A lack of effort from some team members

This was a huge issue from my perspective, it was apparent that some team members were not putting in the required effort to help other team members out. We resolved an issue at the start of the project which was communication. This enabled each team member to communicate with each other, so communication should be easy. One week, after a team meeting the minutes secretary needed to e-mail everyone the minutes of the meeting because they did not get the chance to distribute them in the lesson. Therefore, this team member was supposed to e-mail everyone the minutes of the meeting so they had a copy. The team member failed to do this and as a result, every other team member did not have a copy and they were unable to put it their folder.

How my contribution affected others

To resolve this problem I spoke to the group member the next day and made sure that they printed out a copy of the minutes of the meeting and they produced it to everyone else. This was a quick an easy solution and all of the group members ended up with the correct documentation.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This issue seemed at first, long term but because I spoke to the team member about it, it resulted that it was a short term issue.

Lack of communication within the team

I feel there was a lack of communication within the group and it could have helped us a whole lot more if we were to communicate a lot more within the classroom and outside of the classroom. Seeing as out group was initially put together by our teacher, this meant that not everyone in the group did not know each other and this was a barrier because it made the communication within the group more difficult. As a solution to the problem I felt the group meeting helped us communicate more and it people relax a little more. We decided to make sure we exchanged e-mail addresses so we could communicate more outside of lesson. This was a really good idea because it was cheap and it made sure that a lot more of the work was completed.

How did my contribution affected others

It was important that every group member had their own e-mail address because it would make communicating withing the group much easier. If a certain member of the team did not have an e-mail address I suggested that they make one as it is free. If they could not do this I suggested that we exchange telephone numbers and then we could communicate and transfer information mt texting or phone.

Was the issue long or short term?

I feel this was a short term issue. This is because we highlighted this problem right at the beginning of the project and made sure every group member was easily contactable. This issue was solved immediately and everything was resolved.

Relying on other group members

Throughout the project, a large part of the team work was relying on people. This was an issue because it meant that if people were unreliable, some of the work would not get done or there would be a delay in the process and it would make people fall behind, in terms of their gantt chart. My first example would be group members attendance. If someone was absent it would cause the rest of the group's work to be delayed.  With important tasks like contributing ideas for the website and team meetings, it was very important that all the team members were present because we needed the maximum number of people to help design and plan the website. When some team members were absent due to illness or examinations it proved difficult for the rest of the group to function properly. The group also had to rely on certain people regarding the team meetings. The person who was head of the meeting was relied on by other group members because they had to cover everything that needed to be covered and also give everyone an equal opportunity to put forward their ideas and opinions. The group members also had to rely on the minutes secretary to ensure that they typed up the minutes of the meeting and distribute it to everyone on the same day. This held a lot of responsibility and was a key function withing the group.

We also had to complete a task that required everyone in the group to go away and research two different artist websites. This meant that everyone needed to be present so they could do the research and give their feedback in a team meeting. Unfortunately, not everyone was present whilst completing this task and we did not get a full set of ideas for the website. To help resolve this problem I would make sure that we held the meeting for this task on a day that everyone was present. We would then have a full set of ideas and the planning and designing for the website would be much easier. The group had to rely on one of the group members to produce a set of website structure diagrams. The website structure diagrams basically outlined what the website structure would look like and what website pages each member of the group was going to create. This was a task that had a lot of responsibility because without it, the team would not know what pages they were designing and we could not get started quickly.

How my contribution affected others

By ensuring that team meetings were held on the days that every group member was absent, was a good solution to the problem becasue it ensured that all group members knew about the meeting and they were present of the time it commenced.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term issue becasuse the group had to ensure that they were present for every team meeting throughout the whole production of the website. This proved a success and helped with the development of my new skills. I learned how to manage a team and suggest improvements to the way things were being done.

No access to Adobe Dreamweaver at home

Unfortunately, I did not have access to Adobe Dreamweaver at home and this created a whole different issue regarding the designing of my website. This meant that all of the design work for my website had to be completed at college during lesson time. When designing my website I realised that it took an awful long time to get everything looking how the client and the user wanted it. This could mean that it would take me a whole week to complete just one page on the website. This also meant that I had to complete all of the testing in the classroom because I needed Adobe Dreamweaver to detect what problems I had when designing the web pages. The testing took about two to three days. This meant that overall, the whole classroom time for the designing of the website took about three to four weeks, this was without planning, documenting, evaluating and researching the website. This meant that I had to prioritise the tasks that were in my gantt chart. I made sure that all of the design work for the website was completed in the class room because I knew that I would not get any other time to do it. This did cause a problem because it meant that the design schedule for the website way very tight at times and there was a lot of pressure to get all of the task completed.

