involved and share ideas and concepts to the benefit of all aspects of the project. I t will also allow the group to operate with great flexibility, enabling group m em bers to interoperate and work together more efficiently. 3.0 Project Development Model Every software developm ent project undertaken is always constrained in som e way by a num ber of different factors placed on the project. One of the m ain Project Plan Page 1 of 7
constraints for our project is the am ount of tim e that we have available for the project. For this reason we have decided that the best approach is to use an iterative developm ent m odel, allowing a software solution to be developed early on and then refined by further iterations. We believe that if the process was not iterative then possible problem s with the analysis, specification or design would not becom e apparently until the latter im plem entation parts of the project. This could represent a significant risk to the success of the project and have dram atic affects on the timing constraints of the project. The iterative developm ent m odel we have chosen for this project is Evolutionary prototyping. The Evolutionary prototyping m odel as shown in Figure 1 allows us to grow a solution thru iterations of development. Figure 1 Evolutionary Prototyping Model We have identified that we have approxim ately twenty weeks of developm ent time in order to apply the Evolutionary prototyping m odel m ost effectively we have decided to carry out two iterations. We have decided that the iterations will last approximately eight weeks, this will give us an overall flexibility of four weeks allowing us to adapt to yet unforeseen problem s that m ay occur during the project. The iteration will be started with a clear list of target requirem ents for the iteration. And will be concluded with a review of the iteration and an evaluation of its success against the initial requirements. Project Plan Page 2 of 7
3.1 Requirements Stage This stage involves researching and analysing the requirem ents for the project to develop a specification and form al list of requirem ents that the project. I t will involve looking at several previous projects to establish the key aspects of functionality that we wish to incorporate into our own project. 3.2 Analysis and Design Stage After the requirem ents stage is com plete the requirem ents will be analysed and an initial design will be created. I n the early stages of the project the design will be rather flexible concentrating m ainly on the sim ulation aspects of the project developm ent. Later on we anticipate that design will becom e m ore detailed as iteration 1 is com pleted and giving us a stable fram ework for the extension to visualisation in iteration 2. 3.3 Implementation Stage I m plem entation is the stage where the physical design of the program is translated into code. Each specification developed during the last stage will be im plem ented into the overall program structure. I f any problem s with the design are discovered the project will return to the design stage and create a revised design. The process will then continue checking that each of the previously implemented features can be satisfied within the new design framework. 3.4 Testing Stage During the testing stage each function im plem ented in the im plem entation stage is checked against its specification to ensure that it perform s the correct action. More detailed testing will also be carried out details of the testing procedures can be found our project Test plan. 3.5 Evaluation Stage This stage will be used to exam ine whether the prototype that has been developed fulfils all the requirem ents of the project. I f the prototype doesn t fulfil these requirem ents the process will continue with a further iteration. I f the prototype fulfils all the requirem ents then it will stop the cycle of iteration and continue onto the next stage. The evaluation stage also gives us the opportunity to gauge the progress over the past iteration to determ ine the am ount of tim e taken and to adjust the tim e schedule accordingly. Also the evaluation process will also allow us to assess how well the iteration was executed and to identify any key areas of improvement. Project Plan Page 3 of 7
3.6 Deployment Stage Deploym ent is the process in which the program has reached com pletion and is ready for deploym ent into its prospective environm ent. Deploym ent will also involve the creation of a project review that will look at each aspect of the project determ ining how successful each part was and to suggest im provem ents for the future. Project Plan Page 4 of 7
