Merge branch 'master' of dev.danilafe.com:CS-46X/retrospective

retrospective.tex

@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ purpose is to reduce the amount of manual labor required for herding
 large numbers of livestock. The system does so by placing GPS-equipped
 collars onto individual animals, and producing a negative stimulus
 (either auditory or electrical) to discourage the animals from leaving
-user-configured grazing areas. The goal of the project is to
+user-configured grazing areas. The goal of this project is to
 provide a reliable, cost-effective, and accessible replacement
 for manual farmer labor.
 
@@ -107,31 +107,31 @@ this did not prove to be a significant blocker for our work, it did result in so
 clarification recently with our client in regards to our vision on how we planned to move forward.
 We plan on fixing this problem by scheduling a biweekly meeting with our client at the beginning
 of next term. The best way to ensure that our team can keep our client up to date is to have a
-definite meeting time, and the best way to schedule this meeting would be as soon as all class
-schedules have been finalized.
+definite meeting time, where this meeting time would depend on the finalization of all of our
+class schedules.
 
 Another problem we encountered was lack of funding. While this was not an issue at the
-beginning of the term, it is looking to be a serious blocker in the near future as our next step
-the moment we get back from winter break is to purchase hardware. Ideally, this hardware would be
-purchased prior to even returning to school to allow our team to start work on the physical
-aspect of our project immediately. Our client has approved our hardware proposal, which was the
-last step before purchasing. Our team has discussed this funding with our TA, who in turn has
-brought it up to Professors Winters and Fairbanks. In an effort to ensure funding will be secured
-as soon as possible, we will continue to follow up with our TA and the professors if necessary.
+beginning of this term, it is looking to be a serious blocker in the near future as our next step
+the moment we get back from winter break is to purchase hardware. Ideally, we would make our purchases
+prior to our return to school, which would allow the team to start work on the hardware
+portion of our project immediately. Our client has approved our hardware proposal, which was the
+last step before purchasing. As a team we have discussed this funding with our assigned TA, who 
+in turn has brought it up to Professors Winters and Fairbanks. In an effort to ensure funding 
+will be secured as soon as possible, we will continue to follow up with our TA and instructors if necessary.
 
 Our last small problem we came across was in regards to formatting for our different submissions.
-One of our documents was incorrectly formatted as a result of our misunderstanding of the
-requirements. Also, towards the beginning of the term we named our files incorrectly, resulting
+Due to our misunderstanding of the provided requirements, we did incorrectly format one of our documents.
+Also, towards the beginning of the term we named our files incorrectly, resulting
 in the loss of points. In order to ensure that all style guidelines are met in the future, we
 will communicate with our TA, other students, and our professors as needed. Prior to asking
-others, we will peruse the online documents provided to us on Canvas to ensure that we are
-not asking questions that have already been answered.
+others, we will peruse the online documents, modules, and extra links provided to us on Canvas to ensure 
+that we are not asking questions that have already been answered.
 
 \section{Weekly Progress}
 % TODO The document should include a detailed, week-by-week summary of activities,
 % problems, solutions, and the like (consider using your blogs to inform this report).
 % The report should not include more than a summary of any bigger documents you produced
-This section contains the summary of each week of the Fall term during which the
+This section provides weekly summaries for every week of our Fall 2019 term for which the
 project was active.
 
 \subsection{Week 3}
@@ -140,17 +140,20 @@ of drafting, submitting, and merging
 the requirements document and problem statements. This went smoothly; each team member
 felt confident in their understanding of the project's requirements and the
 problem it is solving, likely because our group was offered the project in
-the summer before the class had started. The only foreseeable problems at
-this point is the difficulty in scheduling a semi-regular meeting with the
-client: each group member, and the client themselves, are exceptionally
-busy during this academic term, and on most week, no single time works
-for every person. This problem is not significant at this point, however,
+the summer before classes had started. 
+
+The main problem that we expect to see again in the future is our difficulty in scheduling a
+semi-regular meeting with the client: each group member, including the client themselves, are
+all exceptionally busy during a given academic term, and for most weeks there is no single time 
+at which we can all be present for a meeting.
+
+This problem is not significant at this point, however,
 because the team has enough information to work for the time being.
 
 \emph{Note: At this point, some members of the team received lower scores
     than expected for certain submissions. Since the content of the various
     submissions was agreed upon by each team member, the variance in
-    the received scores was unexpected and was listed as a "problem". However,
+    the received scores was unexpected and has been listed as a "problem". However,
     this did not impact the project itself, since one of the submissions
     received full points.}
 
@@ -175,8 +178,8 @@ The team's TA was asked about this, but was not aware of the details, and
 offered to contact Dr. Winters.
 
 While there is not yet an exact date for a meeting with the client, one
-is soon to be established. Each group member and the client provided the
-times during which they are available, revealing that there were no
+is soon to be established. Each group member and the client have provided
+times for which they are available, revealing that there were no
 time slots during which each individual was available to meet. As such,
 one of the group members will likely skip this meeting, and the rest
 of the group members will fill them in.
@@ -211,7 +214,7 @@ Since the team was busy with the creation of the design (and the design document
 the issue of funding was not significant at this time. The group member responsible
 for the hardware simulated some components of the initial design, in order
 to explore the implementation of the project. However, no significant insight
-was gained from this, with the exception of familiarity with the tooling.
+was gained from this, aside from familiarity with the chosen tooling.
 
 \subsection{Week 8}
 In this week, the design document was completely transitioned to IEEE 1016-2009 format.
@@ -222,8 +225,8 @@ Despite the difficulties, the assignment was completed before the initial deadli
 was later postponed), and the team had a chance to verify the content of the design document
 with the course's instructors. This helped discover several minor issues with the format
 of the document, which were promptly corrected. At this point, the document was
-complete with the exception of UML diagrams, which were scheduled to be inserted
-during the weekened. 
+complete however did not include any UML diagrams, which were scheduled to be inserted
+over the coming weekened. 
 Other than the medical emergency and the design document, no significant problems
 or progress occurred this week.
 
@@ -234,11 +237,11 @@ generated documentation to the client / advisor, but did not receive a
 response during this week. No issues were encountered during this time.
 
 \subsection{Week 10}
-The entire team, as well as the client, had a chance to meet and discuss
+The entire team, including the client, had a chance to meet and discuss
 the submitted documents this week. The client was very satisfied with the results,
 but wanted a high-level overview of the system that was not "scattered through
 a big document".
-On the team level, a new system was introduced to help evenly distribute workload
+At the team level, a new system was introduced to help evenly distribute workload
 among team members. A Trello-style board will be used to plan for the tasks
 ahead and assign work to members, so that there is a larger degree of personal
 responsibility for parts of each assignment.