Summary ->
Contribution and Achievements
As a
project manager I think I did my job well. I kept the team working and scheduled
meetings. Regarding the tasks I had to complete as part of the team there was a
few where I was absent and couldn’t do my part but I had a good excuse, from
that point on I’ve done my fair share of work and a little bit on top of that. I
worked on every single documentation accept D4, I organized the github and kept
it organized, I reviewed every document and work done by every member from the
team. As a project manager I monitored every team members work and separated
the task between team members.
Problems Encountered
Attendance and Contribution of team Members
There were many problems regarding attendance and contribution efforts. Some team members were very often absent from team meetings, others were present but did nearly nothing to contribute to the discussion. As a project manager I understand that some members of the team may have problems regarding meeting times and way of communication and on that regard I’ve tried to ease the process. Some members didn’t do their fair share of work on the project and the others had to work all nights before submitting so that we can cover every point of the different documents.
As the attendance was bad, so was the result of some of the team members tasks, which had to be reviewed before submitting.
Attendance and Contribution of team Members
There were many problems regarding attendance and contribution efforts. Some team members were very often absent from team meetings, others were present but did nearly nothing to contribute to the discussion. As a project manager I understand that some members of the team may have problems regarding meeting times and way of communication and on that regard I’ve tried to ease the process. Some members didn’t do their fair share of work on the project and the others had to work all nights before submitting so that we can cover every point of the different documents.
As the attendance was bad, so was the result of some of the team members tasks, which had to be reviewed before submitting.
Version
Control
There weren’t any major problems regarding the version control system, but there were many occurrences of the same mistake, almost every team member messed up the version control because of bad pushing before committing or pushing before pulling. It was a common thing to try to fix everything a few hours before submitting, because someone made a bad push.
Learning
Management
From the beginning there were clear ways of how the whole project was going to be managed and ways to communicate. The ways we arranged meeting and posted new information was clear – using Facebook for a message board was a very easy and familiar and used very often, the problem came from using GITHUB, almost no members of the team posted updates on the issues there and updated things on the GITHUB, which was the our tool of choice. As person who has never managed a GITHUB project with its milestones and wiki I understand why the team never kept in track, but it was a useful tool which could have helped us manage our time better. Regarding the tasks that were distributed between the members GITHUB helped a lot thanks to the issues and the main README which was updated daily.
Source/Version Control
Overall every team member had used version control at least once before the beginning of the project, so everyone was familiar with what to do and how to do it, but it was a very good too see the problems that may arise when many people are working on a single repository. Every now and again there were problems that needed fixing, or bad updates on the source material.
Requirements gathering
There weren’t any major problems regarding the version control system, but there were many occurrences of the same mistake, almost every team member messed up the version control because of bad pushing before committing or pushing before pulling. It was a common thing to try to fix everything a few hours before submitting, because someone made a bad push.
Learning
Management
From the beginning there were clear ways of how the whole project was going to be managed and ways to communicate. The ways we arranged meeting and posted new information was clear – using Facebook for a message board was a very easy and familiar and used very often, the problem came from using GITHUB, almost no members of the team posted updates on the issues there and updated things on the GITHUB, which was the our tool of choice. As person who has never managed a GITHUB project with its milestones and wiki I understand why the team never kept in track, but it was a useful tool which could have helped us manage our time better. Regarding the tasks that were distributed between the members GITHUB helped a lot thanks to the issues and the main README which was updated daily.
Source/Version Control
Overall every team member had used version control at least once before the beginning of the project, so everyone was familiar with what to do and how to do it, but it was a very good too see the problems that may arise when many people are working on a single repository. Every now and again there were problems that needed fixing, or bad updates on the source material.
Requirements gathering
Gathering the requirements proved to be the hardest part in
the project. The team faced many problems on that regard: asking wrong
questions, bad interviews, bad communication with other teams, bad communication
between team members etc. There were many times where the team worked on a
thing that never existed in the idea of the project, and times where things
were missed.
It was inevitable that misinterpretations were made, but the requirements gathered by the team were not full and not in a single point of the development of the project the team felt sure that knew what exactly was in the project. When the final version of the documentation was submitted there were many major changes made, which only proves that gathering the requirements was not perfected. Overall in the final version the team felt sure in what they knew , but his should have happened earlier.
Validation of the requirements
The team had options to validate certain parts of the project many times, but never did fully use those options. The team learned a lot regarding how to proceed with information gathering and validation throughout the whole project.
Working in group
It was inevitable that misinterpretations were made, but the requirements gathered by the team were not full and not in a single point of the development of the project the team felt sure that knew what exactly was in the project. When the final version of the documentation was submitted there were many major changes made, which only proves that gathering the requirements was not perfected. Overall in the final version the team felt sure in what they knew , but his should have happened earlier.
Validation of the requirements
The team had options to validate certain parts of the project many times, but never did fully use those options. The team learned a lot regarding how to proceed with information gathering and validation throughout the whole project.
Working in group
Leadership
As a project manager of the team, my job was to take the lead, and that proved harder than I had imagined. There are many problems regarding the personalities of each individual member. Sometimes I didn’t do my job correctly and probably that was the reason there were certain setbacks. I think that I succeeded in making the team trust my decisions and I respected every decision made by the different members.
Deadlines
The main problem the team had was the deadlines. The team never managed to gather and work on the documentation and the project at least a week earlier before the deadline. Each time there were members missing and things that were supposed to be done left undone. Every time we had to submit a document I had to stay up all night to work with a few team mates that were willing to do work in the middle of the night. I tried to manage the work in time but that proved to be a bad idea. The decision to separate the work in smaller more manageable tasks proved to work well with the team and eventually helped a lot in finishing on time.
Communication
Communication with most of the team members was not an issue overall. Often there were people not answering questions, or ignoring reminders regarding things they need to do, but overall people responded to the means of communications chosen.
As a project manager of the team, my job was to take the lead, and that proved harder than I had imagined. There are many problems regarding the personalities of each individual member. Sometimes I didn’t do my job correctly and probably that was the reason there were certain setbacks. I think that I succeeded in making the team trust my decisions and I respected every decision made by the different members.
Deadlines
The main problem the team had was the deadlines. The team never managed to gather and work on the documentation and the project at least a week earlier before the deadline. Each time there were members missing and things that were supposed to be done left undone. Every time we had to submit a document I had to stay up all night to work with a few team mates that were willing to do work in the middle of the night. I tried to manage the work in time but that proved to be a bad idea. The decision to separate the work in smaller more manageable tasks proved to work well with the team and eventually helped a lot in finishing on time.
Communication
Communication with most of the team members was not an issue overall. Often there were people not answering questions, or ignoring reminders regarding things they need to do, but overall people responded to the means of communications chosen.
