[Year 12 IT Apps] Unit 3, Outcome 1 database and project management

[Timmer-Arends]

Hello Michael

While I agree that a theoretical exercise such as a test might allow students to explore project management more deeply, in my experience many are not ready for a truly deep analysis of a 'real project' - as someone else has said, they just don't have the experience. And yes, an exercise in correctly sequencing a long list of tasks might be a good exercise in logical deduction, but I don't know that it adds to the understanding of the basic concepts involved in project management.

Treating their problem-solving task as a real project (and it is when you think about it!) I think is much more useful. By the time the task is issued students should have some idea of how long various stages will take (in fact during the skills development sessions and practice tasks I get them to note start and finishing times for different tasks; eg to design a small dbms, to create a working form etc).

As to when the planning is done, project management of real IT project is an iterative process: first use a model (eg SDLC) to determine main tasks that have to be done (ie analyse, design, develop...) and estimate how long they will take - hence an overall project management plan is developed and it will perhaps be crude but it gives an idea of what's ahead. Start the project, then at the completion of the first stage, the next stage is more accurately planned, and so on, the detailed planning of each stage benefitting from what has gone before.

So, using their 'experience' and knowledge of SDLC, students can estimate how long they think each of the main stages will take, and draw, say, a Gantt chart. They then start the project (eg analyse). From this they can now refine their estimates of the next stage (eg design). They then design. From this they can now plan in detail the development stage - their design will help them decide what tasks have to be performed; eg build two tables, build three forms, ..., test report,.... To this they can add estimates of time for each and so refine the time for overall development. And so on.

I have used this approach with students doing project management planning at two points: first overall project using study design SDLc as model: they have to remember the stages, then draw a Gantt chart. The second point is after the design: using their design they have to detail all the 'building' tasks required to get a working product, and again draw a Gantt chart - this is in fact a breakdown of the 'develop' bar in their first Gantt chart. This might require them to adjust their overall plan. What makes it even more real (even though there's no budget, and there's only themselves to manage, and the project planning is not very deep) is that they have a very real deadline to meet. My feeling is that students gain a better appreciation of the overall idea of project management by seeing how they have to manage themselves and their project in order to meet an actual deadline.

Regards
Robert T-A
Brighton SC


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Torsello (Mr) 
  To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 2:17 PM
  Subject: RE: [Year 12 IT Apps] Unit 3,Outcome 1 database and project management


  Paula

  I take your point but annotations seem very weird to me.
  You are telling me that we want students to create an electronic information product but we want them to print out tables, queries, forms so they can annotate them.
  Talk about going backwards to the old CAT days where every CAT was a tome's worth of paper.

  When students create their project plan, is the analysis stage meant to be part of it or do they only plan the actual making and testing of the database?
  And which students will want to admit that things went wrong during their SAC? If everything goes well, they don't have to change their plan. If something goes wrong, then they have to change their plan as well as fix their mistakes. 
  ---------------------------------- 
  With thanks 
  Michael Torsello 
  Director of Computing 
  St Margaret's School, Berwick 
  Ph: (03) 9703 8111 

  "Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer-generated robots will take over our world." Stephen Hawking





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Christophersen, Paula P
  Sent: Friday, 23 February 2007 12:15 PM
  To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
  Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Unit 3, Outcome 1 database and project management


  Dear colleagues



  I have a couple of comments to make about the queries raised in Michael Torsellos’s email regarding the tasks for this outcome.



  ·          The outcome requires students to apply project management strategies when producing a solution and information product. This means that giving students a separate project management (PM) task that does not require the application of PM skills to the development of a solution is not appropriate. So sorry folks, but Task 2 is intertwined with Task 1, even though they are reported separately. 

  Also note on page 25, second para of Area of Study 1 − ‘The project plans must be developed in the designing stage of the problem-solving methodology.’  The amount of project management required in this outcome is not extensive, and the reaccreditation committee responsible for the development of the study design believed that it is a more meaningful task if applied to the development of a solution and product. 

  Also, this para states that the PM plan should include information about: tasks, time and resources − budget is not a consideration. For resources, students just have to list the technology they are using, so the bulk of the plan focuses on tasks and time, and the monitoring of their progress. If all goes according to plan, then no adjustments need to be made.



  ·          I would consider 500 minutes for the SAC to be at the upper end of the time scale. I wonder if your task expectations are a little too much? Also note that students do not have to prepare a written report for Task 1 − while the key skill states that students must ‘evaluate how the efficiency of the solutions and the effectiveness of the products meet identified decision-making needs’, the task description says that this is achieved through annotations. This is a lot less formal and time consuming (see page 30 ‘Students annotate the solution and information product to indicate how the identified decision-making needs are met’) than a written report. 



  Regards

  Paula



  Paula Christophersen

  ICT Curriculum Manager

  Victorian Curriculum and Assessment

  Authority

  41 St Andrews Place

  EAST MELBOURNE 3002

  Phone: 03 9651 4378

  Fax: 03 9651 4324




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