Mid Year Feedback

50% complete!  WOOHOO!!

Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, what have you learned so far?

I have enjoyed learning about different methodologies to elicit requirements and different methodologies of software development.  Being in the same company for so long, I tend to get stuck in whatever methodologies we are using at the given time.  The course has allowed me to learn about different methodologies.

Looking at the course objectives, which ones do you feel you have achieved, and which ones still look difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?

Achieved:

1. Identify where the requirements gathering process fits into the overall project lifecycle. 

2. Demonstrate the processes of discovering, eliciting and managing requirements. 

3. Evaluate the project manager’s role in requirements gathering. 

6. Evaluate the relationship between requirements gathering and project success. 

Still exploring:

4. Compare the process of defining requirements in various development methodologies, including agile development. 

5. Develop a set of best practices in gathering and managing requirements. 

How has the information you learned so far changed the way you approach projects or think about projects in your everyday life?

While it seems so simple, I have now started to think about my requirements in terms of Who, What, When, Why, Where and How.  While it is a basic journalism premise, when I read about it for eliciting requirements, it clicked with me.

Are there any topics that have been discussed that still seem unclear? What are your thoughts as you get ready to start the second half of the course

I do not have any topics that I am unclear about.  I am still a bit confused on our timelines and day to day schedule.  I am not sure if we are on a Mon - Sun rotation or a Wed - Tues rotation.  I am not sure  if this is the end of week 5 and I am a day late or if this is the beginning of week 5 and I am a day early.  I hope that is globally communicated soon.

As we begin completing the course, I anticipate that it will get a bit more difficult in the volume of work required.  We will be doing larger chunks of both our individual assignments and our group assignments.  I think that the course will require more time than it has in the first five weeks.

Stacy

Pre-Writing Modules

Use the pre-writing exercise to narrow down a topic for the term's graduate research project - identifying an area of project management to make basic recommendations for improvement.

Brainstorm of ideas -
5 process groups
1) Initiating
   *Project Charter
   *Preliminary project scope
2) Planning
   *Project plan
3) Executing
   *Project Deliverables
4) Monitoring and Controlling
   *Change control
   *Repair Defects
   *Approve final deliverables
5) Closing
   *Final output of projects

Groups I have experience in:
2) Planning
3) Executing
4) Monitoring and Controlling

Classes I have taken to gain experience:
Technical Proj. Mgmt.
Managing project risks
Defining and Managing requirements

Career activities I have experience in:
Gathering Requirements
Technical Design
Testing
Risk Management (all process groups)
Change controls

In gauging career and school experience, I would be best suited to recommend and document risk management best practices.  The topic is rather broad since it crosses all five process groups but it is critical in each group.  Coming fresh off of Managing project risks, I still have the texts and fresh knowledge to use.

This area is great to write about as it is so critical yet often overlooked.  I would like to have 1-2 best practices per process group in my final paper.  The audience would be the executives I am presenting to and it is important to them to gain some traction in their project execution.  If some key best practices were implemented, their likelihood of successful implementation would increase.

Defining and Managing Requirements - beginning of term

My final semester!!  I will be done - I will have my MBA.  I say that to impress my jubilance in taking this class.

Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, which course objectives look familiar to you already? 

Working in a project environment for 20 years, I am familiar with:

1. Identify where the requirements gathering process fits into the overall project lifecycle. 

2. Demonstrate the processes of discovering, eliciting and managing requirements. 

3. Evaluate the project manager’s role in requirements gathering. 

6. Evaluate the relationship between requirements gathering and project success. 

Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, which course objectives look either difficult or completely unfamiliar to you? 

I am familiar with #2 but I hope to learn more because I don't think you can ever have enough knowledge in eliciting requirements.  Objectives 4 & 5 will be a bit more challenging to me.

4. Compare the process of defining requirements in various development methodologies, including agile development. 

5. Develop a set of best practices in gathering and managing requirements. 

How do these courses fit into your career plans and dreams? Are the objectives crucial to your success, or will accomplishing the objectives simply be good general background information for you?

All of these are absolutely essential for my career.  While I don't have aspirations to be a project manager (though one can never tell where you will end up), working in a project environment, it is nice to be as familiar with all phases of the project lifecycle and best practices. While I work as a systems analyst, it is my responsibility to make sure our requirements are accurate and complete.  I need to make sure that they are then translated into design for our developers.  

What are your thoughts as you set out to accomplish these objectives?

I am excited to learn more about managing requirements and hope that at the end of the class, it will make a noticeable improvement in my job performance.  I especially enjoy reading about my peers' careers and their perspectives to further enable my learning.

Stacy