Journal Entries for MIS 3535
Week 1: September 26th
Our group is just starting to understand what will work for the BAs and what won’t. At this point, the BAs are finishing up with the first draft of the scope document. Next week they will be moving into Justinmind. What has worked for us so far is to open a constant line of communication. Besides the meetings we have had in person, we have stressed to the BAs that they can e-mail or text any of us whenever with any questions they have. I think our group has a slight advantage because my parents work for Somerville, so I have extensive knowledge about how the company operates. I am able to answer almost any question they may have about the company and I think that goes a long way when we are trying to gain their trust and show that we are here to make them successful. The one thing we need to work on as a group is to set some structure for the BAs and let them know that by doing certain things now they will be extremely successful at the end of the semester.
Week 2: October 3rd
Not too much happened this week due to the BAs having an exam in their class. They are just beginning to work in Justinmind, so over the next few weeks we will help them develop ideas and improve upon them. We have finalized our weekly meetings with the BAs. Additionally, some of us will meet with them on Sundays to answer any other questions that may have come up since the last meeting. We have established a good pace with the meetings and getting things done, so there is no reason why this project shouldn’t end in success.
Week 3: October 10th
The current issues with the BAs is that they are unsure of how they should proceed with the project. After the third interview this week, they still had unanswered questions about what Somerville Lumber actually wants. At this point, we advised them to meet with their professor to get some clarification and if that isn’t enough, I said that I would reach out to the company to get answers. They are just beginning to use Justinmind, but the issue of not knowing how to proceed is really prohibiting any progress on the project.
Week 4: October 17th
The BAs were able to meet with their professor over the course of this week, which helped to clarify some of the questions that they were having. At this point, they seem to be back on track and have a clear idea of what they want their project to look like. They continue to interact with us on the Friday and Sunday meetings, which shows that they do value us as a resource that can help them to succeed. On our end, we need to start pushing a bit more to get the deliverables, that we need to hand in, completed. Overall, the project is on a great path and we have no reason to believe that it won’t be successful.
Week 5: October 24th
At this point, the BAs are moving towards beginning the actual prototyping for the project. They have spent several weeks brainstorming and have come up with a lot of great ideas. Our meetings should now start to shift and become more specific as they have more questions about Justinmind. As the Project Managers, we are working on revising our budget and finalizing our schedule. The project still seems to be on track, under budget, and in perfect working order.
Week 6: October 31st
The BAs have started making progress on the prototyping for the project. While we usually have two meetings a week with them, per their request, we have trimmed it down to one since all they are doing is prototyping. They know that we are available to answer questions at any time, but they said that we don’t have to be there for the Sunday meetings until they get closer to finishing. We continue to have the Friday meetings, which are great to catch up and hear about the progress. We still believe that the project is in great shape.
Week 7: November 7th
At the meeting this Friday, we were expecting for the BAs to come with the first draft of their prototype, but they changed plans. Their professor suggested that they look into creating an e-commerce solution for Grand Rental Station rather than Somerville Lumber itself. We think that this will set them apart from most of the other groups. Additionally, they will be able to implement most of their ideas to Grand Rental, so they will not have to backtrack too much. I don’t think any of us were expecting for that to happen at the meeting, but it seems like this could shape up to be a great change.