Random I.T Questions

[1001]

What is the difference between specification creep and scope creep? or are they just the same..

[darvell]

Not sure what you mean by "specification" - if you're just talking about the SRS and outlining the requirements of the solution and all that, you outline exactly what the solution will AND won't do in the SRS in order to avoid scope creep so that we as Software Developers only have to do what is initially outlined and agreed upon.

Google: Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project’s scope. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled.

So basically, we outline what the solution will and won't do in the SRS so that the person we are developing the solution for doesn't get all pushy and demand that extra things are added in that weren't initially agreed upon.

[1001]

Thanks.
One more thing about internal documentation. I understand that it is ignored by the compiler and it doesn't affect the speed of your  program but what I still don't get is that does it consume storage space. Does having a lot of internal documentation mean that your software will have a huge file?

[Yendall]

Thanks.
One more thing about internal documentation. I understand that it is ignored by the compiler and it doesn't affect the speed of your  program but what I still don't get is that does it consume storage space. Does having a lot of internal documentation mean that your software will have a huge file?

Internal Documentation is never going to create a detrimental difference when it comes to the file size. In many programs I have written there can be paragraphs of text which will create only KBs of difference. Remember, it's just plain text, nothing special.

Here is the difference between two random programs I just wrote:

With documentation:

Code: [Select]

public class Eam {
//This has internal documentation, blah blah blah
//This method does this and that, finds some numbers and returns stuff
//it is really awesome, I love it, and I love programming
//code code code, code all night long every night
//don't sleep cause must write lots of internal documentation
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] x = {23653,10,1,-173462873,4,4};
int nextArg;
int lowestArg = 0;
int highestArg = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < x.length-1;i++){

if(x[i] < lowestArg){
lowestArg = x[i];
}
if(x[i] > highestArg){
highestArg = x[i];
}
}
int lowest = lowestArg;
int highest = highestArg;
System.out.println("Lowest is : " +lowest);
System.out.println("Highest is : " +highest);
}
}
File Size: 1KB


Without Documentation:

Code: [Select]

public class Eam {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] x = {23653,10,1,-173462873,4,4};
int nextArg;
int lowestArg = 0;
int highestArg = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < x.length-1;i++){

if(x[i] < lowestArg){
lowestArg = x[i];
}
if(x[i] > highestArg){
highestArg = x[i];
}
}
int lowest = lowestArg;
int highest = highestArg;
System.out.println("Lowest is : " +lowest);
System.out.println("Highest is : " +highest);
}
}
File Size: 1KB

[1001]

vcaa exam 2011 question twenty from the mc. I dont understand why the answer is A and not C

[MJRomeo81]

vcaa exam 2011 question twenty from the mc. I dont understand why the answer is A and not C

Poor question from VCAA. But here is Mark Kelly's (VCEIT.com) suggestion:

My answer is B. Official answer was A.

A is feasible, and avoids the user having to enter (and possibly misspell) the name of a country. It would take a lot of scrolling to get through 200 countries, so it would be less efficient for the user.
B would be intuitive to users, but selecting tiny countries like Israel or Vatican city could be difficult on a small display!
C and D require users to type country names, and that means trouble for Chinese and Japanese characters. It would take a lot of extra programming to handle non-Latin alphabets (but this is not relevant to the issue of the user's efficiency.)

[Ya Habibi]

'Specification Creep' is the term referred to when an extra requirement is made after the scope of the solution has been agreed upon. For example, Tony (a developer), has agreed with John a budget and scope of the proposed software solution. However, after some time, John requires an extra requirements or feature to be added. This is detrimental to the project because the budget has already been agreed upon, thus more money will be required and the release date will be delayed. That is a 'specification creep'. I have not heard of a 'scope creep' before.
Anyway, the exam is on Fridayyyy! Better keep pushing

[MJRomeo81]

Specification creep and scope creep are synonymous.

And it's for this reason VCAA's PSM/waterfall methodology is largely outdated  in the real world (but don't upset them by writing this on the exam).