journey of an idea to invention part 1 of 3

Kunal Johar Design Part I 1

Design Part I The Journey of an Idea to Invention

Kunal JoharCSCI 4243 (Senior Design)

The George Washington University


What is Senior Design?


What is Senior Design?

IdeaFormal PlanningPractice Software EngineeringTechnical ChallengePolished ProductAbility to Articulate Your Vision


What is Kunal Doing Here?

“I’ve been here for 8 weeks and I feel like I’ve done 2 mini senior designs”

- Zack Schwartz (GW CS Class of 2011)



• Goals– Think like an outsider while commanding

strong engineering skills

– Communicate superbly to coders, managers, and the public at large



IdeaFormal PlanningPractice Software EngineeringTechnical ChallengePolished ProductAbility to Articulate Your Vision


The Idea

• This is YOUR project

• It is up to YOU to transition it to invention

• Own it!


Technical Challenge

''My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: 'So? Did you learn anything today?' But not my mother. She always asked me a different

question. 'Izzy,' she would say, 'did you ask a good question today?' That difference - asking good questions -made me become a scientist!''

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/19/opinion/l-izzy-did-you-ask-a-good-question-today-712388.html

(Isidor I. Rabi, Nobel laureate in physics)…often quoted by Dr. Youssef


Technical Challenge

• Not knowing what you don’t know is the battle

• You can implement any* algorithm

• Trial and Error is the formula of innovation

*I have yet to successfully implement the CS151 dynamic programming based assignments


How Will We Learn?

• Shop it 2 meIdeaFormal PlanningPractice Software EngineeringPolished ProductAbility to Articulate Your Vision

Shop it 2 Me will be developed through in-class discussion and exercises

Expand upon the techniques used as you develop out your idea


Shop it 2 Me: Overview

• Whose Idea is It?– Yours– Mine– Client

• Heather


Developing Heather’s Idea

• How are other projects started?– Flickr? Twitter? Craigslist?– Can you name a project where the “idea” did not

originate from someone who can program?

• Who is Heather?– Individual– Self-Funded– Has an “idea”

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/24/technology/startups/startups_technical_founder/


But She Actually Has No Idea

• “I just need a programmer”– Our insights, our ideas become the invention– We solve the core challenges of the project

• Algorithms• Data structures• Workflows

http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-01T15_45_40.htm


Let’s Begin with the Idea!

“I want to go to the mall and if I want to buy something, I should be able to ask friends and get their ideas and see if I should by it buy looking at a yes/no pie chart”

• “I also like the name ‘Shop it 2 Me’ is it available?”


Getting to an Idea

• One Option is to Refine the Problem Statement

• Another option is to jot out features needed

• Another option is to jot out how it will be used

“I want to go to the mall and if I want to buy something, I should be able to ask friends and get their ideas and see if I should buy it by looking at a yes/no pie chart”


What is the Main Idea?

“I want to go to the mall and if I want to buy something, I should be able to ask friends and get their ideas and see if I should by it by looking at a yes/no pie chart”

How can you restatethe problem?

How should this work?

In-Class Exercise

What features are needed?


Some Thoughts….

• Must be mobile• Must be multi-user but asynchronous• Has feedback element• Interfaces with camera?• Needs a server?• Sends notifications?

• Is “Shop it 2 Me Available?”– .com? App name? Trademark?


How Will People Use It?

• Scenario I– I go to the store and take a picture to send to

friends

• Scenario II– I receive a picture and am asked my thoughts

• Scenario III– I look at results of a past question


But How Can People Use It?

• Scenario IV– How do I Authenticate?


Organizing Our Thoughts

• Idea– What are we building?

• Use Cases / Scenarios– How will it be used and who will use it?

• Functional / Non Functional Requirements– What will it do and how will it do it?


Keep Refining

IDE

A USE CASES

REQUIREMENTS


Use Cases

• Define a scenario– Describe how the application will be used– Determine actors

• Individuals• Groups• Other Systems

– Specify Pre-Condition or “State”– Specify Trigger or “Action”


Defining a Scenario

• I go to the store and take a picture to send to friends– What is the objective?– Who are the “actors”?– What are the preconditions?– Who are the actors?


Scenario Refined

• Generic Names for Actors– Instead of “I” perhaps “Requestor” or even

“Vote Requestor”

– This helps us incrementally create our workflow and data structures


Drawing Our Use Case

• Plenty of Tools– Microsoft Visio (Free to GW Students)– Gliffy (Free Trial)– Omnigraffle (Mac Only)


Example of Our Use Case

• How Can we Improve this?



