Task manager

Hey guys, we will follow Dekker's advice and use an online task manager, so please sign in and find about it.

The URL is:

www.rememberthemilk.com

Zun will post there the tasks so we can use it as a checklist.

C-ya!

By the way my username is chevechiva

Example of low fidelity prototype for us to use

 

I think the video demonstrates a great way to use a low cost demo to convey a concept clearly. We might wanna use this for our usability studies or even an intro/tute for the website.

Project plan Tamplet from UQ

Project plan tamplet

My twitter account is s4098980, I am following Zun now, but didnt find Juan's account.

Discussion with Ralf

We had a chat with Ralf about the possibility of a collaboration with the CareerHub staff. Basically what Ralf said was the software used for the service was controlled externally so modifications won't be possible.

The CareerHub were also at an expense for the time they would be donating for the group so it would be favorable if they would get some sort of return from us for their time. So they propose time set aside for their staff to be accessible to us including a look into their system and "behind the scenes" work, in return our documentation be available for them to create a form of training manual for the careerhub services.

So the idea is we get to interview the staff ani ask questions on operations of the webservice and in the process of course document features and taking screenshots, which we will then form as a training manual. And in that process we will also critique the site and add suggestions based on a usability study we will be performing on user requirements and this part will be as part of our main assignment.

Then we will build a working prototype of the proposed features that demonstrates our concept.

Kill 2 birds with one stone... At least that's my interpretation of it ^^

Today's discussion

Hi Jo, in today's class we had a better idea of what to do with the report, so we decided to follow the instructions or suggestions from dekker and as you asked you are going to do the 1+2+8 steps of the plan, Zun is going to do the 4+5+6 and of course I'll do the rest.



So, just to make ourselves clear, we need to be sure of what is going to be the final goal of the whole project, and of course you need to explain it in the most clearer way in the 1+2+8 steps.



So, here are some comments from Zun and me:



1) Be sure to explain that the final product is going to be a prototype of a better careerhub website.



2) Our client, of course, is the people responsible of careerhub.



3) Everything will be based on what users (students and people from UQ) want, so the final purpose is to make these people use careerhub based on our prototype. I mean, provide careerhub this study-prototype so they know what users want!



4) Explain who are going to be the users, in this case the demography comprises of students and staff from UQ since they are the only people who have access to careerhub.



5) Be clear that we are not creating a new service or entering the social networking market, We are simply enhancing the existing careerhub service with features and trends that users are currently familiar with and want to use in the service.

6) Be very very very specific.



Also we need to keep track of everything we do as a team, so we are going to use twitter, be sure to open an account for you and to add Zun so you can "follow" his activities, his username is xsight, I will open an account later on but I'm pretty sure that my username will be chevechiva.



Ralph suggested that we should take a look at http://www.43folders.com/ and read the article about "Getting Things Done (GTD)" by David Allen, he thinks this could be useful for us.



Since my part includes everybody's tasks, once I have the big list we will meet to assign the tasks, of course I will let you know trhe big list so you can add or delete something.

Our next meeting will be on saturday at 12:00, be sure to bring your draft so we put everything together!

Get well!

User Requirements Research suggestions

Tasks

1. Post a job opening
2. Recommend a job
3. Apply for a job
4. Shortlist job offers
5. Find more info on job offers
6. Discuss job offers
7. Track jobs applied
8. Upload CV
9. Find and contact potential employers
10. Update job offers
11. Report abuse/inaccuracies
    

Open Questions Suggestions

• Have you used CareerHub? What are the common annoyances you found with the service?
• What social networking services do you currently use on a regular basis?
• Do you think the comments/discussion feature adds to the value of the service?
• Do you think the voting system will have an influence on your job applying choices?
• When you browse through the job offerings, do you usually have a good idea of what specific job and where it’s categorised?
• Would you prefer to browse by categories or tags?
• How comfortable are you at displaying your CV publicly?
• What info do you particularly look for in a job offer or potential employer?
• How would you prefer to upload your CV?
• What form of contact would you prefer to the employers? Q&A section? Will an FAQ be sufficient?
• How legit would you find it if other members get to Answer in the Q&A?
• How feasible is a live chatroom?
• Do you like the idea of voting down comments?
  

For employers

• How easy is the form to post job offers, is it sufficient?
• What do you look for when searching applicants info?
• How much time would you be willing to give for a Q&A section for the job offers?
  

From Dekker

Hi All,

Good that you are thinking outside of just what is required. That being said, remember to make sure you clearly cover the criteria. Just to reiterate the steps that you have covered in an order that may flow alright:

1. Project description (as a smart goal) and project plan description (inc. key stakeholders and key components)

2. Scope of the project - what is and isn't covered in the project (this probably should be a summary of the tasks you have listed)

3. Roles & responsibilities for team members (a blurb about each would be good, as well as how you integrate work together)

4. Tasks - Lists of tasks needed to complete the project would be good here (inc SWOT/smart perhaps) and as definite as possibly

5. Plan - When are the tasks done, how long and by who (Gantt chart would be useful here)

6. Cost Summary - Costs (link this to the plan and the tasks)

7. Expectation Management - How will you communicate between youselves, clients, users to manage the expectations of the system (this will most probably be covered tomorrow).

