RIToolkit

Project Synopsis

Team Members: Elliot Graebert, Russell Baker, and Rob Witko
Sponsor: MoSoNex
Faculty Advisor: Daniel Krutz

MoSoNex is looking to build applications on the Windows Mediaroom platform. They have determined that the available UI Widgets are not as effective/useful as the UI Widgets being utilized on other frameworks (such as Roku or Boxee). There are 4 desired outputs from this project:

• Perform a thorough usability analysis of the MoSoNex application on the Roku Box and review applications on the Roku box as well as other competing frameworks (Yahoo TV Widgets, GoogleTV, and Boxee).
• Gain a solid familiarity with the Windows Mediaroom platform in order to create and document a UI Framework that can be used to create new applications. In addition to standard user interface widgets, such as buttons, labels, and text fields, this project will develop specialized interaction techniques for displaying and interacting with large collections of media objects.
• Create a series of example applications that can be used as a tutorial for MoSoNex developers new to the Framework/Platform.
• Develop a MoSoNex application on the Windows Mediaroom platform using the UI Elements built by RIToolkit.

The above are sorted based on the order they have to be developed. The customer has expressed that Part 2 and 3 are the most important parts of this project. Step 1 will be used to gain a better understanding of which elements need to be fully defined in Step 2. Step 3 will be the stepping stone between the UI Framework and a fully functioning product (Step 4).

Technical Overview

Project Plan

An initial draft of the Project Plan has been provided to the Sponsors.

Methodology

We have chosen RUP as the development methodology for this project. This methodology is based strongly on incremental development containing four increments with concrete deliverables. The phases are inception phase, elaboration phase, construction phase, and transition phase. RUP is also based strongly around the following six best practices:

• Develop iteratively, with risk as the primary iteration driver
• Manage requirements
• Employ a component-based architecture
• Model software visually
• Continuously verify quality
• Control changes

These best practices are integrated into the functionality of RUP and some of them are very important to our development situation. Managing requirements and controlling changes are going to be very important in this project considering that the requirements were rather lose to start with.

Metrics

The team will track four metrics- two effort-based and two progress-based.

The team will track Total Effort weekly, updating the sum and average in a graph on the website. Detailed task breakdowns will also be tracked by the team. Every other week, a report of Effort Estimation Accuracy will also be produced. Since the complexity of each element is difficult to predict, yet expected to be consistent, this metric will give both the team and sponsor confidence in progress and progress expectations.

The team will track Milestone progress, as is required by RIT standards. This chart will give a visualization of what's been completed and what remains to be done. Because of the variety in the project deliverables, an Earned Value chart will also be produced and maintained. This will assign values to each deliverable, allowing the team and sponsor to see that the work being done is meaningful towards the project. Both of these metrics will be tracked and updated weekly.