When beginning this task we outlined the main goals we wanted to accomplish as a group in the completion of this project. These goals consisted of;
Developing a hybrid motorcycle by embedding a 1972 Honda CB750 motorbike engine within a Norton Featherbed Slimline frame.
Establishing a new industry standard for file sharing and access to an extensive resource of accurate 3d motorcycle models, a documented account of our custom build which includes videos, photos and interactive animations, as well as a link to the wider motorcyle community, using the Honda CB750 and Norton Featherbed Frame as an example.
As no members of our group had ever been involved in a project like this, nor had anyone known a lot of information about motorcycles, we decided to formulate tasks on a weekly basis depending on what we felt needed to be done to progress to the next stage of development.
Below I have created a gantt chart to show our development of weekly tasks and what we aim to complete in the weeks to come.
The use of a clear communication strategy and agile developmental approach has been critical to the success of our group work this semester. Although a lot of the time the weekly tasks that we have set ourselves have taken longer than expected, the overall progress of the group has continued at a desired rate. The first few weeks of semester involved a large amount of learning as none of our group had any motorcycle experience, modelled 3d objects in Solidworks or developed a wikispace before. Now that we are all well into the swing of things we are at a point were we need to really push on our progress and aim high in terms of what we want to present for the final presentation.
Over the next few weeks we are going to have to develop a prototype for some functional new brackets that will be welded to the Norton frame holding the Honda engine inside. This is a big challenge and something we are going to need to spend time getting right. Our group dynamic seems to be working effectively so as long as we keep our mind on the tasks at hand we should be able to achieve our goals of designing, prototyping and getting quotes for a brakcet that can be completely functional in holding the engine within the frame.
Individual Performance
Each week every group member has been given tasks to complete to help in the progression of our overall project. The tasks that I have been assigned to include;
In completing these tasks I feel that I have helped our group in achieving the progress that we set ourselves consequently arriving at the strong position that we are in today to finish our project aims within the expected timeframe.
Overall, I am most proud of my progress in 3D modelling. As Solidworks was a new modelling program for me at the beginning of the semester, I am proud of my progress and I feel that I am at a high standard of modelling capability.
Although at times throughout the semester I have been unable to complete the weekly tasks within the time frame originally set, I feel that these things were expected as we were dealing with unfamiliar challenges. Going forward I believe I can be very beneficial to the group in designing the new motorbike brackets as well as getting them manufactured as I have done similar tasks when undergoing Industrial design tasks in a previous degree.
This week our group did our Communication presentation which included a written speech, 3 minute video and prezi presentation. Unfortunately I had some personal issues which prevented my from being at University. However I was told from the group members that the markers were very pleased with out research and final output. Here is what my team mates presented;
Communication For effective communication in a group project environment there are certain factors which need to be considered, including platforms, resources, HR, skills, roles, limitations, longevity etc in order to create an effective work environment and successful result.
Communication Strategies
In a typical hierarchical working relationships there are defined and independent communication paths between a leadership role and worker. For a collaborative environment it is essential to implement a cross-communicational team strategy. Within-team communication provides members with information about what their teammates are working on and where they are up to in the project development. When decisions and outcomes depend on the integration of different team member contributions it is important to be familiar with the tasks of fellow team mates to ensure a collaborative and comprehensive end result. This is particularly important for small teams or teams working with constantly changing environments or poorly defined outcomes (Fussell, S. 1998); something in which our group faces with roles and responsibilities continually being assessed and redefined throughout the project. It is therefore even more essential for us to focus on communicating directly to one another and include all participants in communication processes in order to achieve a successful outcome. Our group has achieved this style of communication by having many face-to-face meetings and setting up group communication platforms such as Facebook and Dropbox.
This type of group communication leads to increased passive awareness. "Passive awareness of what other team members are doing, provided by indirect participation in a communicative exchange...should enable a team member to better coordinate his/her activities with the rest of the team." (Fussell, S. 1998, p2) - Though this inter-team awareness is an important when dealing with a project such as ours it can also result in information overload; passive awareness consumes more of each individuals time and indirectly adds to an individual's work load. We face this problem on our Facebook group, were some posts are irrelevant to certain team members (e.g. querying measurements on a particular part of the bike that you are not working on). Using this type of team communication strategy lends to the group spending a lot of time on discussing ideas, concepts and solutions than actually implementing them.
Platforms
There are many methods of communication but for the context of our project we are looking at written communication, oral communication, face-to face and communication through media.
The benefits of written form is that as a team we have a physical record and reference of everything that was mentioned during discussion, these record also serve as evidence to avoid miscommunication or arguments amongst members in the future. Written communication can also avoid mistakes which can be made in interpreting other forms of communication (e.g. verbal)as it is a clearly defined communication medium.
