Search Results

Search found 23484 results on 940 pages for 'evidence based'.

Page 3/940 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >

  • Turn Based Event Algorithm

    - by GamersIncoming
    I'm currently working on a small roguelike in XNA, which sees the player in a randomly generated series of dungeons fending off creeps, as you might expect. As with most roguelikes, the player makes a move, and then each of the creeps currently active on screen will make a move in turns, until all creeps have updated, and it return's to the player's go. On paper, the simple algorithm is straightforward: Player takes turn Turn Number increments For each active creep, update Position Once all active creeps have updated, allow player to take next turn However, when it comes to actually writing this in more detail, the concept becomes a bit more tricky for me. So my question comes as this: what is the best way to handle events taking turns to trigger, where the completion of each last event triggers the next, when dealing with a large number of creeps (probably stored as an array of an enemy object), and is there an easier way to create some kind of engine that just takes all objects that need updating and chains them together so their updates follow suit? I'm not asking for code, just algorithms and theory in the direction of objects triggering updates one after the other, in a turn based manner. Thanks in advance. Edited: Here's the code I currently have that is horrible :/ if (player.getTurnOver() && updateWait == 0) { if (creep[creepToUpdate].getActive()) { creep[creepToUpdate].moveObject(player, map1); updateWait = 10; } if (creepToUpdate < creep.Length -1) { creepToUpdate++; } else { creepToUpdate = 0; player.setTurnOver(false); } } if (updateWait > 0) { updateWait--; }

    Read the article

  • What to choose API based server or Socket based server for data driven application

    - by Imdad
    I am working on a project which has a Desktop Application for MAC/COCOA, a native application for iPhone another native application in iPad. All the application do almost same thing. The applications are data driven applications. Every communication to server is made via a restful API developed in PHP. When a user logs in a lot of data is fetched from server. And to remain in sync with server pooling is done. As there are lot of data to pool it makes application slower and un-reliable. A possible solution that comes into my mind is to use Socket based server. My question is that will it reasonably improve the performance? And which technology (of sockets) will be good as a server side solution for data driven application? I have heard a lot about Node.js. Please give your suggestions.

