Week 8 : Evaluation

I will be posting my final review on the CMS platform. This will go through all of my issues that I may have had with the project, how I feel it went. As well as this anything I would improve within the project and what I have learnt throughout it. This will give me a review I can then send back to the client, to make them understand what I went throughout to make their vision to become a reality.

 Over these eight weeks, I feel that the project has gone really well. Although coming across a few problems along the way, but I were able to overcome these and still remain to deliver the project on time. When I was commissioned the project, I felt that I was more than capable to do exactly what the project specification wanted and to make sure that it was done they needed it to be. As the project went on I had to research a lot of development knowledge that I didn’t know which therefore impacting on the time too. As well as this I had to create all of the designs for each of the pages and code them to valid HTML/CSS which took even more time up too, along with creating and maintaining the project time frame and the technical documents after it.

At the start of the project, I posted quite a few blogs up with using the program Blogger, but sadly they suffered a hardware fault which made me quite annoyed, as I lost a lot of vital information so I had to re do those blogs and wait for the program to become stable once again to re post them up to the website so therefore my client could see what was being done and monitor the progress until the deadline date.

I was able to manage the project effectively and efficiently, by communicating with client on a weekly basis to able to feedback information of how the project was going, what issues I was facing, any change requests they may wanted and the final outcomes I was producing. By following my GANT chart, I was able to post to the client of the various different stages I was starting or completing and any milestones that were achieved. Along with this using the CPA to identity what was the most effective route to take when it comes to completing the tasks were really important for the Visualize Media CMS.

Researching took some time up that I didn’t really budget for, which was finding out the latest methods of posting to databases by using PHP, security methods to keep the system secure, authorisation checking and also template theming, luckily enough I was able to consult a few people I knew within the industry where they was able to help me figure out what I needed which enabled me to continue successfully along the project. Therefore the time that was wasted, I needed to make back so during the week 3 and 4, I worked throughout the weekend to make sure that I was back up to date on the timeline.

As the project progressed along the timeline, the work load started to get easier and I started to understand the code I was writing a lot better, and it started to form together which I was really pleased with and gave me even more motivation to proceed further. As the project came to the end and finishing the main parts to the CMS I was able then to start testing the project so it was fit for its intended use and producing the necessary documents for the end user to successfully understand how it worked, and how it can be installed, and fixed if there was any given problem.

I wanted to make the user guide really clear and to fit the house style as well, so I took the colours /style of the front end part and applied them to the user guide, and then I started listing the pages that I needed to create ranging from logging into the system and posting a new article. As well as this I needed to give clear instructions on how the user can install the system, a simple glossary of words/terms that were used and a licence agreement for the CMS itself.

Finally I needed to produce a full testing program, to show the client and the end user that the website itself works and the CMS too. It would include everything that I needed to test, ranging from the CSS loading in each of the pages and sections, the links on each page to redirect to the various different pages that is attached too, the JavaScript works correctly and displays what you want, the php/mysql backend works the way it was designed too and finally that the images are loaded and are the right size for the area they are designed for.

There are only a couple of elements that I would change overall with the CMS and these would be that, I had more time to complete new modules for it, which would range from the notes system, a complete user back end and front end, and a blogger type of module but these are already included in a future scope/part of the project and I hope we can come back again and make these happen.  As well as this I wished I researched the PHP/MYSQL fully as well, to show more understanding and cut down on the waste of time at the start of the project itself, which means I may of achieved a bit more than the intended scope. Overall I feel the project has ran really well, and it has kept to its deadlines and we have produced some really decent work, which we feel that the client will be very happy with.

Week 8

Woo its the final week of this project. I have been doing all of the final testing, reviewing what I have done within the project, finishing of my user guide to suit all of the new methods/functions I have put in since I started it, making sure that my technical documentation contains all of the information that they need to understand the project, and making the final changes to my GANT chart and CPA to suit what I have done.

