CST300: Module 2 (Week 2)

Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy

    Our reading on learning strategies covered practices that I believe most student’s are aware of but explored them in more depth than most of us would consider on our own.  Upon reflection, I realize that I am good at a few items and there are other points that I definitely need to work on.  For example, I am good at revising my schedule because this has been a necessity. My job sometimes requires that I work extra hours at odd times, I have aging parents that sometimes unexpectedly need my help, and of course many times I take longer to complete an assignment than I would have hoped. I am also good at choosing study locations. I have a dedicated space at home for studying with an adjustable standup desk and natural light. I also make it a point to scout places to study away from home.  Like libraries or coffee shops when I want a change of scenery.  Lastly, over time I have become good at taking and keeping notes.  They are a useful reference.

    As far as areas where I need work, I need to get better at keeping a stable/consistent schedule.  I struggle with this but I continue to work on it since in the past, I always functioned better when my schedule was predictable.  Productivity/Being productive is also a challenge for me.  I have a diagnosed case of ADHD and mild OCD.  It sometimes makes it very difficult to get things done.  Lastly, the aforementioned diagnoses make taking exams a monumental task.  Even when I know the material.  It takes a lot of planning, preparation, and practice to do well.

Part 2: Preview Time Management Skills

See below.

Part 3: Project Management Basics

    The video defines a project as a temporary initiative that is agreed on, planned, and executed to achieve a specific goal.  The presentation covered the key inter-related attributes of a project: scope, time, and cost. It also noted unique qualities of projects. For example, a project must be connected to a business strategy and must necessarily have some degree of complexity. The video also discusses project triggers like customer requests, technological advancement, environment/social/legal needs, etc.  An organization needs to be able to prioritize projects and ideally employs project managers (PM) to manage said projects.  The PM manages resources and timeline expectations.  They are accountable for keeping the project on track.  The video touched on modern organizations that are devoted to maintaining shared standards/guidelines for project management.

    The video spells out that program management refers to management of multiple projects that have some similarities.  E.g. similar resources or similar goals.  It also discusses how project portfolio management refers to managing all projects and programs from a higher level.  Say, from the perspective of an entire organization.  I was not aware of the hierarchy and relationship between projects, programs, and portfolios before I watched this video.  It was very educational.

    The other videos were also helpful in loosely defining 1) the work breakdown structure (WBS) of projects and 2) how Gantt charts are used. I can see how the WBS can prove very useful for setting goals and milestones associated with a team's efforts. I.e. What are the outputs for a task or subtask and how do they fit into the larger project. I have seen Gantt charts before and the presenter's breakdown was clear and easy to understand. You can see how they would be useful in conveying a project’s timeline and tasks to project the stakeholders. It can also be useful for assessing the health of a project. Is the schedule slipping? Do resources need to be reassessed?

Part 4: Check Out Previous Capstones

Identifying Brain Tumors Using Computer Vision

    This project’s goal was to improve an existing computer vision model that is used to identify tumors. This was an excellent project and presentation.  It is difficult to work on a challenging problem for the capstone project since we have limited time and resources. In the spirit of collaboration, Robin overcame this by contributing to an existing model rather than building from the ground up. She explained the image encode-decode and pattern detection process in such a way that a layperson could understand it. She spoke clearly, described the challenges she faced, and described the positive results of her work. She noted the tools that she used and quantified the model’s improved performance. As she noted and demonstrated, not only did she improve the model but she also learned a lot.  The only thing that comes to mind as a point of improvement would be to go further in calling out the problem being solved.  This might be done including statistics surrounding misdiagnoses with current methods or benefits of reduced dependency on manpower.

DriveDiary

    DriveDiary is a way for vehicle owners to stay on top of vehicle maintenance.  I like that they chose a highly relatable and easy to understand problem.  Most households in the U.S. own at least one vehicle so this is something that most of us have to manage.  This app includes features to help track vehicle related expenses, maintain a vehicle in safe operating condition, and set up reminders so that owners don’t need to think about upcoming to-do items.  I like that they clearly spelled out the technologies that they use for the application.  They state and list them plainly which is good for those who are familiar with these web technologies and for those who would want to have a point of reference to look into them.  The on screen use case walk through was also excellent.  It was much better than it would have been had they merely explained the primary use case without the accompanying visual.  At the end of the presentation, they mentioned the project’s current limitations and future plans for improvements.  This was a good way to wrap things up.  There is precious little for me to recommend as points of improvement for this presentation.  They did an excellent job.

US Naval Research Laboratory

    This project’s goal was to improve the way security vulnerabilities in software are understood and communicated/reported.  Particularly, for non-technical stakeholders.  They clearly state that the benefit of improvements like this is to allow for better decision making and improved security.  The team also clearly spelled out the existing tools they used and the challenges they faced.  Namely, that the solution’s output, the report, needs to be easy for the recipient to understand and interpret.  The team did an excellent job using standard raw data reporting formats as input and generating a report that is intuitively sorted and easy to understand.  I can easily see the use of such a tool.  The only possible suggestion I could make is to also generate a report formatted for the web.  One where you could further filter the output of the report, collapse sections, and possibly color code the report for easier reading.

Part 5: Summarize Your Week on Your Learning Journal

This week I learned a lot about all of the parts listed above but my biggest takeaways were from the industry analysis essay peer-review, the program management videos, and the reading on teams.

    When doing the peer review, I was surprised by how long it took. I wanted to do a good job and my OCD wouldn’t allow me to just skim the essays.  I carefully read my teammates’ essays in their entirety and did the best that I could to provide quality feedback.  This was particularly challenging since one of my teammates whose essay I was reviewing is not a native English speaker. I had to remind myself of this to avoid getting frustrated.  As the American-born son of immigrants, to some degree, I can understand my teammate’s situation.  I thought about how difficult it must be for him to work on assignments like this. The annotations, corrections, and suggestions took some time but it was a growth opportunity for me.  An exercise in empathy.

    I know that there are certifications and degrees devoted to program management but I know little about it.  Every product that I have ever worked on had program managers.  I appreciate the work that they do so it was good to know a little more about the details and the relationship between program, project, and portfolio management.  On a smaller scale, I think that some of the tools and processes that they use can also be useful for individual contributors to manage their own efforts.  I bookmarked the videos and plan to revisit them for my own personal growth.

    The reading on teams with examples from big tech companies in Silicon Valley was excellent.  I plan to revisit it when I am less busy.  The research outcomes demonstrating the value of a slightly outsized female representation, more open interactions on teams, and the value of equal participation are major takeaways and reminders.  I plan to carry the lessons with me going forward whether I am a team member or a team leader.