When working on a software project, having clearly defined requirements for both functionality and design. If you don’t get everyone on the same page by writing correct, feasible, prioritized, unambiguous, and verifiable requirement statements that tell every what they need to implement; and then following them up with solid and unambiguous design statements that tell you how it should be done.

In our INFO 324 class, we had to read three articles about writing requirements, each with a slightly different approach. They were: ”Writing Quality Requirements” by Karl E. Wiegers, “Business Requirements – What Is The Difference Between Good And Bad?” by Thomas Hathaway, “Writing good requirements is a lot like writing good code” by Jim Heumann.

Of the three articles, I agree with Wiegers the most, because he takes the most simplistic approach by breaking down each of the characteristics of a good statement and specification, along with some great examples. I also appreciated Heumann’s approach of  providing strategics and tools to writing requirements that come from the real world of working at IBM.

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Internet Relay Chat or IRC is a great tool for communicating with a diverse community of internet users. IRC allows you to connect to a network of chat rooms or” channels” and talk to other users in real-time. The great thing about IRC is that it is full of other geeks and technical professionals and there are tons of active channels where you can get help with problems are just talk about new developments, such as #ubuntu, ##windows, #android, #debian, #python, and ##linux. And those are just a few of the channels on the freenode.net network.

For my INFO 324 assignment, I was asked to “Blog about what you read, and your thoughts pro and/or con about IRC as a communication tool for computing professionals.”

In my time spent on the Freenode server, I lurked in the ##windows channel. While I was there, I saw the 45oish people or so in the channel  just hang out and ask the occasional tech question. For instance, a user asked anyone if they knew how to troubleshoot installing Type 1 fonts and their registry. Later, people were helping a user troubleshoot using a USB Wi-Fu card and getting it to connect to secure networks.

It’s great that you can get live support on almost anything via the internet, and get an instantaneous response. Next time I am stumped on a tech issue, I think I will try my hand at asking the members of an appropriate IRC channel.

The one downside of using a large IRC channel is that it’s hard to follow the conversation. Everyone is pretty much shouting over each other, and there is no indication when someone is typing. While you can have private conversations via IRC, it’s considered rude to start one with a user without asking permission first, and then you lose out on the benefit of having the “hive mind” of the room.

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Unlike most students, I attend Drexel; So that means I was in classes all summer long with a full load. That finally ended last Wednesday, so I get a week to relax. After all of my friends have returned back to college for another year, I get home to have fun. It also means that instead of having to deal with classes, I get to spend the next six months working at Razorfish Health (one of Digitas Health’s many sister companies) as part of their UX team, and performing research and creating websites for pharmaceutical companies. I can’t wait to get started, because I know it’s going to be a blast, and I get to work with many of my old coworkers.

As for the rest of  this summer, it wasn’t all bad. One of my highlights of my summer had to be a three-day weekend in Washington D.C. with all my friends and a visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to see what my twin brother had been working on at his summer internship. (Which I still need to post pictures from the trip to my Flickr)

As much as I complain about having to deal with the woes of Drexel’s summer term, I’m still glad that I choose to attend Drexel and get the amazing opportunities that I have had when I am on co-op. It has made a huge impact on what I want to do for a career and at the same time reassured me that I’m on the right track.

That and the fact that I’m still too busy to update this blog regularly. At least I’m still constantly tweeting on my Twitter!

Related posts:

1. Summers Over… Back to Work I Go

For the Fall-Winter 2010 co-op term, I was lucky enough to get a co-op job through Drexel as an Associate Interaction Designer at Digitas Health, a Publicis Groupe company. It was great experience, and honestly; I wish I was still at co-op rather than sitting in class.

As an Interaction Designer, I got to create both sitemaps and wireframes for upcoming pharmaceutical websites. I even created a few simple mobile websites. DH was a great place to get an internship and expand my portfolio and working knowledge of User Experience work. I hope that I can go back in six months when my next (and final) co-op cycle arrives.

User Experience has always been an area that I have enjoyed, mainly because it falls into the intersection of technology and design. I can also use some of the skills that I have learned doing print production (i.e The Triangle) and web design. Since when creating wireframes or other diagrams, you need to have them presented cleanly on a print document, but it still represents a website.

