The Microsoft Corporation

The Microsoft Corporation have introduced a software package in March 1995, which is called Microsoft Bob that is intended to make personal computers easy to use. For Microsoft Bob project, it is fortunate that it has good executive support, good support from higher management, good resources, sufficient amount of budget and was given sufficient amount of time as this was product development and that too Microsoft's product. In 1995, even experts have their doubts about the software seemed to accept the idea that it was a sneak preview of where user interfaces were going. Microsoft calls Bob as "social interface" between humans and Personal computers. Initially these agents will display only basic intelligence and problem solving abilities, but they will quickly get smarter and more responsive as PCs acquire the necessary MIPS(Million Instructions Per Second) to run realistic simulations.

As scope of the project is too fancy and involved creation of cartoons, so the budget and time also raises accordingly. Though the project satisfies triple constrains, the customers need to be satisfied with quality of the product, as he/she is going to pay for it. Quality is one more constraint that we need to consider for a project (Schwable, 2010).

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Microsoft Bob software is targeted to provide a better interface on top of DOS and windows for non-technical users of the computer. Microsoft Bob is a software on Windows 3.1 front- end for computing newbies(The Bob Chronicles). The version 1.00 was released into the market on 1/30/1995. The immediate version was 1.00a that was released into the market on 8/14/1995. There are many features like games buttons, objects; extra rooms to place objects are included in the updated version. Here is the Microsoft Bob splash screen, featuring a yellow smiley face wearing nerdy glasses.

Microsoft Bob can be run as a regular application or it can be set to start up automatically when the computer starts. Before you can use Bob you must identify yourself. Use the knocker and select from a list of Bob users. If you are not in the list of users you must fill in some information to identify yourself. (This information is used later by the Bob programs). While users can have "private" areas in Bob, there is no real security.

The below is the main room in Microsoft Bob house. In order to know the programs in this room, we need to click for help, which is F1. Bob is loaded with sound effects. Clicking on buttons, using certain animated objects, or just letting the guide sit around, will cause many crazy sounds to be heard. Help tips pop up often throughout Bob and its applications.

1. Scope of Project : Bob is a software program for people who don't work on Windows (Boston Globe, 1995). This software offers a choice of 14 cartoon character, like a dog, a rabbit, a parrot etc. Each character