VisiNet

Richard Pearce

Project Plan
1.0 Introduction
This docum ent seeks t o out line t he planning, resources, scheduling and approach
that will be used throughout the development of the VisiNet project.

2 .0 Roles and Responsibilities

Our proj ect t eam consist s of t hree Final year degree st udent s: Richard Pearce,
Karwan Miran and Jam ie Macgill. Due t o t he lim it ed size of our group each
m em ber will be involved in m any different aspect s of t he proj ect . Alt hough each
m em ber will be involved in m ore t hen role we have decided t hat each part of t he
proj ect should be overseen by a single individual. A list of t hese 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 t he rem aining roles wit hin t he proj ect will be distributed bet ween t he group
members allowing each m em ber t o cont ribut e. A list of t he rem aining roles is
given below.

System Implementation & Coding

- ALL

System Testing

- ALL

Evaluation & Review Process

- ALL

This m et hod of resource m anagem ent will allow each m em ber t o be involved and
share ideas and concept s t o t he benefit of all aspect s of t he proj ect . I t will also
allow t he group t o operat e wit h great flexibilit y, enabling group m em bers t o
interoperate and work together more efficiently.

3.0 Project Development Model

Every soft ware developm ent proj ect undert aken is always const rained in som e
way by a num ber of different fact ors placed on t he proj ect .

Project Plan

One of t he m ain

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VisiNet

Richard Pearce

constraints for our proj ect is t he am ount of t im e t hat we have available for t he
project. For t his reason we have decided t hat t he best approach is t o use an
it erat ive developm ent m odel, allowing a soft ware solut ion t o be developed early
on and t hen refined by furt her it erat ions. We believe t hat if t he process was not
it erat ive t hen possible problem s wit h t he analysis, specificat ion or design would
not becom e apparent ly unt il t he lat t er im plem ent at ion part s of t he proj ect . This
could represent a significant risk t o t he success of t he proj ect and have dram at ic
affects on the timing constraints of the project.

The it erat ive developm ent m odel we have chosen for t his proj ect is Evolut ionary
prot ot yping. The Evolut ionary prot ot yping m odel as shown in Figure 1 allows us
to grow a solution thru iterations of development.

Figure 1 Evolutionary Prototyping Model

We have ident ified t hat we have approxim at ely twenty weeks of developm ent
time in order t o apply t he Evolut ionary prot ot yping m odel m ost effect ively we
have decided t o carry out t wo it erat ions. We have decided t hat the iterations will
last approximately eight weeks, this will give us an overall flexibility of four weeks
allowing us t o adapt t o yet unforeseen problem s t hat m ay occur during t he
project. The it erat ion will be st art ed wit h a clear list of t arget requirem ent s for
t he it erat ion. And will be concluded wit h a review of t he it erat ion and an
evaluation of its success against the initial requirements.

Project Plan

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VisiNet

Richard Pearce

3 .1 Requirements Stage
This st age involves researching and analysing t he requirem ent s for t he proj ect t o
develop a specificat ion and form al list of requirem ent s t hat t he proj ect . I t will
involve looking at several previous proj ect s t o est ablish t he key aspect s of
functionality that we wish to incorporate into our own project.
3 .2 Analysis and Design Stage
Aft er t he requirem ent s st age is com plet e t he requirem ent s will be analysed and
an init ial design will be creat ed. I n t he early st ages of t he proj ect t he design will
be rat her flexible concent rat ing m ainly on t he sim ulat ion aspect s of t he proj ect
developm ent . Lat er on we ant icipat e t hat design will becom e m ore det ailed as
it erat ion 1 is com plet ed and giving us a st able fram ework for t he ext ension t o
visualisation in iteration 2.
3 .3 Implementation Stage
I m plem ent at ion is t he st age where t he physical design of t he program is
t ranslat ed int o code.

Each specificat ion developed during t he last st age will be

im plem ent ed int o t he overall program st ruct ure. I f any problem s wit h t he design
are discovered t he proj ect will ret urn t o t he design st age and creat e a revised
design. The process will t hen cont inue checking t hat each of t he previously
implemented features can be satisfied within the new design framework.
3 .4 Testing Stage
During t he t est ing st age each funct ion im plem ent ed in t he im plem ent at ion st age
is checked against it s specificat ion t o ensure t hat it perform s t he correct act ion.
More det ailed t est ing will also be carried out det ails of t he t est ing procedures can
be found our project Test plan.
3 .5 Evaluation Stage
This st age will be used t o exam ine whet her t he prot ot ype t hat has been
developed fulfils all t he requirem ent s of t he proj ect . I f t he prot ot ype doesnt fulfil
t hese requirem ent s t he process will cont inue wit h a furt her it erat ion. I f t he
prot ot ype fulfils all t he requirem ent s t hen it will st op t he cycle of it erat ion and
cont inue ont o t he next st age. The evaluat ion st age also gives us t he opport unit y
t o gauge t he progress over t he past it erat ion t o det erm ine t he am ount of t im e
t aken and t o adj ust t he t im e schedule accordingly. Also t he evaluat ion process
will also allow us t o assess how well t he it erat ion was execut ed and t o ident ify
any key areas of improvement.

Project Plan

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Richard Pearce

3 .6 Deployment Stage
Deploym ent is t he process in which t he program has reached com plet ion and is
ready for deploym ent int o it s prospect ive 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 t o suggest im provem ent s for t he
future.

