My First Jasmineii Project

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My First Jasmineii Project

• eBusiness Solutions in Internet Time
• Session Code JG065SN

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Abstract

• This session features an honest look at the
  successes and lessons learned during the
  development process of our first Jasmine ii
  application. This session covers scheduling,
  cost estimation, UI language choices, development
  tools, data model growth, ODQL issues, and other
  relevant topics.
• This session provides an opportunity for
  developers and managers to learn form our
  experience, while also providing an opportunity
  for exchange on some of the real-world issues
  that arose during application development on a
  new platform.

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Biography

• Bill CrossVW International, Inc.
• Bill Cross is a Senior Functional Analyst and
  Health Facility Planner for VW International,
  Inc.
• As part of a career in medical facility design,
  Bill has acquired skills in dBase, Clipper (8
  years), dbFast, and CA-Visual Objects (5 years)
  and has been following Jasmine since its
  prerelease stage.

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Topics of Discussion

• Project Description
• Beginning
• Requirements
• Approach
• Lessons
• GUI
• Modeling
• Jasmine ii Observations and Tips
• Schedule
• Summary

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Project Description

• Prototype
• Manage information from master planning for
  medical facilities
• Data included CAD files, photos, narrative,
  medical workload
• Support future decision support processing
• User uncertain of real desires

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How It Began

• Scope () set more by available funding rather
  than requirements
• Purpose stated as capturing and storing
  information for future use
• Firm fixed price contract method with good client
  relationship
• Personal experience in functional needs

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Requirements

• Adaptability to future analytical use was
  critical
• User was continually reengineering their
  processes and the information being stored
• Stable physical structure relationships, but also
  flexible (reengineered) organizational
  relationships
• Give the client a scalable data repository to
  build on

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Approach

• Decision to model utilizing objects
• Objects are the enabling technology for adaptive
  business systems. Taylor 1998
• Control impact of changes (encapsulation)
• Closer fit to real world
• Jasmine ii
• Pureness (minimize translation effort)
• Computational capability
• LAN now but future move to intranet

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Team Methodology

• Functional analyst and modeler
• Development team for Java GUI and ODQL (located
  remotely)
• Brainstorm kick-off session with
• Client principal users
• Master planning contractors (data creators)
• Other subject matter experts
• Periodic reviews

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GUI Lessons
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Design Approach

• Jasmine ii
• Business logic
• Data storage
• GUI
• User interface only
• Minimal business logic

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GUI Decisions

• Considered several issues
• Compatibility with Jasmine ii
• Future intent to move to Internet
• Flexibility in development
• Availability of programmers
• Considered
• Jasmine (v1.2), CA-Visual Objects (v2.0)
• Java, C

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GUI Decision (Then and Now)

• Java selected then
• Java proxy (TDI)
• Today would choose CA-Visual Objects 2.5 as
  front-end tool
• Better framework for development
• Faster performance
• Strong(er?) Jasmine ii support
• COM support for plug-ins

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Implications on Design

• Maximum extent of business logic residing in
  Jasmine ii
• GUI would have minimal business logic (and would
  reside on client machines)
• Pick lists reside in Jasmine ii not in GUI
• Retrieval methods used a unique serial number
  attribute
• GUI fetches collection of strings with serial
  number at end
• Based on user choice, serial number is used to
  fetch the object

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Modeling Lessons
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Modeling Design Tools

• Object Internationals Playground (free) with
  Coads book (OOA)
• Moved to Rational Rose 98i
• Looked at TogetherJ (www.oi.com)
• Used Visio for designing screens
• Word for documentation (Cut and paste)

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Playground Model
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Rose Model (Colored)
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Tool Lessons (Modeling)

• Playground good for learning basic object
  concepts (quick to make small designs)
• Rose worked well
• VB script provides extensibility
• Web publisher supports communication
• Generating hardcopy can be frustrating
• Version control between Rose models can be
  difficult
• Rose includes visual differencing tool

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Tool Lessons (screens)

• Visio worked well
• Tip - Use the layer capability in Visio if
  creating windows with tabs.
• Able to do all aspects of design (include pasting
  sample pictures)
• Cut and paste into Word presented no surprises!
• A better method may have been to use same screen
  design tool used by the Java developers

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Unload and Load

• Use of Excel to rapidly create test data for Load
  Unload into Jasmine ii
• Formatting tips
• OIDs are bracketed lt gt
• Characters are in quotes
• Date is date 1999-12-31-AD
• Reference is ltClassFamilyClassNameOIDgtgt
• Collection is ltobject refgt, ltobject refgt,
• Boolean FALSE or TRUE
• NIL

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Excel Layout
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Unload File Tip

• When pasting data into the file be sure to edit
  the number of records

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Unload Sequence

• Create sample object in Jasmine studio
• Perform unload of interested and referenced
  classes with -s and -d flags
• Mimic the attribute layout in Excel using extra
  columns to easily reference specific OIDs
• Always start with OID lt1025gt
• Copy layout to another worksheet and export that
  to a CSV (comma delimited) file.

