Week 7

Monday

We worked on CSS in Web Dev group. Was interesting as was totally lost to begin with but stuck with it and now have some idea on how to do that kind of thing in the future.

Almost given up on my Networking Lab as got lost in it weeks ago :( Eating my €1 sweets with Fergal to pass the time while I do my Trends in Comp Tech essay work as don't want to sit around for 2 hours doing nothing. Denis finally started to show everyone the Wireshark packet sniffer program and how to identify the different packets (20 mins at the end he started this but had to leave for the bus).

Tuesday

Early mornings are the worst especially if you don't go to bed early the night before (was watching a film with my friend until 2am) Had a bust up with my friend as we were both tired anyway but smoothed relations very quickly on the way to college. CIT was the first class of the day Colin Manning was talking to individual groups about their presentation. Colin changed my essay to Geolocation as my group presentation was the same topic (RFID and Privacy).

Had computer hardware next we learned about plug and play devices and the settings. Pierce reminded us of the test on Thursday.

We had a spokeswoman in Trends in computer technology talking about data and how its used and abused was kind of scary how data is lost. Java was the final lessons of the day with the first hour talking about Data Validation and starting loops. Then for the next 2 hours was the group Java coding project. We ran over time so we all went home Damien one of the group members finished the code and emailed it to me while I tried to finish the write up but missed the deadline on Blackboard and so my last resort was emailing the stuff to Cliona directly hoping she will grade it.

Wednesday

Pain in the backside these early mornings getting in. Always dark and cold in the mornings being winter now. First lecture was Hardware Pierce Brady instructed us to skip to chapter 3 in Labsim as it covers whats coming up in the exam. Next was web fundamentals with Ingo, I could not stop sniggering for the whole lecture as he tripped on the rubber stub that stops the door hitting the wall just as funny as when he tripped on the overhead wire lol. Spent part of my 2 hour break starting research on my CIT essay on Geolocation. In CIT Colin was talking to us about the Game our group has to make using QR technology. It was amusing as Colin was in his element when discussing the project he was like a fat kid in a candy store, never seen him so alive with enthusiasm. Last lecture of the day was Networking Fundamentals, Denis showed us a video about network topologies as well as informing us of an upcoming test. Later that day went to my one society club at the UCC called MedRen where we do spear fighting was one of the best sessions I have been to.

Thursday

Woke up this morning feeling alone not really connecting to my house mates especially with one of them. I was kind of sad of the fact that one was gone and we are still looking for a new house mate. Had a hardware exam first thing which I later found out was easy as pie so all this freaking out was for nothing. Finished the exam (if you call it that) in 10 mins and we were given an hour to do this. Next lecture was cancelled so had a 3 hour lunch break. Tried to do some essay writing in the canteen but then a brass band came in and well played very loud music so put me right off. Handed in my EMC & Newsweaver essay to Vincent Ryan but the rest of the lecture was cancelled due to the fact that the pc units in the lab were being upgraded. Waited around with Peter for a bit in the Canteen before he decided to go home for the day. Went to the student shop to buy supplies. Went to Java to ask Cliona if she got the group work assessment on Tuesday luckily she had and it was graded on Blackboard found out that the java lectures were just tutorials for people who needed help so left just after 3pm and caught the bus back.

Friday

Its a day off woop woop 4 day weekend to catch up on essay work lol

Group of one :-(

Both my team mates have abandoned ship for the CIT module so I am now a team of one. I think I may have to merge with another team as its best to work as a team.

Week 6 :PPPPPPPPPPP

Monday

Ingo had to go to a meeting so Colin Manning took our web class. We worked on Areas on a picture HTML coding clickable areas by defining the points in pixel measurements. Networking was next and I forgot to bring my Lab manuals great!!!

Tuesday

I hate early mornings with a passion mainly that its dark in winter when you get up at 7am. Bus was fully packed today to a point of being illegal. CIT didn't go well was unprepared to speak about my job assignment but given a chance to rectify that by Colin. Just been tired all day sometimes its just a blur. Java its always the Java that keeps tripping me up I feel like a thick Kerry Man struggling with the concept of speaking English (no offence to the Kerry people).

Got home and finally did the tasks at hand as can work better in my own environment.