To avoid this issue if I were to complete a similar task, I would make sure that I would have the software accessible at all different areas. This would be so I could complete the work at college and from home also. In return this would enable me to complete the work much faster and give myself more time to complete other tasks. Overall, I would be able to complete my work to a much better standard because I would have much more time and it would not be rushed.

How my contribution affected others

Unfortunately there was no contribution I could make here because you had to pay a large amount of money to download Adobe Dreamweaver. This was not suitable and I chose to not download it.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term issue because it meant that I had to use Adobe Dreamweaver at college and prioritise all of my website designing to doing it at college during class. This meant that it was rushed at times but it did all get completed.

More support with Adobe DreamWeaver

Whilst each of our group member worked away on their new web pages someone had a bit of trouble with Adobe Dreamweaver. This group member was also new to Adobe Dreamweaver and was struggling to get to grips with the software. They rose the issue to me and I did my best to help them, even though I was not that experienced with Adobe Dreamweaver either. The issue was that they did not know how to import a video on to their web page. This was one of the trickiest parts of using Adobe Dreamweaver and I used the skills I had learn previously to help my group member out. At first, they did not know how to convert the video from an MPG4 to an FLV file so it would work on their web page. I showed them how to do this by going to 'saveyoutube.com' This was a piece of software which enabled the videos to be converted to a number of different formats. FLV format would only work in Adobe Dreamweaver and this is the only format where others can view it. I then showed them how to import it into adobe Dreamweaver. I told them that it was important to make sure that they saved the FLV file into their hard drive so they can access it from Dreamweaver. I then said that they should click on 'file', 'import' and 'import to library'. Once these steps were complete all they had to do was choose the file from their hard drive and it would appear in the Dreamweaver library. From here it was just a case of dragging the file from the library onto the web page and choosing its location. It was also important that they chose a skin for the video.

This issue had an effect on me because this meant that I had to take time out of my own project to help others. There were others in my group that had issues with Adobe Dreamweaver and I tried my best to help them out. I had problems as well throughout the design process and other group members had to take time our from their own projects to help me too. As a team we all worked well together to help each other out and resolve any issues we had during the design process.

How my contributions affected others

By helping the group member out this meant some of the group work was completed quicker and they was at a higher standard in terms of using Adobe Dreamweaver. The quality of their work was also better and they were able to design their web pages with more ease. My contribution was good and the team member was grateful for my input.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a short terms issue because the problem arose at the start of the design process and I helped to resolve it quickly and efficiently. This helped me develop new skills because I learned how to offer help to other team members.

Learning new skills

Whilst completing the project I learned many different new skills and improved on original skills also. I used Adobe Dreamweaver to complete my project which I feel was quite a tricky piece of software to get to grips with and it took a lot of time before I fully understood all the different aspects and how to change and modify things. When I first experienced Adobe Dreamweaver, my subject teacher gave us a set of instructions to use on the software just to play around with. This was a good starting point because nothing had to be to a good standard because we were simply playing around with the software. My issue with Adobe Dreamweaver was that it was hard to move the different components of the web pages around to where I wanted them. I tried to put them on to layers and move them but this was not specific enough and only moved the objects roughly to where I wanted them. After using my own initiative, I finally found out how to do this. I used the Adobe Dreamweaver guide and looked up the problem and figured out how to resolve it. I needed to change the layout of the page in the properties section. I changed the layout to free-form where the pages did not have a lot of structure and they were loose. This enabled me to move anything on the page to where I wanted it and it allowed me to be much more specific. To prevent this problem from occurring again I would need to make sure I had more experience with new software so any problems I encountered, I would be able to deal with.

Sticking to my gantt chart

I produced a gantt chart during the planning stage of  my project. The gantt chart had all of the tasks that I needed to complete in order to design my website. The gantt chart had a few specific columns of information about the task, these were:

• The task title
• Start date
• End Date
• Predecessors

The gantt chart was a specific table that outlined the whole design process of the project. The issue with the gantt chart is that I did not find it that easy to follow because of my own performance and other issues that slowed the design process down. In terms of my performance, I did not keep up with the gantt chart as planned. At times, this was down to me not working quickly enough and other tasks were slowing me down. This meant that some of the other tasks suffered and I became behind schedule. Another issue that made me fall behind on my gantt chart was the bad weather we had. This meant that we did not have to attend college for two days and therefore we could not use the college computers. This meant that some of the work had to be postponed. Again, this meant that I was behind in terms of following my gantt chart and it was important that I caught up with work that I was behind on. If I were to complete a similar task I would allocate myself more time to complete all the tasks that were relevant to the project. Although I feel my time planning was realistic I need to allocate myself more time to deal with un-expected weather conditions to prevent this happening again.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term issue because the gantt chart was a consistent feature throughout the whole website project. It was important that I stuck to the gantt chart as best I could but there were obviously issues that prevented me from doing this.

