Constructing A BingBee Phone Network

1. Constructing A BingBee Phone Network  Author: Taurai Saurombe Supervisor: Prof Peter Wentworth

2. Introduction • This presentation is going to tell you about the BingBee Phone Network project, it’s aims and the way the project is going to be carried out in terms of the method of approach and the way functions are going to be added to the project specification

3. Background • This project is aligned with the currently running BingBee project whose aim is to raise literacy through edutainment • The aim of this project is to create a fully functional VoIP system which can be used for edutainment purposes.

4. About the Project • The system to be developed will have to be able to offer certain functions. • The following are functions that have been provisionally been agreed upon by my supervisor and I to be developed in the system. • The system should be able to • Handle simple telephone calls • Handle requests for book readouts with the ability to navigate between different pages • Offer some educational games which will be played over the handset in response to voice prompts from the system.

5. Method of Approach • The functionality of the software product for this project is highly dependent on the end user. To achieve end user satisfaction, the application for this project is going to be developed using Extreme Programming (XP) and there will be small releases of the system to the user in four stages during development. • The basic tenets of XP which we will be using in this project include: • Short release cycles • Simple designs • Continuous integration • User Stories as specifications for features.

6. User Stories • A User Story is a short description of the behaviour of the system from the point of view of the Customer. User Stories are in the format of about three sentences of text written in the Customer’s terminology without technical jargon. In simplistic terms, user stories are the response to, "Tell me the stories of what the system will do. Write down the name of the story and a paragraph or two."

7. User Stories • These user stories will be formulated mainly after observing how the children will respond to the system after a version release and will be worked on every week during the development process.

8. Short Release Cycles • Short Release Cycles are one of the tenets of XP. • Over the lifetime of this project there are going to be four releases of the phone network to the children • The following table shows the current plan in executing these releases

9. Planned Release Dates

10. Planned Release Dates • It should be noted that due to the very nature of XP, these planned release dates and activities are not concrete • Depending on user and observer feedback, some functions of the system might be obliterated and also some new functions not listed here might be added in

11. Conclusion • The BingBee Phone Project is aimed at constructing an edutainment phone network • Extreme Programming is going to be used over the lifetime of this project • There are going to be four releases of the BingBee phone network to the end users • Project specifications may be changed over the course of the project at any time depending on how the end users respond to each version release

12. Questions?