    Read the article

  • How to structure game states in an entity/component-based system

    - by Eva
    I'm making a game designed with the entity-component paradigm that uses systems to communicate between components as explained here. I've reached the point in my development that I need to add game states (such as paused, playing, level start, round start, game over, etc.), but I'm not sure how to do it with my framework. I've looked at this code example on game states which everyone seems to reference, but I don't think it fits with my framework. It seems to have each state handling its own drawing and updating. My framework has a SystemManager that handles all the updating using systems. For example, here's my RenderingSystem class: public class RenderingSystem extends GameSystem { private GameView gameView_; /** * Constructor * Creates a new RenderingSystem. * @param gameManager The game manager. Used to get the game components. */ public RenderingSystem(GameManager gameManager) { super(gameManager); } /** * Method: registerGameView * Registers gameView into the RenderingSystem. * @param gameView The game view registered. */ public void registerGameView(GameView gameView) { gameView_ = gameView; } /** * Method: triggerRender * Adds a repaint call to the event queue for the dirty rectangle. */ public void triggerRender() { Rectangle dirtyRect = new Rectangle(); for (GameObject object : getRenderableObjects()) { GraphicsComponent graphicsComponent = object.getComponent(GraphicsComponent.class); dirtyRect.add(graphicsComponent.getDirtyRect()); } gameView_.repaint(dirtyRect); } /** * Method: renderGameView * Renders the game objects onto the game view. * @param g The graphics object that draws the game objects. */ public void renderGameView(Graphics g) { for (GameObject object : getRenderableObjects()) { GraphicsComponent graphicsComponent = object.getComponent(GraphicsComponent.class); if (!graphicsComponent.isVisible()) continue; GraphicsComponent.Shape shape = graphicsComponent.getShape(); BoundsComponent boundsComponent = object.getComponent(BoundsComponent.class); Rectangle bounds = boundsComponent.getBounds(); g.setColor(graphicsComponent.getColor()); if (shape == GraphicsComponent.Shape.RECTANGULAR) { g.fill3DRect(bounds.x, bounds.y, bounds.width, bounds.height, true); } else if (shape == GraphicsComponent.Shape.CIRCULAR) { g.fillOval(bounds.x, bounds.y, bounds.width, bounds.height); } } } /** * Method: getRenderableObjects * @return The renderable game objects. */ private HashSet<GameObject> getRenderableObjects() { return gameManager.getGameObjectManager().getRelevantObjects( getClass()); } } Also all the updating in my game is event-driven. I don't have a loop like theirs that simply updates everything at the same time. I like my framework because it makes it easy to add new GameObjects, but doesn't have the problems some component-based designs encounter when communicating between components. I would hate to chuck it just to get pause to work. Is there a way I can add game states to my game without removing the entity-component design? Does the game state example actually fit my framework, and I'm just missing something? EDIT: I might not have explained my framework well enough. My components are just data. If I was coding in C++, they'd probably be structs. Here's an example of one: public class BoundsComponent implements GameComponent { /** * The position of the game object. */ private Point pos_; /** * The size of the game object. */ private Dimension size_; /** * Constructor * Creates a new BoundsComponent for a game object with initial position * initialPos and initial size initialSize. The position and size combine * to make up the bounds. * @param initialPos The initial position of the game object. * @param initialSize The initial size of the game object. */ public BoundsComponent(Point initialPos, Dimension initialSize) { pos_ = initialPos; size_ = initialSize; } /** * Method: getBounds * @return The bounds of the game object. */ public Rectangle getBounds() { return new Rectangle(pos_, size_); } /** * Method: setPos * Sets the position of the game object to newPos. * @param newPos The value to which the position of the game object is * set. */ public void setPos(Point newPos) { pos_ = newPos; } } My components do not communicate with each other. Systems handle inter-component communication. My systems also do not communicate with each other. They have separate functionality and can easily be kept separate. The MovementSystem doesn't need to know what the RenderingSystem is rendering to move the game objects correctly; it just need to set the right values on the components, so that when the RenderingSystem renders the game objects, it has accurate data. The game state could not be a system, because it needs to interact with the systems rather than the components. It's not setting data; it's determining which functions need to be called. A GameStateComponent wouldn't make sense because all the game objects share one game state. Components are what make up objects and each one is different for each different object. For example, the game objects cannot have the same bounds. They can have overlapping bounds, but if they share a BoundsComponent, they're really the same object. Hopefully, this explanation makes my framework less confusing.

