Instructional Design Survey

Blog Assignment: Analyzing Scope Creep

Blog Assignment: Analyzing Scope Creep

            Getting back the Houston Art Car Parade project that I discussed in my earlier blog. The Art Car parade is a parade which displays the creativity of local artist on cars and vehicles in Houston.

Project: Art Car Float entry

Scope: Design and create an Art Car that will be entered in the Art Car Parade

Timeline: about 2 thousand dollars

Client: My High Schools Art Department

            There was a great deal of bickering and infighting about the concept of the “Art” for the car. The design was simple enough, and limited sufficiently that there shouldn’t have been troublesome issues. Simply the art car called for an artistic paint job, along with ornamentation that would enhance the look and feel of a car that maintained a quirky art-like appearance. This was simple enough in theory. However, when team member with different artistic concepts began voicing their ideas and opinions they wanted the car's appearance to include more vibrant and utilitarian accessories. This would be outside the scope of the cars paint scheme and art ornamentation. Another member who fancied himself an electrical guru wanted to use the car's battery power to make  tail that wagged like a dragon or a fish. Remember, this was a high school assignment, so the maturity of knowledge of project management wasn’t at a professional level. In any case it was still a project type, and with the difference in opinions, there was bound to be things that were outside of the scope.

Blog Assignment: Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

Schedule and Cost Summary Calculator

http://konigi.com/tools/schedule-and-cost-summary-calculator

            This spreadsheet works by breaking your phases into individual tasks. You estimate time to complete tasks and start dates. Estimates are rolled up to show the sum of hours and estimated completion date for all tasks in a phase. Those numbers are then rolled up to show the sum of hours, cost, and completion date for all of the phases. This makes up your cost summary for your proposal.

ProWorkFlow

Easy Project Management

http://www.proworkflow.com/

            ProWorkflow is a fast, easy to use project management, workflow and time tracking solution for small to medium businesses. The application has been designed from the ground up with your most important asset in mind: Your staff! ProWorkflow enables you to keep accurate time-keeping records, organize, plan, and delegate jobs and tasks whilst using the timeline to have an overview of company activity. The information ProWorkflow collects allows you to measure and analyze your company performance so that you can streamline to improve profit margins.

Blog Assignment: Communicating Effectively

Blog Assignment: Communicating Effectively

EMAIL

How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?

        

    I think email is more of a risky format to rely on when communicating. Not everyone maintains the same discipline when checking their messages. Messages may even sit for days on end without being read. I know I have experience with this type of communications, and we would get emails that were not even relevant to our missions. Emails can help with small pieces of information, but unfortunately, people have different levels of values and rules when it comes to checking their email.

What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

            There is no telling when Mark will receive the message, and it seems like more of a request than an order.

VOICEMAIL

           

This is also a passive communication method. Similar to the email, we don’t know when or if Mark checks  his messages. Some people think that voice mails are a thing of the past. They will delete a message rather than hear it, knowing that if they wanted to reach them, they would eventually talk with them.

What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

            It sounds again like a mousy request rather than an order for Mark to help Jane. However, we have a saying in the military “ An emergency on your part, does not constitute an emergency  my part” For Jane to get Mark to act; we are going to need to directly interact with him.

FACE TO FACE

       

     I'm more likely to help Jane with her part of the project deadline seeing her face to face. Additionally, a personal interaction places an obligation on the person to react so that they don’t hunt them down again.

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

            If the intent of the message is to communicate with Mark to give an ETA on the missing report then the Face to Face communication is the way to go.

Blog Assignment: Learning from a Project “ Post-mortem”

Blog Assignment: Learning from a Project “ Post-mortem”

       

     To bring to mind a project I was involved in, was back in High School when I helped build a car for the Art Car Parade. The Art Car parade is a parade which displays the creativity of local artist on cars and vehicles in Houston.

Project: Art Car Float entry

Scope: Design and create an Art Car that will be entered in the Art Car Parade

Timeline: about 2 thousand dollars

Client: My High Schools Art Department

The journey to Art Car parade

            The school art departments had recently been given money to be used primarily for supplies and to participate in the Houston Area Art car Parade. This parade sees cars from around the country come down for a week to show of unique and zany designs. The school had recently decided to participate because other local area schools were making appearances in the parade with their own designs, and we felt it necessary to represent ours.

Was the Journey Planned well?

Were there plans approved?

            Yes, it was approved, and we were only tasked with the design and the look of the car, nothing dealing with approval matters.

Did you meet your milestones?

       

     We were given a month time frame from the announcement, to the time spent including weekends dedicated to working with the car. The only real concern was the deadline, making it to the parade so we knew we had to have the car completed by the day before.

What were your resources?

            The student class was the seniors. This was something they could do which would look good on their resume participating in community events. We had the well-worn out and used Toyota Camry which I believe was from the year 1985. Additional resources were all of the supplies we had in the Art Department.

What unexpected events happened?

            A few arguments or decisions on which direction we should go with on the theme of the car. Some wanted an overall theme, and others wanted it to be wild and all over the place.

How many issues impacted?

What worked and what didn’t

     

       Well most students were reluctant to give up their nice shiny cars to be painted or desecrated in an artistic manner. There were not any real cars that could be treated in such a manner.  It took some time before one student who owned a beat up Toyota decided to loan us his car. That was a primary issue in the beginning, but carefully respecting and honoring the student’s wishes not to destroy their car for a parade was taken into consideration. The overall look of the car was unique and helped us to win a trophy for something I can’t remember what.