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<p>I've had some discussions with James Quilty about major student
engineering projects involving Thunderbird. Here is his proposal,
and he is asking for specific suggestions of appropriate projects.</p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
R. Kent James
Chair, Thunderbird Council
@rkentjames</pre>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject:
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<td>Re: Thunderbird Project as 3rd-year Engineering Group
Project</td>
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<td>Wed, 3 Feb 2016 01:41:21 +1300</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>James Quilty <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:James.Quilty@ecs.vuw.ac.nz"><James.Quilty@ecs.vuw.ac.nz></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td>R. Kent James <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rkent@caspia.com"><rkent@caspia.com></a></td>
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Hi Kent,<br>
<br>
Here's the proposal I made for a 3rd-year engineering group
project working on part of Thunderbird, edited for coherence. I'd
be happy for this to be forwarded to a mailing list for wide
consideration.<br>
<br>
The <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/">School
of Engineering and Computer Science</a> at Victoria University
of Wellington runs group projects as part of its project
management course. The School has students from three
specialisations, Electronics and Computer Engineering (ECEN),
Software Engineering (SWEN) and Network Engineering (NWEN). I'm
running these courses from this year.<br>
<br>
I'm looking for suitable projects for a team of 4-6 students
which could run across our academic year (March-October) with a
workload of about 5 hours per week for a total of around 150
hours. Both figures are per student. The purpose of the project is
to give the students practical experience in applying the project
management tools they are learning about in<br>
lectures. An achievable but challenging project for SWEN (and
NWEN) students would be really good - this is where I thought a
Thunderbird project might be appropriate.<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"> To give you an idea
of what students have been able to produce last year in a
half-year project, please see the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wainz.org.nz/">WaiNZ</a> homepage. The map UI and
the Android, iPhone and Windows Phone apps were all produced or
refined in a half-year project. I'd like something with similar
scope for 2016, just run across the full year. If you want to
know what kind of background the students have by 3rd year,
please see the SWEN and NWEN course descriptions on the School's
homepage. One relevant course SWEN students may take in 3rd
year, for example, is a course in UI engineering.<br>
<br>
Any project for the students would have to be "SMART":<br>
<ul>
<li>Have goal or end-point that can be specified and refined
through student discussion with the client. For example, a
project involving the completion of a coherent set of
bug-fixes and/or enhancements. </li>
<li>Produce measurable/testable effect - something that can be
observed in Thunderbird.<br>
</li>
<li>Be reasonably achievable in about 150 hours per student
(about 900 hours for a team of six students).</li>
<li>Delivered by/at the end of a single academic year.<br>
</li>
</ul>
What I have in mind when I write "coherent" is bugs or
enhancements all related to, say, one component of Thunderbird.
It shouldn't be a grab-bag of miscellaneous work, nor a year
experiencing "business as usual" in Thunderbird development.<br>
<br>
An example, (somewhat trivial and completely focussed on my own
niggles with Thunderbird) would be a project to complete a set
of bugfixes and enhancements to the Attachment pane UI for
incorporation in an upcoming release. There are a set of bugs
and RFE's already filed, and it's a reasonably self-contained
part of the UI.<br>
<br>
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It's not important for the students to write new code for
brand-new functionality. Some code maintenance and migration is
perfectly fine, even a desirable experience, but I do think it's
important that their projects are not dominated by migration or
bugfix work. If it were, then I fear there could be limited
opportunity for them to practice project management and/or they
will lose interest.<br>
<br>
Other projects up for offer in 2016, to give two examples for
context, will be (1) making a DIY laser cutter with a usable
software and network interfaces, and (2) making a 3-in-1
oscilloscope, function generator and digital multimeter with
undergraduate-friendly UI for use in our teaching labs.<br>
<br>
What I am asking from you for a Thunderbird project is for a
useful project of about the right scope and difficulty to be
identified, for a
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1-page high-level spec to be prepared before 29 February (NZ
time!) and for someone to commit to being acting as the client
for the project over the year. I'd anticipate a time requirement
of 1-2 hours per week over the course of the project to interact
with the project team to answer the usual questions clients are
asked (usually clarifying what the client actually wants).<br>
<br>
One thing the School does advise external clients for these
sorts of undergraduate projects is to not rely on the student
team to produce a 100% functional working result, and to not
entrust them with a project which is mission-critical. That's
not to say that we haven't had some very successful projects in
the past.<br>
<br>
I'd love to hear ideas that people involved with Thunderbird
development would have after considering what I've written above
and I'd really like to have a Thunderbird project as part of our
group project work this year!<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
James.<br>
<br>
<pre wrap=""><div class="moz-txt-sig">--
Dr. James Quilty
Senior Lecturer
School of Engineering and Computer Science,
Victoria University of Wellington,
P.O. Box 600,
Wellington 6140,
New Zealand.
Phone: +64 4 463 5233 ext. 4090
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