Its all over!!! - final blog entry!

Well, its over! I can't believe I'm finally saying this! Its been a long and very interesting year. When I look back now, I must say that I'm very proud of my achievements in this year, especially in IE.

When the project started I honestly didn't know what to expect. My major concern at the very beginning was the actual type of our project - when I saw we got the php driven website, I wasn't too happy. In the semester before that, I failed the subject that introduces php (hahaha) so my concerns were valid. Team members were another concern - I only knew Steve from before so I wasn't sure what to expect from the others. If only I knew....

The project

Regardless of how much we complained about our client and the project itself, this turned out to be an enjoyable project to work on. Jon (the client) is definitely a strange guy, but once you learn how to deal with him (which I must say, I mastered in the end), he's not too bad ;). We managed to finish most of the stuff he put as his requirements and the ones we were unable to do, we offered alternative which he accepted in the end.

What have I learned?

I think this project taught me more then I ever imagined! When I look back now, I realise how many things I've improved as a direct result of being involved in the project. From technical skills such as php (non-intentionally, I became a project coder) and mySql, to interpersonal skills like client and team interaction. Maybe I was lucky to be involved in the project that had everything that you want to be tested on - difficult client, lazy team members(hehe), short timeline, etc. Combine that with other subjects and assignments and my lack of php coding skills and you get one heck of a ride! But as I said earlier - it was priceless! I feel much better prepared for real world after being exposed to so many different situations throughout the project.

Team members

I mentioned earlier that I never knew what I was getting myself into when teaming with these guys. I have one big weakness - I always want things to be perfect and if I can't achieve that 'perfection' I tend to look for alternatives. This also happens with other people's work - I expect it to be as close to 'perfection' as possible and this wasn't the case with some of the guys in the group. In the first semester, I corrected things myself but I learned my lesson in the second semester - I pushed them a lot harder and it worked really well. I'll try to give you a quick overview of other team members...

Steve

Great guy, socially and professionally. He coded probably around 60% of the project and did a really good job. He always asked for more work when he had none and everything he did was really good. He's a kind of guy I would love to work with on any project! Grade - HD

Jason

Jason improved a lot in the second semester! His work rate increased dramatically and he was much more aware of what was going on in the second semester. He couldn't do any coding but he always had helpful logic and served as an extra pair of eyes (and brain). Grade - D

Paul

He also improved in this semester. He attended more meetings and tried to help with whatever he could. I'm a bit surprised that he lack basic IT knowledge seeing that he studies IT. He helped with documentation and did a solid job. Grade - C

Craig

Well, what to say about Craig...he was definitely the biggest disappointment in this project! When someone doesn't have certain skills to do something but has the right attitude, you tend to put up with it. But Craig did not have any of those! He missed most of our meetings - he saw client only twice for a whole year! He simply failed to show any interest in how things were going; he would not contact any of us for more then a week and when he did, it's like nothing happened! As I said, my main problem with him was his complete lack of interest in the project - I can freely say that he was a typical 'free rider'! Grade - very very tough one! As much as I don't want anyone to fail, he brought this on himself! Maybe Pass but if you guys are feeling very generous....

Final words

So it comes to an end...it's been a very interesting ride and I enjoyed it very much! Dave, you've been fantastic - thank you very much for your advice and help throughout the year! Special thanks goes to Janet who gave us precious advice with php on more then one occasion....now off to couple of months of rest and then IBM here I come!!!!!

Its crunch time - week 11

Its there - we've uploaded the website and put it online last Wednesday! There were few hiccups and ups and downs but in the end it all worked fine. As I mentioned earlier, there are still some things that we need to finish, but the core of the website is online and functional. Jon was happy as well, although he found few errors when he tried to use the website but we managed to correct them very quickly.

When we started with uploads and downloads two weeks ago I was constantly insisting to have multiple backups on various locations. God was I right....during the main upload on last Tuesday, we encountered few problems. Because Steve did some of the work directly online without having a copy of it on his offline server, we accidentally overwrote some of the stuff he created!! Luckily, I made one final backup of the server the night before and we were able to recover.

