I started on the Part II assignment earlier this week, and I just finished it up. I used Visio 2002 for all the drawings. My sequence diagrams were extremely simple. The most complicated diagram was probably the component diagram, though I tried to eliminate any unnecessary details anywhere.
I was impressed by how the assignment is true to life. This is much like what I do in my own work, approaching customers, gathering requirements, and making diagrams. I love diagrams, and I always make lots of Visio drawings when I start a new project, though this is the first time I've done UML diagrams. The only thing that's missing is that at this point, after all the requirements and diagrams are in place, I would normally start mapping out subprojects and milestones, and make a manpower and budget estimate.
Anyhow, I project that I will get 30/40 on the class diagram, 15/20 on the sequence diagrams, and 35/40 on the component diagram, for a total of 80%. If I'm wrong and I fail, I will stop being concerned about the readability of the diagrams and pull out all the stops, including a bunch more details, and resubmit the assignment.
I hope I do pass, because I've been working on this thing on and off all week. I spent:
2 days reading the assignment and thinking.
1 day writing pseudocode from the use cases.
1 day drawing the class diagram from the pseudocode.
2 days drawing the sequence diagrams from the class diagram and use cases.
1 day drawing the component diagram.
As I was drawing each diagram, I was integrating them into HTML pages, and inserting commentary. Ugh, an entire week on this thing... I'm aware that plenty of people take more or less time, but the week sure felt long. The assignment absorbed free time like some evil sponge.
So I'm taking Part III next week, then I'm going off on vacation somewhere to unwind. Maybe by the time I'm back, I'll have the results.
