CST361S Week 8

No posting - travelling for work.

CST361S Week 7

No posting.

CST361S Week 6

No posting - travelling for work.

CST361S Week 5

This week we covered Community and Social Justice, more Project Management basics and continued investigating ideas for our final Capstone. I have been excited for this final Capstone project since we started this adventure almost a year ago.

For my 4 main capstone ideas I am interested in (in order of interest):

1. Security Guard Reporting App (actually have a client that might pay for this)
• Android User Interface
• Using web facing database
• Requires use of GPS and possibly voice & phone integration
2. An open source online small business accounting package.
• Downside is there are hundreds of these out there
• Scale could be a problem, this is an extensive project
• Upside is that it often touches on so many disciplines
• May require bringing in an accountant to validate backend
3. Open Source Electronic Lab Notebook (could be useful at my work)
• Custom Android OS build required
• Using intranet facing database
• Requires extensive audit trail (21 CFR Part 11 compliance)
4. Restaurant Menu/Ordering System (like Ziosk but for small restaurants)
• Custom Android OS build required (possible custom hardware)
• Integrated system to not just take orders, but to also show them to kitchen
• Using intranet facing database

I still like the idea of open source textbooks, but time and manpower would be extensive. Also requires a marketing budget. Also many have attempted it, but failed.

CST361S Week 4

This week we covered Service and Social Responsibility & Project Management. As a New Store IT Project Manager, this is obviously a subject near and dear to my heart. It was nice to review some of the basics that you take for granted after awhile.

Officially a project is "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources." So project management is "the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements." As the instructor for the Coursera unit mentioned in one of his lectures, people will often manage projects without realizing that is what they are doing. Almost any time you have a temporary endeavor it can be managed like a project. Take for example your summer vacation - you have everything from planning and budgeting to implementation there, without even realizing it. Project management is really a structured methodology used to complete any project.