The start of each semester at Jacksonville University brings with it a unique set of opportunities to develop exciting applications and projects.

This semester I'll be working on the Jacksonville University Graywater Irrigation Initiative as the head of art and website development. Now of course this isn't my usual caveat of video game flavored production but its good practice for FIEA. The teamates that are working with me for this project will be a traditional 2D artist and one other web developer.

And of course I'll be putting my project management skills to good use keeping the team on track to hit our milestones, I might give Microsoft Project a chance for this one and set everything up through that.

Anyone that is in the business of developing websites can tell you that a project of this scope could be completed in just under two weeks with the proper conditions. But since I will only have one hour each week to meet personally with the project staff it's going to be a slow, controlled development cycle instead of the rapid development you would see with a scrum approach.

So for my next scheduled meeting I'll be presenting a basic outline for what needs to be accomplished, by when, how they can be achieved, and potential pitfalls. I'll also get started on some preliminary UI discussion with the other development staff, although I imagine most of the UI will be designed once we've established a proper icon and theme for the project.

More on it as it happens!

Scrum flow chart

It's about time northern Florida recieved its very own Scrum master certification! This two day course will be taking place from October 12-13 in the University of Pheonix. It's unfortunant that the cost is so high, ($1,100 per person) since I would be totally stocked to recieve my certification this early into my education.

For those that aren't fluent in producer speak Scrum is a set of ideas on how to properly manage a teams time to stay the most productive. Since most projects have different aspects being developed simutaneously (Agile project management) instead of one step at a time (old-school waterfall approach) there are many opportunities for mistakes to occur when mismanaged. Scrum is a set of techniques that can be applied to any small team effort, where the task at hand is seperated into a sprint that will last two weeks and split again into smaller managable tasks that improve visibility and keep morale high. That coupled daily meetings and weekly retrospectives keep the team on task and on schedule.

I'm sure I'll be taking the Scrum certification sometime down the road, I wish I had the funding to take it this year though!

Anyone else thats interested can find more details through the Winnow Management homepage.