Ensuring all paperwork is handed in on time

It is important that all the paperwork is completed on time and each team member completes work that is relied on by other team members. The paperwork is what we are all marked on and it is important that it is completed to a good standard and the best quality is shown. There were some issues with my paper work when completing and printing out some of my documents. I had some issues once I had completed the gantt chart and wanted to print it out. The format was tricky to print out because it was spread out across a few pages. I had to use my own initiative to find out how to print the gantt chart. I used the Internet to do this. Once I had researched how to do this I could print out the document fully and put it in my folder. Some of my paperwork was not printed in colour, especially when I was documenting my pages. I felt it was important to produce these documents in colour and make sure they looked professional. I did not print out these documents in colour because I ran out of class time. to prevent this happening again I would ensure that I left myself enough time to print them out and produce them in my folder.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term issue because paperwork had to be handed in constantly and it was importnant that I met all of the relvant deadlines. I made sure that I did my best to keep up with all of the deadlines and make sure the wuality of my work was to a good level. This helped me learn new skills like organisational skills and the improved quality of work.

Ensuring the minutes of each meeting were typed up

Each time we had a group meeting it was very important that the minutes of the meeting were typed up by the minutes secretary then printed out and distributed to each group member. It was my turn to write up the minutes after meeting number three. There was a slight issue with this because usually the meeting would be completed about half way through a lesson. Then whilst the other group members carried on with other work for the unit, the minutes secretary would type the minutes up and distribute it to the team. Unfortunately, I ran out of time when I was typing my minutes up. This meant that I had to complete the rest of the work at home and then distribute the minutes of that meeting to the rest of the team, the next day. This delayed the process and made some of the group members frustrated with me. This is why it was important that the minutes of that meeting were typed up the same day as the meeting was held. The typing up of the minutes was a fairly simple task because I wrote all of what was said in the meeting down on a piece of paper and all I had to do was transfer it into word.

To prevent this from happening next time, I decided to make sure immediately after the meeting I began typing up the minutes. Previously, I would not get straight on with typing up the minutes, I would finish work that was not fully complete or start new work. I now realise that this is an important task and the rest of the team are relying on me to complete the task. This role may not seem huge but it does hold a lot of responsibility and you have to ensure you use your own initiative to make sure everything is completed on time and you don't keep other group members waiting around.

How my contribution affected others

I feel I made a good contribution to the team by ensuring that all of the minutes were typed up and distributed to the team. I made some amendments to my performance and made sure the paperwork side of things ran more smoothly as a result of this.

Was this a long or short term affect?

This was a short term effect because I only had to complete this task once.

Working closely with other group members

A lot of our work that we completed for this unit was group based. Although there were a lot of tasks that were to be completed individually, there was a fair share that were completed as a group. This meant that we had to work closely with other people. Our teacher made sure that our groups were not friend based and they were made up of people that we did not necessarily talk to on a regular basis. This meant that we had to work closely with people that we did not really know. We did not know how each individual worked and how him or her prefer to do things. Personally, I like to work on my own and get all of the tasks completed myself. Therefore, working in a group proved difficult for me because I was used to working with people I knew and as an individual. I had to quickly adapt and make sure I was a good team member by making valid contributions and ideas into the project. I also had to make sure that I completed my fair share of work so the team could function properly.

There were also some issues with the group when working closely as a team. It was important that all of the group worked together well because we all needed to put in good efforts to ensure that our home page looked good. This meant that we all did the appropriate research and made our home page as good as it can be because we were assessed on this as well. Secondly, each group member had to be willing to participate when we took it in turns to be minutes secretary etc. It was important that each member of the team made sure they had a go at each role to make the meeting process as un-biased as possible.

How my actions affected others

I worked as hard as I could to ensure that the team got on well and the work ran smoothly. I completed all of my work on time and this made the other group members feel that they could rely on me and that I was a valid member of the group.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term issue because I had to work closely with the group all the way through the project.

