CS632 Project Planning Blog - Section 07 - Group B

Final Report Video

2006-06-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

A final report compiled by Rachel Alt-Simmons and Charles Mendoza. The team submitted their reports to Rachel and she composed the script. Charles then spliced and diced their voices into the following report.

To view Video please visit here:

Team Status 06/05/06

2006-06-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

STATUS UPDATE

• Project Management Component

Week 1 Deliverable:
Charles: Will begin the MS Project effort. Each team member will submit their high level activities to him so that the WBS can be created. (Charles, you might want to make stuff up as a placeholder until we start getting real activities.) Also begin risk management / identification.
Rachel: Will continue to facilitate weekly meetings.
Jane: Creation of team contract.

Status 6/5/06:
- Jane has put together the team contract which looks great - we can officially sign off on the document at our meeting tomorrow (the only thing I would chance is that I want to get an "A"!!!)
- I will have a preliminary risk document by tomorrow that we can add to
- Charles has put together the initial WBS for the project - we need to fill in the specifics for the actual database and web page - if you're working on the database or research archive, please document your activities so Charles can add them in

• Registrant Database Component

Week 1 Deliverable:
Steve: will research and submit a plan for the registrant database; identify tasks and submit to Charles. If there are opportunities to distribute work on this component to other team members, it should be identified at this time.
Rachel: will research PayPal.

Status 6/5/06:
- Steve has delivered a status report - good progress has been made - Steve, for tomorrow, is there anything specific you need from us?

- PayPal generates the html needed to put the PayPal shopping cart in your website. There is a cost for the transaction of 2.9% + $0.30 - so (in our budget) we might want to take into account the potential hit on registration fees (or BU could raise the fee slightly to cover the transaction cost). I actually set up my own business account if we need to use it (I don't object to anyone sending me money...). Attached is the html that creates the "shopping cart" buttons - additional buttons and other stuff can be created if you want to get fancy:

• Research Archive Component

Week 1 Deliverable:
Ali: Will research and submit a plan for the research archive including the investigation where the site will be hosted.
Jane: Will research the "front end" components of both projects, including software that could be used and identifying the appropriate look and feel of the site.

Status 6/5/06:
- Ali has submitted the scope for the research page, which I believe is currently being discussed via e-mail
- Jane has submitted research for the site graphics, which is also being discussed via e-mail
- I forwarded an e-mail from Professor Kanabar's site, which I believe discusses hosting - we should get this cleared up tomorrow

Team Meeting Minutes 6/6/06

2006-06-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Notes:
* The team was comfortable with the team contract. The document will stand as is. Team voted to copy all team members on project e-mails.
* The blog is back up - I will be posting the minutes and status reports to the blog as well as e-mail.

WEEK 2 of PROJECT: UPDATE

• Project Management Component

* Team contract complete.
* Risk assessment matrix - team voted to let Rachel complete the document and submit to the team for approval (this will be sent out by Saturday, June 10th at the latest)
* Initial WBS is done - individuals working on registrant and abstract site need to submit their tasks to Charles.
* Charles will work on our budget - if there is an estimate for the hours you are spending per week, please submit (this will not be used to critique the effort that each of us are expending)

• Registrant Database Component

* Steve is creating the registration form with fields based on project scope. The insert is done using a stored procedure on a local SQL Server database.
* PayPal button code provided in the status notes for week 1.
??? If a registrant makes a PayPal payment, is there any way to change the status to PAID? Or is registrant checking status completely out of scope?
* Outstanding issues:
- hosting (should be resolved today or tomorrow?)
- template (the vote was for template 2)
- database reporting functionality

• Research Archive Component

* Jane submitted templates to team - team selected template 2 (see additional notes below)
* Ali submitted sample fields for archive - we need to scope site functionality (is it searchable, organization, etc.) - still waiting for hosting
* Steve, Ali and Rachel will conference call on Thursday to go over outstanding issues

Communication Plan and Checkpoints

* As you all know, discussion is a portion of our overall class grade outside of the project. However, there have not been many discussion forums in WebCT. I will submit a note to Loran to let him know of the level of involvement and discussion our team has been having.
* VERY IMPORTANT: We need to let our "project sponsor" in on our project and approve our design. My thoughts are to put together a short annotated PowerPoint presentation, going over our solution and template. I'm happy to put this together - I just need to understand the work flow - let me know what you think. I would like to hand this in this weekend.