    Read the article

  • Organising levels / rooms in a MUD-style text based world

    - by Polynomial
    I'm thinking of writing a small text-based adventure game, but I'm not particularly sure how I should design the world from a technical standpoint. My first thought is to do it in XML, designed something like the following. Apologies for the huge pile of XML, but I felt it important to fully explain what I'm doing. <level> <start> <!-- start in kitchen with empty inventory --> <room>Kitchen</room> <inventory></inventory> </start> <rooms> <room> <name>Kitchen</name> <description>A small kitchen that looks like it hasn't been used in a while. It has a table in the middle, and there are some cupboards. There is a door to the north, which leads to the garden.</description> <!-- IDs of the objects the room contains --> <objects> <object>Cupboards</object> <object>Knife</object> <object>Batteries</object> </objects> </room> <room> <name>Garden</name> <description>The garden is wild and full of prickly bushes. To the north there is a path, which leads into the trees. To the south there is a house.</description> <objects> </objects> </room> <room> <name>Woods</name> <description>The woods are quite dark, with little light bleeding in from the garden. It is eerily quiet.</description> <objects> <object>Trees01</object> </objects> </room> </rooms> <doors> <!-- a door isn't necessarily a door. each door has a type, i.e. "There is a <type> leading to..." from and to are references the rooms that this door joins. direction specifies the direction (N,S,E,W,Up,Down) from <from> to <to> --> <door> <type>door</type> <direction>N</direction> <from>Kitchen</from> <to>Garden</to> </door> <door> <type>path</type> <direction>N</direction> <from>Garden</type> <to>Woods</type> </door> </doors> <variables> <!-- variables set by actions --> <variable name="cupboard_open">0</variable> </variables> <objects> <!-- definitions for objects --> <object> <name>Trees01</name> <displayName>Trees</displayName> <actions> <!-- any actions not defined will show the default failure message --> <action> <command>EXAMINE</command> <message>The trees are tall and thick. There aren't any low branches, so it'd be difficult to climb them.</message> </action> </actions> </object> <object> <name>Cupboards</name> <displayName>Cupboards</displayName> <actions> <action> <!-- requirements make the command only work when they are met --> <requirements> <!-- equivilent of "if(cupboard_open == 1)" --> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>EXAMINE</command> <!-- fail message is the message displayed when the requirements aren't met --> <failMessage>The cupboard is closed.</failMessage> <message>The cupboard contains some batteires.</message> </action> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="0">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>OPEN</command> <failMessage>The cupboard is already open.</failMessage> <message>You open the cupboard. It contains some batteries.</message> <!-- assigns is a list of operations performed on variables when the action succeeds --> <assigns> <assign operation="set" value="1">cupboard_open</assign> </assigns> </action> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>CLOSE</command> <failMessage>The cupboard is already closed.</failMessage> <message>You closed the cupboard./message> <assigns> <assign operation="set" value="0">cupboard_open</assign> </assigns> </action> </actions> </object> <object> <name>Batteries</name> <displayName>Batteries</displayName> <!-- by setting inventory to non-zero, we can put it in our bag --> <inventory>1</inventory> <actions> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>GET</command> <!-- failMessage isn't required here, it'll just show the usual "You can't see any <blank>." message --> <message>You picked up the batteries.</message> </action> </actions> </object> </objects> </level> Obviously there'd need to be more to it than this. Interaction with people and enemies as well as death and completion are necessary additions. Since the XML is quite difficult to work with, I'd probably create some sort of world editor. I'd like to know if this method has any downfalls, and if there's a "better" or more standard way of doing it.

    Read the article

  • How to build a turn-based multiplayer "real time" server

    - by jmosesman
    I want to build a TCG for mobile devices that is multiplayer over the web (not local wifi or bluetooth). As a player plays cards I want the second player to see what is being played in "real time" (within a few seconds). Only one player can play at a time. Server requirements: 1) Continuously listens for input from Player 1 2) As it receives input from Player 1, sends the message to Player 2 I know some PHP, but it seems like unless I had a loop that continued until I broke it (seems like a bad idea) the script would just receive one input and quit. On the mobile side I know I can open sockets using various frameworks, but what language allows a "stream-like" behavior that continuously listens/sends messages on the server? Or if I'm missing something, what would be the best practice here?

    Read the article

  • Game server for an android/iOS turn-based board-game

    - by Cyril
    I am currently programming an iPhone game and I would like to create an online multiplayer mode. In the future, this app will be port to Android devices, so I was wondering how to create the game-server? First at all, which language should I choose? How to make a server able to communicate both with programs written in objective-c and Java? Then, how to effectively do it? Is it good if I open a socket by client (there'll be 2)? What kind of information should I send to the server? to the clients?

    Read the article

  • Game server for an android/iOS turn-based board-game

    - by Cyril
    I am currently programming an iPhone game and I would like to create an online multiplayer mode. In the future, this app will be port to Android devices, so I was wondering how to create the game-server? First at all, which language should I choose? How to make a server able to communicate both with programs written in objective-c and Java? Then, how to effectively do it? Is it good if I open a socket by client (there'll be 2)? What kind of information should I send to the server? to the clients?

