GDO710 - Week 4: Time and Project Management
This week I am adjusting my CRJs to a new format. After reviewing the goals of the CRJ I have realized that I am not focusing enough on reflecting and have mostly been posting about what I have been doing. As a person that enjoys using a framework for their work, I am going to be using the Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. The Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle is one of the most famous models of reflection that will take me through six stages of exploring an experience (Gibbs' Reflective Cycle, 2021).
I believe this framework will help me better shape my reflections, learned experiences, and help me develop an action plan that can serve as a way for me to address these learnings in the future.
Description:
The focus of the module this week was on time management and the importance of building healthy systems to help achieve project and personal success. This was also the start of our first project, where our topic was announced, that we would be working on for the next three week sprint.
Feelings:
I was a bit nervous in the lead up to the project announcement. Most of the readings so far had to do with game design and while I can appreciate the parallels to user experience design, I was worried that the topic announced we be more games focused. I noticed some of my course mates also expressed these concerns, it was reassuring to know I wasn't alone in my feelings.
After the topic announcement I felt much better about the process and what we'd be working on. The abstractness of the topic provided a lot of opportunity to get creative with my project. I also appreciated the flexibility that the course provides, in that we could also work on news topic of our choice as well.
With the topic focus on time and project management this week, I felt positive about my learning. I have spent a lot of time over the years refining my project management framework as I have learned over the years that I am not an organized person by nature. I need frameworks to help me accomplish my goals.
Evaluation:
I think the brainstorming activity I did after the announcement went well. I took the card presented of a young child and dragon and developed a mindmap based on the concept. From that mindmap I was able to pull out 13 relevant ideas to explore in more detail. I don't think my approach to idea evaluation worked on this project. I wanted to develop a criteria for evaluating my ideas, a framework to help me refine them, but I ended up taking the top four that felt like the most interesting.
Additionally, I didn't setup a good project management system at the start of this week. I wanted to setup a Kanban board for this project, but I ended up not completing that.
Analysis:
Most of the issues I had this week were due to poor time management. Typically, I am a reasonable project manager, but this week I failed to implement any system of management for my project or tasks. This caused a delay in developing wireframe for my project and a delay in my Critical Reflection Journal.
After further research on possible frameworks and systems that could help me manage these projects going forward I believe a simple Kanban board will be best. The Kanban Board provides a visual system for analyzing progress, identifying backlogs, blockages and bottlenecks (Bass, 2016). As a visual processor, having a board where I can track progress across my academic projects will be key for completing my projects.
Moving forward I need to be more proactive at the start of the week to setup my tasks in the backlog of the Kanban board, attach references and assign myself due dates.
Conclusions:
I learned that even though I professionally use Agile methodology for my work, I also need to setup and manage my academic projects in a similar manner. Creative work still needs to be managed, to help cultivate ideas, and to dive focus on execution. By using a simple Kanban board, I can setup a process that helps me achieve academic success.
Action Plan:
On the next project sprint, I will start with a planning period to help fill up my project backlog. This will help me better understand all the taskers required throughout the sprint and help identify any potential bottlenecks or blockers. I will also plan a Monday morning review and writing period, that will help set the schedule for my academic week.
References:
The University of Edinburgh. 2021. Gibbs' Reflective Cycle. [online] Available at: [Accessed 24 October 2021].
Bass, J., 2016. Improving writing processes using lean and Kanban. Learned Publishing , 29(4), pp.307-310.