4.0 Project Scheduling and Estim ation The m ost influential constraint on our project is the am ount of tim e available for developm ent. For this reason it is im portant to schedule events in the project to ensure that tim e is properly m anaged and that tasks are perform ed efficiently. The am ount of tim e that certain event will take in the project is in precise. To allow scheduling to take place estim ation will have to be used to determ ine the probably length of tim e that each stage will require. Gantt charts containing our actual Gantt time plan can be found below: ID Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors 4 Interview with module lecturer 1 day Tue 30/09/03 Tue 30/09/03 5 Analysis of Existing Solutions 3 days Wed 01/10/03 Fri 03/10/03 4 6 NeVis 3 days Wed 01/10/03 Fri 03/10/03 7 Macachino 3 days Wed 01/10/03 Fri 03/10/03 8 PellyDeprez 3 days Wed 01/10/03 Fri 03/10/03 9 AJM 3 days Wed 01/10/03 Fri 03/10/03 10 Evaluation of Existing Solutions 2 days Mon 06/10/03 Tue 07/10/03 5 11 Human Computer Interaction 4 days Tue 30/09/03 Fri 03/10/03 12 Project requirements 2 days Wed 08/10/03 Thu 09/10/03 10,11 13 Project Success Criteria 2 days Fri 10/10/03 Mon 13/10/03 12 14 Iteration 1 42 days Tue 14/10/03 Wed 10/12/03 15 Design Stage 10 days Tue 14/10/03 Mon 27/10/03 13 16 Basic Diagrams 5 days Tue 14/10/03 Mon 20/10/03 17 Advanced Diagrams 5 days Tue 21/10/03 Mon 27/10/03 16 18 Implementation Stage 22 days Tue 28/10/03 Wed 26/11/03 15 19 Testing Stage 5 days Thu 27/11/03 Wed 03/12/03 18 20 Evaluation Stage 5 days Thu 04/12/03 Wed 10/12/03 19 21 Iteration 2 49 days Thu 11/12/03 Tue 17/02/04 14 22 Review Requirements 5 days Thu 11/12/03 Wed 17/12/03 23 Design Stage 15 days Thu 11/12/03 Wed 31/12/03 24 Review & Evolve Diagrams 9 days Thu 11/12/03 Tue 23/12/03 25 Graphic User Interface Design 6 days Wed 24/12/03 Wed 31/12/03 24 26 Implementation Stage 22 days Thu 01/01/04 Fri 30/01/04 23 27 Testing Stage 7 days Mon 02/02/04 Tue 10/02/04 26 28 Evaluation Stage 5 days Wed 11/02/04 Tue 17/02/04 27 29 Deployment 1 day Wed 18/02/04 Wed 18/02/04 21 30 Evaluation of Project 14 days Thu 19/02/04 Tue 09/03/04 29 Figure 2 Estimated Project Gantt chart As the project progresses the Gantt chart will continue to be updated with actually timings and revised estimations. A copy of the revised Gantt chart will be available in the Project Folder. Project Plan Page 5 of 7
After lengthy discussion the decision was taken to should break up the requirem ents into two m ain sections: Sim ulation and Visualisation. Each section will then be implemented iteratively. Iteration 1 This iteration will aim to develop the m ain core of the sim ulator with just a single protocol: CSMA/ CD. This will allow us to test the basic functionality of the sim ulator before the additional protocols are added. The iteration will also involve a form of console based control and a textual output. An outline of the features to be implemented and there priority can be found below: 1. Create Basic Simulator with Simulation, Bus and Station 2. Create a control class to control the Simulation 3. Create a textual representation of a simulation state 4. Expand Simulation to additional protocols Iteration 2 The key aim s of this iteration are to develop the Visualisation part of the project. We will start by transferring control of the sim ulation to a graphic user interface with buttons and controls. The sim ulation will then be attached to a graphical representation or visualisation of the state of the sim ulation. When both of these functions have been com pleted in there basic m ost form we shall continue to evolve the design of the Visualisation incorporating m ore features until the requirements are met. 1. Create a graphical control for the simulation 2. Develop a Visualisation panel to display the simulation state 3. Integrate all of the components into a form with a layout component 4. Continue to evolve the visualisation to incorporate anim ation and interactive help tools. 5. Expand the control to support the loading and saving of simulation data 6. Implement any additional visualisation requirements 5.0 Technical Planning and CASE Tools The project will be im plem ented using the Java program m ing language. We decided to use java because every group m em ber has very good knowledge of java. Other languages such as C and C+ + were considered but were unsuitable because only two m em bers had an acceptable knowledge of the languages. We Project Plan Page 6 of 7
shall be using the current m ost Java Software Developm ent Kit (SDK) Version 1.4.2. To assist in the developm ent of this project we shall be using several different case tools below is a list of case tools we shall be using and there role within the project: TogetherSoft 6 Used in the design process to develop various UML Diagrams. Concurrent Version System (CVS) Used for code access control, synchronisation and version management. TextPad / EditPlus / PFE Editors used during the im plem entation process to develop code. JUnit Used during testing process to help write and control unit and integration tests. Microsoft Project Used for scheduling and tim ing of entire project process. Project Plan Page 7 of 7