    Read the article

  • Starting with text based MUD/MUCK game

    - by Scott Ivie
    I’ve had this idea for a video game in my head for a long time but I’ve never had the knowledge or time to get it done. I still don’t really, but I am willing to dedicate a chunk of my time to this before it’s too late. Recently I started studying Lua script for a program called “MUSH Client” which works for MU* telnet style text games. I want to use the GUI capabilities of Mush Client with a MU* server to create a basic game but here is my dilemma. I figured this could be a suitable starting place for me. BUT… Because I’m not very programmer savvy yet, I don’t know how to download/install/use the MU* server software. I was originally considering Protomuck because a few of the MU*s I were more impressed with began there. http://www.protomuck.org/ I downloaded it, but I guess I'm too used to GUI style programs so I'm having great difficulty figuring out what to do next. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone even know what I'm talking about? heh..

    Read the article

  • Evidence for automatic browsing - Log file analysis

    - by Nilani Algiriyage
    I'm analyzing web server logs both in Apache and IIS log formats. I want to find the evidence for automatic browsing, like web robots, spiders, bots, etc. I used python robot-detection 0.2.8 for detecting robots in my log files, but I know there may be other robots (automatic programs) which have traversed through the web site but robot-detection can not identify. So I want to ask: Are there any specific clues that can be found in log files that human users do not leave but automated software would? Do they follow a specific navigation pattern? I saw some requests for favicon.ico - does this implicate that it is a automatic browsing?. I found this article and this question with some valuable points.

    Read the article

  • Real time location tracking - windows program or browser based?

    - by mawg
    I want to track a few hundred, maybe a few thousand people in real time. Let's say that the hardware aspects are sorted out and I can get the data into a database. Now, I want to get it out and show it, in real-time. Weeeell ... "real-enough" time. Let's say that I want to draw a floorplan of a building and plot everyone every 1 to 5 seconds. (I might want to show only certain "kinds" of people at the click of a button; I will need datamining, etc, but let's stick with the worse case scenario). I am comfortable enough with PHP, though not this sort of thing. I personally would be happier with a windows app coded in Delphi, but the trend seems to be to make everything browser based. So, the question, I guess is whether a browser can handle this and whether there are compelling arguments for a windows-based or browser-based solution. If browser-based can handle this (displaying a few thousand data-points a second), and there are no overwhelming arguments for windows then I guess I will go for browser-based and learn a few new tricks. The obvious advantage being that I could also re-use a large part of my code for (vehicle) tracking on Google maps.

    Read the article

  • Transitioning from Oracle based CMS to MySQL based CMS

    - by KM01
    We're looking at a replacement for our CMS which runs on Oracle. The new CMSes that we've looked at can in theory run on Oracle, but most of the vendor's installs run off of MySQL vendor supports install of their CMS on MySQL, and a "theoretical" install on Oracle the vendor's dev shops use MySQL none of them develop/test against Oracle Our DBA team works exclusively with Oracle, and doesn't have the bandwidth to provide additional support for a highly available and performing MySQL setup. They could in theory go to training and get ramped up, but our time line is also short (surprise!). So ... I guess my question(s) are: If you've seen a situation like this, how have you dealt with it? What tipped the balance either way? What type of effort did it take? If you're to do it over, what would you do differently ... ? Thanks! KM

    Read the article

  • (Quaternion based) Trouble moving foward based on model rotation

    - by ChocoMan
    Using quaternions, I'm having trouble moving my model in its facing direction. Currently the model moves can move in all cardinal directions with no problems. The problem comes when I rotate the move as it still travelling in the direction of world space. Meaning, if I'm moving forward, backward or any other direction while rotating the model, the model acts like its a figure skater spinning while traveling in the same direction. How do I update the direction of travel proper with the facing direction of the model? Rotates model on Y-axis: Yaw = pController.ThumbSticks.Right.X * MathHelper.ToRadians(speedAngleMAX); AddRotation = Quaternion.CreateFromYawPitchRoll(yaw, 0, 0); ModelLoad.MRotation *= AddRotation; MOrientation = Matrix.CreateFromQuaternion(ModelLoad.MRotation); Moves model forward: // Move Forward if (pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickUp)) { SpeedX = (float)(Math.Sin(ModelLoad.ModelRotation)) * FWDSpeedMax * pController.ThumbSticks.Left.Y * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; SpeedZ = (float)(Math.Cos(ModelLoad.ModelRotation)) * FWDSpeedMax * pController.ThumbSticks.Left.Y * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; // Update model position ModelLoad._modelPos += Vector3.Forward * SpeedZ; ModelLoad._modelPos += Vector3.Left * SpeedX; }