After eight weeks of the project we are coming to the end of the road. I am pleased that we can finally get the project sent to the client so they can work on the platform that we have made for them, but also quite sad at the same time, as I have really enjoyed learning about PHP/MYSQL and finding ways to successfully managing projects in the real world.

This week, will be fully testing out the program making sure that everything works the way it was designed too, and that it looks exactly how the final design is, this would range from the CSS layout to the right images on the pages. As well as this I will be producing a lot of documentation to the project in regards to a user guide, which will have all of the features of the current CMS platform, and step by step guide on how to post news, log into the system and registering new users onto the it. Also it will contain useful information such as license agreements, glossary of what terms we have used and the definitions of these, a introduction of what the CMS is about and finally a frequently asked questions section.

I am fully pushing myself to get the project done on time, so that the client is fully happy with it and avoiding the late fees for not meeting the deadline as well. I have  also come to a stage of where that I have fully finished the project but it is still missing the user function of where they can register new users for the back end of the CMS, so I have submitted a change request form, of hopefully the client will agree upon for a extension of 4 days which I feel will allow me to get the user part to work the way it should.

Week 7

The half term break has finished and we're back on the daily grind. This week I have planned to fully finish off the CMS, so everything works and that it has been tested at the same time too. Which means it will make my life a lot easier later in the closing stages of the project itself. As well as this I will need to carry on testing out the CMS, to make sure everything still works with any changes that I may of made, because when creating a new function on part of the CMS, it may corrupt another part, so it is vital that I pro-actively test it at the same time when creating new things for it.

I will be referring back to my GANT chart to see how the progress is going along the tasks. My meeting these milestones so far, I have been easily to achieve the different stages and proceed onto the next stage. This week will be one of my last milestones when it comes to the CMS platform, where I would need to fully test the development of the program itself, which will then lead for the week for final complete testing and handing it over to the client.

As well as this week, I have had a few issues with the server itself, so it sadly took some overall time of the development of the program to fix the problems that we were facing. The overall domain for the CMS wasn't pointing to the right server IP, so that had to be reapplied back to the correct server and sadly it takes around 24 hours to propagate over successfully again. 

To overcome this time lost, I will need to cut out one meeting with my client, so this week I will be only be posting one blog post sadly, but Im sure I will make up for it in the final week of the project where it will be quite busy explaining how the project went, how and what I would improve on, and anything that I would of changed with the way I carried out it too. I have also let the client know of this, and they are quite happy so far with what I have produced and can not wait to get hold of the final project.

Week 6 : Half Term

During this break, I have set aside doing most of the overall development of the CMS, but sadly the user part of where I have been stuck in the past few posts, has holded up the speed of the work, so I have fully tested out the website and uploaded the documentation directly to the client for them to understand what we have done, and what parts we have tested. I will now be working on the full final testing, where I would actually do the tests on the live system and post screen shots of the evidence too to show them that it works my end and I am fully happy with the results.

As well as this I will be meeting with my client twice this week, and asking them for any changes they may have during this stage where they can be put into the system with ease, rather than at the end where the timescale will be rushed sadly.

Along with this I have also started to produce my user guide for the final system, by explaining the parts that I have already made, and ways how to post news, sign in, and register to the site itself. I feel this must be in the style of the website itself, and explain in simple to understand terms for any type of user. This will allow the end user to fully understand how the CMS works, and this would avoid any confusion too.

End Of Week 5

Sadly I am still having a few issues with the authorization of the website, I have contacted a few other people about this issue and I'm waiting back for some answers to help me overcome it. The issue that I am facing is that the user registration script, won't post to the database correctly and won't show me a error to help me understand what is wrong at the same time.I hope to sort this soon, so I have implemented a temporary fix of where the user could enter a pre-defined user/password into the login screen and this means that they can login and post the articles that they wanted.

With this week, I have been moving on to the overall theming of the CMS to make it look visually pleasing for the end user, and also testing it fully to see if all the links work, all of the images load correctly at the right places and that the posting articles section works efficiently.I feel at this stage this has been achieved quite week, and I am on target for reaching the deadline for the final product to be released to the client.

