Scrum Agile Framework

Week 6.1 – 10th March. 2021

The Retrospective

After looking at the article heartbeat retrospective, and closely at the common pitfalls, I understand this to be a workshop of reflection, structured with the steps as shown below;

Regular meetings with your team to simply debrief.
Everyone should feel comfortable to speak, just highlight a few areas, speak the facts only.
Discuss the relevant areas that are currently affecting the iteration process.
Have a couple solutions to work with, to keep simple.

Their are three main areas, that are considered throughout the retrospective;

What should be started?
What should be stopped?
What should be continued?

My Start item will be: (marked with two stars **)

Reading one journal article a week to inform your practice
Writing a progress summary in your journal before you attend the webinar
Writing a weekly plan to help structure the work **

My Stop item will be:(marked with two stars**)

Burning the candle at both ends **
Working in a silo and not seeking advice and support from peers
Leaving it until the last minute to write in the journal

My Continue item will be: (marked with two stars**)

Posting in the forums on a regular basis
Follow tutorials as part of the self-directed practice**
Attending the webinars

Both the start and stop items are used automatically when my SMART goals were noted, as they seem to follow through what I have put in place.

Retrospective is key to reflect on what happened, any iterative processes put in place which didn’t work, analyse why and devise a plan to avoid happening next time around. But keep simple.

Session 1 Rapid Ideation – Reflection

Looking back on the development of rapid ideation session one, I know for sure that there was room for improvement. I wish I had, had my SMART goals in place, and only learnt a little about 2D animation for example, and not to of tried using so many new applications, which just holted my progress altogether, and made me question, if I was even capable of learning a new technical skill this quickly.

Pages and Posts

That doesn’t even include, the fact of which I was struggling with writing a post on here, and realising I had my entries as pages, not posts. This was a big turning point for me, after working this out, I was able to add tags, and categories, to make my site more accessible. This is where I started to understand the need for an organised, well structured website.

Week 6.2 – 11th March. 2021

SMART – Ready – SET – GO !!

To reiterate, in this coming webinar, when we get out next rapid ideation tool to experiment with, I am going to do things differently.

I have my goals in place to help with organising my time:

To do an equal amount of research; including reading, writing, watching, linkedIn learning, and practical.
Make sure to stick with my idea, not to get distracted by all other possibilities.
To learn new technical skills for an hour at a time, break, and try out what I have just learnt, rather than jumping to far ahead!

Since making my self SMART goals, I have started to continue reading ‘Level up’, to understand more about the process of creating a game from scratch. This is where I put my organised schedule into action.

In Chapter 4 ( level 4 ) titled; ‘You Can Design a Game, but Can You Do the Paperwork?’
Scott Rogers states;

“It’s no crime to be a perfectionist, but many design issues can be thought out and designed on paper first before a single pixel is rendered or a line of code typed.”
(S, Rogers. 2014. p90)

This immediately grabbed my attention, my determination of trying to create something that will look amazing on screen, and helping to engineer a game/ app or animation that you just can’t leave alone, is all I seem to focus on!

This is exactly what I have done with with my personal development, and because of trying to add code, and bring Ralphy to life in only a few frames, it was impossible to get a decent animated character.

I think it might be worth going back to basics, sticking with drawing and scanning my work, ideas and laying out concepts on paper, before even thinking of bringing my illustrations to life.

After all this is what Briggs would do when he originally created ‘The Snowman‘, and he is one of the illustrators, who pays very close attention to adding emotion and movement behind all of his sketches, before even laying them out onto a storyboard.

Week 6.3 – 14th March. 2021

Points to remember

Rogers also discusses in his book ‘Level Up‘, how important it is to be mindful of your peers, as we all have our own limitations.

We first discussed this in week one, talking about Scrum agile framework …It’s vital we have someone in charge, ideally that can make sure that each person, (when in a team) is doing their part, and has been assigned the correct area, that matches their skill.
Other wise, this could dramatically hold everyone up, especially when that person doesn’t quite understand what is expected of them.

Throughout this course, I feel like I am on the biggest learning curve ever, with excitement leading the way, I pinch myself just to check that what I am creating is real…and can be improved or developed in one way or another.

Kanban

I am now starting, very slowly, but surely to understand the nature of reflection.
I have started to read another book, which my partner has actually recommended;

The Toyota Way : 14 Management Principles; from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer.

This actually links onto the Kanban Method that I have been practicing.

The book reveals the methods and approaches, used in production;

Jidoka – Originated from an invention from Toyoda, a carpenter who made wooden spinning machines, and in 1894 the manual looms he started experimenting with, were low in cost, but worked better than his existing looms.

“designing operations and equipment so your workers are not tied to machines and are free to perform value added work.”
J K, Liker. 2004 P16

This step would lead to the creation of a much broader System!!

Toyoda; Unhappy with seeing his mother, grandmother and friends working so hard, this sent him down his next path, and took production to next level.

“He wanted to find a way to relieve them of this punishing labor, so he set out to develop power-driven looms.”
(J K, Liker. 2004 p16)

This intention was crucial, and helped to build TPS (Toyota Production System).

Jidoka (automation without human touch)
JIT ( Just In Time) – to order what parts you are running out of, just before you do runout.
Continuous Flow (focusing on today, and tomorrow)
Kaizen (change for the better)

This is what brings us to Taiichi Ohno – the founder of the TPS, (Toyota Production System), which has a strong focus on Jidoka, Toyoda’s sons approach JIT, (Just In Time) and his own discovery Continuous Flow. He also talks about Kanban and Kaizen.

