Sunday, 3 June 2012

Evaluation of effectiveness of project plan... D2


Evaluation of effectiveness of project plan... D2

Monitoring:

Using a project plan gives a over view of what is required of the people which are involved in that particular project, this is great as they as they always know what to do when to complete it by and what their next task is. This as a project manager will give you the outline of what is going on within the team and give you a informed decisions of what is the next logical step in order to make the project successfull.

Microsoft Project:

This software was very effective of producing Gantt charts was very easy and straight forward, The Gantt chart told us what task to do next and the time period we have to complete it buy, this was very effective as the tasks had time periods they needed to be complete and by constantly referring to it we were able to stick to most deadlines. This was very effective as from the start we can all the tasks ahead and what needed to be done, this allowed us to think about the next task whiles concentrating on the first and what input this task will have in the next.

Initiation/Business case

This step was also very effectiveness as it gives the outline of what it should be achieved in this case what the website will and will not have, this was a very important step as it showed us what to have on the web site and what not to include in the designs.

 Meetings, Minuets/Agendas

At the beginning of each meeting there was minuets and agendas, some of them where just between the team yet others between everyone who was evolved in the project such as teams and clients. The minuets where very point directed as they decided exactly what was going to be discussed in the meeting, very effective as all points need to be hit in the meeting to have a successful meeting and find out vital information, such as whether everything is going as it should. The Agenda reflect on the Minuets and says what the outcome of the meeting is and what the next step is, this method tells all the team members exactly what to do and how to achieve it. This is a very good method of hitting all necessary items in order for the project plan to be successful.  This effectively allowed us to find out such things as what the client wants in their website, ways to keep the project in deadline conditions and ways of finishing the website.

Monitoring Team Members

At the start we said that we’ll communicate with a team throughout blogger and emails, this proofed harder than planed because although everyone checked their emails and blogs on regular it was very time consuming. Whereas Abdul had a phone which I can call Remy didn’t this meant some communicated messages between Abdul and I  never got through to him due to the fact it took too long to get a answer back. Where I would send him a email to him on a Friday afternoon to see how he’s doing with the coding aspect and finishing the website I will not get a message Saturday night time where if I want to help him with something Monday will come. With a phone the message get’s through much quicker, as I wanted to know if Abdul is finished a 2 min call will answer all my worries and solve the problem. Although communication through the computer didn’t slow down the communication too much it would of been better if it was done through a quicker method such as phone.

Tools and methodologies used in a project... D1


Tools and methodologies used in a project... D1

Microsoft Project...


Microsoft Project was used as the main source of where I draw my Gantt chart on, this enabled me to open it up add new tasks in tick off already completed ones and make adjustments to tasks which were running up a little bit late. This was also good as it gave us specific guide line when to complete each tasks by. Mile stones allowed key points and vital changes of projects points to be identified; from designing to coding is just one place this vital change point was occurring. This clear change in structure showed everyone how the project is about to differ from before.

Initiation:

We decided to make a project /website on the items of selling GPS hiking gear aimed at youth particular at the Duke of Edinburgh award. We made the idea (business case) come to life by giving a presentation to our client. Giving us specific time limits and deadline for when the project needs to be completed by and how many pages the website should include (15).  This was very important so each member of the team knows what they are doing and when it’s has to be completed by, because if don’t the project can fail.

Planning and Designing:

We started planning which pages should be done by who and how and what they should include in them, we gave each other time scales to match and when our own ways to create the wire frames and sitemaps for the website.

Create wire frames:

Used Paint and iPlotz both program can be used to create wireframes for a website. Both programs where fairly easy to work with, yet iPlotz because it was an online program it allowed me to edit the design from every computer with a internet access which makes the designing, easier to keep track of and most of all access. Paint is a program which is pre-installed on all PC’s, the images draw are saved as JPG or PNG file type formats which later they can still be edited.  iPlotz is a paid for service but does offer 5 designs where users can try it for free, in paint the user can make as many different pictures as she/he may want.  

Making Sitemap:

The site map shows how everything gets linked together between the website and from what page the person can go and cannot. This can be achieves by using Microsoft Visio, this program allows the lines to be drawn and pre installed images can be used. This is crucial if there is no layout of how the pages are going to be link there will be broken links.


