REFLECTIONS ON MY PROJECT TEAM IFS 231

How groups were formed

During the second week of the semester my tutor immediately placed students that were in her tutorial group into groups of five. I was placed into tutorial group two with four other members. This would then be my group for the rest of the semester for whatever group tasks we have and also the main group assignment that is due is April. 

That same day that we found out which groups we were in, we then decided to create a WhatsApp group chat, which we could use to communicate with each other frequently. We each introduce ourselves to each other via the WhatsApp group chat and then I actually found out that one of the members in my group actually went to the same high school as me.

Meetings

My group and I mainly had our meeting via WhatsApp because it was difficult to find a time when everyone was available to meet. We did however make use of a WhatsApp voice call which we used to discuss about who is going to do what for one of our tutorial group assignments. We kept the voice call as short as possible because some of us had other commitments but we were able to sort out what we wanted to do. We also made use of google meets. Our group leader created a link and then sent it onto our group chat. We used google meets because we wanted to see who we were actually working with so therefor we had to switch on our cameras just for a second so that we were able to put names to faces. So, before the google meeting we each had to gather information about a organisation which best suit our topic of quality education. So therefor during our meeting we had to present our finding and we decided to vote via a WhatsApp poll on which organisation we are going to use for our group assignments.

Individual assignment

For the individual assignment I need to create a digital portfolio of evidence (Poe). This is basically a report of personal experience, reflections, and evidence. This individual component counts twenty percent towards my year mark. I need to complete the PoE using google sites. To be honest I never heard of google sites before, but it just amazes me how much this module is teaching me and I’m not just referring to the content. I watched the pre recorded video that shows how google sites work and how we need to use it. The PoE also needs to be five pages only. I need to have reflections on the lectures and tutorials page, reflection on the group assignment page, reflection of IFS 231 page, an about me page as well as a self-discovery page.

Assignment

• Deliverable One (Proposal Document)

Within my group we decided that we each had to gather information about an organisation which best suits our topic of quality education. So therefor during our google meets meeting we had to present our finding and we decided to vote via a WhatsApp poll on which organisation we are going to use for our group assignments. We decided to go with The South African Education Project (SAEP) because we believe in their cause and we want to do our part in helping the community by addressing issues the organisation may face and because they are a non-profit that gives back to the community and overall helps the lack of quality education issue in South Africa. We then need too propose a solution that will address the organisations problem areas. We need to use the Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM) to unpack the identified problem and possible solution for their problems. We also need to create a Business Case Document (BCD) which should include the analysis and all other plans and strategies as well as our discussion notes and meeting minutes. Every week when my group and I have a discussion a group member needs to volunteer to record the minutes of our meeting as well as all the other necessary things that is needed for our submission. My group and I will not be meeting with stakeholders of the organisation. We will therefor need to think critically and place ourselves in the stakeholders shoes. We need to use a google document to do this assignment and our group leader has already created one so we have been adding information to it as we go on.

• Deliverable two (Business Requirements Document )

This is the part of the assignment where we need to define the requirements for a new or improved information system (database). This entails eliciting, analysing and translating the user requirements into system requirements. We need to gather as much information about our organisation as we can. We then have to collect documents about the requirements for an information system. Our documents that we collect should include at least two forms that the organisation uses to collect information which we can find on their website. But my group will be using the other option, which is to brainstorm and think critically, as a team, what fields would we put on a form if they wanted to collect information. These forms will inform us on a database design. Once we have gathered the requirements, we need to develop a comprehensive Business Requirements Document (BRD). My group needs to work through the requirements that we collected and choose a method that allows the stakeholders to be involved in writing the user stories. Then we need to use the user stories to work out our product backlog, sprint planning and Sprint backlog, etc. Thereafter we need to start placing all our user stories onto the Trello board and create timeframes on Trello and Team Gantt according to your Sprint planning.

My contributions

For many of our tutorial group tasks we would split the questions amongst ourselves within the group. For the Smart ID card case study, I did the questions namely, problem Statement and organizational impact. And because we received good feedback for that tutorial we decided as a group that we will be doing the same questions that we did for the tutorial we will then be do for the group assignment because we know what the requirements for those questions are. My group also chose my organization which I did research on because everybody liked The South African Education Project (SAEP) organization. Overall I am impressed with my contributions to the group but I am always willing to do more.

 REFERENCE 

IMAGE 1:Allthings.how (e.b.). Google meets screenshot. https://allthings.how/how-to-turn-off-camera-on-google-meet/

IMAGE 2: KMP, H. Group. https://kmpplus.com/en/group-mentoring-becomes-more-and-more-popular/