Initial Product ideas
PRINCE 2 uses a product-based framework to assist in the development and management of a project. The product can represent what the project is delivering and the sequence or order of these deliverables. During the course we will examine this notion of product development and use some of the formal framework to assist in describing your response for the Business Case.
This form is a simple start to this process and asks you to consider what actual products / services could be provided through the MakerSpaces. Complete this form individually AFTER your first group meeting to further document your ideas. Then discuss these at your next group meeting.
This form also incorporates Design Things notion of storytelling as a way to define a project/service/product.
The forms that you are completing in the early weeks of the course, aim to foster and document your initial ideas. Later in the course you can expand on these as you develop the actual Business Case response.
Submit this form by Wednesday 18th March and have a copy available when you start discussions with your group.
1. Describe the current group response( I will send you more information) to the use of MakerSpaces. From the groups initial meeting, what does the group think the space could be used for? (one-two paragraphs)
2.Design Thinking (and for that matter good project management) asks you to gather information from your demographic audience your potential audiences / users. In a design thinking framework, you would interview or observe some of your users and then develop a narrative or story around their project need.
At this stage of BUSM 4173, there is not an expectation to gather such first hand information, however, you can use narrative or story telling to help to define your product.
Draft TWO stories that use demographic data to help define a user and product of your groups potential project. For example: Teenagers interested in electronics will be able to design and build simple iPhone apps using the provided hardware and instruction and thus develop a basic programming skill that could enhance their application for VET or university application. The implication in this narrative is a teenage demographic and need for educational support.
Note, your narrative / story should be based on the discussion and initial ideas forming from your group
3.Reflect on the stories that you have developed and start to list the Products that you believe meet this response or will be an outcome from this response.
At this initial stage of thinking, the product could be listed in a number of way for example the above story could include: hardware products (make available access to computers for app development) / service products (teach how to make iPhone apps). List (with a sentence description/clarification) as many products as you believe may meet the initial ideas of the group response.
PRINCE 2 suggests that Product Descriptions should be written as soon as possible after the need for the product has been identified. Initially, these may only be skeletons with little more than the title and identifier as information. They will be refined and amended as the product becomes better understood and the later planning steps are done Managing successful projects with PRINCE2, 2009 OGC, UK p. 66 Thus, at this stage, the aim is to consider what could be the products of your response to the MakerSpace project.
4.Select one of your products and identify and list the COMPOSITION of the product. This provides more detail of the product. PRINCE 2 uses the example of a PRODUCT being a report and the COMPOSITION being an indication of the chapters of the report. Thus, consider one of your products and determine what makes up this product.
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Added on 19.03.2015 04:39
TASK 1: PROJECT INITIATION
Submission Date: Report submitted Friday 17th April (Week 6) individual forms F1, F2 and F3 submitted as
per schedule below.
The course will use a modified approach to project management based on the PRINCE 2 framework. PRINCE 2 is a highly detailed process for documenting and managing projects, and usually requires formal accreditation for implementation. BUSM 4173 course material will introduce some of the principles of PRINCE 2 so that you are aware of the broader framework. However, these principles and processes will be adapted so that they can be used during the course as to assist in your planning and responding to the course case study.
The first weeks of the course will ask you as individuals and then in your project team/group, to consider options and approaches to the case study. A number of techniques will be used to assist in this process and Task 1 is your response to these techniques. The aim is to provide an element of structure so that you can, as an individual first, consider aspects of the case study and then use this to foster group discussion as a response to the case study. These techniques will be drawn from the process of Design Thinking, which can act as a way to quickly develop project and planning ideas.
During each of the first weeks you will complete a form on an aspect of the project planning process. For example, the first week will ask you to complete background reading on the case study and then to document initial ideas/responses to the case study using the inspiration notion of Design Thinking. Template forms will be given for each of these tasks and you are to complete each form prior to your group meeting. The templates will be available from the course website. Groups will be established in Week 2 of the course. Face- to-Face students will need to complete the form prior to the tutorial time. Online students will need to complete the form prior to their group meeting or online discussion.
Submission for this task consists of two elements.
1/ Each individual form is to be submitted prior to your group discussion. This provides a record of your initial ideas and planning response for the early stages of the project plan. The course website provides the process for electronic submission of all assignments.
F1: submitted by Wednesday 11th March
******** F2: submitted by Wednesday 18th March (This one that I need you guy to complete)
F3: submitted by Wednesday 25th March
2/ A formal report is to be submitted by the due date. Excluding appendices, the report should be 1,500-2,000 words. The report is a modified version of PRINCE2 and the initial planning process. Its aim is for each student to prepare a business type report that documents this planning. The course website provides a word document that outlines the structure for this submission as well as the questions and issues that need to be addressed. This assessment task asks you to prepare an individual report that describes the initial planning ideas being developed through the Project Team discussion. Thus, while the submission is written as individual work, it draws on the ideas being developed by the project group.