He compares Kanban to a gas gauge that is built into the car – when it signals – you know you need to fill up. As for Kaizen, making tiny improvements is just as important when achieving a lean goal, which eliminates all waste, that adds cost without adding to value.

References

Heartbeat Retrospective (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/3b17dtO [accessed 10 March 2021]

ROGERS, Scott. 2014. Level Up ; The Guide To Great Video Game Design. 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

LIKER, Jeffrey K. 2004. The Toyota Way ; 14 Management Principles from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill.

Dkn Indie Game Blog

First Digital Illustration... — **Figure 1: Norton 2016 First Digital Illustration**

CRITICAL REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Week 1.1 – 22nd January. 2021

Time Management and Agile Development

We are first introduced to the two System Development Life Cycle methodologies, to allow us to understand time management and how to apply it through the Masters part time course, when working individually or collaborating with our teams on projects, otherwise know as Jams.

Waterfall Method

Plan – Define – Design – Build – Test – Deploy – Maintain

Although the Waterfall method is continuous, one key step that is missing is reflection. Without reflecting on your work, how will you ever know if there is something you could of improved on, or if you intended on making another version eg. a game, you would need to make a note of what worked and what didn’t and more importantly why certain elements was a success and what should be removed.

This method has 12 points to it, which is more fluid, especially having more customer engagement, communication and reflection.

I cannot apply either of these methods to any of the jobs that I have had in the past, however I can say that I would prefer working with the Scrum structure put in place.

Gathering together to make a plan in a group, then each assigned individual tasks from a backlog of work to be completed within a set time, would be more straight forward if businesses put this method in place.

Tasks would be more simple, communication would be improved, and everything in general would be much more productive. Working as one is much more enjoyable to, as it creates a great positive environment.

Working together as one can create something more powerful. Listening to each other is the key to great creations.

“We must be both open – minded and practical – good ideas can come from anywhere, but they are only good for us if they help us create better experiences.”
(Schell 2020: 15)

Schell, allows us to understand how to connect with one another psychologically. Listening deeply is part of the design process, not just to others, but to yourself. By doing so, you can evaluate your own experiences, and you can use that information to make your own judgement.

As Fook would say, analysing these experiences is how we, “learn directly from professional practice experience”, which allows us to develop our process with far more clarity, and know what direction to start with.
(Fook and Gardner 2007: 51)

Alternative Methods

We had been asked to research into other ways of working, with different techniques that are being put in place, and if we could relate them to our individual practices. For me, after looking into the Waterfall method and Scrum Agile Framework, I couldn’t see any any link between them.

However I have found one method that I can identify with, by how I am working currently to put my research of animation into action, with a successful outcome.

Kanban – This is not considered as an agile method, but the underlying issue is that you must; focus on what you are stuck on, and don’t try and learn something brand new until the first thing has been accomplished.

“The motto is: work on your problems first before going on to new work.”
(Leopold 2015: 20)

The Kanban method focuses on workflow, if any problems arise during production, it is brought to their attention straight away, and is dealt with.

To keep there clients happy, they only make a commitment to a goal that will be achieved, in order to build trust with them. But if for any reason they cannot reach the goal, they re look at their approach with the Kanban system over all.

Using this approach, my goal is to animate my book character Ralphy, I think this is an achievable goal, and I am looking forward to developing my knowledge of character animation.

If I am to start putting this new method into action, I will continue from what I have learnt so far from my personal development – see below.

Watched a Linkedin Learning course; How to make a 2d character move; 2D animation principles, with Dermot O‘ Conner.
Watched and practiced with Unity – completed an in-depth tutorial on Youtube with Jason Weimann – How to Make a Game – Unity Beginner Tutorial, and put into practice. (For more details please go to my home page).

Week 1.2 – 23rd January. 2021

Creative Activity – Custom Avatar

The Puzzle – A jigsaw puzzle I started with my mum, and discovered the artist was an Illustrator. I did have an image in my head that illustrators, just did pen and ink, black and white drawings. But that is not the case. I looked up illustration courses took my first Children’s Book Illustration course from there.
Small Wacom Tablet – The first thing I bought to start my Digital Illustration course still studying with London Art College at this point. This kept me going, whilst writing and Illustrating my Children’s books.
iPad and Playstation control – Placed side by side, to show they are equal, and that I do just as much gaming on Playstation, as I do my iPad.
Mug of Tea and Bueno – With out these two, whilst drawing, or studying…I can’t focus!
Gloves – Rested on top of my mug to show the Huion pen computer is what I currently use. It really is amazing and through the whole journey when illustrating my Children’s books, was my dogs.
Storm and Sky – My little friends, very supportive of my work.

I have to say this activity was so much fun to take part in, especially for a gradual introduction to each other, and understanding what we each enjoy. I thought this was a great way to speak to each other for the first time.

References

FOOK, Jan and Fiona GARDNER. 2007. Practising Critical Reflection : A Resource Handbook. Maidenhead : McGraw-Hill Education

LEOPOLD, Klaus and Siegfried KALTENCKER. 2015. Kanban Change Leadership : Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

O’ CONNER, Dermot. 2014. ‘Linkedin Learning’ Learning 2D Animation Principles. Available at : https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-2d-animation-principles?u=56738929 [accessed 18/02/21].

SCHELL, Jesse. 2020. The Art of Game Design; A Book of Lenses. 3rd edn. Tailor & Francis Group.

WEIMANN, Jason. 2020. How to Make a Game – Unity Beginner Tutorial. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0e-1UBEOU [accessed 10/12/20]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1 : Norton 2016 First Digital Illustration

Figure 2: Norton 2021 Custom Avatar