Reflection : the power of Visualization 

 Challenges and Selction   After have reviewed this course , I would like to bring my reflection over the power of   Visualization . I am employed for a global logistic provider for fresh material . In particular   my   company provides goods for the major restaurant chains all over the word . I work as a team leader   into the IT Business Relationship manager dept . , and one of my main activities is to analyse   business and/or customer needs and guide them in through a set of possible solutions .   Sometimes the hardest part is to really guess what is behind users requests ; the majority of the   time they come to our department asking for solution to problem not well known .   Another   particular case I often experience is when a project is committed by different departments , with   needs that could be maybe related but with no common view about the problem behind their   needs and , consequently , no clear idea about a possible solution .     Application   Some months ago I was involved in a workgroup in order to solve a critical issue for our logistics :   an increasing number of suppliers delivered goods with a wrong SSCC Labels(bar code labels that   could ensure the traceability of the foods during all the supply chain ) format . This fact generated 2   main issues : the loose of the goods traceability , that is a critical factor into the food industry and   an important waste of time from the blue collars that have to re generate manually all the labels . 

 Company board asked for an immediate solution in order to preserve our great quality standards   and to save money . This is the point in which I have been named as a Project Manager . 

 At the very beginning , was very hard to find out from the other project stakeholders the   requirements really needs : every one kept talking about the particular problem belonging to their   single department , without trying to focus con the main cause that was creating problem to the   company ; at this point I used my first visualization tool . 

 In order to bring all the people involved I push to organize a meeting in a in front of a   a   Whiteboard and I asked to everyone to draw the goods reception process . In this case every one   start immediately to collaborate to walk on the same way and everyone 's problem started to be   connected each other and understandable from all . Suddenly people started to collaborate and   the problem of different department became part of a clear common company challenge / issue . 

 Once the process was know by everyone ( AS - IS situation ) we could have move our focus in finding   a possible solution . After some brainstorming round we agreed that we must involve the suppliers   into the resolution in order to permanently solve the issue . This is the reason why we started to   explore the possibility of a web portal where the suppliers could check the orders coming from our   company and , with a few click , print the related label in order to complete the food delivery in a   proper way . 

 The idea was really nice but even at this point , people started to wondering about the different   functionalities and the process itself . The same people , in the same room that some hours before   was really agreeing about the common problem , now was crashing again into a confusions phase . 

 This is the reason why I decided to bring another important visualization tool : a mock - up . I took   some days in order to analyse all the requirements collected from the previous meeting attendees   and I tried to realize a very simple mock - up of the possible web portal . Honestly was a very simple   stuff : a sort of dynamic power point that people could explore simulating the basic processes . 

 When I showed this to the next meeting , everybody was very happy , because at the least they   started to visualize , even in a simple way , the idea that they have only discussed before . People   was so involved into this that I asked to them to contribute to the mock - up , starting to draw   possible changes they could have directly on the mock - up , as they could better explaining their   ideas . 

 Insights and Approach   This course assignment forced me to look back in a critical way to my previous design experiences   according to what I learned . In particular I found how powerful could be the visualization in all the   project phases : 

 • " What is " : by helping people , coming from different departments , companies , backgrounds 

 to create a common understanding about the current scenario 

 • " What if " : by helping people to figure out the solution proposed . 

 Visualization in general turns words and thoughts to something concrete and understandable , a   sort of common language that brings awareness . 

 The problem is that in some context could be seen just as a waste of time , but in my opinion is   critical , in particular at the very beginning of a project , during the problem identification phase . 

 According to my experiences , often people look for solution to problems that they have n't really   understood . This could turn to requirements changes in the middle of the solution development   process and this happenings are very hard and expensive to manage . 

