Can you please give me the benefits of using either an SSADM or UML or
(AGILE) extreme Programming approach to developing a system for 'a
race results' system, and tell me which one you think would be most
applicable to the problem domain

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Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 08 Nov 2004 06:48 PST

Hi, purplepit-ga:

Is "a race results" system display only?  I'm picturing a Web page
that shows the race results, filtered in perhaps various categories
(men vs. women, seniors, etc.), but without any transactional
component.

regards, mathtalk-ga

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Clarification of Question by purplepit-ga on 08 Nov 2004 08:51 PST

Hi there,

it's more of an information system in the form of a database for a
yacht club, which is able to log,store and retreive the results of
races won, including winners loosers, best times etc; in addition to
holding information about the yacht's themselves etc;

Thanks Purplepit-ga

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Clarification of Question by purplepit-ga on 10 Nov 2004 02:42 PST

Hi there my friend,

Haven't had an update from you since my last posting, is there any
chance that that you can send what you have so far, as I need to give
a talk on this and other related subjects on Thursday this week, and
time is running short.

It doesn't need to be too detailed really, its just that I didn't have
time to research this particular topic.

Hope to hear from you soon...

Purplepit-ga

Hi, purplepit-ga:

I'm sorry I was unable to provide an excellent answer to your question
within the time frame you needed.  If there's a looming deadline, it's
very helpful to us Google Answers Researchers to know about that at
the beginning.

In my experience the choice of development methodology is more closely
tied to these factors than to the "problem domain" per se:

  - level of resources available (exp. of developers, mgrs.)

  - architecture of proposed systems (familiar/novel, etc.)

  - projected lifecycle of the software (inhouse, customized, shrink-wrap)

For example, an eXtreme Programming approach to developing software
requires two developers who sit side by side, switching off between
writing & compiling code and defining test cases.  If the resources
are not there to support this approach, ie. if the developers are
individual telecommuters or have limited overlapping schedules in
cubicle-land, then this approach wouldn't work.

On the other hand a rigorous structured analysis approach requires a
commitment to capturing the systems requirements up front and
documenting any changes negotiated by the user/project management in a
form that is amenable to verfication against deliverables.

In my experience few development environments can support either of
these approaches.  If you work for a company that is even willing to
seriously consider such issues, count yourself lucky!

A book I like to recommend before choosing a methodology is Peopleware
by DeMarco and Lister:

[Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (2nd ed.)]
http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/pw.html

You may already be familiar with it, and you might recommend it to your management.

regards, mathtalk-ga