Spearheading new website for JU as Project Lead

The start of each semester at Jacksonville University brings with it a unique set of opportunities to develop exciting applications and projects.

This semester I'll be working on the Jacksonville University Graywater Irrigation Initiative as the head of art and website development. Now of course this isn't my usual caveat of video game flavored production but its good practice for FIEA. The teamates that are working with me for this project will be a traditional 2D artist and one other web developer.

And of course I'll be putting my project management skills to good use keeping the team on track to hit our milestones, I might give Microsoft Project a chance for this one and set everything up through that.

Anyone that is in the business of developing websites can tell you that a project of this scope could be completed in just under two weeks with the proper conditions. But since I will only have one hour each week to meet personally with the project staff it's going to be a slow, controlled development cycle instead of the rapid development you would see with a scrum approach.

So for my next scheduled meeting I'll be presenting a basic outline for what needs to be accomplished, by when, how they can be achieved, and potential pitfalls. I'll also get started on some preliminary UI discussion with the other development staff, although I imagine most of the UI will be designed once we've established a proper icon and theme for the project.

More on it as it happens!

Scrum Certification comes to Jacksonville

Scrum flow chart

It's about time northern Florida recieved its very own Scrum master certification! This two day course will be taking place from October 12-13 in the University of Pheonix. It's unfortunant that the cost is so high, ($1,100 per person) since I would be totally stocked to recieve my certification this early into my education.

For those that aren't fluent in producer speak Scrum is a set of ideas on how to properly manage a teams time to stay the most productive. Since most projects have different aspects being developed simutaneously (Agile project management) instead of one step at a time (old-school waterfall approach) there are many opportunities for mistakes to occur when mismanaged. Scrum is a set of techniques that can be applied to any small team effort, where the task at hand is seperated into a sprint that will last two weeks and split again into smaller managable tasks that improve visibility and keep morale high. That coupled daily meetings and weekly retrospectives keep the team on task and on schedule.

I'm sure I'll be taking the Scrum certification sometime down the road, I wish I had the funding to take it this year though!

Anyone else thats interested can find more details through the Winnow Management homepage.

/Rant- G1 VS iPhone

In short, yes as a smartphone and a resounding "No" as a gaming device.

In terms of functionality, pricing, and developer support the Android ranks right up there with the ever popular iphone. The platform checks off everything the end user expects out of a smartphone (touchscreen, app marketplace, gps, 3g, etc), and Android phones are priced lower than their iPhone counterparts.

But there is one crucial thing missing from the Android initiative, something that most reviews of the platform failed to spot. Something so important that its amazing that HTC (developers of the most popular Android device, the T-mobile G1) could even think of releasing the first Android phone with an oversight this large. They have permanently damaged any possibility of the Android ever becoming as popular as Apple's cashcow.

Now what could possibly be so important that it would create an artificial ceiling on the platforms popularity, but be small enough for HTC to miss?

The G1 only comes with 70mb of space for applications and games, this lack of a large internal storage solution limits what updates the platform can recieve, and how many apps can be downloaded before hitting the glass ceiling. Since the G1 was released its quickly become the most popular Android device, therefore all developers hands are tied to adhere to the phones storage issues (not to mention any other limitations a first generation device carries).

This might not seem like an issue, until you consider that developers on the Android marketplace are fighting for your storage and money; so instead of the consumer being able to download what they want they are limited to cherry picking only the most essential applications, things that the G1 didn't ship with on the operating system (Microsoft Office viewer/editor, turn by turn GPS navigation, etc...). And then skipping out on the "discovery" that iPhone users enjoy; hearing about great apps from friends and checking them out for themselves.

Of course you might think that Google would be all over this problem with a patch to the OS, but according the development team there are no plans to bring this much needed feature to future updates, due to "piracy concerns".

Now of course most Android users won't mind this, they'll use their phone and enjoy its features and in two years (once their contract expires) they'll move onto whatever is hot at the time (whether it be another Android device or not), they won't feel compelled like iPhone users do to stay on the respective platform since they won't be making purchases that don't transfer to another platform.

/Rant

The Mythical Man-Month: Chapters 1-4

The Mythical Man-Month Book Cover

So I stopped by Borders last night with Katie and did what any good nerd would do, immediately high tail it to the computer reference section to check out the latest releases.

Initially I peered around for new production books or project management techniques, but my eyes got caught on one particular piece. I had read about The Mythical Man Month before in Rapid Development; where it received high praise for its groundbreaking observations (groundbreaking for 1986 anyways) in the software development industry.

The book is essentially a collection of essays written by Frederick P. Brooks Jr, in an effort to persuade developers into avoiding the same tar pits that sunk many development projects and studios. I'm pleased to say that Brooks work did not go unnoticed, as even the most basic programmer is being made aware of the ideas brought forth in The Mythical Man Month through Computer Science classes the world over.

 

Herein lies a summary of the chapters core ideas, for future reference

 

Ch.1- The Tar Pit

Small garage programming teams are great at programming systems, while professional development teams are best for developing products.

Ch.2- The Mythical Man-Month

Using the classic man-month system for estimating software development times is dangerous, because it assumes that the amount of manpower and months till completion are interchangeable.

Ch.3- The Surgical Team

Best and worst performances among programmers average at a ratio of 10:1, also a small ten man team that is highly trained to work as a single unit (referred to as a surgical team) can be scaled up in size to include multiple surgical teams using proper technique in order to lower the time to market, allowing the product to be feasible in the marketplace.

Ch.4- Aristocracy, Democracy, and System Design

Balance your product for ease of use and functionality. Also there needs to be checks and balances in your products feature creation, a democratic system of deciding feature sets that includes the whole team instead of an elite few leads to chaos and disorder. The object of development is for many cogs working together to bring about one vision. Lastly implementers (cogs) still have plenty of room for their creative expression and inventiveness to shine through in their daily work. Avoid the sirens song of having the many do the task that would be best given to the few because of the fear of implementers not showing off their creativity.

That's as far as I've gotten for now, I'll be posting more chapter summaries in the next few weeks as I read through them.

Bring what you need to survive.

So I just went through the super joyfull experience of sitting outside my apartment complex waiting for the fire department to shut off what turned out to be a false alarm. Looking back I can honestly tell you that I was only concerned about bringing three things with me to insure that my I would be able to bounce back from having my collective stuff burned to a crisp.

My family (Katie and Gizmo [didn't even think of my poor fish!]), my wallet (ID, credit cards), and lastly my G1 Phone (It never even struck me that maybe I should worry about the portable hard drive with thousands of hours of projects secured within its plastic shell, or for that matter my Alienware computer that cost me $1600).

Now that I'm laying in bed thinking about it, this phone has replaced every electronic device in my life and has become an essential part of my daily routine, and you know what's funny? I could let my G1 burn because I pay for T-Mobile's $5 monthly insurance.

P.S- I'm typing this on my G1, instead of my laptop, huh.

God of War on Gameboy

Ever wonder what Sony's stellar franchise would look like on the monochromatic screen of the GameBoy?

The picture comes from the talented artists on the Way of the Pixel forums, click the link below to view even more modern titles redone in different shades of grey, Bioshock anyone?

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=5016.0