My Alternative Capstone Experience

When I started the Project Management Postgraduate Program (PMPG) at Humber College back in January 2019, I always knew that I would take the alternative capstone. The Program Coordinator, Cheryl Francis-Nurse, have talked about this alternative capstone and how experiential learning gives an individual industry experience applicable the day we graduate, most especially how some of the alumni got their jobs after graduation being hired by their project sponsors.

Towards the end of the first term in April 2019, there were three alternative capstones that were opened for students to apply.

• Develop a Food Management Safety System
• Payroll Software Application Project
• Project Simulation Software Study

I have established a great working relationship with my first term classmates, Bede Ongtengsiem, Kylie Brezden, and Nicole Joczys. As a group, we aimed to be in the same alternative capstone project initially.

After the application process, I was selected to do the Food Management Safety System. Bede and Kylie got to work on the Project Simulation Software Study. Nicole opted to do a traditional capstone project. In short, it didn't go according to plan.

During the Capstone Exhibit last April 2019, I met my new team, who at the time, were complete strangers to me as they were all from another section and all from the same country, India. Being the only non-Indian in the group, I was pleasantly surprised that they unanimously chose me to be the Project Leader because of the experience that I had. My team may not have been what I had originally planned, but they would turn out to be a few of my closest friends in the Program, and we performed very well together.

Teamwork divides the tasks and multiplies the success.

The summer term is compressed into three months. After the project kick-off, we quickly got to work, and I recognized that the key to conquering this mammoth of a challenge is to divide and conquer the work based on the strength of skillset for each team member. We have used the inspirational quote above as a vision. We had tons of documentation to cover which such a limited amount of time, on top of five other courses we're taking for the program. We have split the work the following way:

I was accountable for all the outputs of the team to the client. I was the point of contact with the Advisors and Client for any project information and communication. I served as the first quality gate for the SOPs developed. With my work experience in Unilever, I was able to use my technical knowledge to develop all the forms that supported the SOPs. I also designed the SOPs for Deviation, Traceability, and Recall. Finally, I developed our final documents for turnover - Prerequisite Programs Binder and the HACCP Plan Binder.

Rachael Blakely (1st from the left) has a finance background. She utilized her keen attention to detail to develop the list of ingredients, suppliers, and equipment for the whole CHL Operations. She also developed the SOPs for Pest Control, Cleaning, Sanitation, and Waste Management.

Ronak Singh Kohli (3rd from the left) is a fellow Mechanical Engineer who has hands-on experience in HACCP implementation after working for a baking company. He has shared his knowledge of specific SOPs he has first-hand knowledge. He is also very creative as he took on making the capstone exhibit board from scratch. He developed the SOPs for Purchasing, Equipment, Personal Hygiene, and Food Handling.

Karthik Ramasamy (Fourth from the left) has a marketing background and has a knack of developing creative presentations. He used and improved on this skill for every bi-weekly meeting we had with the sponsor and even during the final presentation. He developed the SOPs for Allergen Handling, Temperature Storage Requirements, Non-allergen Handling, Food-Packaging Handling, and Training.

Our PMPG Advisors, Curtis Deenah (fourth from the left), Neil Parekh (first from the left), and Elaine Gergolas (not in the picture) has guided the whole team ensuring that all deliverables to the client were professional, with great quality, and always on-time by meeting with us weekly and providing timely valuable inputs.

In behalf of my team, I would like to thank our Project Sponsor, Rudi Fischbacher, for the trust and the opportunity that you have given us. To our Subject Matter Experts (SME) Omid Ghanaat and Nichole Bryan, thank you for the patience and zeal to teach and explain the process needed to develop our outputs! It has been a pleasure working with you and for you.

My three key takeaways for the next batch of students planning to take on alternative capstone are the following:

1. BE PROACTIVE. It will be a tall order to do as you will have tons of deliverables weekly to the client and the PMPG advisors. As soon as you get homework or group work from the other courses, do it right away so you can shift focus back to your capstone. There will be very long days and sleepless nights but, as we are all hoping, it will be worth it in the end.

2. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE. You will understand why the communication course emphasizes that "Project managers communicate 90% of the time". Status reporting would be the key to getting the right information across at the right time. Utilizing it to get the output that you need will be a great skill to learn while doing the process. Research on useful templates of project dashboards and tailor-fit to your project to communicate visually.

3. HAVE FUN! As cliche as it sounds, take logical breaks, celebrate the milestones, and learn to roll with the punches that the project throws at you. Find some silver lining in all the challenges and just soldier on towards the next step in the process.

If you're reading up to this point, thank you for indulging me! If you have any further questions or advice, please post in the comments section below. To my fellow classmates who finished this milestone, cheers, and congratulations! God bless in the next chapter of your young careers! Do keep in touch!