Rachel

Team Meeting Minutes 5/31/06

2006-06-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Review of Project Scope and Deliverables

Notes: The team was comfortable with the combined project scope document. Several items placed out of scope may be reviewed and re-scoped as the project progresses. The team scope document was e-mailed to the team and Loran at 9pm on 5/30/06.

Assignment of Roles: WEEK 1 of PROJECT

• Project Management Component

Roles:
Rachel and Charles will manage the overall project management component with input from team members. We will be putting together the core documentation that the team will be adding to as the project progresses.

Week 1 Deliverable:
Charles: Will begin the MS Project effort. Each team member will submit their high level activities to him so that the WBS can be created. (Charles, you might want to make stuff up as a placeholder until we start getting real activities.) Also begin risk management / identification.
Rachel: Will continue to facilitate weekly meetings.
Jane: Creation of team contract.

• Registrant Database Component

Roles:
Steve is the only person on the team with database expertise - he will be the team lead on this component.

Week 1 Deliverable:
Steve: will research and submit a plan for the registrant database; identify tasks and submit to Charles. If there are opportunities to distribute work on this component to other team members, it should be identified at this time.
Rachel: will research PayPal.

• Research Archive Component

Roles: TBD

Week 1 Deliverable:
Ali: Will research and submit a plan for the research archive including the investigation where the site will be hosted.
Jane: Will research the "front end" components of both projects, including software that could be used and identifying the appropriate look and feel of the site.

Communication Plan and Checkpoints

The team has agreed that e-mail OUTSIDE of WebCT is preferable. To keep things organized, the team should submit everything to me with a cc: to Charles - we will serve as the "information clearing-house" for the team, combining the content and sending back out to the group for approval. I am going to give everyone admin rights on the blog so you'll be able to edit the content of the entire team's postings. This will be helpful when if any of us need to submit initial content to the team for review and edit.

Please have as much as your week's deliverables completed by Monday.
If the deadlines aren't realistic or the baby arrives or the bride-to-be freaks out ; ) let us know as soon as possible so we can help.

AND...keep in mind...for the final report - as you're putting together the deliverables, write down all the "If I was really doing this as a project, here's how I would have done it if you gave me the time and money" stuff. If you want to throw e-mails at me when you think of these things, I'll archive them.

Let's GO!!

Scope Questions from Ind. Docs.

2006-05-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

The internet registration site will allow authorized users to download registration forms they can use to inform the Conference Committee that they will be attending, the number of guests accompanying them and each guest’s dinner choice. These files will be in Microsoft Word or in PDF format, as appropriate.

Users will be encouraged to fill out forms with their personal information, as well as all additional guest information. The Webmaster will forward the forms to the Conference Committee for review and then convert the information to the conference guest database.

Articles posted on the conference site will have a sample conference schedule and dinner menu. The preferred format for articles will be PDF. The project manager may approve other formats.

Rachel’s Note: I would say that these are out of scope items – the project requirements are for web-based only.

The conference registration site must provide several levels of security. All internal employees will have access to the entire site when they enter their security information to access the main server. Part of the site will be available to the public from the corporate Web site. Other portions of the site will be available to current clients based on verification with the current client database.

Other portions of the site will be available to enter a payment for the conference using pre-authorized payment methods.

Rachel’s Note: I agree that security is key, but our team may not have the expertise to implement.

The Project Management site will allow authorized users to download podcasts and videocasts on IT Project Management. An authorized user can also download IT project Management documents that are written by students. These files will be in PDF or podcast format, as appropriate.

Rachel’s Note: Do we want to go there with authentication?

Registrant will be able to securely login to the site and fill out the registration form to register for the conference.

Rachel’s Note: If were not asking for credit card information – does it have to be secure?

Students can post articles and podcasts on the Website. The preferred format for articles will be PDF.

Rachel’s Note: Can any student publish or should this right only be granted to administrators?

Registration link

2006-05-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Steve,
I was able to view the link. Are you using IE or firefox? I had trouble getting there with firefox.

Ali

No luck viewing the site referenced for functionality

2006-05-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

I was unable to review the URL http://crcs.deas.harvard.edu/workshop/2006/registration.php.