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Sequence continued...

• Cut and paste from the CSV into the unload file,
  being sure to edit the number of records.
• Delete the classes from within Jasmine studio
• Perform load using the -d and -s flags
• Check

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Schedule

• Originally 261 calendar days
• Requirements Development - OOA
• Architecture - OOD
• Stage 1 thru 3
• Database entry screens
• Output and Analysis
• Data load
• Product release

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Revised Schedule

• Revised to 349 calendar days
• Requirements Development
• Iterations 1 - 5 covering different subject
  areas
• Analysis and design fell behind
• Iterations allowed design and coding to overlap
• Number of iterations reduced to 3
• Data load and Installation

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Schedule Comparisons
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Scheduling Tools

• Resource
• Steve McConnells book and www.Construx.com/surviv
  alguide
• MS Project templates for development

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Schedule Lessons

• Schedule too optimistic
• Modeling is slow (took over 15 months). Estimated
  to be about 85 complete
• Brainstorm session allowed for total of 4 days
  over 2 separate weeks. Recommend 5 days each.
• Modeling team was remote from programmers. Not
  sufficient allowance for communication of
  concepts (either through documentation and/or
  meetings).

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Management Lessons

• Regardless of any subject matter knowledge,
  client/user involvement and commitment must be
  secured.
• Cost estimate was too optimistic (even for a
  prototype). Requirements development should be
  executed separately based upon a time method.
• Final estimate was 350,000 versus original of
  125,000 (70.00 hourly rates).

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Session Summary

• Object modeling presents numerous advantages
• However, performing the analysis and design
  requires extended effort before coding begins
• Capable tools are critical to success
• Visual Objects v2.5 has some definite development
  advantages over Java

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Tools

• Playground. Object International, Inc. (Object
  modeling tool -free as a learning tool)
  www.OI.com
• Rational Rose 98i, Rational Inc. , UML Modeler
  2,000, www.rational.com
• Rational Integration Kit, CA, On the Jasmine ii
  Beta CD, www.cai.com
• ODQL Cleaner, Cleans the ODQL generated by the
  integration kit so it will compile in Jasmine
  (truncates the description text) (Visual Objects
  app. free), www.Hungry-Hippo.com
• Jasmine Comparer, Compares two Jasmine models
  (loaded as separate class families) and prints
  exception report (Visual Objects app. free),
  www.Hungry-Hippo.com

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Tools continued . . .

• Jasmine Workbench, Infopike Inc., GUI utility for
  CODQLIE, library and class family management
  (free on partner CD of Jasmine) www.Infopike.com
• Software Cost Estimator, (free) www.Construx.com
• Would Have Liked
• Requisite Pro, Rational Inc., Requirements
  documentation manager, , www.rational.com
• Version control for ODQL (via internet)

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Bibliography

• Object Models Strategies, Patterns,
  Applications, 1997 Coad, Peter ISBN 0-13-840117-9
• Object Technology, A Managers Guide, 1998,
  Taylor, David ISBN 0-201-30994-7
• Business Engineering with Object Technology,
  1995, Taylor, David ISBN 0-471-04521-7
• Software Project Survival Guide. 1998.
  McConnell, Steve ISBN 1-57231-621-7
• The Rational Unified Process, An Introduction.
  1999 Kruchten, Philippe ISBN 0-201-60459-0

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Bibliography continued . . .

• The Jasmine Object Database, 1999, Khoshafian,
  Setrag ISBN 1-55860-494-4
• Visual Modeling with Rational Rose and UML.
  1998. Quatrani, Terry ISBN 0-201-31016-3
• UML Distilled, 1997, Fowler, Martin ISBN
  0-201-32563-2
• Analysis Patterns Reusable Object Models, 1997,
  Fowler, Martin ISBN 0-201-89542-0
• Dynamics of Software Development, 1995, McCarthy,
  Jim ISBN 1-55615-823-8

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Bibliography continued . . .

• Object-Oriented Modeling and Design for Database
  Applications. 1998. Blaha, Michael ISBN
  0-13-123829-9
• The Data Model Resource Book, 1997, Silverston,
  Len ISBN 0-471-15364-8
• Java Modeling in Color with UML, 1999, Coad,
  Peter ISBN 0-13-011510-X
• The Data Modeling Handbook, 1994, Reingruber ISBN
  0-471-05290-6
• The Encyclopedia for Jasmine vol 1. 1998.
  Straley, Stephen ISBN1-890726-09-5

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Notes
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Notes
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Notes