"Management Issues in Computer Sciences" Final Exam
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The document outlines the experience of a developer, Winston Smith, who begins a new role as a 'game architect' in a game development company, facing challenges such as a lack of direction, limited resources, and an unstructured team environment. As he navigates his new position, he grapples with the eccentric management style of his boss, Sarah, and the undefined project goals, which lead him to enroll in a management course to improve the situation. Ultimately, the story highlights the tension between personal ambition and organizational dysfunction, culminating in the developer's contemplation of his future path in the industry.
![March 23rd
, 2016
Sarah lives in an ivory tower and if you go there before you are asked for, she won’t be interested in
what you want to say. These two chairs in front of the sofa are famous. Everybody is scared of being
there. You’re the only one who doesn’t know what the fuss is all about, because when you visit
Sarah’s office, she always asks you to sit right next to her and she looks at you as if she has other
things on her mind.
Phase III
You have tried to maintain the status quo because you did not know what to do. You have wasted
most of your time trying to find a way to get along with your teammates and make your boss happy.
Once in a while you considered whether Sarah’s attitudes towards you could be considered sexual
harassment. You thought you could get a good settlement out of it, possibly a check containing six
figures. On the other hand, you laughed at the idea and thought it was just admiration which was
normal in your case, because you were a very good System Analyst, after all. You always had fans.
Days followed weeks. Weeks followed months. Your project still has no focus, no strategy, and more
importantly no working application. In an attempt to save the project and the company along with it,
Sarah suggests a management course at the Sabanci University (IT564) and you got enrolled.
After a couple of months, you begin to learn what you can do. You even had an opportunity to work
on a project of your own about [put your project’s business domain here]. Lost in thoughts, you go
back to the office thinking that you can change the way things are and finally, focus on the product
itself… come up with a great game. A game everybody in the firm would be proud of…
While thinking about a strategy, your phone rings and the guy on the other end says: “We have heard
about your accomplishments, would you be interested in working with us as the new CEO?”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/019-it5646-181101100022/85/Management-Issues-in-Computer-Sciences-Final-Exam-9-320.jpg)
"Management Issues in Computer Sciences" Final Exam
- 1. IT564 Exam March 23rd, 2016
- 2. March 23rd , 2016 Iterative Software Development for Project Managers Time 180 Minutes, Closed Book Grading Project Folder Reviews (20+20), Film Analyses (5+5), Quizzes (1.429 x 7), Exam (40) = (100) ASSUMPTIONS AND RELEVANT INFORMATION This is you: Winston Smith - College graduate: Computer Science with several courses on Anthropology and Philosophy - Winner of several development competitions mostly on algorithm development for mathematical problems - Strengths: Problem solving, Coming up with a system architecture quickly - Weaknesses: Making a lot mistakes in the details, Getting bored easily, Getting distracted by attractive ladies easily - Turn-ons: Detective stories, Science-fiction and horror movies, TV series about crime scene investigations, Heavy Metal, Jack London’s short stories and novels, Broadway Musicals, - Turn-offs: Managers and the sales people, Kenny G., Michael Bolton, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber - Favourite quote: “Who the fuck is Justin Bieber?” (Ozzy Osbourne) - Business Goals: Coming up with great products, - Greatest Desire: Going to Antarctica with the dogs and everything - Relationships: A new girlfriend every time after getting drunk, not a family guy, - Most Cherished Possessions: Violin, Wants to play it like Janine Jansen one day, - Favourite Games: The Sims 4, Poker, Chess, Go, Pool, - Nickname: “The Punisher” because you are tough and you always get the job done, your competition usually goes back home crying,
- 3. March 23rd , 2016 You have been a developer for 5 years. You are quite comfortable when it comes to developing native applications for devices running the Android operating system. Some of your best applications are about tracking the locations of people and vehicles, matching ‘companies looking for employees’ with the ‘people searching for jobs’, and broadcasting the current status of people to friends and family members. While you were visiting a seminar on the emerging mobile technologies, you meet someone. You have an interesting conversation with her about the business opportunities and the technological challenges in the field. You argued that without understanding the business ecosystems properly and maintaining direct links between business ecosystems, resources and software products, software firms were bound to fail. Also, you added that one has to have an overall vision about his career and a moral responsibility about the effects of the products he develops. Impressed by your ideas and enthusiasm, the person you met says that she is the owner and the CEO of a very famous game development company. She says that they are working on a project where one would play a game in real life circumstances using his/her cell phone as the game’s controller. She gives David Fincher’s movie, The Game (1997) as an example (appendix). She asks you to watch the movie and if interested in the project, give her a call. A scene from the movie, The Game where Nicholas meets Christine for the first time. Excited about the new challenge, you immediately go to a video store and buy the movie. Later that night, after watching the movie, you realize that this could be the opportunity of a life time: A game where everything feels real, although the whole story is actually fake and components of the plot are manufactured real-time. It’s like being deluded by a conspiracy theory. In the morning, you give her (Sarah) a call and ask to be included in the project. Sarah responds very enthusiastically and asks you to come over ASAP. You are given the title “Game Architect” which means that three roles, System Analyst, Process Engineer and Product Manager are squeezed into one tiny role. Mesmerized by the opportunity, you quickly assume that you can do it all. And, the money is so good. You’ll be paid $ 190,000 a year excluding all the additional benefits.