Wednesday

Hardware first lesson 2 hours of watching tutorial videos while I could be concentrating on the really big issue such as my Java. We had a lesson on HTML by Ingo who was telling us a funny story about Ford and Volvo parts for his car. Had a two hour break went for a nice cup of tea at a friends house forgetting i was supposed to meet up with a friend (hope he is not too annoyed with me) Had a CIT lesson with both A&B together group B read out their Job investigations. I was given a second chance from Monday to read mine out again hoping I do better. Final lesson for today is Networking as im typing this I am waiting for the Lecturer. Just wish I could go home right now to use my time efficiently working there.

Thursday

Got in earlier than normal to CIT this morning, started doing some JAVA coding as wanted a head start for the last few lessons of Problem Solving. Pierce Brady informed us in is Hardware of next weeks exam and told us what we needed to learn (seems like basic stuff but don't want to be cocky so will need to revise) We then had Networking and talked about TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and the fact that a few of us were struggling in the Lab side of the module so addressed some issues there. Trends in Computer Technology was the next lecture, we got back our Nitrosell essay to my surprise I got 85% didnt know I did that well. Was quite pleased with my Java managed to complete the task with 2 hours to spare so went home early that day :)

Friday

Forgot to set my alarm so was running late feeling like crap. First lesson was Web Fmtls with Ingo talking about CSS not much happens on that Friday lesson. CIT blahhhhhhhhhhhhh. End of day! Going to Kerry for the weekend to get away from the stress of Cork!

The Job Exercise - Test Analyst Job

Job No.37 - Graduate/Junior Test Analyst Job in Dublin

My task was to investigate:

• What technical skills are required for the job
• What non-technical / soft skills are required for the job
• What do all those technical terms mean
• What modules at CIT should you take to get those skills
• Which modules provide which skills
• What kind of modules should you take, but are not offered at CIT

Technical Skills Required

Assist in analysing test requirements: Basically having the ability to look through what tests need to be done on the program

Assist in producing test plans: Having the ability to help with designing what tests there are to be done to the application programmed.

Populate Test Director with test cases: Having experience in using the tool Test Director

(TestDirector is Mercury Interactive’s software test management tool. It helps quality assurance personnel plan and organize the testing process. With TestDirector you can create a database of manual and automated tests, build test cycles, run tests, and report and track defects. You can also create reports and graphs to help review the progress of planning tests, running tests, and tracking defects before a software release)

Execute test scripts and manual testing: The ability to run special scripting programs to test the software to see if its doing what its meant to be doing. Also the applicant should have the skill to manually test the software in every way possible.

Raise Defects: The ability to track defects in the code and to find a solution to correct this. The constant check of these problems are an essential requirement to ensure high quality code.

Produce regular Progress Reports to communicate progress being made: As the testing and repairing of faulty code progresses, Progress Reports are required for the people in charge as well as the team to see what has been done and to what needs to be done in the future. This can include what more extensive tests need to be done or what fixes are required to when a fault is discovered.

Continually build and improve relationships within the project teams: Working as a team is important when testing and re-writing code but its essential that the team functions like a family for better communication between one another so that mistakes are minimal and any problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently. The reputation of a company can be down to good or bad teamwork.

Desirable Skills:

The applicant must have some of the desirable skills in order to get the Job this includes:

Knowledge in SQL and Oracle that deal in databases, being familiar with the operating system Unix.

Having strong communication and interpersonal skills in order for the team to work well and that no misinformation goes out.

Being a Team Player is also essential as its more efficient working as a team and less likely that errors will occur as everyone is working together looking over each others code in the software.

For absolute communication between the team and others in the company a common language must be spoken and for this Job its English and has to be fluent.

Cork Institute of technology course

The CIT course the person needs to study to qualify for this job could be:

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Software Development

http://courses.cit.ie/index.cfm/page/course/courseId/263

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Software Development and Computer Networking

http://courses.cit.ie/index.cfm/page/course/courseId/252

Both of these courses have most of the modules that cover qualifications needed for the Test Analyst Job

CIT Modules that deal with SQL:

SOFT7002 - Database Design & Programming

COMP7027 - Database Implementation

COMP7028 - Database Systems

COMP7025 - Database Systems 1

COMP7006 - Database Systems 2

COMP6016 - Introduction to Databases

However there are a few Modules the CIT do not have that the job requires such as:

SQL and Oracle - The CIT has a module that covers SQL but not Oracle and this can be studied at the UCC by doing Database Design and Development (IS1810)

Week 5 @ the good old CIT :p

Monday

First lesson was Web Dev with Ingo Stengel at 2pm we were making our CIT timetables in HTML using the table tags. Was quite interesting. Now in Network Fundamentals doing... you guessed it networking lol

Tuesday

Today in CIT we discussed whether the topic assigned to us was to be changed or kept. We decided to keep "Digital Pollution" as our topic. Final lesson was Problem Solving, we learned IF statements in JAVA still giving me a headache as usual but I did better this time around.

