Project Management Marks

There are 6 marks for using Open Workbench (pretty much).

AO1 - Row 2 - the first three marks for using a range of project management techniques - the fourth mark for explaining how and why you used them (probably using screenshots)

AO2 - Row 3 - using tools

I would produce:

• a Gannt chart (possibly a weekly view one) - to show the dates for each task and how they are scheduled
• a phase level Gannt chart - to provide an overview of scheduling
• a Critical Path Analysis - to show the longest possible path to the end of the project (check out Critical Path Analysis on Wikipedia) using the tasks and their start and finish dates and dependencies
• a resource assignment - to show exactly how resources have been assigned - who is going to what meeting or involved in each section
• a dependency definition view - to specify exactly which tasks are dependent on others (the critical path will help do this as well)

You can then add evidence from using e-mail, cooperative documents (e.g. Google Docs) etc...

Note that there are also possible marks in AO1 - Row 1 which is using new software.

Hannah says what is Open Workbench?

Good question Hannah. You always ask the best questions. No one else is as skilled as you at question asking. I like you.

Open Workbench is project management software. It allows you to manage the key aspects of a project - specifically to manage tasks, place tasks into phases and manage the allocation of resources. This will allow you to schedule a complex project with many resources (people) effectively to allow it to be completed to deadlines.

This is particularly important because you have a number of resources to manage and many tasks to complete, some of which are clearly dependent on other tasks (you can't test the content until the interface has been produced, for example).


Wikipedia has a really quite useful page on project management and what it is. It's worth a look.

There's also a Wikipedia page on Open Workbench itself, although it's rather less useful.

Specifically Open Workbench will allow you to:

• produce Gannt charts
• assign resources and manage them and produce a resource overview
• produce a critical path analysis

A quite useful definition of project management is:

“Project management is the process by which projects are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that agreed benefits are realised. Projects are unique, transient endeavours undertaken to achieve a desired outcome. Projects bring about change and project management is recognised as the most efficient way of managing such change.”

Skills Audit

Unit 8 needs you to do a skills audit - to work out what skills you have at the start of the project.

Examples could be:

Communication skills such as:

• meeting skills - running meeting, producing agenda, minutes etc...
• organisation skills - organising yourself, e-mails etc...
• bossiness skills - organising other people

Technical skills such as:

• design skills
• animation skills
• web skills

Project management skills (which might include some of the things above)

• use of open workbench
• use of gannt charts
• use of plans, critical path management etc...

This is AO3 Row 5. I'd do it in a table with a column for the skill, a column for pre-existing level and a column for how I'd used it in the project.

You need to do the same sort of thing for your Knowledge - AO3 Row 6 - what knolwedge of this sort of thing did you have at the start and how did you use it?

It is a really good idea to put this towards the front of your write-up. It links to AO1 Rows 3 and 4 - the development of new skills. BUT this wants to be a clearly different section...

Open Workbench - an idiots guide

Just for Hayley (joke!)

Do stuff in this order:

1. enter the names of your resources (the people) and their initials in the bottom pane
2. right click each resource and Modify - type the persons job title in the Category box
3. I went with Developers, Project Manager, Tester, Client - you could have other project roles
4. enter the tasks in the centre pane. Try and get them in a logical order. You can add rows in by right clicking
5. add rows and enter phases - enter them like tasks and then right click and Modify and change the Type to Phase. This will give you a bracketed phase and let you break the project down into stages
6. sort the dates out - either drag the tasks along the Gannt chart or change the dates manually
7. sort the length of tasks out - either drag the bars on the Gannt chart or change the finish dates
8. now put in dependencies - I find it easier to drag them from the predecessor bar to the successor bar. Take care with dependencies - you want them to make sense. I would suggest that everything needs some kind of dependency as it will make you critical path analysis make more sense - but there may be jobs which can take place at the same time as each other
9. assign resources to tasks and give them time allocations in hours. Right click on each task and select Assignments and you can do this. Make sure the right people are in the right meetings - I would tend to have the Project manager meet the client for many of the meetings rather than have large meetings. Don't forget meetings with testers.

Tips:

Double click on the dates at the top of the Gannt chart and you can set the number of periods to display. You may need more than 26 periods if your project lasts more than 26 days. You can also change the scale from days to weeks which may well be a better way of displaying things if you have a project lasting more than 3 or 4 weeks

Double click on the Gannt chart itself and you can tick the holidays box to shade in weekends (yah!) and perhaps change the

Dude, where's my (open) workbench?

Yes, it's here.

A couple of other places to look for some background sorta stuff might be:

Wikipedia: Open Workbench
Comparing open workbench with microsoft project
Another comparison perhaps

A few Project Management links

Oooh, a Project.

I love a good project. It's just the management bit that's a pain...

Some things that might be slightly useful - all from Wikipedia:

• list of Project Management topics, including activities which typically occur during a project
• the Systems Development Lifecycle, which is bascially the theory behind what happens during a project of any kind, an IT project specifically
• a Glossary of Project Management
• what RBS means

The wiki page on Project Management has a series of Project Management Stages on it. These are probably a good base to use to break down a project.

1. intiation - which "determines the nature and scope of the development"


2. planning or development - which designs and perhaps creates a prototype which is tested


3. production or execution - which produces the actual thingy


4. monitoring and controlling - which includes checking that everything's going well. The wiki page on this is well worth a look for ideas. It can also include maintenance - making sure that whatevers produced continues to work


5. closing - finishing off and handing it over. In the real world this is quite often the "getting paid" section!

It's well worth taking a look at the wiki section on that for ideas. Promise.