- 4. March 23rd , 2016 Phase II After parking the luxury sedan the company has given you, you head directly to your office. This is your first day in the firm. When you get there, you realize that you don’t really have a team and you are required to finish the project with the limited resources that are available to you. There are two paths you can follow, either you can try to understand the culture and the maturity level of the firm or you can directly dive into the project and try to finish it in record time. Regardless of your choice, you decide to come up with a list of what you have: Sarah a middle aged woman, divorced with two kids, a self-made millionaire, college dropout, early 40s, good with people, fluent in 2 languages, famous for being very confrontational, always has an eye on the big picture, she has a soft spot for you, but she cannot decide whether to consider you as her protégé or new toy boy. Sarah is very comfortable in entertaining crowds and convincing them to do whatever she wants.
- 5. March 23rd , 2016 Maxine a young woman, majored in Arts and Humanities (Visual & Performing Arts), early 30s, good at Maths, fluent in 4 languages, famous for her activism, she was given the role of Project Manager. A typical male role wasn’t a challenge for Maxine. Tom a seasoned developer who can do pretty much anything you can ask for, computer scientist, excels when it comes to problem solving, a natural born detective, tired of developing applications with no vision and stable requirements, looking for job opportunities, has one or two job interviews every week and he’s giving you the evil eye. Pay close attention to Tom’s whiz kid appearance with a touch of cynicism and childlike innocence.
- 6. March 23rd , 2016 James someone who has found himself in this position and doesn’t know why. He doesn’t question it much and doesn’t want to leave even if he complains about it all the time. He does all the dirty work, because he cannot handle anything more important or complex. He’s just like a guy waiting for a bus that will never come. Major unknown. Middle aged with a loving wife, three kids and two dogs. Has an alimony to pay and he’s in the process of buying a second house. He pays great attention to the cleanliness of his car and he often asks you whether you have returned the pen you borrowed yesterday. Think about the appearance of James considering what he does every day. When it comes to the product and the process you have: Product All you have is a list of Sarah’s crazy ideas written in every day English with no attributes attached to them. The only details you can find are Tom’s notes attached to Sarah’s desires and Maxine’s ideas about public relations. Tom and Maxine transform desires into tasks in nanoseconds. This is considered as the “can do spirit” in the firm.
- 7. March 23rd , 2016 Process For you the current process is composed of two things: Listening to Sarah’s crazy ideas and being bothered by team members’ e-mails asking for more work, more time, more money, more of anything. So, it’s pretty much like the following: - Sarah asks you to do something, but she doesn’t listen to your suggestions. At that part of the conversation she looks at you with bedroom eyes and just checks you out. - After the regular Monday meetings, you feel powerless and used. You find yourself on your own with no help coming. - Your teammates start working right away because they consider vague ideas as workable requirements and they know their pay checks (performance reviews) depend on this. - Whenever you try to stop and think or try to act on something strategically, you are considered as incompetent or someone trying to break a very well working system. Sarah’s most famous quotes: When asking someone to implement her crazy schemes: “Why are you resisting? Resistance is futile.” Part of her new employee morale program, after giving a big hug to an unsuspecting employee, usually accompanied with a sad puppy face: “I love you. Do you love me too?”