    Read the article

  • Sensor based vs. AABB based collision

    - by Hillel
    I'm trying to write a simple collision system, which will probably be primarily used for 2D platformers, and I've been planning out an AABB system for a few weeks now, which will work seamlessly with my grid data structure optimization. I picked AABB because I want a simple system, but I also want it to be perfect. Now, I've been hearing a lot lately about a different method to handle collision, using sensors, which are placed in the important parts of the entity. I understand it's a good way to handle slopes, better than AABB collision. The thing is, I can't find a basic explanation of how it works, let alone a comparison of it and the AABB method. If someone could explain it to me, or point me to a good tutorial, I'd very much appreciate it, and also a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the two techniques would be nice.

    Read the article

  • Empirical Evidence of Popularity of Git and Mercurial

    - by ana
    It's 2012! Mercurial and Git are both still strong. I understand the trade-offs of both. I also understand everyone has some sort of preference for one or the other. That's fine. I'm looking for some information on level of usage of both. For example, on stackoverflow.com, searching for Git gets you 12000 hits, Mercurial gets you 3000. Google Trends says it's 1.9:1.0 for Git. What other empirical information is available to estimate the relative usage of both tools?

    Read the article

  • Any empirical evidence on the efficacy of CMMI?

    - by mehaase
    I am wondering if there are any studies that examine the efficacy of software projects in CMMI-oriented organizations. For example, are CMMI organizations more likely to finish projects on time and/or on budget than non-CMMI organizations? Edit for clarification: CMMI stands for "Capability Maturity Model Integration". It's developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University (SEI-CMU). It's not a certification, but there are various companies that will "appraise" your organization to various levels of CMMI, such as level 2 and level 3. (I believe CMMI level 1 is an animalistic, Hobbesian free-for-all that nobody aspires to. In other words, everybody is at least CMMI level 1, even if you've never heard of CMMI before.) I'm definitely not an expert, but I believe that an organization can be appraised for CMMI levels within different scopes of work: i.e. service delivery, software development, foobaring, etc. My question is focused on the software development appraisal: is an organization that has been appraised to CMMI Level X for software projects more likely to finish a software project on time and on budget than another organization that has not been appraised to CMMI Level X? However, in the absence of hard data about software-oriented CMMI, I'd be interested in the effect that CMMI appraisals have on other activities as well. I originally asked the question because I've seen various studies conducted on software (e.g. the essays in The Mythical Man Month refer to numerous empirical studies, as does McConnell's Code Complete), so I know that there are organizations performing empirical studies of software development.

    Read the article

  • PC only boots from Linux-based media and won't boot from DOS-based media

    - by xolstice
    I have this problem where the PC only seems to boot from a floppy disk or CD if it was created as a Linux-based bootable media. If it was created as a DOS-based bootable media the system just freezes at the starting point of the boot process. I originally asked this under question 139515 for CD booting only, and based on the given answers, I was under the impression the problem was with the CD-ROM drive; however, I have since installed a newly purchased CD-ROM drive and the same freezing occurs. This then made me try the DOS bootable floppy disk approach and I was quite surprised that it exhibited the same freezing problem. I then tried try a Linux bootable floppy and everything booted from it without any issues. As I mentioned in my original question, the PC was booting just fine from the DOS-based bootable CD, and then it suddenly decides to pull this freezing stunt. I can't remember if I changed anything in the BIOS settings that may I have caused the problem, but I am wondering if that could be the case - it is currently using the Award Module BIOS v4.60PGMA. Can anyone help?