I'm still a bit annoyed with Craig and Paul - I got to uni last Tuesday at 10.30am and left at around 5.30pm. Both of them came at around 3 pm and left around 4.30pm!!!! Dave I'm serious, if they get the same mark as three of us, I'll be pissed off!!!

This week we have a meeting with Jon, just to go over few things. We also have to test the final pieces of the website before we put them online - user forum and advanced search function...lots of things to do, so little time

Start of week 10

I cannot believe that its week 10 already! This week is crucial for the project!

We started uploading files last week via research network and to be quite honest, its not as fast as we thought it might be! We had to go back three days to get everything up and there are still few files that I'll need to upload myself! We managed to download all the files that are on the server so we have the original backup. I need to upload all php files tonight (Sunday) so tomorrow and Tuesday we can actually switch the website to the new version. Scary I know! I'm still wondering if we could've done more...?

Jon's been annoying as always with his questions and now I have to write him a schedule of when things will be done because he wants to know! Get a life mate...!

I am still not 100% happy with the contribution from Paul and Craig but thats something that I'll talk to Dave in that final interview. To be honest, I'll be pretty pissed off if I get the same mark as those two! And I know that Jason and Steve will be also!

As for the site...I need to upload those files tonight and then, there are so many little tweaks that we need to do in order to get everything working! I haven't finished the search function yet - its 95% done. The only thing I'm really worried about is that we might run out of time! I can see now that we should have done some things differently from the beginning but it too late now...

After this week, we've got a "week off" in which we'll have to work 110% in order to get everything done by the beginning of the week 11! It must be done, there's no excuses!

week 9 - brrrrr

I almost forgot to write this week also! Its been so busy couple of weeks and to be quite honest, this is not on my priority list with all due respect. But anyway, I'll give it a go (hopefully Dave hasn't finished reading them already)

This is THE week! On Tuesday, we are transferring the offline version of the website to the server!!! It is a huge pressure! The client is very very obsessed with the thought that the website MUST be up 24/7, so we can't afford any mistakes.

We decided to follow these procedures:

- Firstly, we'll backup the whole website that is on the server currently (mind you there is over 5 GB of data there!)
- We'll create a new directory on the website called 'Original Site' where we'll them move the current website. This also includes renaming the database
- The next step is to upload the new database and the file structure to the server
- Then we have to make sure everything works fine!

It sounds simple and easy but there is no simple and easy in IT ;).So many things can go wrong so we have to be prepared to tackle any potential issues...

Week 7 - Half way there!

Firstly, apologies to David for failing to write an entry last week! Completely forgot about it quite honestly!!!

We're half way through the semester - only 7 or 8 weeks left before it all ends! Cool and scary at the same time! Looking forward to finishing the course but at the same time feeling pressure to finish the project on time and at the same time keep up with other assignments...

Last week we finally set the date for data transfer! Its going to happen on the 9th of September so we have to try to finish everything by then. There will be few smaller things that we won't be able to completely wrap up before the transfer but it is easy to work on the live site in order to make them work. We need to come up with the strategy of how we're going to do it. We'll probably create a new directory and run the site from there for couple of weeks to make sure it all works fine....but we'll discuss this on Tuesday probably...

I have following things to finish (this is a good chance to see if I'm missing something):

- Quiz: the front end is done and working sweetly! The only thing that is left is the final configuration of the back-end. Its all coded and it only need to be connected with the rest of the back-end site so the client only uses one log in.

- Advanced Search: oh...I haven't done much (read anything) on this for quite some time! The majority is done but I still have some important bits to finish...the good thing is that this is already online so I'm not bothered by the deadline (well not this one anyway)...main thing I need to do is to put some javascript checking and to make sure that if a user does not enter a search string, everything is displayed from that category

- User Forum: this is also 90% done and it only needs some final tweaking. It shouldn't take more then couple of hours to finish so I'll probably leave it last

That's it! There are few things that Steve has to finish but that is all from my side. I'm very happy with the progress of the project. Other guys have been in charge of all documentation and the real challenge for them will be the Test document. I'll have to make sure that they do a proper job...

Thats it for now...will come back with some more next week ;)

Start of week 5

Well, one third of the semester has gone and the pressure is mounting! I feel that the time is going even quicker this semester then it did in the first one.

