It’s week 3. After choosing the tech stack, Team QuizBanana went straight into project planning. Luckily there was a very extensive plan template provided for us to refer to, it was not too hard to break it down. The plan in my mind was jumbled up and maybe < 50% formed, but as we worked on this together, I feel a lot of ideas got organized. I have much more clear view of the project and smaller task goals I need to achieve.
I think the key to having a successful and complete project regardless of the project type (software, culinary, medical, etc.) is to have a robust and thorough project plan. It is very crucial in shaping the project and becoming the base of the architecture. It is the time where the base structure and shape are constructed. Without a good plan, it would be more time consuming and risky to restructure or start from scratch. Think of a construction site. If a building was designed without thorough consideration of safety, material, and design, it would be really costly in time and money to either tear it down or make it bigger once the walls are put in. Even if has finished with poor structure, it may be weak to disasters like earthquake and tornadoes, which is also not we want.
In order to create a thorough project plan, we have approached this in multiple angles. We had client and client’s requirements, initial plan of codebase structure, software and libraries, flowcharts, wireframes, database schema, and breakdown of tasks with assignments and hours. Client and requirements is where we started, and also what is the most important part of the project. The goal is to satisfy the client’s needs. Therefore we lined up all the requirements and made sure our plan covers all of client’s needs. Having the main tech stack settled last week made it easier to figure out software and libraries to use, since there are related packages we can use for the project. Codebase structure plan came naturally since there are standard ways of setting up the folders based on the stack we are using. For flowcharts, we have created web page flow, login/sign up logic, and actual quiz logic. These help guide the order things should happen and also prioritize which parts need to be done first. Wireframing and designing database schema reinforces and puts together everything from above, that somewhat works as a check. By going through the wireframe, we get a good sense of design layout and fill in the missing parts in database schema or the logic. Then we divided up the tasks by features and pages to assign to everyone based on their specialty.
Personally, I dread doing planning despite it being one of the most crucial parts on project. However, having it broken down into pieces and being able to work on it in a collaborative team setting, I think the plan came out well covered and detailed enough for us to move along to the next step. Good team effort brought us a long way and I’m quite satisfied with the end result overall.