Version Control System: For my Ninth Grader - Part 1

Version Control System: For my Ninth Grader - Part 1


Version Control System: For my Ninth Grader - Part 2

Day 1

Teacher: In this week we will try to understand how hundreds of people work collaboratively and achieve the result.

One of the students: That will be fun.

Teacher:  Yep. So, let us divide the class into two groups. One group will write a story on topic of its choice as a collaborative effort while second group will observe their workings while completing the story over time period.  Okay, so in here are members of story writing group

Group 1: Yash, Jim, Jay, Tina & Gil à Writers

Group 2: Ram, Joe, Sheila, Kim, Scott, Kale, Aziz, Vijaya, Kale, & Saito à Observers

Now we will meet after break. By that time, Group 1 will provide high level view of story and methodology of their working while writing story.

Any question?

Yash: What do you mean by methodology of working?

Teacher: hmm. Methodology means how your group manages the story writing efforts if more than one person is writing the story at a given point of time. How your group will sync up the works of each person without breaking the story theme, etc.

I hope this answers your question.

Yash: Kind of, but still not very clear.

Teacher: Let you start with this understanding and present the case, during your presentation whole class will help you to refine the methodology.

Yash: Okay

Teacher: So let’s meet after break.

Day 1: After break

Teacher: So everyone is in the room, so let’s start. I hope each group is ready with high level view of story and working methodology to be adopted to complete the story.  Let’s start with Group 3. Who is presenting the case?

Yash: Gil and I will be talking on behalf of group.

Teacher: Okay.

Yash: So, folks as you are aware our group has five members – Jay, Gil, Jim, Tina and me. We will be writing a story about a boy who is travelling around the world with his uncle. This story will talk about his experiences.

Gil: We will be dividing story into five sections so each of team members can write a section in separate MS Word document which can be merged later. To keep the flow of story intact, we will be meeting daily and discussing.

Teacher: That’s great. I have few comments to make. First Group 1 is consisting of smart folks. You have chosen a theme of story which is easy to write by multiple persons simultaneously and second you have divided story into five sections which is equal to number of writers. But in real life you do not get both advantages even one. In almost all scenarios work is not divisible so clearly among workers. To make whole thing more realistic, we need to write two sections and at a given day more than one person can work on a section.

You can come with solution to resolve this conflict in tomorrow’s class. Is it fair!

Gil: Yep.

Teacher: So let us meet tomorrow.