Status Report #1 Planning

Date: 28.05.2018

1. Status

• 1.1. The project plan (task groups, tasks and milestones) for this semester (that is, for the CMPE 352 part of the project) is nearly finished. Only thing missing is the names of the group members who worked on web mockups.

• 1.2. The second part of the project (tasks associated with the course CMPE 451) are not yet prepared and consists of only placeholder tasks. This is due to the nature of the course, which will be discussed in the following sections of the report.

• 1.3. Our project plan achieves to let the group members know which stage they should be in the project development process, what their deadlines are, what the dependencies among the tasks are and what the major milestones of the project are and which tasks they consist of.

• 1.4. It fails, however, to give the precise details on who which task was assigned to and if each task was completely finished or not. Reasons for this too will be discussed in the following sections.

• 1.5. The communication plan, on the other hand, reflects truly the communicating habits adopted by the group. It lists the channels of communication we used –among ourselves and with the Boss and the Customer throughout the semester.

2. Difficulties

This is a course which teaches the stages of software development, working as a team, systematic scheduling and distribution of tasks. This includes making a realistic and useful project plan. However, the fact that the course itself teaches us how to make a project plan, implies that the project plan we make will neither be realistic nor useful. Since we didn’t yet know which stages must be passed or what the dependencies between these stages are, the project plan we prepared didn’t correspond well to the homeworks and milestones given to us by the Boss. We tried to look at the project plans of the former years’ projects -which helped but since we weren’t aware of the meaning of the tasks and the milestones-, it didn’t mean much at the time. This is natural, inevitable.

This situation caused some difficulties during the semester.

• 2.1. It created the obligation to regularly check and correct the project plan. After each homework, we had to change the plan according to reality, that is, what we actually did that week. (We actually decided to do this every 2 or 3 weeks, which we sometimes neglected.) Second, this fact made the project plan feel like a burden rather than a guide on how we will develop our software. Thus, we started to work without a plan.

• 2.2. Also, while revising the plan, we had to remember who did what for each week. This is because we couldn’t achieve effective use of the worklog.

• 2.3. Another difficulty was the choice of tools for preparing the project plan. We started using Project Libre which was confusing, demanded that we decide on a daily working-hour for each member. We decided to use TeamGantt later on, but we had already prepared half the plan so we had to redo all the work.

3. Acquirements

• 3.1. It is obvious in first glance that a clear and precise project plan is key for a collaborative group work of big scope. But these difficulties have proven and shown in practice the importance of the project plan. Many of the difficulties, problems with deadlines or misunderstandings we faced throughout the semester could have been avoided by a rigorous and clear project plan that we actually follow. It makes clear who does what and when. The only possible misunderstanding left from the project plan is the details of the tasks, which should be discussed thoroughly during the meetings.

• 3.2. We have learned what the important aspects of a project plan are, what are the tools to use and how to use them.

4. Suggestions

• 4.1. Next year, we will be starting to develop the real thing, to write the code. Which –surely there will be differences but- is a process we are more familiar with than the tasks we worked with this semester. Thus, it may be easier to produce a more realistic plan and use it without modifying it every 3 weeks. Furthermore, because our job will demand even more collaboration and communication, the project plan will be essential to our process of development. Thus we must –even if the same difficulties persist- find a way to make it useful and we must follow it.

• 4.2. We make the assignments of tasks during the meetings. We either have to edit the project plan to include the information regarding which member does which task after each meeting, or we should use the worklog properly(using the worklog has other beneficial effects on the group too). Of course, doing both will be the best.

• 4.3. Regarding the communication plan, we noticed in the last meeting -where we revised and went over the whole semester- that the meetings we held on Google Hangouts were very productive, but we only did 3! We must use it more often –probably in a flexible, not mandatory fashion- because it makes us more productive and gives a chance to revise the work done mid-week.