Planning

DESIGN CONCEPT MAP

The concept map below shows a general breakdown of the project with the different phases we will follow to accomplish our final design.

TEAM GANNT CHART

The GANTT chart will be use as a general organization tool to have an overall view of the scope of the project. It will help us to visualize how the project is broken down and the expected time it should take to complete it, in order to successfully meet our final deadline.

Note: This chart does not show the specific dates nor task involve in each category, since it is just to have a general overview. Another tool will be used to keep track in a more detailed manner.

TEAM ORGANIZATION

The team will be meeting weekly on a regular basis, every Thursday at 5pm. An in-person meeting will be held on campus to discuss the current situation of the project, deliver personal and general updates, as well as set up tasks for the following week.

In addition, the team will meet every Tuesday for 30 minutes with Dr. Boutsen (our mentor) to discuss progress and ensure the team is on track to complete a successful project. This will help, since for the second part of the course there will be less guidance from class assignments and the team has more freedom but is in-charge of meeting all major deadlines.

Project Management Tools

The team will be utilizing a variety of tools and apps to communicate with each other and keep track of the project by including internal deadlines to complete tasks.

Monday.com

Monday will be used as a project/task management tool to help the team visualize the progress of tasks in real-time . It will allow us to organize the project into goals > separate tasks > subtasks, with deadlines and assignments to keep members accountable and informed on what tasks will be completed and which will need to be done in order to stay on track. In addition, this took allows team the progress of each task.

WhatsApp will be used as the general communication channel for the team. Since the team only consist of of five members there will not be a loss of communication with many people messaging at once and will provide a fast , easy, and popular way to communicate within the team, share docs, and setup meeting times.

Zoom

Zoom will be use as a communication tool to hold team meeting and discussions, in the case that in-person meeting is not an option or if a member can not attend.

Google Drive

Google Drive will be used to store documents, testing data, simulation, data and any other documentations the team makes and provides. This will create a localized drive for all member to work off of simultaneously at any time and allow our mentor to see our report and data as well.

How is Monday.com being used?

Since many may be unfamiliar with the usage of Monday , below we describe through pictures how Monday.com is utilized by the team, to keep track of and assign the task to members, with due dates and status bars for all team members to review. Each task can have its own comment section that describes the task briefly with members being able to write updates on each task and inform the team on its progress.

The above image shows the total project breakdown page which has all the predefined task all the way up to the final intake design, each member can view, update status, and comment on each task for team clarity, accountability and organization. Task can also be added or deleted as needed if new challenges come up or some task are no longer necessary.

This image shows the weekly task needed to be completed with the people assigned to them and their respective deadline.

This is an example of a task update, this allows to provide quick information to team members to understand how a task is coming along and if any help is needed.

SENIOR I -- EXPERIENCE

During Fall 2021, the team met weekly on a regular basis, every Thursday at 3:30pm. An in-person meeting was held on campus to discuss the situation of the project up to that day, delivered personal and general updates, as well as set up tasks for the following week.

The team carefully reviewed and discussed the Collaboration Plan set up last semester. Most guidelines and tools used worked well and helped the team meet deadlines, communicate, and operate in an efficient manner.

What worked well?

Communication -- The team maintained frequent and constant communication throughout the semester. Communication occurred both in-person and virtually. Weekly meeting occurred once at week to provide updates and feedback, but additional meeting were held whenever it was necessary. In addition, WhatsApp was used on a daily basis to coordinate and correspond ideas. All members of the team were respectful, open-minded, and actively provided feedback, which lead to a good and collaborative team dynamic.
Organization -- The used of Monday.com showed to be a successful way to organize and track progress, since all members of the team used it regularly to document activity. In addition, the weekly meetings allowed to delegate tasks, track progress, and provide feedback to each member of the team.
Team Work -- As a consequence of the good organization and communication, "team work" resulted in a smooth process that allowed everyone to have a clear on their individual tasks, ensuring that they delivered their part, so that the entire team stayed focused working towards achieving the goals.

What needs to be improved?

The following things that could be improve to better the overall project dynamic:

Estimation of feasible deadlines for timeline -- Deadlines need to be more realistically approximated in order to not cause confusion with actual progress. The duration of some tasks were set without taking into account outside factors that affected, such as Panther Motorsports's deadlines not aligning with the senior team progress, thus causing set backs.
Communication with outside sources and sponsors -- Improved communication with external sources and sponsors would benefit the estimation process of deadlines.

Actions taken for Senior II?

After analyzing what needs to be improve, the team came up with some solutions:

Estimation of feasible deadlines for timeline -- The team will schedule a weekly meeting with advisor to ensure proper progress and better estimate final completion dates.
Communication with outside sources and sponsors -- Establishing a better relationship with them will benefit the entire project by making sure they meet our timeframe in order to complete our team tasks. This will be done by having more frequent and open dialog, through face-to-face or Zoom meetings, so they understand our expectations to better serve us and be aware of our timeline.

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