 Considering this experience I could be very satisfied about the use of this tool , anyway , I can not   ignore that sometimes , in other context I did n't find the right time to use them and in some case I   really paid for this error . In the next future it will be my care to try to bring this tools to all the   people I am going to work with . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection : the power of Visualization 

 Challenges and Selction   After have reviewed this course , I would like to bring my reflection over the power of   Visualization . I am employed for a global logistic provider for fresh material . In particular   my   company provides goods for the major restaurant chains all over the word . I work as a team leader   into the IT Business Relationship manager dept . , and one of my main activities is to analyse   business and/or customer needs and guide them in through a set of possible solutions .   Sometimes the hardest part is to really guess what is behind users requests ; the majority of the   time they come to our department asking for solution to problem not well known .   Another   particular case I often experience is when a project is committed by different departments , with   needs that could be maybe related but with no common view about the problem behind their   needs and , consequently , no clear idea about a possible solution .     Application   Some months ago I was involved in a workgroup in order to solve a critical issue for our logistics :   an increasing number of suppliers delivered goods with a wrong SSCC Labels(bar code labels that   could ensure the traceability of the foods during all the supply chain ) format . This fact generated 2   main issues : the loose of the goods traceability , that is a critical factor into the food industry and   an important waste of time from the blue collars that have to re generate manually all the labels . 

 Company board asked for an immediate solution in order to preserve our great quality standards   and to save money . This is the point in which I have been named as a Project Manager . 

 At the very beginning , was very hard to find out from the other project stakeholders the   requirements really needs : every one kept talking about the particular problem belonging to their   single department , without trying to focus con the main cause that was creating problem to the   company ; at this point I used my first visualization tool . 

 In order to bring all the people involved I push to organize a meeting in a in front of a   a   Whiteboard and I asked to everyone to draw the goods reception process . In this case every one   start immediately to collaborate to walk on the same way and everyone 's problem started to be   connected each other and understandable from all . Suddenly people started to collaborate and   the problem of different department became part of a clear common company challenge / issue . 

 Once the process was know by everyone ( AS - IS situation ) we could have move our focus in finding   a possible solution . After some brainstorming round we agreed that we must involve the suppliers   into the resolution in order to permanently solve the issue . This is the reason why we started to   explore the possibility of a web portal where the suppliers could check the orders coming from our   company and , with a few click , print the related label in order to complete the food delivery in a   proper way . 

 The idea was really nice but even at this point , people started to wondering about the different   functionalities and the process itself . The same people , in the same room that some hours before   was really agreeing about the common problem , now was crashing again into a confusions phase . 

 This is the reason why I decided to bring another important visualization tool : a mock - up . I took   some days in order to analyse all the requirements collected from the previous meeting attendees   and I tried to realize a very simple mock - up of the possible web portal . Honestly was a very simple   stuff : a sort of dynamic power point that people could explore simulating the basic processes . 

 When I showed this to the next meeting , everybody was very happy , because at the least they   started to visualize , even in a simple way , the idea that they have only discussed before . People   was so involved into this that I asked to them to contribute to the mock - up , starting to draw   possible changes they could have directly on the mock - up , as they could better explaining their   ideas . 

 Insights and Approach   This course assignment forced me to look back in a critical way to my previous design experiences   according to what I learned . In particular I found how powerful could be the visualization in all the   project phases : 

 • " What is " : by helping people , coming from different departments , companies , backgrounds 

 to create a common understanding about the current scenario 

 • " What if " : by helping people to figure out the solution proposed . 

 Visualization in general turns words and thoughts to something concrete and understandable , a   sort of common language that brings awareness . 

 The problem is that in some context could be seen just as a waste of time , but in my opinion is   critical , in particular at the very beginning of a project , during the problem identification phase . 

 According to my experiences , often people look for solution to problems that they have n't really   understood . This could turn to requirements changes in the middle of the solution development   process and this happenings are very hard and expensive to manage . 

 Considering this experience I could be very satisfied about the use of this tool , anyway , I can not   ignore that sometimes , in other context I did n't find the right time to use them and in some case I   really paid for this error . In the next future it will be my care to try to bring this tools to all the   people I am going to work with .
### Output: 