8. Appendicies - If there is any information you have that doesn't necessarily fit in the end.

Something like that (which is a culmination of your tasks + the criteria sheet) could work well. I would create a professional report if possible (it just looks better and makes it less throw-away as you go through the project). Definitely google each of the sections independently (there should be articles on each), may help you streamline what is required.

Hope that helps, yell if there are any problems understanding my spam.

cheers
Dekker

August 18, 2008 11:29 PM

How to Create a Clear Project Plan

http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;767465578

Hi Guys,

This is a project plan structure, which I think we put too much focus on SWOT, SWOT and Smart should be a part for supporting not as main topic, I think we will have to make the breaking down of our project plan again here are some topics we should cover but not in the list of our previous plan.

Step 1: Explain the project plan to key stakeholders and discuss its key components.

Step 2: Define roles and responsibilities.

Step 3: Develop a scope statement.
This part should link with our SWOT and SMART
should this part also include Research

Step 4: Develop the project baselines.
Schedule and cost baselines

1. Identify activities and tasks needed to produce each of the deliverables identified in the scope baseline. How detailed the task list needs to be depends on many factors, including the experience of the team, project risk and uncertainties, ambiguity of specifications, amount of buy-in expected, etc.

2. Identify resources for each task, if known.

3. Estimate how many hours it will take to complete each task.

4. Estimate cost of each task, using an average hourly rate for each resource.

5. Consider resource constraints, or how much time each resource can realistically devote to this one project.

6. Determine which tasks are dependent on other tasks, and develop critical path.

7. Develop schedule, which puts all tasks and estimates in a calendar. It shows by chosen time period (week, month, quarter or year) which resource is doing which tasks, how much time each task is expected to take, and when each task is scheduled to begin and end.

8. Develop the cost baseline, which is a time-phased budget, or cost by time period.

This process is not a one-time effort. Throughout the project, you will most likely be adding to and repeating some or all of these steps.

Step 5: Create baseline management plans.

Step 6: Communicate!

I think we will have to consider this as our sturcture of our assignment.

Assignment 2 plan

• Colour scheme is nice and the overall style is nice.

• Research current systems (survey) and students who are graduating / looking for jobs. what experiences they have with other job seeking sites. and what they like / don’t like.

• Show mock-ups to students (some participatory design / evaluation) and take direction about what people would like to see.

• No difference between the sketches and digital prototype.

• the prototype should be an evolution of the sketches.

• Proofreading.

• Some good project name suggestions. good idea to choose one (perhaps Dreamcareer or pick-ur-job).

• SMART goals should be for each SWOT (so 20 SMART goals overall).

• More description for each SWOT. but identified each fairly well.

• Make sure you look at Linked-In.

• Could you hook the site into existing social networking websites (i.e.: Facebook)?

• www.pligg.com

• INTRO (JOB4U) - JUAN

• Timetable - JO

• SWOT W/SMART’S

• STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSES – ZUN
• OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS - JO

• Task description (TIMETABLE IMPLICIT)
• RE SEARCH – ZUN
• DEVELOPMENT – JO
• TESTING AND IMPLEMENTATION - JUAN

• CONCLUSION: project output: working website prototype – JUAN

• EDITING – JUAN

Digg Clone makers

This site lists a few services that can be used to create our own digg-like websites (i.e voting stories, commenting and voting on comments, social networking and shortlisting etc.).

create-digg-clone

Among the popular ones are Pligg, Drigg and Drupal.

About the Sketches....

Hi Guys!

Finally I finish 11 Sketches...!

I will talk through the ideas for each sketches

OK for the numbers i write is for the 1-11 sketch's digit

01= This is to talk about how we start our idea from.

02= A starting page, which will tell the users that this site could also use as social networking place, the icons i picked stands for "similarity" with these sites also...maybe we could put this in to our site?!

03 = This sketch is to allow (teacher's) to see our user home page or menu....and also some descriptions....Here I start reference from Career Hub...so the black list is what in Career Hub's user menu...
Here I also put some web icon...which I have all references with me...might post it tomorrow...

04 = This page is to show that...if for some users whom doesn't wish to spend time with creating account with us they can "View only"the site, but they wont get any chance with contacting any one.....Also for this page they are some viewers "employers "who can submit jobs to the site.

05 = This page is same with last page- logged in view

06 = This page is a reference from career hub after click in

07 = This page shows what you can do with our site, commenting to the job. add to favourite...rate...etc...

08 = ok for this image, Juan told me the one I used last time "relationship" sounds dogge so I changed it to what he recommend...for this page again those who wish to contribute our site could make post with out create account. and the main page will show the most recent posts...

09= this is the employee page...which from late post it was "seekers", here is where the users can post their infomation about seeking a job....for this page only the users of our site could make post but other's could view only.

