Friday, 4 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
P2 - Resources available
A project manager needs resources to complete any task, If any of these resources are missing or lacking then the completion of the project could be hindered or even completely halted.
Financial backing and a suitable budget is vital to any projects success, with out the proper funds a manager cannot afford to pay for other resources to get the job done. A poor cash flow means that the project is unable to move forward or cover any unexpected costs that will almost certainly arise during the project life cycle. With out the adequate amount of money a project will simply fail.
People is another very important resource. A manager must ensure that his/her team members have the skill set and attitude that is needed to complete the task. For example a website company that has too many graphics experts and no enough coders will find that the programmers are being overloaded, or that the graphics designers are sitting around with nothing to do while they wait for the programmers to catch up. It is also very important that there is a high level of motivation as this is vital to the quality and amount of output that the team will achieve.
A manager must have the correct equipment at hand in order to efficiently complete the task at hand. For example, a company like pixar has extremely powerful render farms at their disposal so they can render scenes as fast as possible. With out these machines the production time is significantly increased.
If a manager does not have the software to communicate with his/her team then it can lead to massive problems with people not knowing what to do.
In terms of software there are many different packages that a manager can use to maintain control over the task.
One example of this is file sharing software, In our task we used Drop box, however there are several different alternatives. This type of software is used to have a shared folder which updates in real time on multiple machine. This makes it much easier for a team to work together on separate parts of a project.
Another example is email software such as outlook express or the very popular blackberry message (BBM), this allows the team manager to keep in contact with the team.
There are also many packages which can be used to create gantt charts or similar graphs, there are free as well as paid for solutions. A gantt chart is very useful to show the team what part of a project needs to be done and when it needs to be done by.
Financial backing and a suitable budget is vital to any projects success, with out the proper funds a manager cannot afford to pay for other resources to get the job done. A poor cash flow means that the project is unable to move forward or cover any unexpected costs that will almost certainly arise during the project life cycle. With out the adequate amount of money a project will simply fail.
People is another very important resource. A manager must ensure that his/her team members have the skill set and attitude that is needed to complete the task. For example a website company that has too many graphics experts and no enough coders will find that the programmers are being overloaded, or that the graphics designers are sitting around with nothing to do while they wait for the programmers to catch up. It is also very important that there is a high level of motivation as this is vital to the quality and amount of output that the team will achieve.
A manager must have the correct equipment at hand in order to efficiently complete the task at hand. For example, a company like pixar has extremely powerful render farms at their disposal so they can render scenes as fast as possible. With out these machines the production time is significantly increased.
If a manager does not have the software to communicate with his/her team then it can lead to massive problems with people not knowing what to do.
In terms of software there are many different packages that a manager can use to maintain control over the task.
One example of this is file sharing software, In our task we used Drop box, however there are several different alternatives. This type of software is used to have a shared folder which updates in real time on multiple machine. This makes it much easier for a team to work together on separate parts of a project.
Another example is email software such as outlook express or the very popular blackberry message (BBM), this allows the team manager to keep in contact with the team.
There are also many packages which can be used to create gantt charts or similar graphs, there are free as well as paid for solutions. A gantt chart is very useful to show the team what part of a project needs to be done and when it needs to be done by.
D1 - Communications
The first step in our process was finding out exactly what is required of our system, We chose to interview Miss Walpole to find out exactly what she wanted for our system.
Paraphrased interview with Miss Walpole
WHAT DOES THE CURRENT SYSTEM OFFER?
Saved in staff
Seperate spreadsheets (one per year group)
Password needed to edit
Shows CATS, Reading ag, MEs
Intervenction (flags up when below MEs)
Allows teachers to hide certain things
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE WITH THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Make easier
Intervection function doesn't work
Annoying having one per year group
Make it so it is able to run reports
DO YOU WANT TO KEEP ANYTHING FROM THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Information stored
Hiding system
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO WITH THIS DATA?
Enter
Edit
Export
Show to others
HOW DO YOU WANT TO ACCESS THE DATA?
Possible better spreadsheet
Decide what you want to see
During the course of the project we would bounce ideas of both Mrs Walpole and Mr Enright and we ensured that we were staying on track and providing what they both wanted from the system.
Paraphrased interview with Miss Walpole
WHAT DOES THE CURRENT SYSTEM OFFER?
Saved in staff
Seperate spreadsheets (one per year group)
Password needed to edit
Shows CATS, Reading ag, MEs
Intervenction (flags up when below MEs)
Allows teachers to hide certain things
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE WITH THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Make easier
Intervection function doesn't work
Annoying having one per year group
Make it so it is able to run reports
DO YOU WANT TO KEEP ANYTHING FROM THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Information stored
Hiding system
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO WITH THIS DATA?
