This is the final exam from 2015 which forced students to focus on another country's problems and fix them.

1. IT564 EXAM PART 1
2015

2. March 19st
, 2015
1 of 5
Iterative Software Development for Project Managers
Time
180 Minutes – Open Book
Grading
Essay_1 10, Project Folder 40, Movie Analysis 10, Essay_2 10, Bonus Movie Analysis 10, Exam 30
(110)
ASSUMPTIONS AND RELEVANT INFORMATION
You are a system analyst who works for a company that develops a commercial social network
framework which can also be used for social e-commerce projects. The customers of that firm usually
buy the framework hoping that they will be able to bend it according to their notions of social
network. However, there are a lot of complaints stating that regardless of what they do, they end up
pretty much with a washed up version of Facebook with a simple payment gateway.
To address these issues the firm hired a famous project manager who claims that such problems can
only be solved by going as generic as possible. You on the other hand, have a different idea. You
think that such variations on the same theme can only be achieved by going specific. In other words,
you think instead of trying to come up with a Swiss Army Knife (high overall abstraction), one should
look for a set of complimentary knifes with a centralized theme (component based system
architecture).
Fed up with the so called management decisions, you express your doubts in a meeting and when
the opposition accepts your challenge, you tell them that you will prove your point by using a couple
of real life examples.
ABOUT GENERIC AND SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS
If you go full generic, then the application will not have any character and it will solve a variety of
problems barely. On the other hand, if you go full specific, then the application will have a rigid
character and will solve a certain type of problem perfectly. What I want is an application composed
of several components that can not only solve a variety of problems perfectly, but also, when a
particular combination of its components are merged and used together, it can also solve additional
problems reasonably well. So, you should find a balance between these contradicting approaches.
Example 1  Write an Essay, Write a Screenplay, Write Any Kind of Text
a) Full Generic = Word can be used for any kind of writing task but it becomes harder when
writing long documents with complex structures due to linear orientation
b) Full Specific = Sophocles can only be used for writing screenplays
c) Balanced = Scrivener is aimed at writing long documents with complex structures but it can
also be used for writing short documents with simple structures as well as screenplays
Example 2  Read a Book, Read a Magazine, Take a Course
a) FG  Windows provides you with a set of generalized applications such as Adobe Reader,
Adobe Reader and Office (Word, Powerpoint) + Media Player (Audio, Video).
b) FS  Adobe provides you with a very specialized application called Authorware (for creating
and taking courses).
c) B  iOS provides you with a set of specialized applications such as iBooks, Newsstand and
iTunes University.

3. March 19st
, 2015
2 of 5
FIRST THINGS FIRST
STEP 1  Take Home Section AKA Preparation for the Exam (March 19th
, Thursday)
1) Pick 2 social network sites (or mobile applications) that have nothing to do with each other.
Don’t pick Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
2) Reverse engineer each web site
a. Business ecosystem
b. Vision  Positioning
c. Vision  End-users
d. Vision  Features
e. Event Table
f. Actors and Use Cases
g. Brief Descriptions of Use Cases
h. Key Abstractions  Entity Classes
If you need to brush up on theory, consult the following book:
ftp://ftp.bupt.edu.cn/pub/Documents/so-many-
notsorted/new/Ebook/UML/%28Addison%20Wesley%202001%29%20-
%20Developing%20Applications%20with%20Java%20and%20UML.pdf
Remember the templates we have used:
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/require
ments/vision.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/require
ments/uc_specs.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/require
ments/supplspec.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/require
ments/glossary.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/baseline
d/construction/construction_c2/itplan_c2.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/courseregistrationproject/artifacts/baseline
d/construction/construction_c2/itassessement_c2.htm
- http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/RUP_course_example/wcsoftwareprocessweb/guidelines/require
m/rm_plan.htm
3) Do your research:
- http://digitalenterprise.org/index.html  E-business models
- http://www.cooper.com/work/  User experience modelling
- http://tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm  Benefiting from people around you

4. March 19st
, 2015
3 of 5
4) Lucky you! A city is selected for you for your experiment. It was a boomtown in the past but
now the economy has collapsed. You are expected to bring the city back to its glorious past.
Here’s some information about the current circumstances:
"Tabubil is a town of about 30,000 people, deep in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. It was built by
the operators of the Ok Tedi mine, an open-pit gold and copper mine. But now, with the end of the mine’s
life in sight, the town faces a stark challenge: completely remake itself or disappear. "
Tabubil Fig Parrot (Cyclopsitta Guliermitertii)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabubil
- https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tabubil,+Papua+New+Guinea/@-
5.272503,141.2300635,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x6846a28a54047529:0x58d5b089
449992e6
- http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/can-town-reinvent-itself-its-economic-engine-
disappears
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/grandma-shirley/sets/72157631871097893/
- http://www.businessadvantagepng.com/tabubil-a-college-town-in-the-clouds/
- http://issuu.com/businessadvantage/docs/businessadvantagepng2014
Learn about boomtowns and their associated problems:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomtown
- http://cgta.mpg.gov.za/Resources_Documents/RevitalisationStrategyDyingDining.pdf
- http://www.bowenbasin.cqu.edu.au/Petkova%20et%20al.%20Rural%20Society%2009.pdf

