A (recurrent) tip for the exam

See this thread http://osprey.unisa.ac.za/phorum/read.php?534,141365

The lecturer has responded to the point I have been pushing throughout the year. This is what is expected at hons level, so a parrot approach is not recommended, although you need the foundation. Feel free to argue your case/approach in the exam I listen.

Hi Prof Mac

I agree with the approach of arguing our points in exam... a lot of textbooks make general statements especially about the "pros" and "cons" of methodologies. I think the general statements are just an indication of what we as students may or may not encounter in the working world. As you said, it's just a foundation ... a place to start. Where you take it from there depends on the uniqueness of the environment.

I work in an organisation that follows traditional SDLC to the letter. We have to get "official dispensation" from the High Committee in order to leave out steps in the SDLC. Even so, most of our large projects are very late and well over budget and no methodology is ever going to fix that. The projects that do succeed, do so regardless of the documentation or analysis. Often the key to success is just having the right mix of experienced motivated people on the team and of course stakeholder buy in. IT departments are very notorious for pushing projects onto business that add no value or that they can't afford and are often just to keep large IT teams occupied and employed. Those projects usually get descoped or fizzle away because the users don't care enough to see it succeed.

Ok that was my 2 cents.

The real reason that I'm posting is that I just read the text book cover to cover and I can't remember half of what I read. What can I focus on in order to be truly ready for this paper? I'm concerned that if I am confronted with a question like compare RUP to XP I'm not going to remember the theory at all. If previous examinations are not an indication can you please give us an example of what types of questions to expect?

Thanks

D

From what I have been able to gauge, there will be no questions about listing/explaining steps of a particular methodology(in my interpretation, that is application. Along with drawing UML type diagrams, which isnt really in the scope of this course). The questions will be more comparative, I presume the questions to be like those in the assignments. In particular, I reckon a comparison between RUP and XP is very likely(because they are two of the major methodologies and have conflicting views, and also because of the extra material on myunisa). It would probably be wise to gloss over that RUP vs XP document. The framework for comparison is obviously of utmost importance here.

I also doubt some of the lesser known methodologies are likely to come up(I am meaning the ones with specific application areas such as expert systems). But I think it would be foolish to not at least know that a particular methodology is specifically suited to area X.

As for definitions, the definition of a methodology is probably the most likely to show up.

Themes, techniques and tools is important because of their recurring use in the methodologies. Most of these are fairly straight forward anyway. I guess being able to identify a methodologies characteristics based on the techniques they use would be good. The tools chapters are mostly a waste of time, if you are in the industry you should know it all already(and also that the tools described are very outdated). In that regard, the text book claims to have been revised in 2007 but it keeps referring to the Netscape browser(which was long gone by then). I would have thought they would keep the book current.

I think there will be a few advantage/disadvantage type questions, so understanding the underlying themes/techniques might help with remembering facts about the methodologies.

Note: These are just my observations. Since I too am writing the exam, I have no idea what is actually in it. Dont hold me to it.

Hi

Regarding Exam tutorial TL102, Does anyone know what exactly is meant by a High level perspective overview- Question 2 (48 marks): Themes, their associated methodologies, techniques and tools – a high level perspective (overview).
Feedback appreciated.
Thanks.

I think the reference would be similar to assignment 2 Q 5, where is says to summarise Methodologies using the table of contents and headings as a guideline and to keep it short.