[Year 12 SofDev] RE: Archiving

Mon Nov 24 08:23:04 EST 2008

When I was working for Melb Uni IT, our development team
built the archiving software for the HR systems. The main issues
where transaction speed, long lists of records most of which were
out of date, and space problems problems when migrating from
test to production. Some of the database tables were so big we 
could not copy them without running out of space.  Temporary staff
was one of the reasons, and of course the payroll tables were some
years old at that stage.

The archive was a cut down version of the original records, with enough
data saved to get some useful information out of them if required.
The archive tables were accessible as read only to those who
may require access.

Of course legal requirements require pay, super and tax records to be
kept. 

Russell Quinn

Mailto: qn at boxhillhs.vic.edu.au

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: SD Post mortem (Mark Kelly)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:37:03 +1100
From: Mark Kelly <kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] SD Post mortem
To: "Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List"
	<sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID: <4925D87F.2080506 at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
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Hi again Kevin.  Thanks for your feedback...
And a big IMHO right back at you :-)

Kevin Feely wrote:
> Hi Mark,
> Thanks, must have taken a while.
> I think we are substantially on the same page. hahahahahaha
> Looks like I differ on 4 points, so we have 2 people independantly 
> answering this paper only have 4 points of divergence
> Not bad
> Now if i may nit pik and precede with that lovely KK IMHO here i go - 
> deep breath -
> 
> PART A yep perzacktely
> 
> PART B
> Q1 "Archiving's purpose is to free up space" no i dont think so, 
> otherwise whats the difference between archiving and deleting?

After deletion, you have no copy of the information at all.  After 
archiving, you still have a copy, but it's harder to access because it's 
offline  :-)

> And if its main purpose was to free upstorage space it would be a 
> superfluous practice in todays world.
> I think - Archivings purpose is to create an historical record to 
> comply with legislation and for good corporate governance practices.
> Example: archiving student reports at a school for record keeping 
> requirements
> So if it was up to me a would think deleting is an incorrect answer.

Yes, keeping historical records is often required, but why not keep them 
online?  'Cos they take up unnecessary space since the chances are they 
will never be needed again.  Archiving is an insurance policy.

> 
> Q4 "minimise running time" I think would have to include loading into 
> RAM otherwise the direct access from CD choice, and the "many accesses" 
> would make no sense.
> Eg, If it averaged 10 accesses on the file per session then the direct 
> access will have the data much faster than Option C.

> I agree with you on the answer, but I think for eliciting an informed 
> response we need to have more quantitative data that requires the 
> student to know more than access from RAM is faster than from HDD and 
> faster again from DVD or CD. Students should be aware of actual data 
> access time ranges and be able to make decisions on questions like this 
> via calculation.

I don't think the examiners were thinking so deeply about it  ;-)  My 
take was simply to ask kids, "Which storage medium is fastest?"

> Q5 I thought the 3 minute claim referred to the length of time an exam 
> candidate had to wait to load the created exam!? So if we had 20 people 
> sitting an exam we created it would take 3 minutes per candidate to 
> "load" the questions, ie get to a point where they can start answering 
> the exam. Is that 20 x 3 or 3min no matter how many candidates you have?

I read it differently.  "new software to enable teachers to design their 
own online examinations" & "takes only three minutes to load per user" - 
I assumed the users were the teachers referred to in the introduction to 
the question.

> 
> And i think Claim 3 is not a reliability criteria, sorry, but i would 
> have compatibility as the single correct response. As in if we have a 
> favourable network it will not have any fatal errors, if we dont it will 
> have fatal errors, therefore we are talking compatibility.

Again, I read it differently.  Depends on where you put the mental 
parentheses...

Operates (without fatal errors) on most networked systems = compatibility

or

Operates without fatal errors (on most networked systems) = reliability

That's why I put both options... the question is able to be read both ways.

> 
> PART C
> Q1 Social. "pattie did not spend as much time....". isn't this 
> efficiency as we are looking at time improvements?

No... spending time with people is a social thing.  'Quality time', 
'family time' that sort of feel-good people stuff  ;-)
In this case spending *more* time is good from a social viewpoint.

> Q2 Loved your answer. loved it!

I still have no idea what they wanted.  What IS the answer?

> Q5 The use of == or = instead of <-- errrrr NO, sorry

Why?  The use of = and == for assignment and equality testing is 
widespread in real languages.  Why does pseudocode need to be so awkward?

> Q11 we are asked to identify 2 features she would want in this plan 
> ...... Your feature that "Is the DDRP documented". Are you getting her 
> to ask for a feature in the document is "that it exists"? I have assumed 
> that the document exists and we have to specify 2 important features 
> that it should contain, so I would see this feature as incorrect.

I was thinking more that they might have a cunning plan in case of fire 
(for example) but it's only verbal/traditional rather than actually 
written and published.

> 
> regards
> Kevin
> 

Thanks for the food for thought, Kevin.

-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager - Information Systems
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
School Phone +613 8520 9000
School Fax +613 9578 9253
kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au

Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
IT Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IT Applications Mailing List

Most people don't realise that small kitchen sponges, when nailed to the 
forehead, can really REALLY hurt.

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