Week 2

    Module 2 lectures focuses on the present condition of business and company. I learned a lot starting from the the state of software industry. Innovation itself moves fast in today's age, and in order to keep up with it, people has to learn to adapt quickly as well. I also learn about different methodologies that company uses for software development. I was already aware of the two present method which are agile and devops as my current company uses this method but I learned about the continuous method. Essentially there were methods that was used in the pass which are Waterfall, Capability Maturity Model, and Rational Unified Process. I also learn more about project management. I learn that project management is mainly about planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve the goals that the group is trying to attain. Different tools and techniques on project management such as managing constrains that hinders in project development such as time, cost and resources while keeping the best quality of outcome. Different roles and responsibilities of people involve, for example the project manager holds almost all the accountability for leading, coordinating and ensuring objectives are met. And lastly module 2 lectures teach me how to be an effective communicator and team player and how these characteristics affect the group. A good team player must be capable to deliver task, humble to different members of the team, helpful with other members, flexible to any changes and knows his own purpose. A good team player also knows how to communicate properly and how to articulate themselves in stressful/challenging situation.

     Week 2 also tackles different effective study skills. A good and effective study skill takes patience and consistent practice. Study skills requires a person be willing to learn and apply the methods necessarily in the process. I learn that study skill will have to start with proper Scheduling and followed by Time Management. A person has to create a flexible day to day or weekly schedule to be consistent. The schedule does not necessarily needs to be follow and can be revise if needed but knowing which task needs prioritization is also need. Once the schedule is set a person also needs proper environment to study. Ideally a person must start when well rested and be in a distraction free environment. I also learn about the study strategies called SQ3R which means Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. I am already doing most of what this method mention, but I wasn't aware that such method exist. This method teaches learners to focus on main ideas while extracting details and be able to maintain or retain information. I believe this is the most effective strategy because from my personal experience this is how I learned how to learn. It has worked for me before, it will most likely work now as well. There are other different methods to be effective as well such as note and test taking. Overall I learn how to use these different methods efficiently.

    Since time management is involve in effective study skills, I learn more information about it with the indeed article provided in Indeed. There were 9 time management skill involve. First skill is being organize which helps with having a clear vision on what needs to be done. Next is prioritization which is a skill that asses with which task needs to be finish first and how fast should a task be done. Goal-setting is one skill that helps with allowing to clearly understand the goal of my task. While communication skill helps with conveying to colleague or team a clear goal. Next skill is planning which helps accomplish to finish task on schedule. Delegation skill is also necessary to avoid overloading myself or others with work as it is important to keep the work load in balance. Stress management skill helps with keeping a healthy positive mind and motivated. Problem solving skills help with overcoming unavoidable challenges that can be encounter while doing projects. And lastly note-taking skills which helps information up to date and avoid outdated information that can hinder tasks. The article also went over on how to improve those skills. The five ways to improve those are setting short term and long term goal, managing calendar, prioritize assignments, saying "no" to unnecessary work and avoiding procrastinating. Overall the article helped me understand a better way to be an effective on time management.

  Sample of log sheet starting from Monday to Sunday. 

Week 2 also went over what a project is and some ideas and knowledge about how to work on projects. I learned that a project is a timely activity/task that creates products or results. Be it a physical product or a service product that one can produce. Since project management requires multiple process and work to accomplish a good way to work on a project is to break it down. A good start is to understand what the final deliverable is and reflect on the major deliverables. This way one can decide on how to break down the necessary work by its phases, locations and components. Continue breaking it down into sub-deliverables if necessary. Review & Validate along the process. Communicate with all the people involve such as stake holders to ensure nothing is missing. I also learn a new tool called Gantt Chart. A Gantt chart is a visual project tool that shows each task and the span of its date. It shows the length on how each task takes. It s a great tool to be used especially for project managers that needs to know the current status and situation of each task in a project.

 

Week 2 went over the 2024 cohort project and was inspired on some of the students work. First that got my impression was the "Identifying Brain Tumors Using Computer Vision" project by Robin Hurtado. This particular project was about software that process an image of a brain and AI will try to detect if it has brain tumors. The project and presentation was well done because it summarizes what the project is all about and it was easy to understand what the presenter is trying to explain. The presentation itself is useful that it doesn't need anymore improvement and overall I like the product that Robin tried to produce. As a person who likes video game another project that caught my eye was the "Out of Mana" project. It is a 2D video game that let' user control a single player and upgrades its arsenal. The project itself was well done but I think the presentation itself could add a little bit more of the game-play explanation or video. I already know the game mechanics because I am familiar with the game it was inspired to but I believe that other who doesn't have that much experience in video games would have a hard time understanding what he was trying to add. Overall the project and the presentation is enough to understand the surface level of the project but nothing in more depth. And the last project I was interested in was the "Drive Diary" project. The project solves a day to day and common problem for majority of the people. The presenter explain the problem and what the product is trying to solve.  The presentation and product was great as the demo explain all the details it needs to convey to its user. I don't think there is more room of improvement for it.

 In addition to those topics in CS349, I also learn how to format and reference in APA format. Before in my writing classes, they tend to use MLA format. APA format is something new for me and I was able to learn how write reference for it. 

Overall week 2 focuses on project management and skills how to handle big projects. Being a great team member is one of the keys of being successful in a a big project. I had fun learning ways and skills on how to handle such things.