We had a client meeting last Tuesday and it was interesting! He was pleased with how the project is progressing and we were pleased that he was fairly flexible with some of the requirements.

The funniest part was when I showed his advanced search page. I actually sent him a link earlier so he had time to look over it. He was pleased how it worked and looked but then he asked if we could get rid of the search box!!???!!! What the.....? I looked at him completely confused and he goes, he wants the user to click on the advanced search and then select category and sub-category and then everything from that category displays!!!??? I go, well that's all fine, but we cannot call that advanced search when you're not searching for anything??? Other guys were shocked as well and I was pretty pissed off cuz I spent good few weeks writing and testing the code just to find out that it was all pointless???

We managed to reason him and come to agreement that the search box stays (duu'h!) but the user will have an option to leave it blank in which case it will display all items from selected category. Uh....he must be the most complicated person to work for/with...

There are few documents due next week (week 6) and hopefully, Paul and Craig will be able to finish them in time. I said that I don't care about anything and that I wanted them handed in on time, so we'll see....

This week I've got two assignments due so I've been pretty busy with those and haven't done much work on the project itself...Jon is away for 2 weeks but hopefully we'll have most of the things sorted out before he comes back. Oh yeah, another thing - we managed to convince him that the 'What's New' page should have only list of things that are added to the website over the period of time. Steve was very happy that he doesn't have to use triggers and other complicated code....

OK, that it folks! C ya/ read ya next week ;)

Its week 4 already

Nothing much happened last week really... my lectures and tutes did not bring any big excitement and it was just one of those weeks which you don't even notice. Well that would be if it wasn't for IE off course ... I realise it's start of week4 and there's not much left to go!

Last week we had a guy talking to us regarding the resume writing and other career stuff...it was quite interesting and I wish I knew some of those things before I applied for graduate positions! Thats why I believe that these speakers should have been brought in last semester as most of the companies have their application processes in April and May.

It was interesting to see that I was the only person in the lecture theater who actually already got the job for the next year! Even more interesting, or even shocking is that many people never heard of graduate positions or career fairs! I even did a Summer Vacation Program last summer at NAB and I know that many asked me how did I get it! Quite simple - I followed career fair events adn went our there and talked to people.......some people are too ignorate and they focus strongly on studies, ignoring other aspects of Uni life - future career most important one!

When it comes to the HP Museum project, things are not too bad...we didn't have our client meeting last week as the client couldn't make it so we're having it this week, before the IE lecture/seminar...we need to reject couple of thing he requested, simply because he left it too late! We're still waiting for his feedback on advanced search...that'll be interesting. Also, he's going for a holiday this coming Wednesday and will be away for two weeks. Hopefully we'll get most of the things done when he comes back...

Thats it for this week...i might pop in another post later in the week, who knows! for the end, a video of some extremely funny comercials!

Another week is gone....week2

Firstly I have to say that I unfortunately didn't have enough time to write a blog entry for that little competition that POD organised. I'm not the greatest blogger out there and plus, I'm not really interested in the Deloitte interview anyway. While we're at Deloitte, my wife works for them as a n auditor. She started last year as a graduate also...

Last week, on Tuesday, we had a quick group meeting where we discussed some issues that came upe recently about people not putting enough effort into the project. I don't think that Craig took it very well but he is aware that he's not doing enough. We told him and Paul that we expect a bit more input specially when it comes to the various documents - test plan, revised standards and governance etc.

The problem that I see with this approach is that we'll still have to revise their work! I wasn't too happy with the quality of their work before, specially Craig's. I mean, for one of the reports, he finished his part by giving me heaps of bullet points!!!! I mean c'mon!

My advanced search 'quest' is looking good for now. I've done some good work last week with some help from Jason. We'll probably have a meeting with Jon this week to show him the progress and to get some feedback from him. We also found out that the reason for triggers not working is the version of MySql on the server! It apparently needs at least v5.0 to work and currently, 4.02 is installed on the server. We have to do some thinking to decide what to do....


ok...this is it for now....i might pop in another post this week after the meeting...