Oral communication methods are also essential for teamwork, as members can provide and respond to each other’s feedback quickly and the issues and conflicts that occurred throughout the process of the project can be resolved through talking. Oral communication encourages flexibility as the method we have chosen to manage our team is one of Agile Development and therefore being able to communicate verbally helps us to understand each other’s idea's with greater understanding.
A face-to-face communication method directly corresponds with oral communication. This method is the most effective medium and has the greatest ability to communicate convince. Externally, face-to-face communication offers the opportunity to engage with our targeted audiences, creating a two-way relationship that enables the ability for audiences to respond.
Perhaps the most powerful source of communication is social media; a form of networking which has the ability to reach the mass market with only a minimal input. The media world is limitless and is vitally important to our project as there is such dispersed target audience (Bikers & CAM enthusiasts). Social media offers the opportunity for anyone to comment, edit and embellish on our resources, enabling open dialogue and interaction between project and audiences.
Responsibilities
Design teams commonly include members from different design disciplines that must integrate their individual specialised knowledge in order to effectively and efficiently produce professional design solutions. Communication, including the integration of inter disciplinary specialised knowledge, has developed into a fundamental aspect of the collaboration design process. Individual team members have specific roles and responsibilities in ensuring that the communication process remains fluent and allows for the exchange of information and conflict resolution.
Team leaders represent a significant component in the team design and communication process. The ability of the team leaders to communicate the direction and the organisational structure of the design team is vital to the success of the collaboration process. Design teams are increasingly required to work collaboratively in complex and dynamic environments which force them to constantly develop new team organisational structures and communication strategies. Team Leaders need to be able to adapt their communicational strategies to overcome challenges and obstacles in these dynamic team environments. The team leader’s main responsibilities during the team communication process include the communication of team goals, direction and culture, communicating project requirements and time schedules through division of individual tasks for completion and advising each team member of new decisions and resolving any issues arising from a communication breakdown.
Team members need to be able to integrate their individual roles and responsibilities for the collective success of the design collaborative team. A common cause of failure for design teams is the inability to communicate the coordination of individual team member contributions to the given project. The roles and responsibilities of each team member will depend on a number of factors including the project requirements and their individual design discipline background. Although the main roles and responsibilities of each team member will differ from project to project. There are still a number of common responsibilities that are common to all projects which involve the team member having to communicate. These usually include the need for team members to communicate their individual knowledge, abilities and skills to both other team members and the team leadership, communicate constructive feedback on current team work and progress.
Communication Longevity
Communication plays a critical role in terms of keeping the project moving forward and the ongoing longevity of the project. Internal communication is vital as it allows team members to come together and keep them on target towards future goals within an allocated time frame. Without these small individual steps being taken, groups will struggle to finish their goal with higher quality work.
To keep work focussed on the target audience teams must have a way of communicating externally with their target market. Some people may do this face to face, others through oral communication or even through an online forum. Having this form of communication with a reliable external source allows groups to gain first-hand knowledge from within the market itself.
Project Black is already looking beyond our group project, and how we can continue to develop our work for the future. As a group we have developed a wiki, whereby as both individuals and a team we are able to provide concise data to our target audience through the use of 3D models, analytical drawings and deconstruction videos. The space is a collection of data that provides not only the Honda CB750 community but also the motorcycle community as a whole, with a place to communicate, further their understanding or display jobs that are currently in progress or have been complete.
7 Images
GDNet Structuring your research 2013 [online], Available from: https://depot.gdnet.org/cms/gallery27-iStock_000005622581Medium.jpg [Accessed: 18.4.2013]
This week we got together to organise our group presentation for next week. The brief for the presentation had several themes to choose from that relate to each groups project type. The final output was to include a 1000 words report, images supporting your topic and a 3 minute video to be embedded on the wiki. For ours we choose to focus on Communication as we feel this is a major component of both our internal work as a group, and our aims for an external communication platform for the biking and custom manufacturing community at large. We therefore organised our overall structure and discussion topics for the presentation, emailing Russell to ensure that we were progressing appropriately.
The final topics we decided to discuss in our presentation are;
Communication Platforms Communication Strategies Communication Responsibilities Communication Integrity Communication Longevity
With each topic we created visual mind maps highlighting the connections between each section and their overall relationship to Communication.
As there were five topics and six group members everyone was assigned a topic and I (the one left without a topic) organised and edited the video content. The video consisted of an interview of all our group members discussing the communication strategies we have been using throughout our progress on the project and what could be improved. Below is one of the mind maps I made;
Additionally this week we continued mdoelling on our individual solidworks parts. I have had a few hiccups this week with my modeling parts. Solidworks is still a learning curve for me so I am trying to get through it by watching youtube tutorials and asking the other group members.