Project Plan

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VisiNet

4.0

Richard Pearce

Project Scheduling and Estim ation

The m ost influent ial const raint on our proj ect is t he am ount of t im e available for
developm ent . For t his reason it is im port ant t o schedule event s in t he proj ect t o
ensure t hat t im e is properly m anaged and t hat t asks are perform ed efficient ly.
The am ount of t im e t hat cert ain event will t ake in t he proj ect is in precise. To
allow scheduling t o t ake place est im at ion will have t o be used t o det erm ine t he
probably lengt h of t im e t hat each st age will require. Gant t chart s cont aining our
actual Gantt time plan can be found below:

ID

Task Name

Interview with module lecturer

Analysis of Existing Solutions

Duration

Start

Finish

Predecessors

1 day

Tue 30/09/03

3 days

Wed 01/10/03

Tue 30/09/03
Fri 03/10/03 4

NeVis

3 days

Wed 01/10/03

Fri 03/10/03

Macachino

3 days

Wed 01/10/03

Fri 03/10/03

PellyDeprez

3 days

Wed 01/10/03

Fri 03/10/03

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

12

Project requirements

2 days

Wed 08/10/03

13

Project Success Criteria

2 days

Fri 10/10/03

42 days

Tue 14/10/03

Wed 10/12/03

10 days

Tue 14/10/03

Mon 27/10/03 13

14
15
16
17

Iteration 1
Design Stage
Basic Diagrams
Advanced Diagrams

Tue 21/10/03

Mon 27/10/03 16

Tue 28/10/03

Wed 26/11/03 15

Testing Stage

5 days

Thu 27/11/03

Wed 03/12/03 18

Evaluation Stage

5 days

Thu 04/12/03

Wed 10/12/03 19

49 days

Thu 11/12/03

Tue 17/02/04 14

19
20

Iteration 2

22

Review Requirements

23

Design Stage

25

Mon 20/10/03

5 days

Implementation Stage

24

Tue 14/10/03

Mon 13/10/03 12

22 days

18

21

5 days

Fri 03/10/03
Thu 09/10/03 10,11

Review & Evolve Diagrams

Graphic User Interface Design

5 days

Thu 11/12/03

Wed 17/12/03

15 days

Thu 11/12/03

Wed 31/12/03

9 days

Thu 11/12/03

Tue 23/12/03

6 days

Wed 24/12/03

Wed 31/12/03 24

22 days

Thu 01/01/04

Fri 30/01/04 23
Tue 10/02/04 26

26

Implementation Stage

27

Testing Stage

7 days

Mon 02/02/04

28

Evaluation Stage

5 days

Wed 11/02/04

Tue 17/02/04 27

1 day

Wed 18/02/04

Wed 18/02/04 21

14 days

Thu 19/02/04

Tue 09/03/04 29

29

Deployment

30

Evaluation of Project

Figure 2 Estimated Project Gantt chart

As t he proj ect progresses t he Gant t chart will cont inue t o be updat ed wit h
actually timings and revised estimations. A copy of the revised Gantt chart will be
available in the Project Folder.

Project Plan

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VisiNet

Richard Pearce

Aft er lengt hy discussion t he decision was t aken t o should break up t he

requirem ent s int o t wo m ain sect ions: Sim ulat ion and Visualisat ion. Each sect ion
will then be implemented iteratively.
Iteration 1
This it erat ion will aim t o develop t he m ain core of t he sim ulat or wit h j ust a single
prot ocol:

CSMA/ CD. This will allow us t o t est t he basic funct ionalit y of t he

sim ulat or before t he addit ional prot ocols are added. The it erat ion will also involve
a form of console based cont rol and a t ext ual out put . An out line of t he feat ures
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 t his it erat ion are t o develop t he Visualisat ion part of t he proj ect .
We will st art by t ransferring cont rol of t he sim ulat ion t o a graphic user int erface
wit h but t ons and cont rols. The sim ulat ion will t hen be at t ached t o a graphical
represent at ion or visualisat ion of t he st at e of t he sim ulat ion. When bot h of t hese
funct ions have been com plet ed in t here basic m ost form we shall cont inue t o
evolve t he design of t he Visualisat ion incorporat ing m ore feat ures unt il t he
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. Cont inue

to

evolve

t he

visualisat ion

to

incorporat e

anim at ion

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 proj ect will be im plem ent ed using t he Java program m ing language. We
decided t o use j ava because every group m em ber has very good knowledge of
j ava. Ot her languages such as C and C+ + were considered but were unsuit able
because only t wo m em bers had an accept able knowledge of t he languages. We

Project Plan

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Richard Pearce

shall be using t he current m ost Java Soft ware Developm ent Kit ( SDK) Version
1.4.2.

To assist in t he developm ent of t his proj ect we shall be using several different
case t ools below is a list of case t ools we shall be using and t here role wit hin t he
project:
Toget herSoft 6 Used in t he design process t o develop various UML
Diagrams.
Concurrent Version Syst em

( CVS)

Used for code access cont rol,

synchronisation and version management.

Text Pad / Edit Plus / PFE Edit ors used during t he im plem ent at ion process
to develop code.
JUnit Used during t est ing process t o help writ e and cont rol unit and
integration tests.
Microsoft Proj ect Used for scheduling and t im ing of ent ire proj ect
process.

Project Plan

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