    Read the article

  • PC only boots from Linux-based media and won't boot from DOS-based media

    - by Xolstice
    I have this problem where the PC only seems to boot from a floppy disk or CD if it was created as a Linux-based bootable media. If it was created as a DOS-based bootable media the system just freezes at the starting point of the boot process. I originally asked this under question 139515 for CD booting only, and based on the given answers, I was under the impression the problem was with the CD-ROM drive; however, I have since installed a newly purchased CD-ROM drive and the same freezing occurs. This then made me try the DOS bootable floppy disk approach and I was quite surprised that it exhibited the same freezing problem. I then tried try a Linux bootable floppy and everything booted from it without any issues. As I mentioned in my original question, the PC was booting just fine from the DOS-based bootable CD, and then it suddenly decides to pull this freezing stunt. I can't remember if I changed anything in the BIOS settings that may I have caused the problem, but I am wondering if that could be the case - it is currently using the Award Module BIOS v4.60PGMA. Can anyone help?

    Read the article

  • How to wire finite state machine into component-based architecture?

    - by Pup
    State machines seem to cause harmful dependencies in component-based architectures. How, specifically, is communication handled between a state machine and the components that carry out state-related behavior? Where I'm at: I'm new to component-based architectures. I'm making a fighting game, although I don't think that should matter. I envision my state machine being used to toggle states like "crouching", "dashing", "blocking", etc. I've found this state-management technique to be the most natural system for a component-based architecture, but it conflicts with techniques I've read about: Dynamic Game Object Component System for Mutable Behavior Characters It suggests that all components activate/deactivate themselves by continually checking a condition for activation. I think that actions like "running" or "walking" make sense as states, which is in disagreement with the accepted response here: finite state machine used in mario like platform game I've found this useful, but ambiguous: How to implement behavior in a component-based game architecture? It suggests having a separate component that contains nothing but a state machine. But, this necessitates some kind of coupling between the state machine component and nearly all the other components. I don't understand how this coupling should be handled. These are some guesses: A. Components depend on state machine: Components receive reference to state machine component's getState(), which returns an enumeration constant. Components update themselves regularly and check this as needed. B. State machine depends on components: The state machine component receives references to all the components it's monitoring. It queries their getState() methods to see where they're at. C. Some abstraction between them Use an event hub? Command pattern? D. Separate state objects that reference components State Pattern is used. Separate state objects are created, which activate/deactivate a set of components. State machine switches between state objects. I'm looking at components as implementations of aspects. They do everything that's needed internally to make that aspect happen. It seems like components should function on their own, without relying on other components. I know some dependencies are necessary, but state machines seem to want to control all of my components.

    Read the article

  • AI for a mixed Turn Based + Real Time battle system - Something "Gambit like" the right approach?

    - by Jason L.
    This is maybe a question that's been asked 100 times 1,000 different ways. I apologize for that :) I'm in the process of building the AI for a game I'm working on. The game is a turn based one, in the vein of Final Fantasy but also has a set of things that happen in real time (reactions). I've experimented with FSM, HFSMs, and Behavior Trees. None of them felt "right" to me and all felt either too limiting or too generic / big. The idea I'm toying with now is something like a "Rules engine" that could be likened to the Gambit system from Final Fantasy 12. I would have a set of predefined personalities. Each of these personalities would have a set of conditions it would check on each event (Turn start, time to react, etc). These conditions would be priority ordered, and the first one that returns true would be the action I take. These conditions can also point to a "choice" action, which is just an action that will make a choice based on some Utility function. Sort of a mix of FSM/HFSM and a Utility Function approach. So, a "gambit" with the personality of "Healer" may look something like this: (ON) Ally HP = 0% - Choose "Relife" spell (ON) Ally HP < 50% - Choose Heal spell (ON) Self HP < 65% - Choose Heal spell (ON) Ally Debuff - Choose Debuff Removal spell (ON) Ally Lost Buff - Choose Buff spell Likewise, a "gambit" with the personality of "Agressor" may look like this: (ON) Foe HP < 10% - Choose Attack skill (ON) Foe any - Choose target - Choose Attack skill (ON) Self Lost Buff - Choose Buff spell (ON) Foe HP = 0% - Taunt the player What I like about this approach is it makes sense in my head. It also would be extremely easy to build an "AI Editor" with an approach like this. What I'm worried about is.. would it be too limiting? Would it maybe get too complicated? Does anyone have any experience with AIs in Turn Based games that could maybe provide me some insight into this approach.. or suggest a different approach? Many thanks in advance!!!

