Lessons Learned

Even a small website project can be a big endeavor
Try an maintain a usable communication plan with sponsors and team members.
Work hard to obtain buy in from all team members and sponsors
Clearly define roles, responsibilities and expectations at the beginning of the project!
Try to maintain momentum if the project drags on longer than expected
Be flexible - but realize there is a schedule to maintain.

COMMUNICATION is the key to everything!

Final Presentation

Well I didnt end up using the mind maps I created in the official final presentation but I did find them ot be useful when I was trying to organize my thoughts.
I gave my final presentation on Wed. July 30, 2008. It went very well but I had a technical glitch in the middle when I was unable to access the Joomla version of the RYT website.

Now the work to complete the website will continue and I will be setting up a day to train the staff on how to update the site using Joomla. I will need to spend some time doing this first so I can create a user manual for the staff.

I hope to have the site delivered and the staff trained by the end of August!

MindMap

Today I began work on a mindmap using MindMeister. I am trying to map out risk management and mitigation for my project. It is an interesting process to think about the categorizing the various stages of the project...should it task driven or deliverables? I have started 3 different maps
and have also been drawing some of the processes on paper to help me think it through.
I will use this in the future at the beginning of a project and also to help brainstorm.
Some unexpected thought have happened...I realize how much i have done and how far the project has come. I am also starting my reflection document and then I want to begin the presentation.

July 1st! Update

Today I asked for a status update from my programmer, fellow student. She has overcome the latest technical hurdle with applying a template to the Joomla site and hopes to start adding modules soon. Hopefully, she will meet the deadline of having something functional for the Capstone Fair July 12. I am still gathering copy for the site from my sponsors. They have not been getting back to me with much in the way of copy so today I sent an e-mail out to all of the kids and parents who participate in the theatre program asking for their input. I have asked for them to send me their favorite quotes from shows they have been in and also a testimonial about their experience in the program. It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get.

I have also applied the code from cushycms.com to much of the html site as a plan B. This will allow the sponsors to edit designated areas of the website. It has limited capabilities and is not the easiest to use when adding and editing images, but I would like to see how it works for them just in case! I have also been working on the html site and adding content. I found some code to add a photo gallery with html and css (no javascript, yeah!) it is on the site but I still need to play with it some more.

The next big performance for RYT is the Shakespeare Tour, which takes place Aug 5-10 in various towns in the central VT area. I need to begin sending out the information including the link to the website to other organizations and websites.

I think that the capstone website will need to be completed oor even re-done after the completion of the trimester.

Have been using the liquidplanner.com website to create my wbs it is a neat application, which sends me e-mails every day to remind me of what need to be done. I was hoping this was also sending e-mails to my programmer but she hasnt noticed any. So I need to check on this.

This week I will begin working on the poster board for the capstone fair.

Promotional Schedule

As part of my change management class and also part of this capstone I am working with RYT to create a promotion schedule. I just completed a first draft and e-mailed to the key sponsors, to spur some discussion and help with the effort of thinking through when promotional efforts should begin. This is a top level document with not a lot of task based elements defined as yet. I merely want to encourage feedback and discussion around the schedule.

To view the document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3475167/RYT-Production-Schedule-and-Calendar-2008

eventually, I hope to have the promotion schedule on the calendar of the new website
For now I hope to gather feedback and revise to the next level of detail. Then assign resources to each task.

Friday - re-evaluate progress

I had another disappointment with the project this week, I had hoped to show some progress to the stakeholders today, but due to more technical difficulties was unable to do so and had to re-schedule the meeting. I am now reviewing the schedule and trying to prepare a new schedule which I will give to my programmer and ask for her commitment to the delivery dates specified.

I am also proceeding with creating wireframes and gathering and preparing content for the site.
The process so far has not been what I had hoped and I will be documenting my progress and the steps I have and will be taking to deal with the issues.

It is difficult to seperate out the academic expectations of this capstone from the actual deliverable that I have promised....but I see that is what I should focus on.

Style guide on Scribd

Okay this seems like the quickest work around I could find - to provide the full document.
I have posted the file on Scribd a document sharing community...interesting site, another use for social media networking!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3320755/RYT-StyleGuide