I would also like to thank all of my co-workers in the UX department for welcoming me to the team, and mentoring me along the process. The co-op would not have been as much fun with out all of you!

Related posts:

1. Co-Op is Over, Back to Class I Go
2. Summers over, and I’m excited.

What happens when you take the 7 story expanse of concrete above the entrance to Nesbitt Hall, and a large projector? You get the Social Graffiti Project. The project was created by six digital media students here at Drexel for their senior thesis project.

Tweets displayed on wall as ‘Social Graffiti’

Take a look at the story behind the article, after the jump.

This article was a lot of fun to work on for a bunch of reason. First, the project itself was really cool. I really wish that the project had stayed up for more than a week, and that I could have gone into the projection room. What also made this article fun, was that I go to write the story, shoot the photos, and layout the page. I even got a tease in the “In This Paper” bar on the front page!

Overall, I’m just glad that I get to have such a large hand in the production of The Triangle. From writing articles, to shooting photos, and even designing house ads, it’s just fun. This territory may come with the fact that I am now the production manager for the summer!

Even more interesting, I’m actually pictured in the paper this week, along with our Entertainment editor, Jess Herbine:

It’s never a dull moment at The Triangle!

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This week, I got to create one of the most fun features of the year and even better, in a two page full color spread! The Orange Brick Awards are the annual funny, snarky, self-deprecating  awards The Triangle’s editorial board gives out where we poke fun at ourselves and Drexel. While I didn’t have to write anything, I did take control of creating and laying out the spread from start to finish. I even took an original photograph for the background.

Unfortunately, the only way to really appreciate the spread is to see it in print, due to its immense size. So, if you have a chance, go pickup a copy of  the June 6th issue of The Triangle. It will be on newsstands until June 25th. For those of you  not in the University City area, you can view the feature online in my portfolio at KeithHobin.com

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1. Need a New Phone? I Have Answers
2. Hello Philly Apple Store

A large part of my time has been in class and working at The Triangle, but whenever I get a chance I bust out my camera and take some pictures. Take a look at what I’ve been up to, in photos, after the jump!

Click any of the titles or photos to view the full set at Flickr.

Drexel University

Drexel has been my home away from home for the past two years. I recently updated my Drexel set with some new photos, including some that feature Drexel’s new wayfinding signs, and closeups of architecture of Drexel Buildings.

Lupe Fiasco @ WPI

I went up to visit my brother at his college, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, MA. While I was there, WPI had their annual spring  jam concert. With these shot, I tried to focus on the dramatic lighting created by WPI’s student technical crew, Lens and Lights, which my brother is the technical director. Lupe Fiasco was the headline performer of the concert.

A Street Corner in Newark

While waiting to be picked up from Newark’s Penn Station, I took out my camera and got creative, documenting what you could find on a typical downtown street corner.

Sunrise

Sunrises are always beautiful, even more so when they silhouette a city skyline. After pulling an all-nighter, I was actually awake to document it, so I decided to take advantage of my lack of sleep and get some great photos.

That’s it for now. Expect another one of these Multi-Photo Mashups soon, because I still have a bunch more photos that I need to upload to Flickr.

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Review: WiMAX 4G is not worth the cost

Hopefully I can get a version of this to cross post at The iLife.

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1. Hello Philly Apple Store

Hot off the presses (ok, so it came out on Friday), it’s my latest Triangle article:

New Apple Store awaits Arts Commission approval

Or, what I think it should be called “Apple Store coming to Philadelphia”, but they chose the title based on how wide the column is and the fact that half the article is about how Apple is getting approval from the Philadelphia Arts commission because I needed to make the article longer…

Oh, and you can expect that I’m going to the store opening (whenever that is)

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1. Hello Philly Apple Store
2. I wrote more stuff…
3. I’m Published!

Well, I finally got around to writing two more articles for Drexel’s The Triangle. both were published this week. Take a look!

Latest Windows OS released

Apple upgrades iMac line with new hardware

Please note, I did not write those headlines, just the article…

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1. Apple Store Philadelphia Anyone?
2. Hello Philly Apple Store
3. Oh Look… I actually wrote something! New SEPTA iPhone App