Homeworks, CS 519, Winter 2015
Homework #1:
Reverse-engineer Abby

Meet "Abby". Abby is a persona I've been working on with a group of colleagues as part of an emerging method we call GenderMaP. (GenderMaP is an evaluation method for finding software features that may not be gender-inclusive.) Your mission is to pretend like you and your teammate are in the process of creating Abby.

Specifically, with your temporary teammate, do the following:

• HW #1: Using Appendix C as a guide, describe the "pretend" lifecycle processes you followed for Abby, for the family planning lifecycle stage only, ie pp 184-189. You'll need to have a feeling for the Abby persona and for Appendix B for this, because Appendix B gives an idea of the kind of substantiation you're aiming to achieve for your Abby persona. What to turn in:
  • The "pretend" core team to create the Abby persona. See pp 184-185. It should end up looking like te bulets in the middle of p. 185.
  • The "pretend" answers to the problems, resources, etc., involved, using the bullets on pp. 184-185 as your template.
  • The "pretend" action plan to create the Abby persona. See pp 185-189. It look like Figure C.1.
  • The "pretend" data you're pretending you'll use in creating the Abby persona. It should look like Figures C.3 and C.4. The "questions" in Figure C.3 came from figuring out what they were aiming to solve. In your case, you can refer to what Abby looks like right now to come up with questions, along with the problems you invented when you used the bullets on pp. 184-185 above.

Here is a link to a group of papers about personas. Visit the google spreadsheet in that folder and sign up for one of the papers. (After two people sign up, that paper is "taken".) Your mission is to generate insights into either (1) how one of the persona projects (or yours) in this class avoids or could have avoided the problems the paper speaks of or (2) ways the paper might help one of the persona projects in the class.

What to turn in: Just a paragraph or two with (1) or (2). Mostly you'll be discussing it with the class. You can turn in individually or in pairs -- either way is fine. Hardcopy in class, and email to Dr. B. with "HW 2" as the subject.

Margaret M. Burnett
Date of last update: Feb. 19, 2015