- 8. March 23rd , 2016 Here’s the information about your office: You are surrounded by an army of employees most of whom you don’t know. You think that they are mainly sales and public relations people, but you don’t have any proof. There are no rooms dedicated for workshops. Meeting rooms are used by managers going over checklists, third party representatives trying to sell things or people celebrating each other’s birthdays. There is no such thing as the on-the-job training. Everybody is required to follow plans they have no say about. You are supposed to act like a robot, do what you are told, but regardless of whether you enjoy it or not, you will get the blame for anything that goes wrong. This is what outside looks like. Your office building is very close to a variety of shops, cafes, restaurants and historical buildings (300 meters). You can meet tourists from all around the world there.
- 9. March 23rd , 2016 Sarah lives in an ivory tower and if you go there before you are asked for, she won’t be interested in what you want to say. These two chairs in front of the sofa are famous. Everybody is scared of being there. You’re the only one who doesn’t know what the fuss is all about, because when you visit Sarah’s office, she always asks you to sit right next to her and she looks at you as if she has other things on her mind. Phase III You have tried to maintain the status quo because you did not know what to do. You have wasted most of your time trying to find a way to get along with your teammates and make your boss happy. Once in a while you considered whether Sarah’s attitudes towards you could be considered sexual harassment. You thought you could get a good settlement out of it, possibly a check containing six figures. On the other hand, you laughed at the idea and thought it was just admiration which was normal in your case, because you were a very good System Analyst, after all. You always had fans. Days followed weeks. Weeks followed months. Your project still has no focus, no strategy, and more importantly no working application. In an attempt to save the project and the company along with it, Sarah suggests a management course at the Sabanci University (IT564) and you got enrolled. After a couple of months, you begin to learn what you can do. You even had an opportunity to work on a project of your own about [put your project’s business domain here]. Lost in thoughts, you go back to the office thinking that you can change the way things are and finally, focus on the product itself… come up with a great game. A game everybody in the firm would be proud of… While thinking about a strategy, your phone rings and the guy on the other end says: “We have heard about your accomplishments, would you be interested in working with us as the new CEO?”
- 10. March 23rd , 2016 QUESTION You are supposed to come up with a great product, but you cannot do it. What are you going to do to solve this problem? Think about your abilities and values. Then, take one of the pills listed below and tell me what you are going to do. Remember what Morpheus said to Neo: "You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." (The Matrix, The Wachowski Brothers, 1999). When answering the question, tell me how you are going to use the methods listed in the toolbox. Also, include any relevant assumptions, plans and strategies. Casual conversations about what you’ll do will not be considered as valid answers. The Red Pill How are you going to come up with… - a capable team, - a company which is regarded as a cultural beacon, - a product admired by the customers and takes the game industry to a whole different level, defines what games will be like in the next twenty years? The Blue Pill You can always take the other road, blame everybody except yourself and say that it’s impossible. This road has its own goals. Take a look around. Most of the people are on that road. Some love it, others learned to love it. A couple of them keep complaining about it, but they are on the same road nonetheless. And, “yes”, you can still answer my question even if you take the blue pill ;o)
- 11. March 23rd , 2016 APPENDIX The Game, David Fincher, 1997. Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy investment banker, is estranged from both his ex-wife and his only sibling, his younger brother, Conrad. He remains haunted from having seen his father commit suicide on the latter's 48th birthday. For Nicholas' own 48th birthday, Conrad presents Nicholas with an unusual gift—a voucher for a "game" offered by a company called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Conrad promises that it will change his brother's life. Nicholas has doubts about CRS, but he meets club members who enjoyed the game. He goes to CRS's offices to apply and is irritated by the lengthy and time-consuming series of psychological and physical examinations required. He is later informed that his application has been rejected. Soon Nicholas begins to believe that his business, reputation, finances, and safety are at risk. He encounters a waitress, Christine, who appears to have been endangered by the game. Nicholas contacts the police to investigate CRS, but they find the offices abandoned. Eventually, Conrad appears to Nicholas and apologizes, claiming that he, too, has come under attack by CRS. With no one else to turn to, Nicholas finds Christine's home. He soon discovers that she is a CRS employee and that her apartment was staged. Christine tells Nicholas that they are being watched. Nicholas attacks a camera, and armed CRS troops begin to swarm the house and fire upon them. Nicholas and Christine are forced to flee. Christine tells Nicholas that CRS has drained his financial accounts by using the psychological tests to guess his passwords. In a panic, Nicholas calls his bank and gives a verification code to check his account balance—zero. Just as he begins to trust Christine, he realizes she has drugged him. As he loses consciousness, she admits that she is actually part of the scam and that he made a fatal mistake by giving up his verification code. Nicholas wakes up to find himself entombed alive in a cemetery in Mexico. He sells his gold watch to escape. He returns to find his mansion foreclosed and most of his possessions removed. He retrieves a hidden gun and seeks the aid of his ex-wife. While talking with her and apologizing for his neglect and mistreatment, he discovers that Jim Feingold, the CRS employee who had conducted his psychological tests, is an actor working in television advertisements. Nicholas locates Feingold and forces him to find CRS's real office, whereupon he takes Christine hostage. Nicholas demands to be taken to the leader of CRS. Attacked by CRS troops, Nicholas takes Christine to the roof and bars the door behind them. The CRS troops begin cutting through the door. Christine realizes that Nicholas's gun is not a prop and is terrified. She frantically tells Nicholas that the conspiracy is a hoax, a fiction that is just part of the game, that his finances are intact, and that his family and friends are waiting on the other side of the door. He refuses to believe her. The door bursts open, and Nicholas shoots the first person to emerge—his brother Conrad, bearing an open bottle of champagne. Distraught, Nicholas leaps off the roof, just as did his late father. Nicholas's life passes before his eyes as he falls. He smashes through a glass roof and lands on a giant air bag. Emergency medical technicians carefully remove him, and he finds himself in a ballroom full of his friends, family, and every figure involved in his Game; it had been just a game all along. Conrad is alive and well, and explains that he initiated the game to get his brother to embrace life and not to end up like their father. Nicholas breaks into tears, relaxes, and begins to enjoy the party once his shock has dissipated. Later, Nicholas splits the bill for the game with Conrad (and is surprised to discover how expensive it all was). When he sees that Christine has left the party, he follows her outside to her cab. He asks her to dinner, and she offers to share a coffee with him before her flight takes her to her next game assignment in Australia.
- 12. March 23rd , 2016 TOOLBOX 1) Software Engineering Techniques a. Project Plan Preliminary Analysis, Overall Iteration Plan b. Team Member Profiles c. Business Ecosystem Drawing d. Vision i. Business Opportunity ii. Problem Statement iii. Product Positioning Statement iv. End User Summary v. End User Profiles vi. Features e. Event Table f. Use Case Diagram i. Actors ii. Use Cases iii. Brief Descriptions iv. Basic Flows v. Alternate Scenarios g. Use Case Prioritization Table Benefit, Effort, Risk h. Iteration Plan Team, Responsibilities, Use Case Scenarios (UCS), Plan i. Iteration Assessment Team Review, Results (UCS), Problems (UCS), Plan j. Product Life Cycle Plan 2) The Golden Rule of Management a. If you can manage requirements b. Then, you can manage change c. And only after that maturity level, you can manage a product and its associated projects 3) Deming’s Red Bead Experiment a. You cannot manage people but you can manage the process 4) Your Project Team a. Capabilities b. Strengths c. Weaknesses 5) Cooper Triangle a. Desirability Analyst’s View = ecosystem, roles, goals b. Capability Developer’s View = languages, platforms, libraries, external systems c. Viability Sponsor’s View = working systems, new company vision, profits 6) Our Definition of Quality Compass for Cultural Evolution a. Team should better itself in a specific manner b. Customers should enrich their lives in a specific manner c. Company’s new vision should be revealed to itself