Summary
Groups were told to design a prototype which wold be able be used by a library as a computer system. The aim of this report was to show the factors that led to the group failing to carry out this tasks. The factors that caused this to happen were time mismanagement, bad project planning and poor communication. Factors that lead to a group failing a project was chosen as the topic of the report so problems that led to the group failing could be identified and understood in a way that would prevent group members from making the same mistakes in any future projects. These factors can be avoided by using planning resources and steady communication through Email services and
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An example of this was during the design specification stage of the project. The group ended up getting very low scores because of the way the project was carried out. The work was not evenly shared out between the group members and all group members did not meet up regularly to see who had done which stage of the project. One group member ended up doing most of the task including the story design, the Entity relationship diagram, most of the use case descriptions and the structured English because the other group members did not understand how to do these part of the projects. This led to the group getting very low scores in all these sections as the individual who carried out most of the tasks was not able to fully focus on each section and develop them to an adequate level. This could have been avoided if the group had planned the project well because the weaknesses of individual members could have been discussed earlier and the person who understood the work could have showed the other members of the group how to carry out the various task they did not understand and this would have helped the group avoid failing this stage of the project. Poor project management is also harmful to a group chances of passing a project because it also leads to a lack of communication as group members would not be able
During my Master Courses at the University of Maryland University College each and every subject, we had to complete a group project and submit it within the certain time frame. It was a very challenging task as people were in my group was in different time zones and everybody was doing a job and has a household responsibility. Most of the time, I was leading my team, as I like to work in advance to complete the project before the deadline. I was preparing a meeting agenda for my project management course. We have completed weigh waste water project for blueberry farm to grow blueberry in organic way and at the same time providing nutrient and saving the
Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better
This course provides the foundation for successful project planning, organization, and implementation within the realm of information technology. The course uses real-world examples and identifies common mistakes and pitfalls in project management. Topics covered include project scoping, estimating, budgeting, scheduling and staffing, tracking and controlling, and software tools for project management.
Something that we learned as a group was that cooperation helps a lot. Certain tasks were accomplished faster and this showed us that one person does not have to do the entire project on their own. Procrastination is also detrimental, causing cramming on days before deadlines. This can be stressful and force meetings to be postponed. Our group has also learned to follow a set schedule. Following a schedule allows us to complete all of our work on time.
My group kept saying “Oh, we are 5 so this will be easy to do, we can do this in 2 hours.” The group size was problematic because we had too many people, and not a lot of work to do. I believe that this was one of the causes that some members of my group felt so confident with the project that either waited until the last minute to do their part or did not do it at all because they believed the other students would cover each section of the project.
Reid Hastie, in his book “Wiser,” discusses many of the common points of how groups succeed and fail mainly due to group think. Throughout his years of research, he found a number of attributes that effective teams have in common. From his book, we have extracted ten important lessons that we believe are the most important for teams to learn and implement to be high performing. These findings also relate to the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” that are outlined by Patrick Lencioni. Teachings taken from “Wiser” are symptoms, or indicators, of dysfunctions within a team, and many of his solutions help teams to overcome certain dysfunctions.
In this group project, I had a major role in ensuring that it came together in a unified way. Generally, I usually take a leadership role in group projects so I was the central person coordinating group meetings and ensuring sufficient communication. To begin the project, we divided up the work by assigning people to work on the case study, find literature, summarize the textbook, and talk to key informants. My assigned part was to summarize the textbook, which also ended up lending itself to finding some additional sources to build on what the textbook was lacking. In regard to the group literature and informant summary, I ended up writing most
For example our group sometimes got off topic while talking with each other and it was challenging for us to get back on topic, this made us realize that we needed to stay on topic to make sure that we are getting the most quality work done and what we wanted to get out of this project. Secondly, we ran into an issue with not communicating about what plan we should use when we were planning during our plan time, for instance the weight of the marshmallow was not accounted for and was like a brick crashing down on the spaghetti which was as thin and weak. This made our tower crashing down and made us very disappointed
In situations where roles are vague or time is limited, this leadership style can lead to communication failures and uncompleted projects. Sometimes the group members may not have the necessary expertise to make quality contributions to the decision-making process.
In my undergraduate work, almost all of my classes that were directly related to my major required at the least one group project. In the beginning this was not something I was very fond of mostly because I had some bad experiences when it came to working with others on projects. Usually it was the problem of people not pulling their own weight, and doing their parts to help with the tasks. When it came time to have the assignment complete it was even harder to give a grade to those people. I did not want to be the guy who caused someone to throw someone under the bus. However, after I thought about it, I did want to be that guy because in the real world on a work project if there was someone who did not pull their weight in the job projects would not be successful. So, when it came time for grades, I was always honest, and usually if a person did not do their part I told it how it was.
The negative group process I have experienced is the absence of the team member. My group had three members, and one of the members frequently missed a lot of meetings for the group project. The member was a big help whenever he was around; he gave a lot of ideas and was willing to help. However, he did not attend the group project very much. It was tough for me and my other team member because the work we have to do was too much for us, since the assignment was meant to be for three to four people. We tried to communicate with the team member who did not attend, but there was no respond, and we eventually got tired of the member’s absence and did not give a credit for that person for the project. At the end of the class, there was a peer evaluation,
For this project it was decided by the group to use a flat management structure, and to follow a system akin to free development. This method meant that none of the group was the project manager and instead the thing keeping people on track was their self-motivation to complete the project. To aid with completing the project at the start of the project a list of work was set out from the requirements, and then each member of the group picked the tasks that they could complete for the year. The main reason such a free and unstructured
Being involved in a group project was a challenge for me, due to the fact that we had some communication problems between our group members in the beginning. First of all, we started with a brainstorming, analysing the opportunities of companies around Hendon Central. More than this, we agreed on the same firm and started our work. Within a teamwork, there are some challenges that occur such as remaining focused on a direction, splitting equally the work and choosing a good leader. Bearing all this in mind, I might say that we did our best during the presentation and we coped with the minor communication issues. From this experience, I realized that I am a good leader and I can manage efficiently a project.
As we begin to form our self-managed work teams this week for the final report and presentation due at the end of session, I begin to reflect on the situations where I have had to be part of a group. Accordingly, past experiences have led me to form a generally negative viewpoint with regards teamwork in both the education and workplace setting. In most situations, group work is facilitated by a single leader responsible for ensuring that all members complete their work to the required standard. Nevertheless, this has lead to situations where team members often become unproductive or dysfunctional. For one thing, conflict – whether it be task or relational – arises between team members and leaders when they begin to feel that they are subject to the leader’s authoritarian behaviour or scrutiny. For another, the leaders responsible for the management of the group begin to feel underappreciated or dissatisfied with the levels of task productivity generated by group members. In stating this, I have experienced both sides of single leadership team management – with mostly disastrous results – where negative team performance ultimately reflected on assessment grades.
In this case it is possible that a member of the team may show more leader like qualities, this could become disadvantageous to the team as the leader may attempt to dominate the group work and not consider the needs or views of other team members. This again could create conflict and unease amongst group members and will ultimately affect the collaboration of the group project.