Crazy times

Its a beginning of the week 2 and the pressure is already on. Mr. JonJohnston of HPMuseum decided to add to his requirements and to make it more complicated....it sucks! His interpretation of the phrase 'Advanced Search' is ridiculous! We'll have to have a meeting with him this week to clarify few things...

Me and Steve have been doing some serious work over the last week. It took it upon myself to finish the "Advanced Search" option and it going pretty well....Steve is working on other two sections but the problem is still the fairly small workload for other guys....especially Paul and Craig! Jason wants to help and he really does...Craig missed another meeting last week and we'll have some serious talk tomorrow.

The pressure is really starting to mount! We set the goal of finalizing the project by week 9 or 10 so there is really not too much time left! Other subjects are starting to "ask for their share of time" so good time management is crucial !!! Last thing I want is to fall behind....

I should be able to finish advanced search by the end of the week but it might need some adjustments once the client sees it. The major issue we have right now is the 'What's new" Section....client's requirements are way too complicated and for once, we'll have to reject some f them. The problem is that his original requirements were pretty vague and even though we discussed it with him earlier, he changed it drastically....hopefully we'll be able to work thing out and satisfy him....

thatsit for now...looking forward to this week - my tutorials are starting and I'm doing some very interesting subjects.....cheers!

We're back...!

So....the second semester starts this week, hopefully, the final one for me! I can't believe that I have only 13 weeks left to complete my degree! Crazy....

I also got my results back last week and I'm not 100% happy but the main thing is that I passed all units.

As far as the IE goes, we've made some very good progress during the break. We've started the advanced search function, completed HP Divisions section and also got a good progress on 'What's new" section. We also got some other stuff out o the way so the main issue now is to make sure we don't miss out on any of the requirements.

We had a meeting with a client over the break to show him a progress and it was good to see that he was happy with it. It gave us more confidence that the project will be finished on time.

The first lecture adn tutorial were on today and it was pretty basic stuff. One thing thats on my mind is the conversation we had between myself, Jason and Steve. We pretty much agree that the other two guys are not putting enough effort in the whole process! Craig missed a tute today again ... we decided to speak to them next week and to put an end to it! If it still continues, we'll have to speak to Dave about it....for now, let us try to resolve it...

Ok thats it for now. I have to make sure I blog regularly this semester....

To sum it up...

Its been a very interesting 13-14 weeks. I can't believe that the semester is already over! Crazy....we've done some good things on our project. We managed to move blob files from the database to the file system which was our major concern.

The whole project is going well. It was very slow at the beginning and I was afraid that we might have problems because of that. I didn't really feel any sense of urgency from other guys. As a project manager, I've tried to push them all the time and sometimes I felt i did too much but in the end it worked. I think that the work we produced so far has been very good.

But we'll have to keep it up, even over the break period. The main thing that was giving us problems (blobs) is resolved so we can start doing things quicker. Soon as I finish my java exam I'll start configuring the forum software...

As far as the evaluation of my team members goes for this semester...its hard! I think that everyone has given the fair share of work. Me and Steve have done most of the database/website work and the other three have been helping with documentation. We'll have to get them involved in project stuff a bit more in the second semester and that's going to be challenging....

I was happy with the support we got from tutors and lecturers...Dave, you can be a bit more specific sometimes ;) but you did give us some valuable info and help....

Just another week

I've finished with all assignments this past week! Now I can concentrate on the project and do a bit more work....

We have made a real progress in this past week. We met few deadlines which is always good...some of the members might contribute a bit more I feel, but it is nothing to worry about...

We've had our presentation which went well....the audience was not to hard on us but I was frustrated when one of our members tried to answer the question from Janet and he had no idea what he was talking about! It was very stupid and I didn't like it...maybe because I don't like to BS to people - if I can't answer I'll tell them that, I wont start talking about something that is irrelevant...

IBM here I come!!!!

The end of the semester is coming so I have less and less time for ...well pretty much anything! Its been hectic couple of weeks, on the project as well with other subjects.

But at least one major thing happened for me last week - I got the graduate position at IBM! I am very happy cuz of it and it was completely out of the blue! I applied to several different companies and IBM was pretty much last on my list, mainly because I thought there is no way I can get it! But what do you know - they were the first ones to contact me, offer me an interview, and later the position.

