Week 1: Time management and agile development

1st June 2021

---

An introduction

This is my first blog entry for the UX Design Masters at Falmouth University. I haven’t written blogs or have experience in critical writing but I am excited to learn and experience new processes and methodologies over the next two years.

My name is Lehang or Le (for short). I currently work as a Marketing Designer for over four years. My day to day job involves the design and brand of marketing collateral and creating new web pages and updates across the company websites using Webflow. I am seeking a new career change in UX Design to progress as a professional UI Designer. I have always had a passion for design and technology and would like to combine the two disciplines to create aesthetic and functional user experiences.

Although I don’t have UX experience, I have completed short courses with the Interaction Design Foundation. I have learnt basic knowledge of the fundamentals of UX, design thinking and prototyping. I decided to progress onto the UX Design Masters to get expert knowledge and hands-on experience in the field and apply the knowledge to real-life experiences and within my future career.

Time management and agile development

In my first week, module one Development practice covers time management and agile development. The learning videos on Canvas discuss 2 common project management paradigms: waterfall and scrum agile.

Based on the set up of this course, the best approach is scrum agile that is constructed in a non-hierarchical way. This framework is made of 12 principles and completed by the team simultaneously, with room for flexibility and adaptability.

The agile method is commonly used in software engineering but has evolved into other disciplines across industries. Agile is about teamwork and each team includes experts in multidisciplinary fields with different experience levels that come together to work on a unified vision for the project. Although job roles are not essential, the main focus is for the team to use their expertise and skills and collaborate effectively. This involves the team members coming together regularly to carry out daily standup meetings, showcases and retrospectives (Lindsjørn et al., 2016).

Working in sprints is a popular method in future-forward companies as it helps to solve complex issues in the project in a short amount of time. It improves time management and allows the team to focus on the user and task with no distractions. These results allow for increased productivity and faster releases of the product to test on the users.

Having learned the structure and benefits of the scrum agile framework, I am excited to experience this approach for the first time. I would love to get hands-on experience and learn from each sprint. I have participated and experienced retrospectives in my current role as a Marketing designer and it has been very informative and refreshing.

I am looking forward to applying my knowledge and learning new skills as the module progresses.

Weekly challenge: Custom avatar

We were set a challenge activity to use objects around the home and create an avatar of ourselves. Each object chosen must tell a story or mean something.

I decided to choose objects that reflected my identity and had a significant meaning to me. The objects I chose was:

• 2021 diary – I have good organisational skills and can be a bit of a perfectionist

• Headphones – I enjoy listening to music and having peace and quiet

• T2 teabag – I have a love for teas

• Real paw paw ointment – I can’t go anywhere without this multi-purpose product

• Thailand purse – One of my favourite holiday destinations

• Paintbrush – I am creative and used to paint a lot

• Post-it notes – I like to write down notes or things to help me remember

I enjoyed this activity because it allowed me to be creative in a sentimental way. This was a great ice breaker challenge to allow my colleagues and I to get to know each other. The best part of the challenge was reading my colleagues' responses in the activity. I was able to understand how people thought and see different personalities come through.

Studying online and part-time can be difficult because we lose the face to face experience. However, by setting up these activities and participating in the forums I was able to communicate with them in another way.

Custom avatar image by Lehang Tieu. 2021.

References

Coursera. 2021. Benefits of design sprints. [online] Available at: <https://www.coursera.org/lecture/foundations-user-experience-design/benefits-of-design-sprints-bLdxV> [Accessed 1 June 2021].

Lindsjørn, Y., Sjøberg, D.I.K., Dingsøyr, T., Bergersen, G.R., Dybå, T. 2016. ‘Teamwork Quality and Project Success in Software Development: A Survey of Agile Development Teams’. The Journal of systems and software 122, 274.

Agilest®. 2021. Why Does Scrum Work? 6 Reasons Why & Key Benefits of Scrum | Agilest®. [online] Available at: <https://www.agilest.org/scrum/why-does-scrum-work/> [Accessed 1 June 2021].

Parker, A. 2021. System development life cycle waterfall method. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-1-time-management-and-agile-development?module_item_id=54070> [Accessed 31 May 2021].

Parker, A. 2021. System development life cycle scrum agile framework. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-1-time-management-and-agile-development?module_item_id=54070> [Accessed 31 May 2021].