What things have I done to help/monitor a group member's performance

After one of the group members were absent for a couple of the group meetings, I felt that it was important that myself and the group helped him understand that the meetings play a vital role in the design and planning of the website. To ensure he fully understood this I decided to monitor his performance. This was a good idea because by monitoring their performance I was able to highlight the key areas that I felt he could improve and what areas that needed improving, would improve the teams performance in the production of the website. I wrote up a schedule for them which included the dates and times of the meeting that we planned to carry out. This was because they had a problem with attendance of the meetings. This schedule would hopefully help him attend all of the meetings for the rest of the unit. The group and I did everything we could do to support him and with perseverance, they then maintained a good attendance record for the team meetings.

These actions did however have an effect on myself and the group. Whilst we were busy supporting them it was important that we made sure we completed our own tasks and met all of the required deadlines supplied by the teacher. By supporting them, this made less time for other important tasks, therefore straining ourselves to get all of the work completed. For example, I had to complete the 'documenting my web pages' task all at home because I simply did not have the time to do it in class and I was caught up helping the group member. Although I did not mind doing this for him, it did put my work at risk. I feel we worked really well as a team member and I was a valid member of the group.

What effect my contributions had on others

The contributions I made to support another group member, were perceived as really helpful both by the group member himself and by the rest of the group. I feel that it was important that I offered my help to other members of the group because I would only expect the same thing back. My help made sure that all the work got completed and other team member were able to complete their work too.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a long term effect  because I had to make sure I monitored the team member's performance all the way through the project and offered help when necessary.

Group member problems

The only real problem that causes concern was the absence of some team member. This was a problem because when it came to doing group work, we were sometimes un-able to complete the tasks as we needed the whole group to be present. In group meetings it was hard because if one person was absent that meant we had to record that one person was absent and this meant that that group member could not give their feedback. For example, on of our first meeting was a review on a piece of work we completed called 'evaluation of existing commercial websites' This piece of work was important because it allowed the group to go away and research artist website. After this was complete we would hold a group meeting to relay what each individual had found and what features we could use. For this particular meeting, IG was absent. This meant that the rest of the group missed out on what IG had found out from his evaluation and therefore he could not put forward any ideas for the website we were going to produce.

To help this situation it was important that we still found out the what IG had found from his evaluation. When he returned for the next lesson of ICT I ensured that I asked him what he found from his evaluation and if there were any ideas that he would like to put forward for the website design. IG made sure that he made his ideas clear and I asked the rest of the group if they would like to include any of IG's ideas and together we all decided what ideas were best to use and the ideas that were not. To help IG make sure that he is present for all of the group meetings, I told him what days we have planned to hold the group meetings so he knows that it is an important day and he should be present.

How my contributions affected others

I made a good contribution here and I made it clear when the team meeting were going to be held. This was important because we needed the first task to be completed so we could plan our project.

Was this a long or short term issue?

This was a short term issue because it was highlighted and dealt with very quickly by myself and no further problems were created.

Water/Pipe problem

Following the adverse weather conditions, the college had a water problem and therefore had to close for a day. This caused futher disruption regarding our coursework for ICT. Again we had to take work home and do it in our own time, therefore not completing it within a group.

Adverse weather conditions

Due to the weather conditions during the college week, this meant our group lost a lot of lesson time and were unable to conduct a group meeting. Therefore, our work had to be postponed for that week. and had to be completed in our own time, which was difficult because we needed to complete group work during lesson time. The work needed to be completed during lesson time because we were un-able to complete the work at home because we did not have access to the appropriate software at home. The adverse weather conditions meant that I fell behind on my gantt chart and I needed to catch up quickly to ensure I did not fall behind even more. The weather conditions were out of our control at the time it happened and it was completely unexpected. Therefore, we were unable to plan around this or have any solutions to the problems that occurred, other than catch up with the work as quickly as possible.

Absentee's during meetings/lessons

Wednesday 24th November 2010 - 12.30pm

In our first meeting that explained the websited that we evaluated such as good points, bad points and the things we would include in our own website. Unfortunately, IG was absent for this meeting and this made it harder to evaluate the different websites as a whole becasue we had no input from IG. However, IG was present at the next meeting. The problems this created were not good for the team becasue this meant we did not have a whole set of ideas for the website. This meeting was a key meeting and for IG, missing the first meeting of the project meant that when it came to the second meeting, he did not really know what was going on and he had to catch up. To prevent this, the group should have postponed the meeting and held it once everyone was present.