Next week, Will be half term where I will be starting to make it work within the front end, to display the news post itself, and linking all of the pages and filling in the content that has been provided. I'm really looking forward to reaching the deadline and signing off the project as this has been a really good learning curve at the same time, and I am very happy of what I have produced so far.

Start Of Week 5

During this week, I have continued to develop my cms platform, we've had a few issues when dealing with some issues so far with the authorising scripts, registeration and the redirect to the administrator back end too! I hope by the end of the week that I will be able to complete and fix the issues so the CMS works efficently and effectivly so that the customer is happy with the final outcome.

I have started also to produce my techincal documentation, this would contain my final annotated designs, my navigational diagrams, table relationships, testing the CMS fully to see if it works and behaves how that I described it. And finally a evulation at the same time to recap how I feel the project has gone on, how the features behave, feedback from different users that have used the CMS too. As well as this I would suggest future modules that I will be releasing, how I will market the CMS itself on the market and much more.

I have began to test the progress so far with the website itself, by making sure all of the links work correctly, images are displayed , the CSS styles are applied to the right div's, and the overall feel looks the same as the designs that I did in the past few weeks. Throughout this week, I hope I can gain some more features and fix the current ones that I am developing and I really am pleased with the outcome so far with the project.

End Of Week 4

Hi, After last week's issues with blogger! I have finally managed to get back to blogging about the project! This week has been very busy, with producing and developing the CMS! Currently I have managed to build a lot of it already but there still is a lot more work left to do, ranging from themeing to ingratiating new functions.

Over this week I have been monitoring my plan and pushing forward to get the project working and on time.  I have spent a few hours on Monday just researching security methods to protect my CMS platform from hackers and I feel that I have reached a stage where that I happy so far with the progress.

I will be referring back to my GANT chart to see how the progress is going along the tasks. My meeting these milestones so far, I have been easily to achieve the different stages and proceed onto the next stage.

The development link can be found below! Although it still is in a very early stage you can see that I have created news posts and the admin backend so far! I can't wait until next week to start on this again!

http://cms.vl-media.co.uk/cms

Week 3: CPA / Final Project Spec / Review

Finally I have started on my Project specification. This will contain the exact guidelines/tasks that will be in my final outcome of my project that I will be doing for Visualize Media CMS. I will be uploading that shortly for the client to view and to understand fully what is going on with the project life cycle. Along with this my critical path analysis which makes me understands which paths of my project are the most important.

Please find attached a copy of my Critical Path Analysis (CPA) diagram for the project.

I feel that the project has been going on smoothly and on time. There's been a lot of progress with how the initial plans/designs to the final coding parts. The past three weeks have been quite busy, but I feel I have dealt with it effetely.  Over the next five weeks I will be developing the CMS fully into a workable product by using PHP/MYSQL back end with various little addons ranging from Javascript/AJAX to assit the user when they process their tasks. Along with this I will be producing technical documentation to use the CMS in a PDF form and a online help section to the website. As well as this discussing with the client on a weekly basis of any changes or progress that has gone on with the project.At this current time, I feel the timescale is cutting it a bit fine, as I do have to do some learning with PHP/MYSQL but I'm pretty sure I can get it sorted in time for that part.

Please find my updated GANT chart of what has been completed and what has still need to do.

Coding / Review

It's the start of the week and it's a really busy one too! After last week I have managed to fully finish the designs and planning for the start of the project and I am really happy with the outcome! I also met with the client end of last week to discuss how they feel the designs are, if anything needed to be adjusted and guess what, they were thrilled with what we have produced for them and they can't wait to see the next stage to be worked on.

Please find my updated GANT chart of what has been completed and what has still need to do.

This week, I have started to make those designs work on the world wide web! I started today, coding the front end PSD to HTML/CSS. This seemed like quite a hard design to transform, but once I got going it felt very simple to do and I was able to complete it by end of Monday! Now I have started work on the back-end which will take me a little bit longer due to the different type of boxes that are used throughout the design, I finished coding this design by end of Thursday which left me just one day to complete the login form, which I managed to achieve as well! You can find below the links of the finished HTML/CSS parts for each of the sections of the CMS platform.

