LINC, 243, Week

1

LINC Learning in Community Closing Out Your Proj
ect
We decided to play these games so that we would
have a chance to see how good we were and then to
keep improving. And if we hit a place where we
stop improving, were in trouble.
-- Bruce Weber, head coach of U of I Mens baske
tball team, November 27, 2004, following dominant
Illinois victory over 24 Gonzaga at John Wooden
Tradition in Indianapolis.)

2
LINC, 11/30/4, Week 13 Closing out your
ProjectObjectives To address various aspects
of finishing your project.

• Schedule for Today (Odds and Sods)
• Practice Times for Final Report check with PA
• Poster Session
• - in First Floor of Engineering Hall this TH at
  300 pm
  
• - Invite your friends, family to poster
  session!
  
• Closing Out a Project (Reflection 4)
• Reflect on qualities of teams
• - Myers Briggs Temperament Indicators
• - Video clip from Toy Story 2

3
Your poster will be graded by your PA and at
least one other person. They will be looking for
the following.

• 1. ___/ 30 points Can the audience get the main
  message in a matter of 11 seconds? Does the
  poster help the audience clearly understand the
  following in a way that uses an appropriate
  balance between images and text?
• the problem or background statement
• project objectives and scope
• activities, work, methodology employed, or
  results,
  
•   
• 2. ___/10 points Is the poster well-organized,
  attractive, creative, and sensitive to a variety
  of learning styles?
  
•  
• 3. ___/ 10 points Is the poster staffed at all
  times with at least one team member who provides
  a brief oral summary and is responsive to
  questions?

4
In closing out your project, remember the story
of the 250,000 Mistake, aka the Price of
Mistakes

• It is important to distinguish lessons learned
  from blamestorming (finding scapegoats). With
  your answers to these questions, avoid naming
  names. That is not the point.
• Focus on the future.
• How will next projects be run better and more
  smoothly?
  
• Consider
• What practices could be encouraged on future
  projects
  
• What steps could be taken to encourage these
  practices
  
• What practices could be avoided on future
  projects
  
• What steps could be taken to avoid these
  practices
  
• What alternative approaches to these practices
  could or should be implemented.

5
In closing out your project, answering the
following critical questions will assist you in
extracting as much value from this project as
possible (Reflection 4).

• What did we do right?
• What things mattered most on this project?
• What things surprised us on this project that
  werent in our plan?
  
• What things did we anticipate that turned out not
  to happen?
  
• Where could we improve?
• What mistakes did we successfully avoid making?
• What did we learn from doing this project?
• What skills did we need or do we need to improve
  project performance?
  
• What value did we get from the formal planning?
• What value did we not get from the formal
  planning that we could strive for next time?

6
Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) are
identified from a survey inspired by Carl Jung
that suggests that combinations of approaches
people take to the world can be described by
these personality types Extraverted v.
Introverted Sensing v. Intuitive Thinking v.
Feeling Judging v. Perceiving
MBTI is used extensively in executive assessment,
team formation, and communication training.