Enter
Edit
Export
Show to others
HOW DO YOU WANT TO ACCESS THE DATA?
Possible better spreadsheet
Decide what you want to see
During the course of the project we would bounce ideas of both Mrs Walpole and Mr Enright and we ensured that we were staying on track and providing what they both wanted from the system.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
P7 - D2
We faced many different problems in the task:
Lack of coding skills from team members - There were also long periods of time in the task were team members had nothing to do as a result of lack of skills and time to teach the skills needed, So there were periods of time in which the what to do file had nothing in.finding suitable free webhosting
Registration hosting site failed completely after a week of development - After a while of development the system was at a state of working with the sql database, however shortly after this stage the site we used for registration deleted all of out entries and refused to add new ones. We had to use our extra time to find a free source code for a registration system and make it work with our current system.
Two days before the deadline the hosting company where our site and database was hosted stopped hosting our site for unknown reasons and we didn't have time to make our system work locally.
Lack of time - We simply didn't have enough time to complete the task properly, we had to settle for a basic mockup of the site in the end as a result of the problems above and the lack of time.
Time management - We followed the gantt chart for the first half of the task, then when we faced problems we had to change and adapt our plan.
Teamwork - Team work went well through the task, the research went very well as did communication with the stakeholders. There was also a research folder in which I could post a subject that needs researching and one of the researchers would look it up and post findings in the folders.
From the stand point of project management i think the task was hard to organise and keep everyone busy simply because we didn't all have the skills needed to produce the product or the time needed to get people to the skill level they needed to be. It was hard to ensure that everyone was communicating properly about any work outside of school.
D2
We used the following tools during development:
Dropbox - We used dropbox as our main file sharing system, We kept all project files in our dropbox and it allowed one person to change a file or add a file at home, and it would update for everyone else. It allowed us to communicate effectively and share our work with each over quickly and simply. I think that this software was very effective in the manner that we used it, it kept all of the project files in one place and everyone could access it and do what ever they needed with it. The only problem that we found with the software was that it would sometimes not provide a notification when something was updated which meant that sometimes some of us did not know when something was changed or a task had been added.
Excel - We used Excel to create our gannt chart as well as basic database mock up, It was a good choice of software since all group members have and are familiar with using it. We could have downloaded some specialist software to achieve the same results but we would have had to spend time learning to use it properly, there is also a lot of support available for excel so any problems that we encountered could easily be solved.
.
Skype - We used Skype to communicate out of school, Skype was a very effective tool for us to voice call or video chat, however it was hard to get it so that everyone in the team would be on skype at the same time which is the only real problem we faced with it.
Lack of coding skills from team members - There were also long periods of time in the task were team members had nothing to do as a result of lack of skills and time to teach the skills needed, So there were periods of time in which the what to do file had nothing in.finding suitable free webhosting
Registration hosting site failed completely after a week of development - After a while of development the system was at a state of working with the sql database, however shortly after this stage the site we used for registration deleted all of out entries and refused to add new ones. We had to use our extra time to find a free source code for a registration system and make it work with our current system.
Two days before the deadline the hosting company where our site and database was hosted stopped hosting our site for unknown reasons and we didn't have time to make our system work locally.
Lack of time - We simply didn't have enough time to complete the task properly, we had to settle for a basic mockup of the site in the end as a result of the problems above and the lack of time.
Time management - We followed the gantt chart for the first half of the task, then when we faced problems we had to change and adapt our plan.
Teamwork - Team work went well through the task, the research went very well as did communication with the stakeholders. There was also a research folder in which I could post a subject that needs researching and one of the researchers would look it up and post findings in the folders.
From the stand point of project management i think the task was hard to organise and keep everyone busy simply because we didn't all have the skills needed to produce the product or the time needed to get people to the skill level they needed to be. It was hard to ensure that everyone was communicating properly about any work outside of school.
D2
We used the following tools during development:
Dropbox - We used dropbox as our main file sharing system, We kept all project files in our dropbox and it allowed one person to change a file or add a file at home, and it would update for everyone else. It allowed us to communicate effectively and share our work with each over quickly and simply. I think that this software was very effective in the manner that we used it, it kept all of the project files in one place and everyone could access it and do what ever they needed with it. The only problem that we found with the software was that it would sometimes not provide a notification when something was updated which meant that sometimes some of us did not know when something was changed or a task had been added.
Excel - We used Excel to create our gannt chart as well as basic database mock up, It was a good choice of software since all group members have and are familiar with using it. We could have downloaded some specialist software to achieve the same results but we would have had to spend time learning to use it properly, there is also a lot of support available for excel so any problems that we encountered could easily be solved.
.
Skype - We used Skype to communicate out of school, Skype was a very effective tool for us to voice call or video chat, however it was hard to get it so that everyone in the team would be on skype at the same time which is the only real problem we faced with it.
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