Table 1. Stories for Cool Software
Story Text |
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As a teacher I want everyone on a team to get involved in programming the robot. |
As a student I want to make my robot drive faster so that it wins the race. |
As a teacher I want the student to apply maths concepts to driving the robot. |
As a pupil I want the robot to respond to sensor input so that it behaves differently. |
As a pupil I want to modify my robot to make it better than the other groups’ robot. |
As a student I want my robot to speak when I clap my hands. |
As a teacher I want the students to connect and operate sensors and actuators. |
As a teacher I want to demonstrate how logical steps create the robot’s behaviour. |
“That’s a good start,” said Yi, “but we haven’t addressed how the delivery of these things should be structured. Shouldn’t we include things like how the programme is delivered.”
“A good point Yi,” said Mary. “These stories are quite mixed, the first story does suggest a delivery requirement. Let’s group the stories. One group for stories implying delivery issues, another group for stories dealing with content like student exercises.”The discussion continued and the team members added to and organised the stories as shown below.
Table 2. User Stories for Exercises
Story Text |
|---|
As a student I want to make my robot drive faster so that it wins the race. |
As a teacher I want the student to apply maths concepts to driving the robot. |
As a pupil I want the robot to respond to sensor input so that it behaves differently. |
As a pupil I want to modify my robot to make it better than the other groups’ robot. |
As a student I want my robot to speak when I clap my hands. |
As a teacher I want the students to connect and operate sensors and motors. |
As a teacher I want to demonstrate how logical steps create the robot’s behaviour. |
Table 3. User Stories for Delivery
Story Text |
|---|
As a teacher I want everyone on a team to get involved in programming the robot. |
As a teacher I want a way for students to design simple programs without using the NXT Brick or a PC, because I don’t have enough resources to give everyone one. |
As a teacher I want the students to think about how they organise the team, so that they understand some of the issues of teamwork. |
As a pupil I want feedback on how my program/robot performs. |
As a teacher I want to reward all the students so that they each feel they have achieved a goal. |
As a teacher I want the session to deliver ‘wins’ quickly, in less than 30 minutes, so that students’ attention remains high. |
As a teacher I want the setup to be quick, less than 5 minutes. |
As a teacher I want to be able to pack up quickly, less than 5 minutes. |
As a teacher the resource kit must be portable, fit into a car boot. |
As a teacher I want competitive tests at the end of each exercise, but to also reward everyone for achievement. |
Stewart spoke up at this point.
“I find it interesting that we haven’t addressed the different audiences, the Primary Level student and the Second Level student.”
“Right you are Stewart,” Mary said. “Both kinds of user are very different. We’ve all done a bit of research into the National Curriculum material addressing the two groups and we’ve all had a basic introduction to the capabilities and limitations of the LM platform. How about we discuss how the exercises can address the different audiences?”
“I think we can only talk about Primary Level today” said Amir. “I simply haven’t had the opportunity to evaluate the advanced features of the LM platform yet.”
“If I could respond?” Yi said. “As you know Neal, Mary and I have timetabled some breakout sessions over these three days. The idea with these sessions is that we ourselves can learn about LM’s capabilities. Before going into the details of Primary Level and Secondary Level content, should we break-out now into smaller groups to get up to speed with LM?”
“That’s a good idea Yi,” said Mary. “We can have a coffee break now and then reconvene in small groups to run a short spike. A spike is a term for a short intensive exploration of a problem or new area that needs investigation so that we can better understand the kinds of solution and estimate. After the break we’ll invest one or two pomodoro length periods in understanding the basic NXT brick capabilities.”
“Yes, and if I could add,” Yi said, “three days is a very short turn around to develop and deliver the kind of polished programme material we want. The fact is, we don’t expect a polished finished product. What we want is a working prototype of the programme. Something we can test trial with teachers at a local Primary and Secondary school, and to demonstrate to the members of the IE-ICS-ISA steering group to get their buy-in to move it forward.”
“The point is,” Mary continued, “that we’ve got about a day or so for the Primary programme and a day or two for the Secondary programme. If we take them in that order our ability to estimate the stories will improve as we learn ourselves. Is that all? Then lets get back together after the spike.”
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