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- %&tex
- \chapter{Case Evaluation}
- \label{chap:case_evaluation}
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- \section{Preparation Phase}
- \subsection{One-man development team}
- The case study was performed by me, as a single developer.
- Against all expectations, this one-man development team made the preparation phase more difficult instead of easier.
- The goal of the problem description and the specifications step is to get the stakeholders on the same line \autocite{shafaat_exploring_2015}.
- This involves creating agreed-upon requirements for the system, but with only one stakeholder, this agreement is implicit.
- Moreover, it undermines the incentive of the problem description and specifications step.
- Part of this is that there is no penalty for future reviews of the specifications, as I already agreed.
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- Furthermore, specific details and decisions were often made subconsciously, while I was commuting, waiting in line, or even showering.
- Making structured documentation of these decisions at a later point in time without missing any of them was impossible.
- The social interaction within a design team stimulates this documenting process as it improves the recall and interpretation of information.
- It also improves the judgement and selection between design alternatives \autocite{lamb_221_2008}.
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- \subsection{Information Flow}
- %% Aanknopen op het vorige verhaal?
- Although team members improve the information flow within a design team, it does not guarantee that all information is available.
- Throughout the case study, more and more information becomes available.
- During the initial design, new insight was gained that would have been useful during the problem description and the specifications step.
- And while making the tests, it became clear that the specifications were incomplete.
- It is possible to review the specifications step, but the succeeding steps have to be redone as well.
- During the case study, I decided to continue with the design due to the scope of the research, namely the development design cycle was.
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- Dealing with these design changes is a known weakness of the waterfall model.
- Many publications give credit to \textcite{royce_managing_1970}, for the concept of the waterfall model.
- Where they refer to the simple 5 to 8 step design concept, similar to the one in \autoref{sec:SE}.
- What these publications fail to address is that \textcite{royce_managing_1970} says: "I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is risky and invites failure."
- Followed by multiple steps of improving the waterfall model.
- Royce adds a complete design step, loads of intermittent testing and documentation, and a literal instruction "Do it twice".
- With "Do it twice", he adds an extra 6 steps to develop a prototype parallel to the simple waterfall model, with the goal to spot every unforeseen requirement prior to any actual development.
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- Interestingly, the mentioned problems that \textcite{royce_managing_1970} is providing a solution for, are similar to the difficulties in this case study.
- Studies and publications about the waterfall model would have been far more relevant if the authors included Royce's improvements.
- Especially as Royce explains that in his experience, the method without his improvements has never worked and that recovery costs far exceeded the added cost of the proposed improvements.
- I expect that these improvements would have had a significant impact on the design process.
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- \section{Development Cycle}
- \subsection{Design and model}
- Prior to the case study I expected the model to be the design.
- So when the level of detail of the design is increased, this is achieved by expanding the model with more detail or components.
- Resulting in different versions of a single model where each version has more detail than the previous one.
- However, during this development a 2D dynamics model, 3D dynamics model and a 3D component model.
- Although these models have components in common, they are not compatible.
- Therefore, adding detail to the design requires two or three models to be updated.
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- Furthermore, the step from 2D to 3D physics was in no means a small increment in detail.
- The first four levels of detail, as describe in the previous section, all were implemented in with two dimensions.
- As the later details required a third dimension, all the detail was directly converted from 2D into 3D.
- This is a large amount of work, introducing a high cost when the conversion fails.
- Moreover, it creates a new 3D physics model, parallel to the 2D physics model instead of adding detail to the latter.
- Alternative approaches for 3D model physics could be:
- \begin{itemize}
- \item Ignore 2D and start implementation in 3D modelling.
- \item Retrace all incremental detail steps of the 2D model in a 3D model.
- \end{itemize}
- Both options are not ideal, the first one does not allow a simple basic model and the second approach redoes work.
- The advantage of starting with 3D is that allows for a continuous development of one model, instead of switching the complete model.
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