• How Can we Improve this?


Use Cases -> Structure / Workflow

• We are starting to see the iterative process of building out an idea

• The simple use case has identified at least a few components, client app, server app, messaging system


High Level Structure


High Level Work Flow


Functional / Non-Functional Specs

• Functional Specs / Requirements– Describes action or display– E.g. “Use camera to take photo of item to be

voted on”

• Non-Functional Specs/Requirements– Describes external requirement– E.g. “Must work on iPhone” or “App must load

within 2 seconds”


Formalizing Requirements

• We build these elements in parallel– Idea / Problem Statement– High Level Requirements– Use Cases– Functional / Non-Functional Requirements– Components Needed– Workflow


Formalizing Requirements

• However at some point we need to move on to coding

• SCRUM / Waterfall / X P– Describe management style of moving from

requirements to coding


Brainstorming -> Formalizing

• Overview

iOS app to allow a user to solicit a “Yes/No” feedback on a photograph sent to a subset of contacts


Use Cases

• Shopper asks friends if she should buy an item

• Friend responds to vote request

• Shopper views response


Workflow

• Shopper asks friends if she should buy an item– Takes picture– Chooses contacts – Writes message– Sends request


Analysis Leads to More Use Cases

• User adds other user to contact list

• User removes other user from contact list


• Articulate workflows for each step– Shopper asks friends if she should buy an item– Friend responds to vote request– Shopper views response– User adds other user to contact list– User removes other user from contact list

• What other use cases/requirements can you uncover?

Workflow RefinementIn-Class Exercise


Some Use Cases• Vote Related

– Shopper asks friends if she should buy an item– Friend receives vote request– Friend views vote request– Friend responds to vote request– Shopper receives notification of response– Shopper views response

• Contact Related– User adds other user to contact list– User removes other user from contact list– User searches for other user– User adds friend via Facebook Connect– User ‘blocks’ user from communicating with self

• Authentication– User authenticates


Some Requirements

• Authentication– Probably need a server– Probably need to use some sort of cryptography

• Non-functional (General) Requirements– iOS App, RESTFul web service

• Functional – Use OAUTH Challenge/Response


Some Requirements

• Sending a vote request– Data: Photo, geo-location, from user, to contacts

• Non-functional (General) Requirements– UI should not freeze during send process

• Functional – Upload photo via Amazon S3 API– Use asynchronous calls during upload process– Send push notifications to contacts


Requirements Lead To More…

• Upload photo via Amazon S3 API– Anyone have experience with this?


Upload to Amazon S3

• “Basics” of S3 uploads– Need to secure upload request– Need to apply access control to photo links

• APIs are not necessarily trivial~30 hours of coding to get this component- Plan ahead. Perhaps label this as its own

module in your requirements plan


Bottom Line

- Construct your project with organized brainstorming- High level- Use cases- Workflow- Requirements- More use cases- More requirements


Bottom Line

- Draw a clear picture as you refine


Specifications Document

- Attached is a redacted specification document for ShopVote

- Use this as a guide as you create your specification document

- Homework (Due 9/15)- Develop a specification document and a screencast as

you would talk a developer through it


Shop It 2 Me

• WaterfallDetermine RequirementsDetermine Workflow / High Level ComponentsIdentify Unknown StepsDetermine 3rd party APIsSetup Bootcamp Tasks to OvercomeDetermine Overall Code StructureDevelop Task List with Pseudo CodeCode / TestPolish


Next Steps• Our Specification Document Provides a Framework for us to continue

planning

• Create Low Level Workflow (Design Part II)– For each high level work flow

• Create a UI mockup• Determine data structures needed• Determine control flow• Determine the pseudocode design

• Reorganize / Refactor into Task List (Design Part III)– Finalize psuedocode and class structures– Think about design patterns, classes, helper/utility classes, third party APIs– Reorder into logical units of coding– Develop test plan

• Code!


How Good Do You Want to Be?

• The 10,000 Hours Rule

http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt1.html

Malcolm Gladwell, Author (Outliers)

DO

• Write your ideas out

• Refactor and optimize your thoughts

LEARN

• Try a tool like Visio

• Critique a Friend’s Design

DO

• Further refine your ideas

• Write some proof of concept code

LEARN

• Read a book like Design Patterns

• Try a new paradigm (functional language, NoSQL DB)

journey of an idea to invention part 1 of 3

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