Managing Creativity

APDZ 331

This course has been meticulously designed to challenge you both personally and collectively. Each group contains an assortment of unique strengths that will influence how you complete the course’s requirements. You will be asked to not only choose and divide work based on strengths, but trust each student with particular strengths to complete the work given to them.

Course Outcomes

Each student will become familiar with their own strengths and how to utilize them and the strengths within their group. The following skills with also be incorporated:

Agile project management
Sprint planning
Tasks and hours estimating
Hours tracking
Defining scope of work
Small teams strategies

Week 1 – Learn your strengths

We use the Gallop Strength Finder, which has been used by large companies all over the world to form more effective teams. We also read the book, Our Iceberg is Melting. A story about penguins living on a melting iceberg that must work together for a solution. The metaphors for people management are well received in this short read.

Week 2 – Freedcamp and Task Tracking

Introduction to project management techniques and the free task tracker Freedcamp. We also discuss “Our Iceberg is Melting”. Students are placed into groups, based on their strengths and technical interests.

Week 3 – Agile PM and Spring Planning

This week students start the main project, the Seattle Earthquake Relief, and plan their first design sprint. A project lead is chosen to report to me and review the teams plan. Students divide work and assign tasks from Freedcamp for the following two weeks.

Week 4 – Open Lab Day & Working Remotely

We discuss an article on working remotely, and continue to work on Seattle Earthquake Relief.

Week 5 – End of Sprint

This is the last week of Sprint 2. We discuss moving items that won’t be finished to the backlog or pulling them into Sprint 3. Project leads report to me on the dynamics of their group and how the strengths may be playing a part.

Week 6 – Open Lab Day

The students begin Sprint 3 and continue working on tasks for Seattle Earthquake Relief.

Week 7 – Open Lab Day

The students are deep into Sprint 3 and continue working on tasks for Seattle Earthquake Relief.

Week 8 – Open Lab Day & Final Given

The students begin Sprint 4 and continue working on tasks for Seattle Earthquake Relief. The final presentation outline is given, along with grading rubric.

Week 9 – Presentation rehearsal

Sprint 4 ends and the students rehearse their presentation for the following week. A spokes person is nominated to walk the audience through the presentation, inviting other team members to present their parts of the project.