Cornichon

Group Processes Based On Assignment 2 Reflection

Upon reviewing our reflection’s with regards to Assignment 2, there were some common themes around what worked well, as well as areas in which we can improve. Many team members commented on how designating tasks early in the assignment was paramount to our success, enabling each member to know their responsibilities. Another positive comment that became apparent was the willingness of individuals to work outside of their scope in order to assist their team mates.
Communication was a key aspect to our success in Assignment 2. Although team members found our communication methods to be effective, we highlighted some areas that we are endeavouring to improve on for assignment 3. The main aspect of this is tracking each other’s progress, and any difficulties they are facing throughout the week between classes. To combat this issue, for Assignment 3 we have implemented a work management board through Office365 planner - See Button below, or alternatively, the Organisations at the bottom of the page for the link.
When tasks are grouped by “Assigned To” other team members can navigate through each other’s tasks and see where they are up to via the comments we are making throughout our progress. This board has also further enabled individuals to offer assistance outside their personal scope, if they can see that a team mates work load is higher than initially estimated.
Tasks can also be grouped by due date, allowing us a timeline overview of the project, which in turn allows us to monitor each other’s progress and offer assistance as required. This has the added benefit of acting similar to a Gantt chart in that tasks are scheduled to start only once other tasks have reached their scheduled completion date, As the team outlines the project timeline, this feature becomes pivotal in our work management process.
Another area that was highlighted as being in need of improvement was our in-class meeting productivity. We had no structure to any discussions that took place, or support for any issues encountered. To rectify this, in Assignment 3, we have designated the first part of each tutorial to a group discussion in which each member in turn reports on their progress the previous week, and highlights any ongoing issues. We then put a plan in place to combat the ongoing issues so that each team member is on the same page.
Finally, a number of team members expressed issues with using Github during Assignment 2. To combat this, the team members who are more experienced in this area are assigned the responsibility of supporting other team members when issues are encountered, as well as managing the artifacts as a whole.

Career Aspirations

The Cornichon group members have a variety of career aspirations, ranging from Java & .NET Developers, to System Engineer, UX Designer and Business Analyst. There are many common elements between roles, predominantly in the soft skill requirements of the role, although, there are also some common traits between the roles in regards to required hard skills. The area in which the roles differ is in the role specific hard skills. Each of our career plans contain similar elements, and vary mostly on the specific requirements of these elements.
As stated, there is a wide variety of career aspirations across the six team members that make up Cornichon. That being said, three members of Cornichon aspire to become software developers of some description. Whether it be in Java, .NET, or another language as required, all three members have a passion for full stack development. One member of team Cornichon has expressed an interest in the communications hardware and configuration predominant field of System Engineer. One member of the group has a passion for creativity and design, and wishes to design and develop products based on user experience. This particular role is a more client interactive role than those previously mentioned, yet still requires the front-end development skills. Our last member has chosen the role of Business Analyst as their ideal job. This role is centred around knowing and understanding all aspects of the business as a whole, and interacting with both internal and external stakeholders, with less of a focus on the specialty technical skills the other roles have defined.

Ideal Job Common Elements

Our chosen roles each have their own unique hard skill requirement elements, yet many required hard skills are either the same or very similar. For example, four of the six desired roles are development / design roles which require experience in web technologies, with emphasis on at least one form of JavaScript framework / library. Drilling down further, three of those four roles have requirements for experience in a C-based language.
In regards to soft skills, the majority of requirements are common to all roles. Obviously, some experience in the field is a requirement for all roles, as well as teamwork skills being highly regarded in the majority of the ideal job adverts. Communication skills are the next most frequently mentioned requirements. Other common traits required, although expressed in different words across the job adverts, are skills such as the ability and desire to expand one’s knowledge, or to seek and find information.

Ideal Job Differences

The area in which our ideal jobs differ is predominantly in the role specific hard skills. Each role has their own specific skill set, depending on the technologies the company uses. Even though two of the ideal jobs have the same job title of Java Developer, their advertised skill requirements vary quite significantly. One focuses on knowledge of specific frameworks, libraries and build tools, whereas the other is more focused on the knowledge of a range of programming languages. All four of the developer /designer roles have requirements regarding JavaScript framework and cloud technologies experience, but the specific frameworks and technologies differ from role to role.
Both the UX Designer role and the Business Analyst role make mention of communication skills, but the differ on who the role is required to communicate with, one dealing with customers, the other with the business as a whole. The most different of all the roles is the Systems Engineer role. All of the technology requirements of this role are unique in the job advertisements, and with the exception of SQL, are in a field of their own, that is networks and communications.

Comparing Career Plans

Across the Cornichon group, our career plans are very similar. We all have some base knowledge in our chosen field, which has sparked our interest to further pursue the required knowledge. We all believe the skills we gain throughout our degree, although the skills will vary from person to person, will lay a solid foundation for us to enter the workforce and gain the required work experience to fill our ideal roles.
Some group members have identified steps they will take above and beyond our Degree requirements, to further expand their knowledge base such as undertaking online learning, or getting involved in clubs or group projects outside of University and work. Involvement in clubs and group projects, along with attending networking events have been identified as beneficial in that a wider professional network will provide greater opportunities to gain employment in one of our ideal roles.