Cover all possible solutions for project 4

[Tschibo]

Hi all!
I've got (maybe) a very simple problem, but i can't see any reasonable solution.
When i'm to develop any possible solution for a problem, how can i guarantee, that i've found all possible solutions? Is there any methodology (except brainstorming in a team) to cover the important aspects?

Thanx in advance
Christoph

 

[CajunCenturion]

It naturally depends on the problem. And their are lots of methodologies to help with this. They all basically build a map showing all the possible directions that can be taken, and you insure that your solution works on each and every path. These are flow charts, data flow diagrams, other standard software engineering diagrams.

Just make sure that when you get to a decision point - that you build paths based on each of every decision that can be made at that point, or any possible input that controls program flow.

Then play "what if" games with yourself.

Generally speaking - never forget the rule of KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. When faced with a choice of which solution to choose - choose the simplest solution that works. Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[DonQuichote]

Do you want to find all possible solutions then? Isn't it more practical to find a few that work at a reasonable cost then to spend lots of time (and money) looking for the optimum?

 

[Tschibo]

The problem is, that my project leader is always asking something like "did we mention all possibilities?" or "is this all? Have we forgotten something?"
So i want to cover as most as possible...

 

[PetertheImp]

get old and computer illiterate people to test your system they will break it and find all (most) of the possibilities that you would never of thought of.

This may seem ageist, but the elderly are very good at systemitcally breaking websites, programmes, design concepts etc, as they are not used to the preconceptions that most of us program for i.e. everyone knows how to use a mouse.

 

[carp]

When I hear things like:
"did we mention all possibilities?"
or
"is this all? Have we forgotten something?"
I often wonder if the person asking the question is just asking questions for the sake of asking questions!

To me, these questions seem to imply either (1) the project leader doesn't have much of a clue or (2) thinks you are unprofessional enough to ignore/hide possibilities.

If you had thought of another possibility, wouldn't you have mentioned it? If there is something you are unaware of, how are you supposed to know it? It sounds like your leader is all crust and no loaf!

Of course you want to cover as much as you can - that's your job. However, a simple way to make sure you've covered everything is only going to exist for relatively simple problems. A project of any complexity is going to be, by its very nature, difficult to map and check - much less test! Your best bet is to lay out everything you can, document as you go along, and be ready for discovery along the way.

And the next time your leader asks "have we forgotten anything", you might answer "Yes, we definitely have. But I can't remember what it is!"

 

[Tschibo]

carp,
you're right, (1) is exactly what i'm beginning to think of, too. As some others in my department already do. (2) is out of my knowledge, i guess he's quite satisfied by my work, but i don't know it.

 

[DonQuichote]

Just curious: Is he asking the question because he thinks there should be a final program design before you can start programming?
In that case, you may have to convince him that today's programming environments are flexible enough to allow for changes and evolution of a design.

 

[Tschibo]

DonQuichote,
actually we're doing a research about different alternatives for solving a specific problem. Our solution may result in the purchase of a commercial product or in the programming of a custom tool. So, the result of our research has some extensive consequences.
If it were only for programming, i would be lucky!

 

[DonQuichote]

In that case, you could ask vendors (you've probably done that anyway). Salesmen like telling (possible) customers what they should not forget. Off course, salesmen don't cover everything... ;-)

Good luck

 

[Tschibo]

Oh yes, we've done that for sure. But he's still asking that question...
Anyway...

 

[elizabeth]

One of the reasons I ask that question repeatedly is that I USE to assume what carp does, that if there were other valid alternatives prople were aware of they would mention them. But lack of interest, lack of motivation, lack of self-esteem, lack of team spirit, lack of good history with the organization, and other reasons all keep team members from discussing everything they should. Sometimes these questions do get me a new response.

There is NO way of exploring every alternative. But if you get tired of being asked these questions, you can help your team leader by mentioning, "... and those are all the alternatives I can think of. If I do get any brainstorms I'll let you know, but I think we're well covered with the ideas already on the table."

 

[elizabeth]

One of the reasons I ask that question repeatedly is that I USED to assume what carp does, that if there were other valid alternatives prople were aware of they would mention them. But lack of interest, lack of motivation, lack of self-esteem, lack of team spirit, lack of good history with the organization, and other reasons all keep team members from discussing everything they should. Sometimes these questions do get me a new response.

There is NO way of exploring every alternative. But if you get tired of being asked these questions, you can help your team leader by mentioning, "... and those are all the alternatives I can think of. If I do get any brainstorms I'll let you know, but I think we're well covered with the ideas already on the table."

 

[johnny99]

I think one of the real big problems is to find the right balance.
If you look into history you tend to find that if money is not a factor to think about you can have projects that have almost no faults and also reseach all posibilities.

A good project to look into is Nasa's project to go to the moon. That was a project (compared to it's size) that had almost no errors and almost all posibilities where researched.

On the IT programming side I think any line of code took more then 10 times the normal time and cost compared to other coding.
And it also took more the 10 years and God knows how much money to bring back 50 Kg. of rock.

And even in the Luna project they didn't explore every alternative (far from)

I am in operation and infrastructure and people always ask me if it's technical posible to do this and that.
The answer to that is almost always YES. It's technical posible, but from an economical point of view it's not.
Like, technical it's no problem for a small company to implement a total mirror of their datacenter in Amsterdam to Los Angeles. You just pull a tribble redundant 10Gbps/s fiber from Amsterdam to Los Angeles, mirror you SAN, server, network and people and then that's up and running, BUT it would cost you 1000 times more then what you spend on IT today and the company would get almost nothing for that money.

/johnny

 

[infinitelo]

When i was in college i ran across a programming assignment that went something like this{i think it was a btree project).

Brainstorm program: write a program that will list common avialible resources, allow the user to select the ones that would apply to each phase of a project. the final output was severl lists of possible solutions to a problem.

never actully sat down and wrote this one but this may be what you need.


if it is to be it's up to me