Reasons to be miserable

April 16 2009, 12:00 AM  by Caleb Eggensperger
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Instead of working on my homework, I'm writing an itemized list of reasons why this professor is an idiot.

  • He decided this assignment was so important he would call it homeworks 3 and 4. There's no actual division. It is just "homeworks three and four" whenever he says it out loud. Yes kids, it's that important.
  • He calls text boxes "tex-box"s throughout this assignment, and spells "Starbucks" as "Starbuch's" many times. (Is this some kind of joke? I don't get it.)
  • He requires that all of our work be submitted in .vsd (Microsoft Visio) and .mpp (Microsoft Project) file formats. He suggests downloading the 60 day trial for this purpose, rather than actually providing us with a license for this non-free software.
  • The second part of the assignment is to make a flow chart in Visio that is identical to an example one he provides. He expects us to basically retype the paragraphs of info that are in it (and also in the book). This assignment is basically "Retype these 200 words unless you are intelligent enough to copy and paste". His choice of the kinds of shapes he uses and the fact that we are making a flow chart for a linear process exhibits limited understanding of the purpose and proper use of a flow chart.
  • The third part of the assignment is to create a Gantt chart. To determine how long each phase in the Gantt chart should take, there are instructions like this:

    6. Define the Working Criteria. The Duration for this entire macro-task should be 3 weeks (calendar time). Designate “Identify the Problem” as a Predecessor. Present 3 sub-tasks: (i) Value Proposition Study (work hour Work = 2 x the last number in your team number { 2 x 5, if your team number ends in zero} ), (ii) Feasibility Study (work hour Work = 4 x the last number in your team number { 4 x 5, if your team number ends in zero} ), and (iii) Design Experience Study (work hour Work = 20 + first digit in your team number { 0, if team 1-9 } ). Each sub-task should be 1 week in Duration (calendar time) with total duration equal to 3 weeks (calendar time)

  • This is NOT THE FIRST TIME he has had an assignment basically be "Make up a Gantt chart using random, useless data that has no bearing on reality". This is the SECOND such assignment.
  • He's a big Fan of capitalizing Nouns that aren't Proper.
  • EVERY SINGLE instance of the word "weeks" on the Gantt chart spec is followed by "(calendar time)". There are about twenty of these. I THINK I GET IT.
  • There is no evidence whatsoever that anyone ever proofread this. There are several really obvious errors.

Okay, I'm done. Any more and my head a splode.

76 views and 1 response

  • Apr 16 2009, 12:00 AM
    ithinkin3d responded:
    The "flowcharts for linear processes" really gets me. Ugh. This is. So. Terrible.

    (Reply to this)