Reflective Paper
Part A:  Coursework Reflection
What was your goal/motivation in deciding to embark on the type of degree you are studying?
Deciding from a young age to wanting to be a game designer, I realised towards the end in high school how risky the gaming industry was and decided that I required a backup career if I wanted to have some sort of success in my adult life. Career workers at my school advised that I participated in the double degree being offered at Swinburne for Computer Science and Games and Interactivity. I decided early on that not only would I use computer science as a backup for having a more secure career overall, though that I would also use the knowledge gained to understand technical information, acquire programming skills and to also perhaps learned what else may be useful for sustaining my own games business and careers.
I took PIIIT believing that I would gain a strong insight into important IT topics. The course overview outlined that PIIIT would go over codes of ethics, career development, professional habits and much more. All this fit in excellently with my desire to broaden my knowledge on the IT industry going into this course.
When you enrolled into PIIT, how did you envisage PIIT fitting into your overall goal/motivation?
Has the unit made you re-evaluate the type of degree or major/specialisation you have chosen and the career path you had planned?
How have your aspirations and plans changed because of what you have learnt in the unit?

What kinds of behaviours might be important for an ICT professional working in a group or team with members from a wide variety of different backgrounds (e.g .diversity of skills, gender, age, religion and ethnicity)?
In what ways did you contribute to a sound team performance?
What could you have done better to make sure your team worked better?
How could you have helped others in your team to perform better?
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OTHER ITEMS
What are your most memorable moments of PIIT, and why?
How might having taken this unit improved your induction into the ICT profession?



Part B: Lecture Reflection
Chris Felstead's begun the guest presentations with a very confronting lecture for me. This was mainly due to how far he goes to show how considerate an IT professional must be of their presentation, their actions and how it reflects on the company, their actions and how it affects the customers and much more.  I was also very impressed with the amount of skills that Felstead advised us to develop on, including listening skills, communication skills, foresight for projects, deal making and meeting skills, political intelligence and even asset management. Felstead almost overwhelmed me with the kinds of questions he suggests professionals ask for the sake of efficiency and overall coverage, for now and in the future. The many tips provided I believe will help me step back and take careful consideration for how I want to approach my career, even in games.  In the games industry, carefully considering and reflecting on my solutions I believe will be imperative and Felstead makes it clear how much preparation and experience is ultimately required to handle situations correctly in any field of IT.
Ultimately, Felstead had me considering how much I knew about dealing with other people, inside and outside of IT and had me call attention to the issues that I may have without working hard on refining my communication skills, despite my own confidence in those abilities.
In week 5, lecturer Stuart McLoughlin documented and presented students with the concept of ethics. I found it personally very interesting to see how McLoughlin’s presentation was rich with content, meaning the presentation itself and the lecture slides which featured sub notes for repeated use. What made this lecture stand out to me is how clearly ethics are defined. In my experience, learning about ethics always made it sound difficult to define. Often being cited as merely ‘the right thing to do’ in tough situations, not enough resources strictly state what shows ethics and what doesn’t. McLoughlin demonstrates in his lecture that ethics is in fact approached in the industry in many ways. This lecture made it clear to me that communicating with other people about what was right and what was wrong would require many considerations on my own size, as well as some clear agreements about what guidelines I would follow with in my own work.  The lecture impressed me because it showed the ethics has no one-size-fits-all strategy, but instead encourages an agreement between parties so that everyone can be respected and understood in dealing with one another.
Lastly, McLoughlin outlined why ethics are so important for IT professionals in the first place. They need to be considered in all business endeavours, and they are as important to preserve as the projects occurring between both parties.
Michael Sneddon, although not severely impacting my overall outlook on the industry, provided major clarity over legal issues in IT. As said earlier in this paper, one of the reasons I participated in PIIT was to gain insight into legal concerns regarding negotiations in IT. To my interest, Sneddon showed all kinds of different legal issues he’s commonly encountered. Covered was liability caps, agreements made before negotiations happen to ensure that both parties are being treated fairly. It was made clear that businesses handle their agreements before negotiations to add a level of security to their decision making. Sneddon continued and covered termination of contracts, the terms that are mulled over upon those contracts which act to specifically act as clear-cut things that both businesses must avoid from happening.
In addition to this, I learned about how warranties are organised between parties. Sneddon demonstrated the warranty period, when the warranty commences and when the period ends. Something which I didn’t even think about that Sneddon introduced was acceptance testing. That is, testing which is performed to ensure that the finished product lives up to the outlined agreements before deadlines are up. I realised how important carrying out acceptance tests were as without doing them, a business could breach and have their negotiations with the other party terminated.
All-in-all, my overall view over the IT industry was not changed dramatically by Sneddon, though the knowledge I was seeking in this unit was gained by him in this lecture.
Most of the lectures in this unit had me engaged based on how much I should consider for my future in IT or games. Often I would feel either overwhelmed or inspired to get a head start on my career, which was exactly what Michael Augello pushed forward in his presentation on career management. Augello’s lecture had me realise that my career is my greatest project. Just like projects, Augello makes the link between them and your career, and that they require a steady plan which is updated and logged regularly. Augello encouraged the audience to become incredibly modular and specific in pursuit of our goals, so that we could have clear goals to reach daily. This presentation resonated very well with me as I consider myself someone who likes planning and fulfilling it one step at a time. It felt very empowering and encouraging to know that Augello was using my own methods of preparation and care to his own success.
It seemed that ultimately Augello was initially coming from the same place as the students, finding the idea of being an IT professional almost overwhelming. However, with calm planning and consideration of the future, he could build up his own career.  Augello presented me with favourite lecture by far, having me become motivated to not only pursue my career goals, though personal and social goals within my own life too. I believe that, although not very much going into the specifics of the IT industry and how it must be handled during out careers, Augello instead provided a net that students could use to further themselves in all their goals.