Project Management

He manako te kōura i kore ai

Wishing for the crayfish won’t bring it.

Agile Development

Agile development is a process originally developed for software development but has applications in a wide range of design industries. Each "sprint" is broken down into a number of components which feedback into each other. Its counterpart is the Waterfall model which is a more linear process.

Requirements Gathering

The first step of a sprint is to set up the requirements for the sprint. It involves asking your customers and stakeholders what they want your system to do. At school we use the the design stage or end of sprint feedback to establish these requirements.

Design

This establishes what can be achieved with the skills of the developers. This normally establishes the plan for the sprint and what can be achieved.

Develop

This stage is all about making a part of your thing. You should have broken your project down into small manageable pieces so they can be tackled by a single developer.

Test

As each task is completed it is tested in isolation and in the whole process. This testing could include internal as well as external feedback and trialing.

Deploy

At the end of each sprint the product is released. In software engineering this is normally a patch or version.

In this video Mr Rodkiss from Burnside High School goes over the project management for your project in the context of video game design.

This includes the tools and some great tips and tricks to make a really good project plan and stick to it!

Trello

Trello is a free project management system

Freedcamp

HacknPlan

Examples of project management and version control tools and techniques include:

saving backup copies with a logical file naming system
using collaboration tools
using simple version control software applications
using tools or systems to plan tasks and milestones
adjusting key actions and tasks where appropriate

SETTING UP YOUR PROJECT

You should start your project with headings for:

Future Checkpoints
To Do
Doing
Done

And then populate this with tasks.

As you work on and complete tasks you should move the task to the appropriate section.

It can also be helpful to colour code tasks for specific members or related tasks.

At the end of each sprint/checkpoint you should archive your tasks.

During each review you should screenshot your chosen project management tool and add it to the Development Log

Development Stages

Basic Framework

During the first sprint you should finish the basic requirements of your project. The users should be able to give you feedback on how your project works and looks even if everything is not working 100%

Refining

During the second sprint it should be all about working up your product to make it as refined as possible. The core parts should be finished so that all the parts work well together.

Making it Juicy

During the last sprint it should be all about making your product as exciting as possible. Making sure it looks the best it can with all the bells and whistles.

NCEA Requirements

Decomposing the outcome into smaller components

Organise your work into lots of bite sized pieces. Each task you should plan to just a few lessons/hours to complete. When you complete one of the tasks you need to collect some evidence in the form of a photo, screenshot or similar.

Examples of good tasks

Sketch up main character
3d model main character in Blender
Colour 3d main character
Rig 3d model
Basic walk animation

Examples of bad tasks

Make main character
Create action scene

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