Week 12

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ~ Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland

Aww man! My happiness was short lived. We did system interface in lecture this week. Mr. Yeap lectured about the relational database rule, we converted class diagrams to relational models and we also mapped classes to relations. Quite a heavy lecture this week. Again, I wasn't really awake, so back to books when I get home.. geez..

For the tutorial this week, Mr. Yeap took our class again. This time, he wanted to brief us on whats needed for Assignment 2 and how we should go about doing it. And oh yea, he also mentioned NOT TO USE THE SAMPLE AS A GUIDE. I honestly found that a little bit ridiculous. I mean, why give it to us if we can't use it? Maybe its just to let us know how things are meant to look like. But then again, if they're going to name something as "Sample" it might as well be an actual sample. Something we could actually use as a guide for our assignments. But anyway, back to the tutorial. Mr. Yeap returned Assignment 1b. And YAY! Good marks again! Hahah.. Then we discussed our Assignment. Here's what I understood from all of it:

1. Class diagram
2. Class diagram with objects only related to the use case.
3. Sequence Diagram
4. Design Class Diagram (Class diagram with methods)
5. Pseudo code
6. ERD
7. User Interface =D

So here goes! *starts work*

=D

Week 11

"Find the flame of your desire." ~ Mo Ghile Mear, Celtic Women

I had fun this week! Basically it was because everything was design oriented =D We learned the 8 golden rule for interactive interface design and also the 3 aspects of user interface. It was totally awesome. I never knew simple positioning of link could affect a website in so many ways. Colours, fonts, pictures, everything! I think I've found my TRUE calling in life. DESIGNING! I mean, I've always enjoyed art, I love event planning, I love love painting and drawing.. sigh.. But I've already started this and I never NEVER stop anything half done. I'll complete this course and enter the relevant fields and maaaybe do designing as a side thing =D Its good to know though, that something completely unrelated could open your eyes to something you really love.

It was the same in tutorial too. We had a small discussion about how a 'good' website should look like, how and where links should be placed, colours we ought to use.. Stuff like that. We also took a look at some old websites and compared how they looked like in the past and today. A lot of difference! Today, web-designers have found means and ways to make the sites look more interesting, inviting, easier to navigate through, and all sorts of other things that improve the rating of the overall website. It was totally fun! I can't wait to try my hand at this when we have to design the user interface in Assignment 2.

=D

Week 10

"This is what happens when an immovable object meets and unstopable force." ~ Heath Ledger as The Joker, The Dark Knight

Lecture this week was a bit draggy for me. But I guess I can't put the blame on Mr. Yeap. I've been doing so much work and have had so little sleep, I barely know what the date today is. So all I managed to grasp from lecture this week, with the little attention span I had, was how to design using an object oriented view. Here, we learned the first cut sequence diagram and a three layer design. Mr. Yeap also said that the first cut sequence diagram is important for Assignment 2. So yea, I think I managed to get the important bits =D Not that there were lots of unimportant bits..

In tutorial, we continued our work from week 9 and were also told to draw a first cut sequence diagram and also a package diagram. And I just realised something..

ITS WEEK 10!! noooooooooooo

=D

Week 9

"Rise and rise again until lambs become lions." ~ Russell Crowe as Robin Hood

The main theme in lectures this week I guess were symbols. We studied about the symbols used in flow charts and also in structure charts. Also, we learned how to make the boundary in systems. A little bit confusing, I must admit but we'll see how it goes in the tute. Mr. Yeap sure knows a lot about System Analysis and Design.

As always, the tute questions cleared the doubts I had during lecture. We had an exercise to draw symbols and also the system boundary. We also had to answer review questions and hand them in. I don't know how I'm gonna juggle all these review questions and still have time for my assignments and revision.. Sigh.. Thank goodness the environment here's friendly. Helps keep the stress away.

=D

Week 8

"Then forever will begin." ~ You Are Not Alone, Micheal Jackson

Again, a normal week. Lecture was just the same and tutorial too. This time for tutorial, we had to again draw more diagrams and we also got our Assignment 1a back. Hahah.. SAD is suddenly my favourite subject.

*talk about a confidence boost*

=D

Week 7

"Should I stop chasing pavements?" ~ Chasing Pavements, Adele

Both lecture and tutorial this week was just fine. The lecture was normal, and the as for the tutorial, we had to draw diagrams using Microsoft Visio. It was a good exercise, considering we're going to do this again for Assignment 1b.

=D

Week 6

"Darling look both ways before you cross me, you're headed for a danger zone." ~ The Love You Save, The Jackson 5

Argh! I hate week 6!! Hate, hate, HATE!!

Its week 6. Hell week. This is the week packed with assignments galore. And so, what better way to start the week, than to begin it with Systems Analysis and Design! haha.. Not so exciting, I know. But overall, I think this week went on pretty well. Lecture wasn't boring or anything like that. Mr. Yeap seems to be consistent with his teaching methods for the past weeks. And I'm totally fine with it. It keeps me wide awake in class *ok, maybe not wide awake, but awake none the less* and I totally get what's going on =D Awesome, no?

Tutorial this week was entirely different. This week, Mr. Yeap took over the class to help us out with building Context Diagrams and DFDs. We were given this narrative on a Monash Hospital and were asked to come up with the hospital's pharmacy system. At first it was going well. A little bit confusing, but then again, what isn't. So, Li Lian and I came up with with our Context Diagram *or at least, something that looked like a Context Diagram* and then pondered more on whether it made sense or not. Meanwhile, another student was told to draw his diagram on the board. Then, Mr. Yeap corrected what needed correction and we corrected ours too. And surprise, surprise, ours wasn't exactly correct. At all. Apparently, a lot of the entities that we thought was to be included wasn't supposed to be included. But Mr. Yeap explained the correct method to come up with this diagram and yea, I think we got the gist of it =D It really helps you learn you know, when you actually attempt to do it. Rather than just reading and understanding how to build it. Its like, you can read all you want about bowling. But you'll never be able to bowl unless you actually bowl. About an hour and a half later, Mr. Yeap left and Mr. Sylvester entered. Since time was running out, he quickly went through our mistakes from our last tutorial's homework. Remember the event table? Yea, that one. And thank goodness he did too. It really helped me with the assignment question.

So overall, it was a very... productive week for Systems Analysis and Design. Till next time, Ciao!

=D