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DesignLab '96 Report

This year's DesignLab was a great success. We had 11 teams and over 60 people showed up this year. On sunday we had originally 5 groups, but one group became too small so the people that showed up were assigned other problems. Unfortunately, one problem author (i.e., customer) was invited but there was no group for him. He joined a group as a designer.

There was one scheduling group, a large system group and there were two metalevel programming groups. One of the metalevel groups was prepared. Everybody worked in the same room. This was no problem because the room was very big. All groups worked concentrated and little shouting was overheard. From a distance, each group seemed to develop it's own dynamic. It was a fascinating sight to see how the groups became a unique mix of characters in a very short time. At half time, the groups looked at each others solutions. This was a nice break, except for the moderators that had to explain their solutions and could not see the other solutions.

The deliverables had not clearly been set so there was a little confusion over this. However, this was easy solved. Each group had to deliver two pages with a description of what happened and a number of flipover sheets with their solution. This had to be handed over before wednesday evening.

Tuesday had 6 groups. Unfortunately, we had used the message board to invite the moderators and recorders before the rest but not everybody had read this. There was also a group that had two moderators. So this start was a little bit more hectic. However, each group had his own room so that was more quiet. This time there were 2 large system groups, one metalevel group, a scheduling and a data collection group. Though the rooms were very nice, this was offset by the fact that they were very hot. repeatedly complaining to the hotel did not solve this problem.

The different rooms made it much harder to see how the group dynamics evolved, except for a few loud noises. In one group there was confusion about who was the moderator and a discrepancy between one persons expectations and the others. This group seemed to be extremely dynamic while another group was exactly the opposite: extremely nice to each other. Only the large systems group visited each other during half time. The other groups just had a [late] coffee.

Thursday afternoon was reserved for a panel discussion and presentation of the results. Most groups showed up and proudly presented their result to the public. Unfortunately thursday afternoon was not such a good time because many people had already left for home. About a 150 people looked at the presentation and about 60 were participating in the panel discussion. The panel consisted of randomly picked people from different teams. All seemed to have had a good time. The remarkable thing however was that not all stories told seemed to align with stories from other people on the same group.

Prepared/Unprepared

There seems to be little difference between prepared and unprepared. Some people in the prepared groups had actually worked on the problem, but most people had had no time. The preparedness was not visible in the results. Several people indicated that they had been trying to get the group together through email, but that their attempts had been unsuccesful.

Evaluation

From the evaluation it was obvious that most people had a wonderful time. The most enjoyable part seems to be the interaction with the other people in the group though that was for some people the most frustrating. The bonding between the group members was also visible during the conference where you saw people from the same group talk to eachother quite often.

There seems to be no clear preference over half day/full day and conference day versus workshop day. People seem to confirm the choice they already made. However, the people who did a half day session had obvious more problems with the time frame.

Except for the time frame, the environment seemed to be the biggest complaint. The absence of cookies, the hot rooms and the quality of water was a big complaint. Well, that should be easy to fix. There were some comments about the organization of the event, mainly the time and place was not communicated well on tuesday. Neither was the description of the deliverables though some people complained but did not read the process guidelines. This will be improved next year. This year, the attendants got the problems during the session. Last year this was during registration. Earlier availability was appreciated by several people.


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The groups

Data Collection (Forest)        Tuesday unprepared 7 participants
Large Systems                   Sunday unprepared  5 participants
                                Tuesday unprepared 8 participants
                                Tuesday unprepared 7 participants
Metalevel                       Sunday prepared    6 participants
                                Sunday unprepared  5 participants
                                Tuesday prepared   7 participants
                                ? unprepared       7 participants (Australia)
Automation                      Tuesday unprepared 6 participants
Scheduling                      Sunday unprepared  5 participants
                                Tuesday unprepared 7 participants
 
There were approximately 15% no shows that did not inform the organizers. 
Fortunately did this not cause any real problems, except for the cancelation
of one group.

Evaluation forms

Designers                       42
Moderator/Recorders             17
Authors                          1


Sign up for next year

        definitely              17 *****************
        probably                23 ***********************
        unsure                   8 ********
        probably not             2 **
        definitely not           0

Prefer whole day over half day

        definitely              17 *****************
        probably                 9 *********
        unsure                  10 **********
        probably not            10 **********
        definitely not           4 ****

Workshop day over a conference day

        definitely              15 ***************
        probably                18 ******************
        unsure                   7 *******
        probably not             7 *******
        definitely not           3 ***

Have you learned anything about OO systems?

        definitely              18 ******************
        probably                18 ******************
        unsure                   6 ******
        probably not             6 ******
        definitely not           2 **

What was the best thing about DesignLab 96?

        Interaction             25 ************************
        That it happened         7 *******
        Problems                 3 ***
        Learning                 2 **

What was the worst thing about DesignLab 96 (includes some suggestions)?

        Time frame              11 **********
        Cookies/water/temp       7 *********
        The group                6 ******
        Unclear deliverables     4 ****
        Organization             3 ***
        Problem                  1 *
        Preparation              1 *
        No expert                1 *

Suggestions

• Change the name to analysis fest or something
• Make the problems available earlier
• Allow for visits to other groups
• Allow people to work over two days
  

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Report prepared by Peter Kriens.

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