Exam Prep

Anyone started yet?

Jip, started this morning.

Me too, going through the assignments. Not sure about the theory side, but luckily there's more practical work than theory.

I'm worried about the subjectivity of PBS's, PFD's and Activity Networks....

You guys think they'll ask those or just the CPM, Activity on Arrows etc ?

I think if u master your assignments, and understand your diagrams, ul get somewhere.. someone who did it last year told me that..

I also hope they don't really delve to deep into PBS's, PFD's and Activity Networks. But yeah, I hope the assignments are a good indication as to what we can expect.

I'm going through some of the theory now.

I had a look in the archives of osprey.
It looks like they concentrate mostly on the contents of the tuts in the previous papers. - so that's what I'm going to concentrate on...

I need last year's tut101 and the solutions to the assignments if possible.

If you have the above, pleas email me: neliswa.mnukwana@gmail.com

Thanks

Nels, check http://wikistudent.ws/unisa
or unisastudents.ning.com

thanks silva surfa

Guys,

I'm having a dilemna with the example PBS in the TUT 501 Pg 12, in the textbook it strictly tells us that we must
only specify actual products eg "Tested Integrated software" or " Overall System Specification" and in their solution example they have things which are
more like actions... EG" Peruse External & other websites" or "Training of possible users" the textbook even states" avoid mistakes by saying training users rather use "trained Users ", that not a product its an activity...

what do you think ? Or am i missing something?

Well Firstl, the clearly state that "It is with these aspects in mind, that we create the PBS on the next page. Please note that
this is a suggested, and not necessarily only acceptable, solution to this problem".

Secondly, what exactly are you asking? Whether the notation is right or..?

Yeah I see they stated that, I understand that there is no one correct answer.

But these dont seem like " products" at all to me, they seems as though the things they have put in there are more like activities that they have stated,
thus making it more like a process oriented work breakdown structure, than a PBS...

I'm just gonna go with the textbook if they ask it and keep it more product than process... unless they ask for a process oriented WBS.

To be honest I doubt they'll ask any diagrams or calcs they havent made us work on in the assignments...

Besides, they also give us guidance as to how they mark them... As long as we get the structure correct and show them
we know what the basis of it is, we'll get the marks...

Answering your question to me, No, their structure and notation is right... It was just the concept of product v process I think they might have wrong...

PBS is what is created, PFD is How it gets created...

I would have to agree with Geeza's assessment that the tutorial letter has made a bit of a hash of this. According to the textbook these "products" should clearly not be "activities" as explicitly stated on page 31. As far as it not being the "only" acceptable solution I would rather say that it is an unacceptable solution.
Just my 2c worth.

So, tomorrow's the day. I'm so tired after my exam today, but guess I'll have to go through everything again..a couple of times.

Does everyone understand Gantt charts well or am I the only dense one? Looking again at the proposed solutions of the tutorial letters and the information given in the textbook, I cannot really see a relationship. Also, having looked at some additional information on Gantt charts just adds to the confusion. The solution to assignment 3, question 4 does not make sense to me. Are the particular activities of the assignment not supposed to be dependent on one another? For example why would Alice start finalising the office layout right from the start, surely it has to depend on Maggie's completion of the planning of the office layout.

franlowe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does everyone understand Gantt charts well or am I
> the only dense one? Looking again at the proposed
> solutions of the tutorial letters and the
> information given in the textbook, I cannot really
> see a relationship. Also, having looked at some
> additional information on Gantt charts just adds
> to the confusion. The solution to assignment 3,
> question 4 does not make sense to me. Are the
> particular activities of the assignment not
> supposed to be dependent on one another? For
> example why would Alice start finalising the
> office layout right from the start, surely it has
> to depend on Maggie's completion of the planning
> of the office layout.

I'm also no entirely sure on that one. The solution to the assignment is a bit confusing. And as you say, I also believe they shouldn't be starting at the same time. I mean, according to the solution when one person gets delayed everyone else gets delayed - then how can they all start at the same time?

Hi franlowe,

I hear you...

That Gantt chartt question and solution differ, its as though the solution assumes that there is a precedence for each person
to wait for the last person to finish, although they didnt state that in the question...

But in answer to your question, It just says name and describe 4 ways... it doesnt say what date we are in now, so we could even have
drawn 1 for the 2nd and 4th weeks instead of the 1st and 4th weeks.... Its just to show how it works....

also the resource histogram has incorrect durations according to the Precedence network they gave us in the question. ( Question 2 Assignment 3).

I think when answering just state your assumptions based on what you think... even state, " I'm assuming its the same type of
question as in the assignment, where you havent stated precedence explicity although it seems to be implied" or something like that...

PS do you know why we/they divide the KDSI in cocomo by 1000 in the calculation solution? I'm stuck on that....

Remember though, looking at the mark assignments, you gotta be a real bad to not get any marks....

They don't just mark for whats inside, also for showing you know what it is and how to draw it...

Sorry I meant " looking at the assignment mark allocation...."

Geeza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> PS do you know why we/they divide the KDSI in
> cocomo by 1000 in the calculation solution? I'm
> stuck on that....

KDSI is thousands of delivered source code instructions - so it's measured in thousands. So if they say there is 120 000 source code instructions it would be 120 K(thousand)DSI. Same as you would say there's 1000 meters in 'n kilometer.

It's heartening to read from the last year's group: http://osprey.unisa.ac.za/phorum/list.php?254

Thanks Pruthven.

Makes sense

Yeah Rick, I had a look at that, it seems as though it is mainly applied stuff they ask rather than theory.. Good news.

Oh well heres hoping, I'm off to bed now, so I can rise at 5... so I can do it all again...

Hey,
Want to practice activity on node diagrams?
Found this excellent site : http://www.btinternet.com/~uyea/jaon.html
check it out. It has an interactive "drawing board" and marks your answer!

I did this course as a certificate course about 4 or 5 years ago. I remember it being a 3 hour paper, which included both an Activity on Node and an Activity on Arrow drawing as well as a Timeline.
However, given that this has been reduced to 2 hours, I seriously doubt that there'll be a Gantt chart or a Timeline, or any of the monitoring visualization tools.
I do believe that we can expect one of the Activity diagrams, Risk (Pert), the usual NPV calcs, and perhaps a question on Cocomo, then a few theory questions.
There should also be a question on development methodologies.
Then again, I may be totally off the mark
Anyway, all the best.

In assignment 3 question 4.
How are we suppose to know to draw a graph for week 1 and week 4. why not week2 and 4?

As this is when the delays were recorded.

Good luck guys!

that was the best exam i have written so far...how did u guys find it?

easy peasy, lemon squeezy! Hope I didn't make any silly mistakes

Yeah, Makes me remember that this degree gonna be discontinued soon....

I hope i'm right with regards to INF-303 and 307...