Transcript Introduction to Information Systems

Introduction to
Information Systems
Project
Debriefing Phase 1
Overview

General
 Problem
analysis
 Database design
 Data extraction

Technical
 SQL
& PostgreSQL
 Regular expressions
 Java
 JDBC
Main problems in phase 1

Finding correct mappings
 Real
world  Abstract schema
 Abstract schema  Database schema

Use of suitable data types
 Not

everything is a varchar …
Writing documentation
 Good
documentation helps yourself understand code
you wrote 4 weeks ago …
 … and it helps us understand your work
What was great …

Big effort of many students
 Large

time investment
Interactive
 Good questions in the forum
 High participation during project

Some excellent work
sessions
 Well
designed databases
 Great bots

Good understanding of RegExp
 Remember:

Learning RegExp is for life :-)
No server crashes (knock on wood! :-)
… what was not so great …
Too many questions via e-mail. Use the
forum instead, so everybody can profit!
 Slight asynchrony between course and
project (our fault, sorry!)

… and what was bad

Deadlines not respected (by 42%)
 42%
 21%

for phase 1
for report URLs
Hand-ins in wrong formats
 Database

dumps in HTML or PDF
People don’t read the web site
 Wealth
of information available
 Skimming is not enough

Minimalist reports
 Half a screen page for five weeks
 Incomplete (missing graphics and
explanations)
Phase 1 in Numbers




54 students
19 groups in 6 consortia
Some 200 e-mails
One group had




147,460 albums with 1,874,842 songs
68 MB database
>45 GB traffic in one day (EPFL average is 183 GB/day)
Average grade: 4.4
What will change

Strict deadlines
 10%
deduction per day (5 minutes late = 0.5 points
less)
 Exponential deduction for repeating offenders

Valid XHTML required
 0.5
points deduction if invalid
 Use XHTML validator at: http://validator.w3.org/

“Checklist” for hand-ins
 Pure
courtesy, don’t expect this in real life …
Tips for the remaining phases



Read
No, not just skim, read
Use the documentation (Postgres, J2EE)



Don’t be afraid to try new things


Very useful and important for future projects
Indispensable in real life
“Learning by doing” – Writing stuff from scratch instead of
extending sample code takes more time but pays off
Use the forum …


… to ask questions,
… to learn from other people’s problems
What could change
Your critique?
 Problems?
 Feedback?

 Now’s
the time
 Also by e-mail or in person
 Constructive feedback is always well received,
positive or negative
Have a good start for phase 2!