5. March 19st
, 2015
4 of 5
TIPS
Remember what you’ve been through:
1) You have analysed a business idea (equalizer)
2) You have learned about your teammates
3) You have come up with your own interpretation of the business opportunity
4) You have developed a requirement model  Forward Engineering
5) You learned about how you can manage change using the requirement model
a. Project of the group  Reverse Engineering
b. Project of the speaker  Reverse Engineering
c. 3rd
Project  Forward Engineering
6) You learned about how you can manage a project iteratively
7) You learned about the difference between project and product life cycle management
8) You have picked and analysed two social networks  Reverse Engineering
9) You have learned about boomtowns and their associated problems, particularly about the
current situation in Tabubil, Papua New Guinea
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea)

6. March 19st
, 2015
5 of 5
YOUR TOOLBOX
1) Information provided by your firm
a. Current requirement model of the Social Network Framework (Poor men’s Facebook)
b. Customer complaints about inflexibility and the level of customization
c. Framework abstraction level (Generic, Specific)
2) Software Engineering Techniques
a. Project Plan
b. Iteration Plan
c. Iteration Assessment
d. Product Life Cycle Plan
e. Team Member Profiles
f. Business Ecosystem Drawing
g. Vision
i. Business Opportunity
ii. Problem Statement
iii. Product Positioning
iv. End User Summary
v. End User Profiles
vi. Features
h. Event Table
i. Use Case Diagram
i. Actors
ii. Use Cases
iii. Brief Descriptions
iv. Basic Flows
v. Alternate Scenarios
j. Personas  Actor Types = Your Customers
k. Key Abstractions  Entity Classes
3) The Golden Rule of Management
a. If you can manage requirements
b. Then, you can manage change
c. And only after that maturity level, you can manage a product and its associated
projects
4) Deming’s Red Bead Experiment
a. You cannot manage people but you can manage the process
5) Your Project Team
a. Capabilities
b. Strengths
c. Weaknesses
6) Cooper Triangle
a. Desirability  Analyst’s View
b. Capability  Developer’s View
c. Viability  Sponsor’s View
7) Our Definition of Quality  Compass for Cultural Evolution
a. Team should better itself in a specific manner
b. Customers should enrich their lives in a specific manner
c. Company’s new vision should be revealed to itself

7. IT564 EXAM PART 1I
2015

8. March 31st
, 2015
1 of 4
Iterative Software Development for Project Managers
Time
180 Minutes – Open Book
Grading
Essay_1 10, Project Folder 40, Movie Analysis 10, Essay_2 10, Bonus Movie Analysis 10, Exam 30
(110)
STEP 2  In Class Section (March 31st
, Tuesday)
PREREQUISITE = Take Home Section (March 19th
, Thursday)
1) You should have done the following at home:
a) Learned about the social development framework’s first version
 Facebook + Payment Gateway
b) Learned about Tabubil and picked a problem you can solve by social network
implementations
c) Picked two dissimilar social networks
d) Reverse engineered these social networks
e) Using the information you have gained about these social networks, came up with
the second version of your company’s Social Network Development Framework that
can be used to create such social networks and more
PART 2  STEP 1
2) Show me how one can create social network one by using your framework
3) Show me how one can create social network two by using your framework
PART 2  STEP 2
4) Tell me about the problem you picked and why
5) Why do you think such problems can be solved by using social networks?
6) Tell me how you are going to use the social networks you have picked in combination to
solve the problem you have picked
7) Show me what you are expecting to accomplish by using these social networks in Tabubil.
What is the expected social impact?
PART 2  STEP 3
8) Come up with the second versions of the social networks you have picked
9) Justify the vision and the requirements of the second versions relating the 1st
and 2nd
versions these applications to the problem you have picked previously.
10) Tell me where you will take Tabubil during the product life cycle (versions 1 and 2) of your
social networks?
11) Why have you chosen such a plan?
12) Show me how you’ll get there and detail the cultural impact you would like to achieve along
the way.

9. March 31st
, 2015
2 of 4
1) Requirement Model of Social Network 1 + 2  Social Network Framework 2.0
2) Social Network Framework 2.0  Implementation 1 + 2
3) Community’s Current Problems  Tabubil 0.1
4) Community’s Current Problems + (Implementation1 1.0 + Implementation2 1.0)
= Community’s Current Capabilities  Tabubil 1.0
5) Community’s Current Capabilities + (Implementation1 2.0 + Implementation2 2.0)
= Community’s Future Capabilities  Tabubil 2.0
Tabubil 0.1  Tabubil 1.0  Tabubil 2.0
Apply your strategy using the Requirement, Change, Project and Product Life Cycle Management
techniques we have covered  Toolbox (Exam Part 1, page 5)
GRADING
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/4601.html
1) Coming up with a flexible social network development framework (Take Home section)
Prove that you can come up with a framework that has a component based architecture
 Schlepper (10 points)
2) Coming up with a framework that will be a basis for a variety of well-defined social network
implementations
Prove that you can use a component based architecture to create a variety of implementations that attack
different kinds of problems
 Macher (20 points)
3) Coming up with a framework, well defined implementations and a medium of cultural
evolution
Prove that you can use a product and its associated projects to come up with a product life cycle strategy
that will have a positive impact on the problems of a particular community
 Mensch (30 points)

10. March 31st
, 2015
3 of 4

11. March 31st
, 2015
4 of 4
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