Friday's lunchtime reading

Below is my "give and take" with a classmate who I have the unfortunate luck of being in a group with (whomever came up with the idea of groupwork at the college level is one sick puppy) that happened this morning. Let me set the scene for you: Murf is...well, me. Marie is the older lady (upper 50's I'd guess..she has grandkids) who was originally the project manager but dropped the ball so much that she got booted down to the next slot - Technical Specialist. Our goal is to write a tutorial teaching the other group in our class something. She is in charge of writing an outline of the website that we will be teaching and I fill in the blanks wordwise. Robert is the last step, the document designer. He will apply styles and insert the pictures, etc.

Enjoy!
********


Murf:
Hi, Robert.

I just wanted to give you the heads up that the Alpha draft is about half done. It's taken a lot longer than I expected to rephrase things that have the word 'will' in them as well as ditching the lingo. I've also came up with the questions that we will use for the demonstration at the end of the semester. I just have to check with Lisa to see if she wants only one example of each type of question (Multiple Choice – one answer, Multiple Choice – more than one answer and text) or if all 10-12 questions need to be in the tutorial. Hopefully she will respond quickly but if not, I will post the file on Blackboard once complete (today sometime) and just add in the additional questions for the Beta version.

Enjoy the snow tonight!

Marie:
Per the minutes from last weeks meeting I am working on the Sample Data Questions. I will have the questions that I came up with shortly. I also have updated screen shots for Robert.

Murf:
Marie,

Thanks for the heads up. Since I hadn't heard any updates from you, I went ahead and came up with some so that I could begin updating this and getting it to Robert timely. I'm sure they are similar to what you will be sending and I'll include the ones that are better than some of the ones that I have which got lamer nearer to Question 10 or so. :-)

(Blog writer's note: None of my questions were lame but that my failed attempt at diffusing the situation. I'm not sure why I care about not ticking people off. I need to work on that.)

Marie:
I didn't realize you wanted updates since no one had suggestions when we met on monday. I don't see a survey with your questions, no one likes to do rework or duplicate work. Can you send me the questions you have come up with so I can include them in the screen shots? This way the screen shots will match the documentation.

(Blog writer's note: I highly doubt she had any at this point)

Murf:
I believe the part about keeping everyone updated was in our group 'contract' that we wrote early in the semester. Also, the Alpha draft is due on Monday night and per the notes on the preliminary draft, Lisa wants the sample data included in this version and since I hadn't heard anything from you regarding this, I came up with some that met the criteria that we walked about early on regarding what kind of survey to have and it was decided on that the common item that everyone has experience with are cars. Anyone can contribute to the sample data but since time was ticking and I'm your back up, I came up with them. Also, thankfully the Alpha version doesn't have to be in Frame Maker but Robert is keen on getting the document as soon as possible to start formal work on his design part which I am trying to do. While we are all busy outside of the classroom and things happen, I don't think there is any need to make anyone in the group stressed about getting their part done at the very last minute.

Marie:
I agree we are all busy and I that is why I wanted to get suggestions on Monday. Since it was my task it would have been nice if you "updated" me you were doing it. I will have the Sample Data posted on the black board shortly, I have never intended to keep anyone from meeting a deadline. I will not be in town this week end so tonight will be to late for me.

Murf:
I did. This morning's email. On Monday night, you said you were going to do it so I was giving you time. When it got close to what I thought of as 'crunch time', my husband and I came up with some good general questions regarding vehicles and I started updating the document late last night. Also, your comment about not being in town for a holiday weekend is exactly why I did it. Perhaps I had out of town holiday plans that would prevent me from getting the information done in time or some other thing if I had just sat and waited for you to let us know that you were done. With no updates, I had no idea if you were working on them or something came up that was more important. I don't think we should 'assume' that the person who is next in line has all the time in the world. I work 10 hours on Mondays. I can't get to class beforehand to enter this nor should I for a simple thing as sample data. Who cares what exactly the 10 questions are? The objective is to teach Team B this website which is what we will be doing.

Marie:
I understand we all have plans and we are all busy. That is why I have been working in my spare time to have the steps for the Sample Data in the format that Lisa wanted from the last class so all you have to do is plug it into the document.



Murf:
There’s more work than ‘plugging it into the document’. There’s a lot of revision at least in the Create the Survey section but that’s neither here nor there since we are all now finally on the same page.

Happy Easter everyone!

Geez, my face gets hot just re-reading her idiotic replies. The funny thing is that just this morning, I was wondering what the correct thing would be - to tell her that I'm unhappy with her performance or just lay into her in our final review. I would hope she was bright enough to read between the lines. I can't wait for Monday night!