Introduction
This report will highlight the process of brainstorming in our team while implementing the project. Our group had meetings once a week. Every meeting lasted two hours.
Choosing a topic
At the first meeting, we decided to choose the topic for our project. We started with a discussion of the possible category of the topic which could be interesting for all members of the group. Then we started brainstorming. We wanted to choose the exact topic for our project. For storming we chose one of the most widespread techniques, which was also depicted by Torr (2005): we wrote several initial keywords concerning our project on aboard. Then we started thinking about possible topics and write our ideas down on the board. When we had plenty of variants and no more ideas, we began to choose the right topic. We just crossed out topics that we thought to be inappropriate, too complicated, too simple, too boring. The first meeting was devoted to storming to great extent.
Planning time
At the next meeting, our group was working on the plan, i.e. we outlined the stages of our project implementation. Our storming started with drawing a line which denoted the period we had for the project. We put the deadline which was a day before the due date. After this, we were storming on each stage. First, each member of the group created his/her plan. According to Yangco (2001), this technique can be quite effective since every member of the group reveals his/her vision which is very helpful for the entire group. After this, we started discussing the deadlines. When we agreed upon some stages, we drew a section for each of them. Thus we divided the entire period (line on the blackboard) into certain sub-periods. Of course, some members of the group had different points of view as for timing, but eventually, we created the necessary plan.
Planning the project itself
During our next meeting, we were storming the outline of our project. Of course, each member of the group was reading some information on the topic and some members even had a ready plan. Though Ning et al. (2003) reported that students preferred discussing some points before brainstorming, the members of our group had no definite discussions before storming. During our meeting, we started with writing down some points which should have been highlighted in our project. Every member pointed out several points that were depicted on the blackboard again. After this, we crossed out points that were irrelevant for the project. When our project outline was ready we divided the scope of work among the members of the group. Every member was responsible for a definite part of the project.
Storming possible variants
When we divided the parts of the project among us, we decided to give tips to each other. We stormed possible topics to discuss in each part, possible sources to be used to work on each part. We shared our knowledge of research techniques and this storming turned to be also very helpful for each of us.
Conclusion
Thus, we used storming techniques while choosing the topic, drawing deadlines, working out the project’s plan, and sharing ideas about the research process. Storming was excessively used in the initial stages of the project. When all the necessary plans were outlined we started working individually and then resorted to discussions.
Reference List
Ning, H., Williams, J., Sanchez, A. (2003). Online Peer Review in Teaching Design-oriented Courses.Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics, 2(1). Web.
Torr, P. (2005). Demystifying the Threat-Modeling Process. IEEE Security and Privacy, 3(5). Web.
Yangco, A. (2001). I’ve Got Those Writin’ Block Blues: A Curriculum Project. All Write News, 8(3). Web.