Developing a Project Workplan

1
End of Semester Presentation 17-671 Software
Development Studio I Fall 2000 December 12,
2000
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Brief introduction

• Who we are
• Who the client is
• What they do / have WebSimon, etc
• What our project is Autonomous Agent
• What we learned

3
Agenda

• Introduction to E-Transport
• Short history of our 1st project
• Five options
• Interesting project
• Requirement analysis
• Comparison of two products
• WebSimon
• Autonomous Agent
• Lessons from the project

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History of our client
Start Three guys with PCs" start up as DXI
Incorporated in 1987 Growth E-Transport became
a leading provider of hosted software and
logistics exchange solutions for the multi-modal
transportation market Acquisition Descartes
System Group, a leading provider of end-to-end
logistics solutions for B2B e-commerce, acquired
E-Transport on February 2000
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project
5
Current clients situation
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• Now.
• Maintains rate information for most of the
  world's largest cargo carriers (17 out of 20)
• Leading company in this field
• Provides a variety of software products
• Rate Systems
• Shipment Management Systems
• Needs more software products
• Begins to outsource software development

6
Short history of our 1st project
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• Summary of fall semester
• Five options
• Project selection
• Requirement analysis
• The news!

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Project options
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project
1 Location Modeling - Abstract complicated
location problem 2 Autonomous Agent - Learn from
past transactions 3 Shipment document modeling -
Improve mechanism of storing data 4 Usage
profiling - Analyze usage patterns 5 Universal
login mechanism - Solve heterogeneous
environment problem
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We picked Autonomous Agent
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• We thought this Autonomous Agent would be
• B2B portal / E-Commerce project
• Not too technically research-oriented (Data
  mining, etc.)
• Not too difficult to implement (Zip theory
  research, etc.)

• It seemed to match what we wanted for studio
  work
• Real-world experience
• B2B/EC projects
• Business aspects as well as reasonable technical
  challenges

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The way of business
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• No price comparison among carriers
• Dont want to upset customers (carriers)

Offer a private online marketplace and Web-based
information tools
There was a big gap between their business and
what we expected for our project.
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Why new app ? Why not a new functionality ?
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• Why did they want the Autonomous Agent?
• What was the difference between our project and
  the existing software besides the name?
• We felt that we were going to build the same
  system they already had.
• We even wanted to add features to it in order to
  make it more interesting.
•  

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Client gave up on our project!
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

The end of the project ? Client realized not
enough value for this project.
Any indication?

• They had preference and priority in the
  potential projects
• ? But we were allowed to select any one we
  wanted without knowing preference and priority

• Client admitted from the beginning that
• Autonomous agent is not revenue machine for
  E-Transport.
• ? Not critical project (better service/customer
  satisfaction?)
• ? They might have multiple opinions for the
  project

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What is the difference
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• Comparison of products
• Existing product (What they have)
• WebSimon
• Our project (What they wanted)
• Autonomous Agent

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WebSimon
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

WebSimon - What the client has-
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WebSimon - Swim lanes
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project
Store tariff data in DB
Give Tariff document
WebSimon / MyWebSimon
Request rate
Get all rates
Select rate
Change parameters
Calculate rate
Create quote
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Autonomous Agent
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Autonomous Agent - What the client wanted-
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Autonomous Agent - Objective
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Easier rate selection
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Autonomous Agent Swim lanes
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Give Tariff document
Store tariff data in DB
Autonomous Agent
Get all rates
Request rate
Give criteria
Sort rates
Give sorted rates
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Autonomous Agent Swim lanes contd.
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Carrier E-Transport
User(Carrier/Shipper)
Give sorted rate
Select a rate
Give parameters
Calculate rate
Create quote
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What we learned
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

• Lessons from our project
• Business process model
• Vision document
• Software Risk Evaluation (SRE)
• Taxonomy-Based Questionnaire (TBQ)

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Do not forget business point of view
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Business Process Model

• - This approach did not force us to identify the
  problem and its root cause.
• Our project
• Low priority project (18 month ahead)
• Our primary contact
• Different business point of view
• Too busy to contact
• Our client company
• Merged recently (power of politics)
• Broader vision of parent company

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Think deeper than requirement level
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Vision document
- Focus on the user needs rather than the
specific requirements that should be implemented
in order to satisfy those needs.

• Business process model (SRS) and vision document
  complement each other

Vision document Required documents
for the next project even though it is not
required for studio projects
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Improve type of contract ?
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Software Risk Evaluation (SRE)
-Taxonomy-Based Questionnaire (TBQ) helps to make
questions for broad range of areas.
1) Requirements 2) Design 3) Integration and
Test 4) Engineering Specialties
5) Dev. System Familiarity 6) System Support 7)
Staff 8) Type of Contract

• 8) Type of Contract No Control
• Just accept? (We cant be on critical path)
• Start studio project from contract issues?

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Our 2nd project
Version 3 8.1.2001
Sleep less
Dream more
Version 3 will be launched on August 1st , 2001
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QA

Thank you for listening, Any questions?
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Autonomous Agent - All actors and actresses

• Introduction
• Background
• Websimon
• Autonomous Agent
• -Objectives
• -Players
• -Swim lanes
• -Concerns
• Lessons from the project

Login System
Tel Shipper
Create rate search
Carrier
Request rate
View search results
Select rate
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WebSimon - Provide web I/F.
Introduction to E-Transport -history
-current Summary of E- Bravo! -options
-selection -analysis -the news Comparison
-WebSimon -Autonomous Lessons from the project

Hard copy of a Websimon page goes on here Or
Actual Demonstration of Websimon