Execution

Komodo edit is tool that enables the creation of websites this allowed us to type in the coding and then see what the actually website will look like on a Brower. Komodo edit has this tool build in its self allowing us to only work on the coding where we can see later what the coding will look like on a Browser without physically going on to programs such Internet Explorer (Browser). This tool proved to save time but also made it easier by not doing the extra work if the page was created on note pad, the preview buffer in browser button also enabled the page to be opened in a external browser which also proved to save time by not having to look for the file but open it with a click of a button. I used the latest Komodo edit 7, which has the function of predicting text, this meant that every time I wrote such things as <li> it will predict </li> straight after it giving me the ending, making it easier by not having to type it out but also making sure that the website will function correctly by making sure it’s W3C compliant. The coding also was underlined every time something was spelled wrong or there was just no need for it to be there, also helping to make the website W3C compliant. This program enables to view a number of documents rather than the conventional one allowing jumping between files to copy/paste or just view the source. This program also allows the user to open a different project folder yet still viewing the original project opened, this allowed me to copy my teams work in to the software which then I saved in order to make it into my own work. Automated space from left hand side allows each item to be viewed separated and also making it easier to read, this allowed the work to be viewed quicker as well as indentifying if any mistakes are made when coding. CSS coding was used for making everything look pretty and adjust the size, fonts and width between text, pictures and boxes.

Keeping track, Monitoring and Control

At the very begging we needed decide who is doing, this was done though a meeting to decide such factors, a agenda and minuets where used to track and say what the meeting took place about, what was decided and the action needed to be taken. Other meeting also took place to decide which design should be used for our final design and also a meeting with the clients. They were all done using this method of using agenda and minuets. This tool enabled us to find out exactly what the meeting was about and give us a chance to reflect on the project.

Blogger was a method that we used used for communication, this enables the team to post their progress on their blog enabling to understand whether they are on time with deadlines or just a method of telling the other team members of what they are up to. This is important as bad communication between team members can result to failing the project.

Monitoring what was happening with my team was a fairly hard task  as Remy only had a email address which I can only write to, as Abduls monitoring was done a little bit easier as he had a mobile phone which I can call to. When it comes to communication the telephone is the best way as I found out this way I always knew at what stage Abdul is, unlike Remy which took a bit of time to find out exactly what is going on.  

Closing

The presentation was done on time after few adjustments to my Gantt chart, the final presentation was shown and although few changes needed to occur the project was a successful one.

Project Control

The was monitored throughout the whole process, this was important as all the deadlines needed to be meant of project altered in order for the project to be a successes full. If they were not monitored deadlines will be missed the website will be incomplete and the project would of simply failed. 

Critical Path Analysis- M2


Critical Path Analysis


The very first critical path analysis diagrams where drawn during the 50’s Morgan R. Walker of DuPont and James E. Kelley the most important thing to know about this diagrams is that they always have  begging and an end to when they finish, they also include a time period of how long each task will take. In the business environment this is very important for the team manager so they can keep track of time and whether they have completed the task or not which is the most important perspective of the chart.

Benefits: this type of chart is great to use since it clearly states how long each task should take but because the chart works with estimations the time of when a task is started and ended can give flexibility to the project manager, in case of a technical failure approaches the team members. Expansion of the task can also be adjusted to the task all in order to up bring the teams end result of the task set. For example, to add an extra picture on the makings of a new webpage.

Drawbacks: Although this chart gives out a great number of detail to the project manager it’s takes a long time to produce meaning not all project leaders will be prospered to take their time to draw something in their time when they can be getting with something worth the while such as the task.

Tools used to create website... m1


Tools used to create website...           M1   

We used a number of different tools to create out website from designing it to actually physically making it.

Agenda and minuets

At the very begging we needed decide who is doing, this was done though a meeting to decide such factors, a agenda and minuets where used to track and say what the meeting took place about, what was decided and the action needed to be taken. Other meeting also took place to decide which design should be used for our final design and also a meeting with the clients. They were all done using this method of using agenda and minuets. This tool enabled us to find out exactly what the meeting was about and give us a chance to reflect on the project.

Create wire frames:

Used Paint and iPlotz both program can be used to create wireframes for a website. Both programs where fairly easy to work with, yet iPlotz because it was an online program it allowed me to edit the design from every computer with a internet access which makes the designing, easier to keep track of and most of all access. Paint is a program which is pre-installed on all PC’s, the images draw are saved as JPG or PNG file type formats which later they can still be edited.  iPlotz is a paid for service but does offer 5 designs where users can try it for free, in paint the user can make as many different pictures as she/he may want.  

Making Sitemap:

The site map shows how everything gets linked together between the website and from what page the person can go and cannot. This can be achieves by using Microsoft Visio, this program allows the lines to be drawn and pre installed images can be used. This is crucial if there is no layout of how the pages are going to be link there will be broken links.

Communication:

Blogger was a method that we used used for communication, this enables the team to post their progress on their blog enabling to understand whether they are on time with deadlines or just a method of telling the other team members of what they are up to. This is important as bad communication between team members can result to failing the project.