Front-End
http://cms.vl-media.co.uk/code/front-end


Back-End
http://cms.vl-media.co.uk/code/back-end


Login Panel
http://cms.vl-media.co.uk/code/login/
 
Once again, I am really pleased with what I am producing and I can't wait to see the finish products at the end of the week! Once again I will be meeting with my client to show them the progress and to see if they like what I have done, and if anything needed to be changed at the same time.

Project Specification / Meeting / Final Designs

As it explains in the title, I have been quite busy this week with producing a final design for the CMS and the new website for Visualize Media. Along with this I have managed to meet up with my client to show them the progress and they were really happy. I also gathered a few peoples feedback of the designs and the idea itself this week, to make sure the market liked the idea and the design.

Designs

Front End

Back End

Login Panel

As you can see all of the designs have been finished and now are ready for me to make them into workable HTML and CSS. I feel this next stage will take all of next week, as there is a lot of CSS and HTML to write at the same time! As well as this making sure the design looks exactly the same as it does in the image.

Feedback
"This looks fresh Joe, Really nice outcome, using purple and contrasting grey's was a really nice touch"

Joe Williams

"DUDE! That looks so professional, one of the best creative websites I have seen, it's not too over the top and it looks really FRESHHHH! Keep it up bro"

Paul Wells

"I love this version of Visualize Media! It is such a better improvement on the old website, there is one thing I would change to the design of the backend, add a picture of me!! :)"

Emma Williams

Finally I have started on my Project specification. This will contain the exact guidelines/tasks that will be in my final outcome of my project that I will be doing for Visualize Media. I will be having a meeting with my client today, to discuss the progress and the final outcome of the designs, hopefully they will have some feedback for me for anything they might want to change with the designs, and anything they wish to share also.

Week 2 : Designing

I have finished planning for the new CMS and started designing the main theme for both the front end, back end and login panel!

Designs
Front End - I really pleased with working with this color scheme! The purples, greys and whites really look nice together and I hope the client is happy with the outcome that has been produced so far! 

Back End -I tried to make the back end seem different to the front end of the website, as this would be the part that we will be selling to other business to use on their own projects. With this I have used different style techniques and I'm really happy with the outcome that has come out from this.

Login Panel - I love how this has started to look like, with the dark login boxes contrasting along with the background of the website. I have applied a different house style to this part, but using exactly the same elements throughout.

I aim to finish the designs for all of the three elements by the end of the week, to keep to current timescales that have been set by myself so that the project finishes successfully on the 17th of June! I really hope the customer is happy with the progress so far. I will be taking some feedback from them at the end of the week before I proceed with the next stage which is coding to HTML/CSS.

Week 1 - Planning & Agreeing Contract With Client

Introduction
Over the past few days, I have been drafting up my time plan for the project, and meeting the client to agree total cost, timescale and what their needs are. As well as this I have presentated by idea to the client, and luckly they have agreed to take it on, and sign me up for it. I'm really pleased with this, and I can not wait to get started on it.

I have also agreed with the client to show them a weekly update, to show the progress and just in case they have any ideas, feedback that they wish to share with me.During this week has been quite slow, as we have only started the project itself. I have managed to produce my time sheet/Gantt chart for me to follow throughout of the next eight weeks, and the tasks that are involved too. As well as this I have done a full risk assessment on the project, to see what the risks are, how to overcome this and the best methods to do so to minimize time wasting, keeping on the budget that has been set and finally keeping productivity high. 

I have also managed to complete my GANT chart for the project's life cycle! This will show me the tasks I need to do for us to complete the work successfully and on time too. It also shows the milestones which need to be met otherwise if not the project will fail as I wouldn't be able to go onto the next stage.

I will be writing more over the next few weeks, of my experiences with the project, how well I am getting on, how well the project is taking shape and any drawbacks that I may face too.

Joe