Engineering Methods

Academic Year 2025/26

  
 

Exercise 3

  
 

Refining Project Focus

If necessary, also consult with the instructor during this exercise to refine your project focus. The sooner you finalize your own refinement, the sooner you can start working on the preliminary version of your project and review article. Don't forget to submit the project focus refinement to AIS by the required deadline. Only one team member needs to submit. Make sure you have submitted it correctly. The deadline is strict: October 12, 2025 23:59

Working on Preliminary Version of Project and Review Article

The project focus refinement -- even though it may require stylistic adjustments -- practically represents the first version of the interpretation of your intent and the abstract of your review article. You have already given the project a name. The next step is to appropriately name the review article, which should capture the current state in the field. Continue with designing the structure of the review article. Use the prepared file clanok.tex with bibliography literatura.bib (which you worked with in previous exercises), into which you will subsequently write the text (the article is of standard article class). Remove unnecessary text and include only the name, article title, abstract, and top-level structure of the article (using \section commands).

Review the guidelines regarding the preparation of the preliminary version of the project and make sure you understand them. You will need to devote adequate time to working on the project outside of class.

Tools for Creating Diagrams

If you need to visualize certain facts for the interpretation of the project intent or the review article itself (or parts thereof), use an adequate form (diagram, graph, table, schema, etc.). The following tools for creating diagrams are recommended:

  • UMLet, UMLetino

    • UMLet is a simple tool for creating diagrams. You add elements to the diagram by double-clicking in the palette (on the right). You edit the element label by selecting it and then modifying the content displayed in the tool window at the bottom right.

    Tasks

    1. Create a new directory for the review article. Via the command line (command prompt), navigate to this directory. Initialize an empty Git repository in it using the command git init .
    2. Download the article example and the bibliographic sources file that this article references, directly into the created directory with the git repository.
    3. Try to work progressively on the article, on its preliminary version, by committing the changes made (in the sense of examples from the lecture) in the article itself and related artifacts (images, graphs, tables, etc.). Aim for the highest possible number of commits.
    4. Maintain the article in the main master/main branch. Also create a new branch named predbeznaVerzia (preliminaryVersion) and edit the preliminary version of the article in this branch.
    5. When you have completed parts in the predbeznaVerzia branch, merge them into the master/main branch.
    6. Compare the local installation of the MiKTeX distribution and TeXworks editor with the solution presented in the first two chapters about collaborative writing . Complete task 2.1.5. Make sure you understand task 2.1.6. Set up document sharing according to task 2.1.8.
    7. Create a new directory for the article on GitHub. The prerequisite is creating a GitHub account - you should already have one.
    8. Synchronize the contents of the Git repository (MIP article) with the created GitHub repository.
    9. Add at least one other GitHub user to the GitHub repository (ideally other team members) - Invite a collaborator. The added "collaborator" is expected to read the work-in-progress preliminary version of the review article and leave a comment for its author: a note useful for improving the article, any related observations, links to other useful related articles, constructive suggestions or recommendations, etc.
    10. Continue working on your own version of the review article, on its preliminary version, by committing the changes made in the article itself and related artifacts (images, graphs, tables, etc.). Aim for the highest possible number of commits. Inform the instructors about your own progress, also present your activity and the activity of the added "collaborator(s)" from the commit history.
    11. Maintain the article in the main master/main branch on GitHub as well.
    12. Draw any diagram in the UMLet/UMLetino tool, for example, a flowchart capturing activities regarding the project intent. Also try another tool for creating graphics. Realize both graphic outputs as separate PDF files.
    13. Try using the created diagrams (created PDF files) in the clanok.tex file. Adjust the size of the diagrams as needed (initially set to 1.0).
    14. You can crop the exported diagram in PDF format -- remove excess white space -- using the pdfcrop tool, which is part of the MiKTeX distribution (you can find it in the miktex\bin directory). The pdfcrop tool requires an environment for applications in the Perl programming language (e.g., Strawberry Perl). Call the pdfcrop tool from the command line:
      pdfcrop diagram.pdf
      This will create a file named diagram-crop.pdf.
    15. Compare the local installation of the MiKTeX distribution and TeXworks editor with the solution presented in the third chapter about collaborative writing . Complete the tasks in sections 3.5 through 3.8.