Has anyone had any luck with this or is it just me? I was just curious what find of features we are considering.

Steve

Recommended Outline for Project Plan

2006-05-28T10:54:00.001-07:00

Table of Contents

PROJECT SUMMARY

Project Description

Business Case

Alignment with Organizational Goals and Strategies

Project Benefits

Dependency on Other Projects

Overall Priority of the Project

STAKEHOLDERS

Project Stakeholders

Objectives and Stakeholder Vision

Current Process

Future Process

Business Objectives

ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS SUMMARY

PROJECT SCOPE

Items Within Project Scope

Compliance Scope

Items Outside Project Scope

High Level Requirements

Key Deliverables

Project Success Criteria

Quality Objectives

DELIVERABLE REVIEW AND APPROVAL PROCESS

HIGH LEVEL PROJECT PLAN

Work Breakdown Structure

Schedule

Milestones

HIGH LEVEL COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

HIGH LEVEL CHANGE/SCOPE MANAGEMENT PLAN

PROJECT CONSTRAINTS

Cost Budget

Top-Down Estimate

Bottom-Up Estimate

Resource Availability

Technology Constraints

Risk Assessment

Critical Success Factors

Potential Problems

Risk Assessment Scenario

SOLUTION BLUEPRINT

System Architecture

Environments

Data Architecture

Datamart Requirements

Solution Technical Specifications

Hardware Requirements

Network Configuration Diagram

CONFIGURATION SPECIFICATIONS

USER INTERFACE CONFIGURATION

RECOMMENDATIONS/LESSONS LEARNED

REFERENCES

How to podcast...

2006-05-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a site that gives the steps for podcasting:

http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a_5.htm

and here are some extracts from the article:

A Podcast is:
1. An audio file you create in .mp3 format...
2. Which contains your own radio show or any audio you wish others to have...
3. That you upload along with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file to a server (your website for instance)...
4. That your intended listeners download using one of several programs that have been created to retrieve your audio file automatically...
5. So they can listen to it at their convenience on their own iPod or .mp3 player.

In order to podcast you will need to learn a few skills in this order:
1. How to record your audio and save it to an .mp3 file.
2. How to create an RSS file which holds the “directions” for sending your file when a user’s program like iPodder requests it
3. How to write the “directions” that are inside the RSS file
4. How to upload the RSS “feed” and your .mp3 file
5. How to validate that the file is written correctly and will send the file correctly.

Many podcasters naturally are choosing a program called Audacity for many reasons:
1. It has an easy learning curve.
2. It has advanced features for those who want them.
3. It is free.
Download Audacity here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Creating Your RSS Feed FileAn RSS feed is actually a text file with the extension .rss . You can name it anything you like as long as it ends with .rss . As an example, we’ll call the one we’re going to create MyPodcast.rss. Now, inside the RSS file are several directions created in what is called Extensible Markup Language or XML. It’s similar to HyperText Markup Language or HTML.

An RSS file must reside on a server. If you have your own website, you already have a server holding your website. Use that server! You upload your RSS file along with the mp3s for your podcast using either an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program or possibly a webpage-based upload feature if you built your website using one of the many software interfaces many hosting companies now provide. Either way, upload them to your website.

By the way: CoffeeCup Software offers a very easy and free FTP program called CoffeeCup Free FTP.

Let's get started!

2006-05-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone -

Just wanted to get a head start. Here's a summary of our current technical skill-set (this doesn't mean we can't learn new ones!).

Jane: Dreamweaver, Oracle, MS Access, Visio, Project
Charles: HTML, Dreamweaver, Oracle, MS Access, Project - can also create dynamic webpages with INSERT/DELETE query transactions
Ali: basic HTML and scripting, Oracle, SQL and Project - strength: network and system architecture
Steve: HTML, Ultra Edit, SQL Server, Project
Rachel: SAS, SQL, datamining/analytics, strategic management

At this point, I am working under the assumption that I am the project manager - since project management is 40% of our entire grade, PM responsibilities will have to be delegated to team members. It looks like Charles and Steve are good candidates for the redesign of the registrant site. Jane and Ali sound like they have enough expertise to work on the abstract site.

Looks like none of us have podcasted. Seeing as how I have three iPods, I'll do some research on setting up a podcast and send that out to the team.

I'm also linking all of our individual blogs to this blog.

R