Everything happened so quickly - I got the call on Friday, had a quick phone interview and arranged the HR interview for Monday (2 weeks ago). I did very well on that interview and was immediately invited for Fast Track Day, on Wednesday which consists of group case study and four (thats right FOUR!!!) interviews....it was really intensive but I thought i did ok....the confirmation came a day later - got a phone call to offer me a position!!!!

Now I can concentrate on Uni for the rest of the year knowing that there is a job waiting for me after I finish!!! Excellent!!!

Problems...

We started having some major issues with the project. The main issue is that we cannot find the way to fulfill all the requirements that client have...well the main one is where he want to transfer all the blob files from the database into the file system. Thats practically the purpose of the project but we are still unable to find a way to do it.

I've posted on few forums asking for direction and we'll see what happens...we're also having a meeting with Janet Fraser to get some help from her....

I've been quite busy in the last few weeks - most of the major companies have their Graduate Programs Applications due now and it is essential to do them well and try to score a graduate position. I've applied to 8 companies so lets see what happens...

Bits and pieces

Nothing much is happening on the project...we had few meetings with the client and I am not sure that some of the guys get exactly what he wants! They ask some very silly questions and I'll have to spend some time talking to them to see if they really understand what we need to do....

I've missed few seminars now, and its a shame! I usually try to go to my lectures but somehow, that's always the only time we can all meet and discuss things....

Ooops!

I'll be completely honest - I forgot about the blog! Thats why I havent been posting regulary...I guess, assignments and reports have gotten in a way of blogging but, once again, I promise that I will try harder in the future.

Well, It's been hectic few weeks on the project. The things are going according to plans so far and we didn't experience any major hiccups.

We went to visit the museum at Park Orchid and it was interesting. There are so many old PC's at the warehouse that it is incredible. Jon (the client) has done a great job of maintaining and organising all of it.

When it comes to project objectives, it is sort of divided into two parts:

• add additional functionalities to the existing website
• re-organise the database that drives the website

So, we have divided the team in two groups sort of. The first one if taking care of the website while the other one is concerned with the database.

But enough about specifications...when it comes to the IE subject itself, I must say that it has lived up to the expectations so far. It is very interesting and it gives us the opportunity to think outside of the square.

All of the team members are more hardware oriented and have better expertise when it comes to networking and general hardware. To work with the database and website design make us come outside of our comfort zone and out a bit more work into it. It is interesting and should give us a lot of work for the next few months....

The client is here...

Finally! We have received the details about our client! This means that the fun is over (not that we had that much of it anyway;)) and we have to start with our project.

Firstly, I'll reflect on the previous week and what has been happening.

I was pretty busy las week with all the little things that we need to do! Quite honestly, I hate this part of the project! All these formalities drive me crazy! Standards and Governance report is due this week and I ve been working on the finalisation of the document in this week...there is just too many things to include in this report! I just hope that what we've done is enough for now...we ll have to update it anyway in the second semester.

Now a word or two on out client...its called HP Computer Museum and they need the upgrade of their database and adding some functionality to their website. Not too happy about the project quite frankly....we said we wanted something more "network or hardware" related or some joomla website but we got this! They (managers) say that this is the most technical one they have...hm...interesting. Just keeps me wondering why am I doing the Net Centric major...

Anyways, the scary thing about the client (like we needed any more scares) is that they tried to get their problems solved last year but the group that was doing it failed! Well, they didn't fail the subject, but they did fail the project and honestly - I don't see the difference! This outs even more pressure on us...

Then we went on the clients website and it really did look like a real mess! I mean, really...there is probably 234 456 links on the website and it looks like it was designed back in 90s...it looks like it would be the best idea to completely redisgn the website - hopefully the database will be a bit better...

We also set up a first meeting with the client - Friday the 13th! Buhahahaha...oh wait, thats Friday the 14th...ah, doesn't matter, we're scared anyways!

for the end, one photo from our clients website - this is the main warehouse!

Lets kick things off...

The team is formed and I have been selected a Project Manager...made me very happy but at the same time I realised that I will have to work probably twice as hard to make the project successful.....

will have to try to blog frequently in the future...