Making the site:

Komodo edit is tool that enables the creation of websites this allowed us to type in the coding and then see what the actually website will look like on a Brower. Komodo edit has this tool build in its self allowing us to only work on the coding where we can see later what the coding will look like on a Browser without physically going on to programs such Internet Explorer (Browser). This tool proved to save time but also made it easier by not doing the extra work if the page was created on note pad, the preview buffer in browser button also enabled the page to be opened in a external browser which also proved to save time by not having to look for the file but open it with a click of a button. I used the latest Komodo edit 7, which has the function of predicting text, this meant that every time I wrote such things as <li> it will predict </li> straight after it giving me the ending, making it easier by not having to type it out but also making sure that the website will function correctly by making sure it’s W3C compliant. The coding also was underlined every time something was spelled wrong or there was just no need for it to be there, also helping to make the website W3C compliant. This program enables to view a number of documents rather than the conventional one allowing jumping between files to copy/paste or just view the source. This program also allows the user to open a different project folder yet still viewing the original project opened, this allowed me to copy my teams work in to the software which then I saved in order to make it into my own work. Automated space from left hand side allows each item to be viewed separated and also making it easier to read, this allowed the work to be viewed quicker as well as indentifying if any mistakes are made when coding. CSS coding was used for making everything look pretty and adjust the size, fonts and width between text, pictures and boxes.
Some of the HTML and CSS coding used in the website.
Tags
Functions
li
Make a list
div
Make a box
table
Make a table
td
Button
&copy;
Make symbol - ©
padding :0px;
Around item space
width:0px;
Size of item
background-image:url(image/grass.jpg);
Background image
display: inline;
How the list should appear on screen, in this example inline rather than going down.
display: inline;
Where item should appear on screen on left or right.
background:green;
Colour of text Box
href:
A link





Description of HTML:
HTML is mark up language i used to write my website coding in. This allowed me to write text in the forms, therefore allowing loading/downloading the page quicker. HTML is highly supportive language in result to this is used all over the internet almost all websites. Hence why all browsers are capable and supportive for this language.

HTML has "tags". There are many different types of tags, which allow for various kinds of content. Different tags have different features and have different out puts. All tags require openings and must be closed for the purpose of marking the beginning and ending points of the content. Within these tags, the user can add different text and content. This allows users to easily structure and organize their web page. the tags look like this when gets opened"<" or this when it gets closed ">".
Description of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):

CSS coding is used to edit or change the appearance of a web page, by that images can be made smaller, text font be changed ect. The CCS style sheet must be linked to HTML document in order to work in order to change these features; they can be linked with a line of code:
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="XXXXXXX.css"> (XXXX=the name of the CSS document)

The following are examples of what CSS can be used for.
· Adding borders
· Applying colour
· Editing height/width of objects
· Editing text
· Adding/editing margins
· Padding


Presenting the website:

This was done through Microsoft Power point as it’s a presentation based program which enabled easy adjustments to text, pictures and drawing items.

Review project management p10


Review project management              P10


Successful and Unsuccessful process of project management:
There was a lot of deadline that we met which is good since that’s what the point of a project plan is. Starting at the beginning of the year with the decision making of who is doing what, then we had to design the wire frames and 5 page where set the deadline on the project a week of advanced of the deadline this way we can have more time to effectively criticise our work between each other. Yet however the people in my team took far too long to complete these tasks making the project plan to suffer a little bit by moving the deadline to the normal time it was meant to be completed by, instead as the project plan suggested a week in advanced, this way we have more time to evaluate the work.  Because I completed my work as the project plan suggested but my team member didn’t this meant and a decision was made to complete other projects will need to be done instead of the one actually needed. At that point exactly that was done while waiting for the work to be completed by my team members I was doing other work for other projects.
When the work was completed we choose both of my sitemap and wireframes designs to be our final designs. My team members work yet it was submitted late it was rushed due to not planning them self what was needed to be done when needed to be done.
The next stage was to make the wireframe designs in iPlotz and the site map in Microsoft Visio at that point everyone in the team including me done the task on time and within the project plan time limit, this was good as now we are starting to stick to the project plan a little bit better as the first time experience wasn’t that great.
After creating our final designs on our advanced software package we had to evaluate it, this was done also in time.
Final comparison between the wireframes was also done on time.
The training was the part that delayed us the most due to strike action taken from the college, this meant that all the dead line needed shifting backwards. There was nothing else to do but move the deadline backwards. As we were getting training and everything was going to plan, another set of delays occurred as coming from the Easter half term break there was no one to teach us due to the teacher having a doctor’s appointment.  This was the lessons where he needed to teach us how to do 2 and 3 column way out in order to create the website as planned. During that lesson the teacher was absent we started creating the top navigation bar as well as the footer.
After the training we go on with actually creating the website, the ideal was to do all the pages as quickly as possible, so we did.  We linked everything together and showed the presentation to our client. At that stage he said that impotents need to be made in order for the projects to be successful and meet all the requirements, we are now at the stage of where everything is adjusted in order to meet these points and complete the project.

Monitoring what was happening with my team was a fairly hard task  as Remy only had a email address which I can only write to, as Abduls monitoring was done a little bit easier as he had a mobile phone which I can call to. When it comes to communication the telephone is the best way as I found out this way I always knew at what stage Abdul is, unlike Remy which took a bit of time to find out exactly what is going on.