Current Team Progress
Since the 4 th of April, 2008, Saturn Automated Systems (SAS) have been working vigorously in the effort to design and implement the Automated Item Reminder (AIR). Since the project commenced, the team of eight have worked hard to overcome the complications and issues associated in designing a new project.
As SAS approaches the half-way mark in designing the AIR, it is becoming clear that a lot more work is still to be done. At present, five of the eleven deliverables have been completed with high quality results due to careful planning and plenty of communication within the team. The first stage to be complete was the Product Proposals, where the team produced several ideas on a product design and the top five being chosen to be presented to a selection board. Among these five was the AIR.
The second stage of the plan was the webpage design which was a great success. The page looked great, was easily accessible with several sections covered including a ‘Homepage', an ‘Overview', a ‘Planning' section, a ‘Design Specs' section, a ‘Tech Research' description, ‘Marketing', ‘Budget' and an ‘About Us' section. All team members were able to stay on schedule and a high-quality website was produced. To further explain the material described, a Seminar Presentation was held. This was classed as stage three of the plan. Here, four members of SAS made the presentation, directing most the focus at the ‘Project Plan', ‘Budget', ‘Design Specifications' and the ‘Project's Unique Features'.
The fourth stage of the plan was the Autumn Session Report. Although this stage struggled to finish on time, SAS managed to pull through and present an excellent report. This report provided an in-depth description on the Technical Specifications, the Planning, the Budget and Marketing. Since this report was released, some technical specifications have been adjusted which will have some minor impact on the budget. To further explain this report, SAS made another presentation with the other four members who did not present in the first seminar presenting in this one. This presentation ran smoothly with the design being clearly explained, however the presentation duration was a little longer than originally planned.
As seen in the Autumn Session Report, a Preliminary design and Testing Regimes have been planned. The testing regimes will focus on four main criteria's, including Environment testing, Life cycle testing, Usage and Electromagnetic Interference testing. This is a crucial step in producing any design as it will determine whether the product fulfils the desired criteria.
So far, in terms of ECTE dollars, we are below budget. The team decided that having a meeting every week was unnecessary. Instead a meeting was held every fortnight costing the team $6720. The man hours put in for the project are claimed to be on average 5 hours a week costing a total of $81,600. A portion of the ECTE dollars spent have been on a partial consultation time with the teams mentor, costing the team $100 and one workshop visit, costing $75, bringing the total funds spent to $88,495. In terms of real money, the hardware is yet to be purchased therefore no funds spent.
In viewing the Gantt Chart it is clear to see the trade fair is not too far away and with still much work to be done. It has come to a point where any more delays could result in an incomplete product. However with a budget still on schedule and a motivated team a complete and quality product can still be achieved.
Gantt Chart
The following Gantt chart provides a clear view of the year's tasks and the weeks they shall commence to when they are due. The team is currently creating the second websitePage put together by Gavin Roberts, (3283781).