Lessons Learned
- Communication is key.
This was difficult because of the fact that the only way we could communicate with New Horizon was via the phone or email. We did not have the option to meet face to face because of the distance. In the future, realize that different people have different communication styles, and try to come up with a way that works for both sides.
- Sites need to be made aware of their responsibility during the initial meeting.
Even though we stressed the importance of getting electrical work done, it was not finished by the time we got there which meant that we could not install computers. This was mentioned in almost every email that was sent to them. I guess it means that some people just work at a different pace than we’d like. We also don’t know what issues, if any, they were having. Maybe they were having problems communicating with the person who was supposed to do it, lack of money, or maybe they had other events going on which prevented them from getting it done. Again, it came down to poor communication, so we don’t know why it was not finished.
- Be flexible. Even though they told us that the board room would be the best place to set up the lab, they did mention another room as a possibility. We did not measure that room or take pictures since they seemed to think it would take too long to get that room ready in time for the lab. We should have measured the room anyway, and taken a few pictures just in case. I think it we would have had more time at our site we would have done this.
- Bring extras of everything. Since we were not planning on doing any other work at another location, we only brought the things we needed for our site. It would have been helpful to have certain things at our new site, including CDs of Windows XP, service packs 2 & 3, extra software, extra memory, blank CDs and USB drives, and another user’s manual for Opal’s House.