Assignment 2 - Node.js Report to Management

Goal

Ok, time to take what you learned from the last three assignments and practice it with one more technology.

This assignment is designed to test your ability to go out and do research new technologies. By itself, this isn’t useful unless you can communicate those findings to management. With Assignment 1 you need to do both.

Details

Your bosses at Fine Iowa Car Loans (FICL) have heard a lot about this new “node.js”. But your company doesn’t yet have anything to do with it. Should they? It is your job to find out.

Write a report to your technology managers on Node.js. The report should provide a factual, balanced view of the technology.

Include the following in your report:

  • Report title, date, version, author - Make sure the managers know who wrote the report, when, and what version of the report they are looking at. (As things often get updated.)
  • Executive summary paragraph - Write this last. Give a quick one-paragraph summary of what you came up with.
  • What is Node.js?
  • What does Node.js do?
  • History of Node.js. Who wrote it, how long has it been around, etc.
  • Opportunities for using Node.js. What could the company use Node.js for?
  • Risks in using Node.js. Is it too new? Outdated? Subject to change? No vendor to stand behind it?
  • Performance considerations with Node.js? Does it run fast? Does it take a long time to download?
  • Scalability of using Node.js. If we have 1,000 people on our web server, will this help or hurt us?
  • What support is out their for Node.js? If something goes wrong, who will we get support from?
  • Popularity: Can we find Node.js programmers? Is it a fad? Is it getting old and out of date?
  • Your conclusions on Node.js.
  • References (Where did you get your info? Back it your information with citations from reputable publications.)

References

When listing references, don’t just list URLs. You can hyper-link the title to the URL. Here is an example of what I’m looking for:

Double-Check

When you are done, check the following:

  • Make sure that you use paragraphs. No one will read long walls of text. Follow the PIE methodology for paragraphs.
  • Bullet lists, numbered lists, these are ok to use. Write for a technical manager that wants to be able to skim the report.

Note that in two weeks you’ll write a different report. The next report will not be to your managers, but to other programmers.