    Read the article

  • Role of an entity state in a component based system?

    - by Paul
    Component-based entity systems are all the rage these days; everyone seems to agree they are the way to go, but no one really has a definitive implementation of such a system. I was wondering, what role do entity states (walking-left, standing, jumping, etc) have in a CBS? Do they act like controllers (i.e. they handle events and change the entity's attributes based on those events)? What about cases where a state would, for example, require that the entity enters no-clip mode? Should, that state, when it enters, maybe set the CollisionComponent of the entity to a null pointer or something? (Then, on exit, the state should restore the entity's CollisionComponent to its previous state.) Also, I guess it's the current state's job to change the entity's state to something else, right?

    Read the article

  • Evidence-Based-Scheduling - are estimations only as accurate as the work-plan they're based on?

    - by Assaf Lavie
    I've been using FogBugz's Evidence Based Scheduling (for the uninitiated, Joel explains) for a while now and there's an inherent problem I can't seem to work around. The system is good at telling me the probability that a given project will be delivered at some date, given the detailed list of tasks that comprise the project. However, it does not take into account the fact that during development additional tasks always pop up. Now, there's the garbage-can approach of creating a generic task/scheduled-item for "last minute hacks" or "integration tasks", or what have you, but that clearly goes against the idea of aggregating the estimates of many small cases. It's often the case that during the development stage of a project you realize that there's a whole area your planning didn't cover, because, well, that's the nature of developing stuff that hasn't been developed before. So now your ~3 month project may very well turn into a 6 month project, but not because your estimations were off (you could be the best estimator in the world, for those task the comprised your initial work plan); rather because you ended up adding a whole bunch of new tasks that weren't there to begin with. EBS doesn't help you with that. It could, theoretically (I guess). It could, perhaps, measure the amount of work you add to a project over time and take that into consideration when estimating the time remaining on a given project. Just a thought. In other words, EBS works on a task basis, but not on a project/release basis - but the latter is what's important. It's what your boss typically cares about - delivery date, not the time it takes to finish each task along the way, and not the time it would have taken, if your planning was perfect. So the question is (yes, there's a question here, don't close it): What's your methodology when it comes to using EBS in FogBugz and how do you solve the problem above, which seems to be a main cause of schedule delays and mispredictions? Edit Some more thoughts after reading a few answers: If it comes down to having to choose which delivery date you're comfortable presenting to your higher-ups by squinting at the delivery-probability graph and choosing 80%, or 95%, or 60% (based on what, exactly?) then we've resorted to plain old buffering/factoring of our estimates. In which case, couldn't we have skipped the meticulous case by case hour-sized estimation effort step? By forcing ourselves to break down tasks that take more than a day into smaller chunks of work haven't we just deluded ourselves into thinking our planning is as tight and thorough as it could be? People may be consistently bad estimators that do not even learn from their past mistakes. In that respect, having an EBS system is certainly better than not having one. But what can we do about the fact that we're not that good in planning as well? I'm not sure it's a problem that can be solved by a similar system. Our estimates are wrong because of tendencies to be overly optimistic/pessimistic about certain tasks, and because of neglect to account for systematic delays (e.g. sick days, major bug crisis) - and usually not because we lack knowledge about the work that needs to be done. Our planning, on the other hand, is often incomplete because we simply don't have enough knowledge in this early stage; and I don't see how an EBS-like system could fill that gap. So we're back to methodology. We need to find a way to accommodate bad or incomplete work plans that's better than voodoo-multiplication.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >