MIS 3535 Weekly Journal Entries

Week 4: 2/4 – 2/9

            This week our group needed to bring in the risk management plan, communications plan, quality management plan and change management plan to class. We had some difficulty finding out how to construct all of these documents and didn’t have a great idea on what Professor Doyle was looking for before we went over these documents in class. We also spent time as a group trying to add corrections and changes to the problem statement, charter and WBS that we made last week. We have been meeting somewhat regularly with the BAs and we also started a group message so we can stay in touch and they can ask us any questions they may have.

Week 5: 2/11 – 2/16

            We met up with our BA’s this week in order to help them on their project scope and the prototyping in Justinmind. We were able to help them with both of those things and we also helped them get questions together for the interview they have coming up. We had the BA’s post their individual scope documents on the group Google Drive. All of them were able to complete it, but the group had trouble finding enough information for all three paragraphs. We advised them to ask questions in the upcoming interview that will help them fill out the scope more sufficiently.

 

Week 6 – 2/18 – 2/23

            Our group meeting this week went well even though all of them could not attend. It is difficult to find a time to get everybody in the group to meet and all of us have only been able to get together one time this semester so far. Even though it is hard to get everyone together, our group message through the app GroupMe has worked well in keeping everybody in touch. During our meeting this week, we helped the BA’s more with prototyping. We also helped them out with test material, by discussing what is on their next test and how they should go about studying for it.

 

Week 7 – 2/25 – 3/9

            This week wasn’t as productive as the previous weeks and I wasn’t able to make the group meeting because of a meeting I had to go to for a different class. However I did help the BA’s with their upcoming interview by suggesting some questions for them to ask. Unfortunately only one BA from our group, Dave, was able to make it to the interview. However Dave did do a great job asking questions and taking notes at the same time. I think the group got a lot of great information from all of these interviews and it should help them with the project greatly. After the interview, most of the group was in spring break mode and not much too much was done.

 

Week 8 – 3/11 – 3/16

            Our Business Analysts have been working on the project, but I think that our group last semester had more of the project done at this point. I have let them know that they need to start getting more of a move-on on the final prototype. Most of them are very concerned with their other classes so they have not had much time to work on the project. The coding class has been very difficult up to this point and I understand that a lot of their time has been caught up in that. However, a few of the BAs have been getting used to Justinmind by getting the extra credit done. The other project managers and I would like to see more of the prototype done at this point and we will get on them more to keep putting time in on the prototype that is now due in about 5 weeks.

 

Week 9 – 3/18 – 3/23

            Adam, Ed and I have been working to get our deliverables ready because we do not think that they are good enough yet. We still have to do work on our budget and RACI charts. I started a RACI chart last week, but we need to update with more information on who’s responsible for what parts of the project. I am also want to start meeting up with our group as a whole more often so we can help them with prototyping. Adam has done a good job helping them out with it because he is the most advanced user of Justinmind that he have in our group. I added more final deliverables from last semester to give the BAs a good example and something to go off of when they are getting ready for final drafts.

Week 10 – 3/25 – 3/30

            Most of our group’s time this week was spent preparing for our test. Besides that, our weekly meeting with BA’s went well and significant progress has been made on the prototype. Our two BA’s that have been put in charge of the prototype have been putting in a great deal of work trying to make everything work seamlessly. We told them that the app looked very good and considering how far we are in to the semester in seems to be ahead of schedule. The other project managers and I have also worked more on the budget and the critical path for our project. Our goal is to get our final deliverables binder together in the next week in order to ease the stress of putting it all together at the end of the semester.

 

Week 11 – 4/1 – 4/6

            Our BA’s still seem to be ahead of schedule and the other PM’s and I are very happy with their progress. There is still much work to be done on their part completing the prototype and working on their presentation that will have to be completed in a few weeks. This week I will be working on the Quality Management Plan as well as the Risk Management Plan. After we finish these, our final deliverables will be nearing completion. Ed has been working on the Project Charter and Adam has still been trying to perfect the budget. Besides that our project still seems to be on track and budget.

 

Week 12 – 4/8 – 4/13

            During our meeting this week, our BA’s showed us another edit of their project scope and the their prototype. The BA’s have done a great job with meeting up with professor Flannagan in order to make sure that they are doing everything correctly. The advice that they have got has apparently been very helpful because the prototype seems to be complete. Chris and Tom have been adding the finishing touches that will hopefully push their grade to a pass high. I am confident that our BA’s will receive a great grade as long as the rest of their presentation goes well. Our final deliverables are just about complete, we are also just putting on the finishing touches and deciding which documents should be incorporated in our final binder.

 

Week 13 – 4/15 – 4/20

            This week we made the final changes to our communication management plan and our change management plan. Our PM group is still trying to decide which documents should and should not be included in our final deliverables binder. We have done just about all of the deliverables that have been introduced to us in class, but we still need to make final decisions as to what we include. Our BA’s seem to be completely finished with their prototype and I think that it looks awesome. Chris has put in a tremendous amount of work on the prototype all semester long and all of that work should pay off. They have also began to put the finishing touches on their presentation. The group is using a prezi presentation along with their prototype to present the project and I think that both of them look very good.

Week 14 – 4/22 – 4/27

      Our BA group is presenting this Wednesday at 530. In our meeting this week, they showed us the final presentation. Their presentation looks very good. I like it because there are very little words and it is mostly filled with pictures, which they will explain. We advised them not to add too many words because reading off of the PowerPoint is never good and it resulted in a decrease in points in our presentation last semester. Our final deliverables are just about complete and we will review what we include in our final binder this week during class. Our entire group has been working diligently all semester and I hope that our final grades will reflect that.