L2 Project Management

Project management is to plan and manage a project to successfully complete its goals and deliverables.

It's main purpose is to increase efficiency and the quality of your outcome!

It improves communication and collaboration by breaking down the walls between individuals and teams.

Great project management means much more than keeping things in check, delivering on time, budget, and project scope.

It creates a vision for a successful project, and gets everyone on the same page of what’s needed to stay on track for success.

When projects are managed properly there’s a huge positive impact.

Agile Development

During the design and development of an outcome you will work through an Agile development.

It is a process originally developed for software development but has applications in a wide range of design industries. Each "sprint" is broken down into a number of components which feedback into each other.

Its counterpart is the Waterfall model which is a more linear process.

Agile Project Management

Agile development is very common in software engineering and involves deliberate planning and testing in short "sprints" of development. You can see from the image above.

Each sprint has a deliberate "Phase" of development and you test, get feedback, review and replan at the end of each so you can keep improving the outcome.

The easiest method to keep track of you "tasks" is using Trello and Kanban. See the video to the right. This method lets you visually see what you are working on, what you've already completed and whats next. Each task should be something measurable that you can complete in one or two lessons like "add materials to barrel". Make sure your tasks are specific and small otherwise they will never move to the done list!

Good Project Management Tools

Trello

Trello is a free project management system

Freedcamp

HacknPlan

Examples of project management and version control tools and techniques include:

saving backup copies with a logical file naming system
using collaboration tools
using simple version control software applications
using tools or systems to plan tasks and milestones
adjusting key actions and tasks where appropriate

HOW IT LOOKS

In Product & Digital Design you will work through 4 sprints:

the design phase
development - sprint 1
development - sprint 2
development - sprint 3

Each sprint will be 4 weeks long and should have specific goals that need be implemented. If features are not on track then they may need to be scrapped or revised.

~ Sprint Goals ~

You only plan the tasks for one sprint at a time but you will need to understand what you are trying to achieve overall to make sure you break your project into manageable chunks and that you have a high quality outcome at the end that you are proud of!

Here is a rough idea of the goal for each sprint and what that means:

DESIGN SPRINT | Pitch your Idea!

Should define the vision
Include key features
Is visually modelled, digitally or physically
A design that is well thought out & refined
Design is Presented - imagine what would be needed if it was a dragons den

The design should address how the outcome will function and look.

Development - SPRINT #1 | Minimum Viable Product (mVp)

This is the Basic Framework and Functionality of your outcome

The basics of outcome is created in the software
Placeholder content maybe included to help show the structure
Develop the first functional prototype
Carry out testing

The outcome should have the primary mechanics to make sure it works before spending time on specific details.

Development - SPRINT #2 | Minimum Marketable Product (mmp)

Adding Content and thinking about the Aesthetics of your outcome

Add to the features - think design elements.... headings, fonts, colours etc
Include the major content - this could be made by you, supplied, or creative commons e.g. logos, photos, graphics, videos, etc
Carry out usability testing

The outcome should include the key features to function and look generally how you want it to so you know what to spend time refining or what optional features you have time to include.

Development - SPRINT #3 | Minimum loveable/delightful/awesome Product (mLP/MDP/MAP)

This is the Extras & Polishing

Time to add all the extras needed make it a well thought out outcome
Everything that should be included is in
Attention to detail
Make it the best it can be
Final effiencey testing

All aspects are implemented. Fix all the little things. Polish the functionality & aesthetics!

PROJECT MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE - SET IT UP

~ The Overview ~

In your chosen project management tool (trello, freedcamp etc) you need to set up a board for each sprint .

You should have 4 boards.

Take a screen shot of this and place it under the 'Project Management' heading in your doc. You may wish to include a link to it but remember only you have access to this.

~ For Each Sprint ~

Within the board a good structure to use is: To Do, Doing, Done.

At the start of each sprint you will break down your sprint goal into smaller tasks to help you manage your time. The Design & Developments webpages will give you more detail about what is required at Y11, Y12 & Y13.

You should be actively moving your cards along to stay on track. Here is an example of what a sprint may look like, you can also include dates to help you keep track.

Once you have all the tasks for the sprint take a screen shot and put in under the planning heading in design or development.

Then at the end of the sprint you take another screen shot to show what was completed and anything still left to do. If this happens in a development sprint it may need to be included in the next sprint or you decide to remove that aspect in your outcome completely.

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