10= FAQ

11= SUpport or contace...!

and the film..., if i could i will try to make a good
animation...if my time runs out...it might not be the perfect...> <

SKETCHES-updated 10 sketches!!!!!

Hi Guys,

Here are the Sketches I have finished by today, Please give me feedback on these Sketches,
and also give me some ideas about other pages, the pages i am concerned with are

Friend-

this would be friends from this site or the references"relationship"!? what functions should be inside?

Relationship -

From Zun's sketches I can think of the layout as having display photos of some references which are the members in this site lined out through the page. What if some users are not willing to create an account but also like to post them as references? this could be in another pages? Also the "Categories" for this part, How should I do the categories??

After all I think I might did the sketches too much detail... which spends me a lot of effort. please give me some suggestion for the sketches.

Social Website References

http://www.livingsocial.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/

Google Calendar

Hi Guys

I just figured out that google calendar wasn't used as group calendar,
It will turn out like viewing other's calendar, as a group calendar we should use only one calendar and are able to put notes on the events.

We might have to find a way to sort it out.

Also..I think I got Zun's wrong E-mail address, because I couldnt send SWOT to him,
So I have post here, Also...I write this mail here.

Hope you guys have got it.

I will be sending the sketches out tomorrow I will SMS when I did sent.


regards,

Jo

SWOT Draft 01

Strengths

Low cost

Specific: No equipment and physical products required

Measurable: The finished design demonstrates the intended idea

Agreed upon: continually provide sketches of the development

Realistic: computer and paper based designs

Time based: week 13

Abundance of resources on creating web services and feature examples

Specific: Gain feature ideas from existing popular web services

Measurable: the features chosen adds to the products experience

Agreed upon: inspired by popular websites like digg.com, facebook, twitter etc.

Realistic: taking positive features and improving on lacking features of the current job sites

Time based: early development

Users interact directly with site

Specific: create social networking features

Measurable: Ability to vote, comment and submit data

Agreed upon:

Realistic: use existing comment template, search for voting code in php

Time based: week 7 – end of development

content is generated for us

Specific: Existing content in “careerhub” will feed our database

Measurable:

Agreed upon:

Realistic: limit entries to manageable amount (e.g. 50 jobs)

Time based:

Team member’s skills complement each other

Specific: two members works on html and css tasks while the third provide graphic design services

Measurable: Having tasks specific to skill levels done

Agreed upon: tasks match each member’s skills

Realistic: implementing our skills

Time based: end of each week

Weaknesses

Little experience in database coding

Specific: set aside time to familiarize with a database language (maybe php)

Measurable: create a sample database

Agreed upon: 2 members will go through a crash course

Realistic: The internet (tutorial sites), tutors and experienced help

Time based: 2 weeks

Time allocations may not be sufficient to cover all aspects planned

Specific: Lay out a team organizer. Specific tasks per member each week

Measurable: Each members reports back at end of week

Agreed upon: Team blog and calendar

Realistic: Google blogger and calander

Time based: Each weekend

Requiring technology we are not familiar with (search engine)

Specific: Use existing search engine, for e.g google

Measurable: Having a working search engine in the website

Agreed upon: Testing out google search with product

Realistic: google search engine, tutorial sites

Time based: by the end of 5^th week

Non-native English speakers make it difficult especially in writing reports

Specific: each member does a round of proof reading

Measurable: external party read through and validate

Agreed upon: each member does at least one round of proof reading

Realistic: Members, external party and spell check

Time based: at least 1 day before due

Lack of knowledge on managing website

Specific: gain an understanding on web usability and marketing

Measurable: beta testing

Agreed upon: blog posts on survey and web beta testing result

Realistic: Books and resourses on web usability,

Time based: constant development stageOpportunities

Collaboration with university system

Specific: using data from careerhub, and featured inUQ website

Measurable: featured on UQ frontpage

Agreed upon: work with university staff

Realistic: IT staff of UQ

Time based: When basic features are working

Tutor’s experience

Specific: Attaining as much assistance in tutorial times.

Measurable: problem solved

Agreed upon: tutors and team

Realistic: Tutors

Time based: teaching hours

Low competition (dysfunctional links in current system)

Specific: create a working and engaging alternative to current system

Measurable: feedback from beta testing

Agreed upon:

Realistic: Research and testing on current system

Time based: end of development

Low possibility of gaming (abusing) the system

Specific: early stages, does not create a major impact on the system.

Measurable: focus on other aspects of project

Agreed upon: possibilities of abuse discussed

Realistic: research on current popular trends in social networking

Time based: early stages

People are familiar with increasing trends in social networking

Specific:

Measurable:

Agreed upon

Realistic

Time based

Threats

Little interest/ lack of publicity

Poor organization of data, may cause confusion for users/developers

Lack of feedback about jobs in UQ

Gaming/system abuse may happen in later stages

Identical website appears during development

RISKS

Scaling problems (crashing when a lot of users)

Viruses and hacks

Cross platform compatibility issues

Content is fully controlled externally (we don’t have a say)

Health/personal problems within team to halt production