So far, it’s been really exciting being at the beginning phase of our project. We’ve spent time brainstorming and gathering ideas on what we can include in our project portal update. We have also been in touch with our project partners, which happens to be our own instructor and the other capstone instructors at OSU. So far it seems like they are all going to be a blast to work with and are going to be very helpful in the whole process. Altogether, being in this stage has been just so fun because we are really starting to dive in and explore the potential for this project.
One very valuable thing I’ve learned in the short time we’ve had so far though is the importance of planning. I’m not talking about planning the actual technical details of the project, but the planning for the planning. Our project didn’t come with a set list of requirements, so when we first got in contact with all the instructors I sent out a simple email asking for any ideas they had for the site, any requirements they had in mind, and any other useful information they had to offer. This resulted in a jumble of emails or documents with different lists of requirements each in different formats and multiple suggestions on what we should do. All of it is good information, but altogether it’s unorganized and a little overwhelming having to piece together a list of requirements from it all. In addition to this, we are trying to survey our fellow students who also used the site to sign up for projects, so that adds another layer to the challenge of making sure we’re getting information in a way that is useful.
It would have been a good idea to ask instructors for a list of specific questions, or a top ten must-have-requirements from each rather than such an open-ended request for any information they have. Going forward, I think we will find an organized way to survey the instructors and our fellow students in a thought out manner that is more likely to yield tangible requirements for us.
While dealing with this is kind of frustrating now, I think it is already a good learning moment for me. I now know the importance of thoroughly thinking through each and every action (and email) in a project to save time and effort and make it run smoothly from the beginning to end.
