Tutorial 5: Preparing for Project 2
Contents
Tutorial 5: Preparing for Project 2#
This week’s tutorial is pretty short. We’ll cover some expectations we have for you in project 2, including how to conduct your meetings, track your tasks, and submit your meeting minutes.
At the end of the tutorial there will be free time to ask questions, if you’ve got any loose ends to tie up or want to ask about:
Data Science/Computer Science/AI research,
the Data Science industry,
any gaps left in your technical knowledge before you graduate, then today is the time!
Tutorial Outline#
In the session today we will:
Discuss the Agile methodology 🙃
Look at one way Kanban boards can be used to track and manage tasks.
Suggest how you can conduct effective meetings throughout project 2.
Discuss the expectations for submitting weekly meeting minutes.
Open the floor for your questions… Industry, academia, tech, very open ended…
The Agile Methodology#
What is the Agile methodology?
The Agile methodology is a project management approach that involves breaking the project into phases and emphasizes continuous collaboration and improvement. Teams follow a cycle of planning, executing, and evaluating.
—Atlassian Agile Maifesto
If you want to better understanding the principles feel free to check out things like the 12 principles of Agile, but this totally isn’t necessary or very interesting.
Why do we talk about it in this subject?
Variants of the agile methodology (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) are used in the majority of tech/software companies. You are highly likely to encounter it in the industry.
Whether you like it or not, Agile is pretty effective at increasing productivity and output from tech/software teams, hence its wide adoption.
In this subject#
In this subject we have broken down both projects into weekly chunks, which are referred to in the specifications as sprints. Additionally, we encourage the use of Kanban boards for tracking tasks and progress. All of this is inspired by agile.
Scrum and Sprints#
Scrum is the most popular implementation of the Agile methodology. To put it simply, this approach involves:
Deconstructing projects into a series of short sprints.
Planning the work that will be done during the sprint.
Meeting regularly during the sprints. Usually implemented as daily stand-ups.
A short (~15 min) meeting to align objectives and plan short-term goals.
Reviewing your progress at the end of the sprint.
Conducting a retrospective to evaluate what did and didn’t work at the end of the sprint/project.
In this subject this might look like:
Using the weekly sprints that we have provided in the specifications.
Delegating tasks within your groups to achieve the weekly objectives.
Planning how you will complete the weekly checkpoints.
Meeting once in the tutorial and another time outside of the tutorial.
Using the first meeting to plan and delegate tasks.
Using the second to finalise checkpoints, review progress/challenges, and conduct a retrospective.
Communicating frequently with your team.
Establish a chat/communication channel today!
Using Kanban to continuously monitor your progress towards the sprint objectives.
Kanban#
Kanban boards are a project management tool designed to visually depict work in different stages of progress.
Best to cover this with a demonstration.
Meeting Minutes#
You should submit meeting minutes each week by Friday 5pm to ensure you get your weekly checkpoint mark.
Your notes don’t have to be extensive, but should outline:
Your progress over the last sprint
Your plans for the coming sprint
Other important notes from your meeting
Questions#
Any questions about:
Today’s content?
The Data Science/Computer Science/Tech/AI Industry?
Academia/Research/Master’s/PhDs?
Anything else…?