Wednesday

Was a fire-drill today while in my Hardware Lesson how fun lol joking around as had to leave our bags inside. Next lesson was Web Fmtls learning about Maps and Area that can be coded in a webpage. In CIT we were informed of what the deadlines were for work. I was the only team member to turn up so may be down to me to complete the work with what ever Finnish contact I find. Networking was the final lecture of the day.

Thursday

First lesson was Computer Hardware with Pierce Brady an enthusiastic lecturer who has board pens that have run out so difficult to see anything written on the board. Then it was Network Fundamentals and Denis Polley was quite annoyed (first time I have seen him like that) because everyone including me had forgotten all that he had told us about IP addressing.

In Trends in computer technology I handed in my Nitrosell essay though I feel I had not done enough on it. We then got given instructions on the next essay to do. The final lessons were Problem Solving and Programming and these always give me a headache as I always feel im falling behind (I really need to pick this up fast if I'm to survive at the CIT). We did our group project on a programming challenge to do with generating a password using a persons first name and a calculation of numbers using their date of birth. Didn't get back home till like 7pm.

Friday

Got up this morning feeling totally wrecked as all week been going to bed around 12-1am not good if getting up at 7am nearly every morning. Get into my first lecture 30 mins late luckily the lecturer Ingo didnt shun me too much more like joking to be about having to wrestle with my clock (Obviously the clock won that round). Went to my CIT class with Collin he gave us sheets of paper with a 24 hour circle for us to fill in what we fill a typical 24hour day. It was quite interesting to see how little time I really have in my day (no wonder im so tired when Friday comes along) We then were each given a picture which we were not allowed to show but we could discribe it and the point of the exercise I figured was communication and teamwork to figure out which order we should go in according to the picture we had. One of the funniest things to have happened in that class and was so much fun. The deadline for the CIT Job blog investigation had been pushed to Monday.

Week 4 @ CIT

Monday

Today was my turn to go shop for supplies. My friend went with me to purchase his new phone as the old one decided to randomly ring and text people before dying. Also he could not fins his folder for College which has annoyed him somewhat as it has EVERYTHING in it. Life you gotta laugh sometimes!

Got into my Web Development class at 2pm to work on my HTML code thinking I had finished. My friend Albert suggested I run the code through a validations to check for errors....50+ errors so frantically ran through the code correcting stupid mistakes sometimes such as missing an equals sign. Luckily I managed to correct everything before the end of the lesson and submitted the project in.

Network Fundamentals was the next lesson. Had to buy Lab Manuals costing €18! as without them you cant really complete the module. Was enrolled on the Cisco website to do the online classes. A day ending at 6 seems quite late

Tuesday

One of the longest days of my CIT week, it would make anyone tired just by looking at my timetable. First lesson was CIT we learned about Google calender and how it works (not really a motivation to attend that class but I went anyway) It was interesting on how Google can spam itself with notifications from the calender.

The final lesson of the day was Problem Solving which involves Java I always find these lessons give me a headache as I am new to Java and learning the different code can be painful when working out exactly how its working.

Wednesday

My Birthday 25 today yay me lol. Another early morning was late getting into Hardware class due to bus being slow as ever (cant wait to drive one of these days) Using software called LabSim which explains about the different hardware and functions of a PC. Web Dev Fmtls class learning about new HTML tags how fun. Had another CIT lesson today with Colin Manning teaching us how to do a powerpoint presentation was quite helpful to know.

Final lesson of the day was Networking learning the fine points in that.

Thursday

Lectures in the morning started at 10am with Computer Hardware with Pierce Brady then Network Fundamentals with Denis Polley then a break at 12pm. Trends in Computer Technology was cancelled so had a 3 hour lunch break. Then it was Problem Solving and Programming which always stimulates the mind with its ever increasing complexities in the code (well to me it seems) which is JAVA. We learned how to use a GUI command instead of console.

Friday

One thing I like about Friday is that fact that you finish at 11am. Had Web Dev Fmtls and then CIT not much to say about this day apart from I managed to get my AIB Internet Banking sorted as well as my monthly bus pass ID card :P

(BTW if you are reading up to this point you must seriously have a lot of time to kill or that you like reading random rubbish)