{"id":21,"date":"2021-10-07T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T22:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/?p=21"},"modified":"2021-10-07T15:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T22:56:09","slug":"project-planning-the-pool-party-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/2021\/10\/07\/project-planning-the-pool-party-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Planning: The Pool Party Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the job that\u2019s never started as takes longest to finish.\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Project Planning is to successful projects as Pool Parties are to summertime: a staple.\u00a0 With pool parties you find a bunch of friends and family hanging around the grill, enjoying their cold beverage of choice, and sweating in the palpable summer heat.\u00a0 All the guests were told this was a pool party.\u00a0 Everyone side-eyes the refreshing pool, scratching at the swimsuit they wore under their shorts.\u00a0 Everyone knows they will feel so much better once they take just a quick dip in the pool.\u00a0 The host has even told everyone to feel free to enjoy the pool at their leisure!\u00a0 There is nothing holding anyone back.\u00a0 Except you know, even though everyone is prepared for the pool party, no one wants to be the first one in the pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Between my career in Restaurant Management<\/a> and my time in the Oregon State University\u2019s Computer Science<\/a> program, I have been a part of a lot of different types of projects with many different types of teams.\u00a0 Overall, I have been extremely lucky with my teammates.\u00a0 I have had lots of teammates who are very talented, and I was able to grow from working alongside them.\u00a0 Other teammates have been gifted leaders whose abilities left me in awe.\u00a0 Others still, who were so creative in arriving at their solutions, I had to ask them how they got from point A to point B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But.\u00a0 One thing I have found to be more common than anything else in these teams, was trouble getting the project planning started.\u00a0 Usually everyone on the team has had some time to prepare and think up solutions and approaches to whatever the problem we were all brought together to solve was.\u00a0 But rarely does anyone want to be the first one to propose anything that is not immediately offered by the project leader or client.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if it is a culturally instilled sense of politeness that keeps us from speaking up.\u00a0 Or if most everyone is naturally shier than I thought we were.\u00a0 But I am empathetic to it.\u00a0 For a long time I sat in the back of the classroom, never raised my hand, and never volunteered to go first in group presentations.\u00a0 I always waited for someone else to start to share my ideas.\u00a0 No one likes going first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I started working on more complex projects, and project planning became more and more important with less and less time to do it, I realized that this hold up was hindering our work.\u00a0 We would eventually get to where we needed to be.\u00a0 But there was wasted time in the beginning, waiting for everyone to wait for someone else to start the conversation.\u00a0 So I started a more direct approach in my groups.\u00a0 I was the first one in the pool.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it wasn\u2019t even that I was just the first one in the pool.\u00a0 As soon as the host greeted me at the door, I ripped off my tear away pants exposing my swimsuit underneath and ran hootin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019 through the party and did a straight cannonball into the pool (trying to get as many of the partygoers as wet as possible).\u00a0 Now that the empty pool mystique was broken, it wasn\u2019t long until everyone was comfortable jumping in the pool themselves!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Except you know, even though everyone is prepared for the pool party, no one wants to be the first one in the pool.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But what does that 10\/10 first cannonball look like in a more project planning setting?\u00a0 A lot of the time it can come off as enthusiasm.\u00a0 I will show up to the first meeting for the group with an outline or rough draft of a project plan.\u00a0 Before we even have a chance for that awkward silence to set in after we all introduce ourselves I have that plan in front of everyone, asking for feedback.\u00a0 I KNOW that this plan is going to get reworked, even likely completely re-written.\u00a0 But it gets everyone talking from the same starting point.\u00a0 It allows me to rope in people with specialties as well.\u00a0 \u201cMichelle!\u00a0 I know you are great with Machine Learning, do you have any thoughts on the algorithm section?\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 It also lets people get to their ideas faster, without waiting around for a more traditional slow build planning meeting.\u00a0 \u201cDoes anyone know a better way we can store the data for the login server?\u201d.\u00a0 <\/em>All in all, the goal is to break the ice, or in this case the surface tension of the pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After my initial cannonball entrance, as the pool becomes more filled with revelry, I myself settle into a nice back float.\u00a0 I observe, contributing where I have something to add, but mostly letting the those in the pool dictate the pace of the party now.\u00a0 Comfortably I get out of the water for awhile and grab a bite from the grill.\u00a0 Because I know, now that the party has moved into the pool, it will be going strong all night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s the job that\u2019s never started as takes longest to finish.\u201d Project Planning is to successful projects as Pool Parties are to summertime: a staple.\u00a0 With pool parties you find a bunch of friends and family hanging around the grill, enjoying their cold beverage of choice, and sweating in the palpable summer heat.\u00a0 All the … Continue reading Project Planning: The Pool Party Approach<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11570,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11570"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cstodddev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}