Mad Props, Yo

I had a better title, but I forgot what it was. This one works, though. Explanation to follow.

Training today wasn't awful. Well, it was awful, but less awful than real work would have been. The general format of the class is to discuss the topics then do an exercise related to the material. The discussions during the teaching segment tend to drag on a little bit, but the exercises seem to fold time trying to get everything into a PowerPoint for the presentation.

We're in groups of 6, and there will be a total of 6 presentations, so we each present once (I didn't want anyone to have trouble with that math). I chose to present this morning. It was the second set of presentations, so I had a lay of the land but didn't get stuck with something terrible. The topic was risk, which is really hard to do in a real program, but really easy when you can make up the answers. I felt I did a good job, and I think the instructor agreed. My group later pointed out that on at least one slide, I said essentially, "and here are a bunch of acronyms . . . moving on." I don't remember doing that, but I very well could have. My presentation had the most information (including a ton of individual risks that were asked for, but no one else went to the trouble to list) and looked pretty good (for the time I had to make it). I also answered all the questions the facilitator asked, mostly by making things up as I went.

This afternoon was another lesson and exercise. I didn't have to present, but the entire group works together to answer questions and prepare the material before the "leader" makes the presentation. As part of this exercise, we had to answer several questions and build a work breakdown structure (WBS). For those who aren't familiar with government contracts, a WBS is a detailed hierarchy of tasks required to complete a project. It's often very similar to an organization chart. The standard operating procedure is that the government provides the first (top) three levels of the WBS, and the contractor develops any additional levels (and usually there are several additional levels). Getting back to the story, for this task we had to answer several questions and build a sample WBS for the fictional project. I started right away building the WBS because I'm a formatting weeny, and I knew it would take a significant amount of time. I built the first draft of the WBS then got input from others in the group to finish it off. I gave it to the leader, and he incorporated it into the final presentation without looking at it much (he was still finishing another section).

During his presentation, he got his first good look at my WBS and remarked, "that's really good," and looked over at me, giving me props in front of the entire room and the teachers. The teacher also commented that it was a very good WBS for the time we had and especially liked some of the details we'd added. One was suggested by another group member, so it wasn't all me (and I gave him props, though not as loudly because it would have been impolite in class).

Tomorrow afternoon is the first test. It's open book / open notes, so it's just a matter of finding the answers in the materials. I could probably pass the class without looking for the answers, but why not spend the few extra seconds? If I do well on the first test, I can mostly ignore the second one with even less risk.

I want a bacon chocolate bar. More tomorrow.