Stephen A Consello

Week of 9/22

This past week my team has made progress on accomplishments towards our overall goal. Being in the beginning stages of the project, the PM group and I have been developing drafts of the different management plans to keep our BA group on task, and at the same time relieve any obstacles they may have. Personally, I created both the change management plan and the  change management process. The change management process allows the PMs to gauge any changes of scope made by the BAs and advise the BAs whether or not the change is a step in the right direction or appropriate for the project. As for issues, we are having a lot of them, however, we are alleviating those issues as we get to know our BAs better. Our BA group is very diverse; they all commute from different neighborhoods in Philadelphia and they each have different schedules. Trying to meet up with our BAs proved to be a problem in the beginning of the project, but now we have regular meetings every Friday evening at 4:00 PM. After each meeting, the PM group sends an overall summary of the meeting to keep anyone who was not able to attend the meeting up to date. I think that the biggest struggle when being a PM, is knowing not only how to manage your team, but knowing how to manage yourself.

All-in-all the project is still in the green!

 

Week of 9/29

This week for the project team was a slow week. The BAs were studying for their test #1 and project work for them came to a stop. Since the BAs were busy with the midterm, the PMs took it upon themselves to plan out deliverables farther in advance in conjunction with the BA 3504 syllabus. After we created the project plan, we reviewed it with our BAs to get their sign-off. They approved the project plan and started delegating out different tasks in conjunction with the project plan. For next week, we plan to have a draft of the data schema complete along with a very rough demonstration of how the data master works in JustInMind.

Week of 10/6

This week, the team had our 3rd and final interview, and I know that this helped us out greatly. The group now has a set vision for the project, however, we are know that we are not in that stage and must press on with our research of the company. The team has been have having meetings consistently every Friday and they have been working out very well for us. Having team meeting on Fridays allow the PMs to gauge what the BAs have accomplished in the past week and at the same time establish goals and objectives for the next week. The team spends the majority of the Friday meetings clarifying any misconception or questions the BAs may have in regards to the project. I think the BAs attentiveness at these meetings have proven that the PM effort is valuable and they are all fully on-board with the project.  The PMs have also been stressing the importance of building their JustInMind skill set early in on the project so they are fully able to build whatever solution they think of when the time comes.

All-in-all, the team is setting the foundations up for a successful project. When the time comes to start building out a final product our team will definitely succeed.

Week of 10/13/2014

This week, the group spent a lot of time preparing for the next phase of the project; idea design. Our BAs have spent the last month and a half gathering as much information as they could about Somerville Lumber, and now, after seeding out the information and data that is important, we will begin creating possible ideas to implement into the final prototype. Event though we are in this stage of the project, the PMs have stressed to the BA group the importance of idea creation, arguing that each and every idea matters. From the project teams last semester, some of the group’s ideas in the beginning were daring, however they same how made it intot the final deliverable and the ideas worked. The PM and BAs have created a team that allows the group to share ideas, collaborate, and improve upon each other’s work in a positive environment.

All-in-all, the project is very much in the green and I look forward to what our BAs come up with.

Week of 10/20/2014

Now that the BAs  have completed their prototyping extra credit assignments, it’s time to get our hands dirty building the prototype. This week focused on assigning the BAs different roles for the prototyping phase of the project, and we have identified which BAs are interested in being the prototype lead for the project. In the weeks to come, the PMs plan on guide the BAs throughout the prototyping process and revamp our reporting method. Currently, all of our reporting has been done outside of MS project, so we will spend a lot of time migrating everything from an excel document to MS project.

Week of 11/3/20

This week, our project took a turn for the better. As the team finds out more information about Sumerville, the more we are able to create an innovative product. Professor Flanagan opened up a new door to us and we have created a new prototype that we think is a change for the better. The PMs were really able to get a value out of the change management document we created, as it made it extremely easy for us to update all the necessary documents.

Week of 11/10/14

This week, the project team spent a lot of time working with our new vision of the prototype. We have made a lot of progress in setting up the skeleton of the prototype and how it will function. We have identified several use cases for the site that we plan on using as a part of the presentation. As the deadline to the project grows near, we are going to begin finishing up our prototype by adding an attractive user interface, finalize our scope document, and complete the project presentation.

 

All-in-all, the project is in the green.

From the very beginning of my freshman year, I was actively involved in one of the top ranked MIS Student Professional Organization, Association of Information Systems.  AIS allowed me to embrace my true talent and develop key business aspects.  Below are all of my projects and experiences I have forgone with AIS. Beta Alpha Psi Website […]