Week 7 Presentation - Planning

Week 7 marks the start of group work presentations. The Virtual Museum team drew the short straw and were first out of the blocks. Covering the topic of planning and the vast benefits a well-founded project plan can have on the final result.

I felt that the overall presentation was very strong. Most of the group members spoke eloquently and at a reasonable pace which was easy to follow. They had great graphics and it looked like they put a lot of effort into a comical yet informative stop-motion video.

Comments:

• The group used 'Prezi' which is a cloud based presentation software.​ They designed a strong overarching graphic for the presentation that highlighted the concepts and the work they have done very well.

• They covered many topics and structured the presentation in a logical and linear manner. Opening with "what is planning" and "why do we plan" was smart as it engages and clarifies what most people could approach as an 'assumed' topic, however wrong that may be.

• Following this, they covered the planning techniques that are out there, and the techniques they have used. However I felt that they only used/covered basic planning tools, even mentioning the use of Gantt Charts which were not actually Gantt charts, rather coloured in excel documents. This halfway method of planning is not beneficial as a real Gantt chart allows for a detailed visualisation and breakdown of tasks, offering comments, adjustability, prioritisation, and analysis tools. Not to mention proper use of syntax (milestone icons, timeline icons etc).

• Lastly they showed a stop-motion video that they had made which was very informative and very well produced (class members even had to question if they had made it or found it) which is testament to the quality of production and content. Unfortunately the text was on screen for too short of time and there was a 'faff' with the sound which the group then took quite a long time to sort out. Situations like that are unforeseeable and they managed to resolve the situation, however this built up the importance of the sound within the clip which turned out to be just a backing track. This was highlighted by the tutor's questions of necessity and use of sound in a video. Lastly I felt that the video was placed in the wrong part of the presentation, it would have been more beneficial to the overall flow if it was shown as the first item as an ice-breaker to inform and outline what planning is, setting a tone for the rest of the presentation.

What I Will Take from the Presentation/What I have done as a Result of Hearing the Presentation:

• In conjunction with my group mates, I'm going to constantly plan and of Corse re-plan.

• Re-visit my Gantt chart and include a breakdown of personalised tasks.

All images and videos that have been used are taken from; Planning_VirtualMuseum_1000words.pdf, written by the virtual museaum group and presented on the 22nd Apr 2015