Week 27 - Draft Interim Report Hand-Up

So the draft is in and here are some thoughts:

I'm tired. This project is alot of work and the initial enthusiasm is wearing. It's not all gone, I still like what I am doing and I'm very intrigued by my topic area (I hope to make a career out of it afterward or at least a hobby) however this was only a draft report and it took the wind out of me; I can only imagine what the real guts of the thing will smell like.


I am thinking about the analysis and I a have had some brief discussions with some of the technical staff at the school and my project lecturer about less formal ways of information gathering. I know for a fact that the information gathering process will be an ongoing one and a single interview or questioner will not be sufficient. Also i have the feeling that if i need to constantly go back to the same staff to get information that they will be more willing to co operate by setting aside a few minutes of their time to either answer unstructured questions or even respond to an email rather than schedule formal time for having long "sit downs" with me.


Also I have some thoughts on the design and the development stages. I want to use the agile system and a test first approach. I have alot of code to write and with all the details of the report and documentation I believe the less trouble one can get into the better... so Test it First.
This means test plans and test cases from the users and from me. I cant help but state a pattern though. Alot of the samples, explanations and methods that exist for software cater to a team development environment. And I will do my best to adopt as many best practices as i can, however it must be noted that a One Man team is a difficult position to be in, especially in terms of time and work load not to mention spirit.