MIT 520 - "PICNICS"
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Context
The “PICNICS - Process of Involuntary Commitment Reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System” project was generated as a requirement for MIT 520: Managing Instrucitonal Development. The project was supervised in the fall of 2009 by Dr. Albert Ritzhaupt. The project consisted of designing and developing a project plan for the hypothetical revision of a national database for the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) as well as managing the project itself.
Conditions
This project was completed within a semester time frame. To complete this project, I worked with a group of fellow MIT classmates: Kim Whitfield, Matt Gayford, and Zach McLaren. This project required our group to identify a problem, complete an analysis, and then determine a realistic instructional development plan. Kim Whitfield brought this problem to our group because she works with the AOC. So, the group utilized her expert knowledge and extant data to determine the best possible solution. The project was then completed in phases according to the schedule of the course. As the class explored all the facets of information technology project management, the instructional development plan was revised.
Scope
To complete this assignment, our project team examined the PICNICS database. The project group found that due to the limited capabilities of the current application very few counties were actually utilizing the database. After talking to stakeholders, the project team determined what the stakeholders needed. A project scope statement was created to outline the primary goals of the project team. The project team then went through the process of managing the multiple aspects of this instructional development project.
Role
For this project I worked collaboratively with my project team members. The “PICNICS” project gave me a chance to utilize leadership, communication, and team building skills. I assumed multiple roles during the life of this project such as: analyst, instructional designer, and project manager. With this project, our project team split into two groups and divided the tasks needed to complete the project. But, before submission each part of the project was reviewed and revised where needed by each project team member.
Reflection
When I started this assignment, I did not have an experience working as a project manager. I can easily see myself completing this type of project in the future and this class helped me develop my management skills. If I had to change something about this project, I would change how we split up the work. At the beginning it was obvious that we were not presenting information in a cohesive manner. Our professor reminded us that the divide and conquer approach is not always the best way to complete a project. As project managers, we should have reviewed our work more thoroughly before submission.