Capstone Semester
ITEC 4610 is the final semester in the IT Minor. In this semester, we use all the skills we have learned from the first two semesters to create a website for a non-profit organization in the Little Rock area. Also in this semester, we build a personal portfolio (this site) to showcase all the work we have done while in the program. A description of the semester is below.
Preservation of African American Cemeteries
For my group project capstone assignment, I helped to create the website for the Preservation of African American Cemeteries (PAAC). PAAC is a non-profit that works to preserve cemeteries so people can find their ancestors gravesites, and that history is more than dates and facts but is about real people. There were three other people in my group, Zachary Randolph, James Watts, and Antwane Wilkerson. I served as the project manager for the group. As the project manager, my job was to act as a liaison between the client and my fellow group members who were more involved in the development of the site. Project management was not an easy job.
Project Management
We first met with our client Mrs. Tamela Lewis on September 5th, 2017. At this meeting, we had to accomplish a lot in only about an hour. We needed to understand who PAAC is, what are PAAC’s goals with the site, who is their target audience, and the type of website they would need. We created a client questionnaire, with questions that would help us better to understand how to build the site. Following this meeting, we developed our Project Management Plan. Our project management plan outlined the scope of the project and what we were going to do for them. It was the heart of our project; it contained our schedule, the goals, and what we would do. Putting what we would do in was very important to put in there because we had a limited amount time to create this website, and we could not be working on things that went beyond the scope that would ultimately delay the website. After completing our project plan, we had it approved by our client, Mrs. Tamela. (To view our project click here.)
The next stage of the project was creating the site. As the project manager, I worked with the client to get all of the pictures and content that would be needed to create the site. This was the hardest part of the entire project. We created dates in which we needed the assets and the content by to make sure everything was ready for the web. Not all of the pictures that the clients wanted on the were sent to us by the deadline we set. We were able in the end to use some of the images that were provided after the deadline, but we set the deadline because we had to make sure the images were optimized for the web, and we did not have time to optimize some that were sent after the deadline. After getting some of the images, I discussed the content of the site with her, what pages she wanted and that we would need what she wanted to be written on the pages. She provided us with the content for the new pages but told us to the content from the old site for the other pages. While I was working with Mrs. Tamela to get all of the assets and content for the site, Zac, James, and Antwane were busy building the WordPress theme for the website. This project was not easy or simple it required each of us to do our role, to make sure the project stayed on schedule.
Once we completed the project, we scheduled a training session with Mrs. Tamela to show her how to use the site and update the site and then presented the website to our fellow classmates and a first semester class of the IT minor. For both presentations, I had to create different outlines because we needed to showcase different things. In our presentation for Mrs. Tamela, I wanted to make sure we showed her how to edit pages, and how people interacted on the message board on the site. For the final presentation in front of our classmates, we needed to showcase technical aspects of the site as well illustrating how we delivered what our clients asked for on their website. After we completed our presentation we worked on migrating the site over to their domain and providing them with a few reference pages for them on how to make easy updates to their site. Below is a slideshow that shows images of what the site looks like, as well as part of our calendar and work break down structure, Trello, and screenshots of my email communication skills. (To view our presentation outline here.)
Being the project manager is not an easy job, it a lot of waiting for emails, explaining over emails how the project is progressing to the client, making sure the project stays on schedule, keeping my teammates in the loop on what the client is asking for, and keeping the shared team drive organized. While it is not an easy job, I loved being a project manager because I liked interacting with the client. This was my second time being a project manager, and I enjoyed the experience of being the project manager for this project.
Portfolio
While creating the website for PAAC, I was also working on creating the wonderful site you are currently reading. I opted to use a free WordPress theme because I was not that comfortable creating my own theme. I do not have much to say about my portfolio other than please read through the different pages to experience the hard work I put into my portfolio. I enjoyed creating this portfolio to discuss my skills and all the things I learned, and I hope after reading my portfolio you learn more about me.