In concluding this week, it feels as though we’ve completed the second milestone of our project, and an important milestone it was. Having elected to propose both how and why the lack of collaboration negatively affects small organizations in the first milestone, much of the work this week was spent preparing how to tackle covering the topic.
We began by reviewing the instructor’s feedback and suggestions for improvement. In doing so, it is clear that we have selected a sound topic and have covered many of the necessary aspects to compose a white paper that will prove informative, thorough, and effective in advocating why Microsoft SharePoint will be advantageous to any organization desiring to increase and improve productivity. However, the instructor’s feedback offered some rather necessary tips to consider in order to improve our process and content. For instance, Nathaniel suggested that, in order to be more effective, we will need to tighten the focus of our target audience. Whereas initially we had intended to target organizations of all sizes, we have refined our audience to include only small, startup companies. In doing so, we can ensure we will not isolate our readers and hinder their ability to relate to our argument, in turn, strengthening our position, readability, and understanding.
Aside from revising some of the specifics regarding our topic and audience, we spent ample time dividing the upcoming research into sections and distributing those sections amongst the team members. Although some of the more finer details are being worked out, the high-level research has been accounted for and is underway. For example, each of the major aspects have been assigned to be researched, including what the problem is, why it is a problem, and how we are arguing to resolve it, as well as alternative solutions and the advantages and disadvantages of each. There are various topics we have proposed to include and each member is independently researching a list, which will be reviewed by the team and accepted into the final paper, or vetoed.
Beyond the specific content to be researched, we have also worked together to establish a (rough) set of work schedules and deadlines, as well as the group Gantt chart. Furthermore, we have proposed a number of guidelines and best practices to follow and set up a number of online meetings.
Feedback: Group 1 Week 13 Activity Report
I need to address a pressing issue here. You write above that your white paper "will prove informative, thorough, and effective in advocating why Microsoft SharePoint will be advantageous to any organization desiring to increase and improve productivity." This is outside the bounds of the project description and previous feedback that I have provided. The white paper project asks you to not advocate for any one solution, but instead provide three to five viable solutions that are presently fairly and without bias.
According to the project description:
Additionally, in my response your proposal I indicated that:
Your group needs to research and provide information on several possible options. Your week 12 activity report mentioned you were looking at Google Groups. Along with researching this, you need to look at several other solutions. This is the direction you need to go to successfully complete this project.