Reflection Report Presentations/ SA/ Communication Skills
Name: Süleyman YILDIRIM
Date: 07/11/2012
Name coach: Cynthia Schreuder
Previous experiences (before OOTI) on:
1. Meeting Skills
During my education (BSc and MSc), I attended several meetings. However, I was
speaking my mother language except from Portugal. Therefore, I was more active and
could express myself better than now.
2. Presentation skills
I cannot say I had enough experience with presentations. I am not used to speak in
public. I need to improve that skill.
3. Working in groups
I liked to work with people that I like or get on well each other. On the other hand, I
had difficulties to work with people who behaved liked they were the best.
4. Other
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Presentation Skill
1. What did I do?
I divided my presentation in two categories, namely personal and professional life. At
the beginning, I tried to influence the audience with a humor referring to the Ottoman
empire, Suleyman the Magnificent. After I talked about myself and family, I explained
my professional life consisting of my education and experiences. Lastly, I finished the
presentation with my objectives and motivations about the OOTI programme.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
My objective was to convey the information about myself including the personal and
professional life.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
I believe that I did it well. The only negative thing is that I didn’t finish the
presentation in 15 minutes. It took longer.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
I want to learn to be relaxed during the presentation. I also want to improve my time
management skills. I want to be able to impress the audience after presentations.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I need to practice. Every two weeks, I will prepare a presentation and make a
rehearsal on my own by keeping time. I will also ask help from my colleagues for
feedback.
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Reflection on the Self Assessment
Group Work; City Expansion
1. What did I do?
I was mostly a controller in this assignment. I was the time keeper and the only person
who was checking whether everything is going in order.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
Before the assignment, I didn’t set a goal for the subject.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
I was a good listener and reasonable during the assignment. I think I was a good team
member. However, I couldn’t come up with a solution while other people were
discussing the problems. The most important problem was that I was not fluent in
English. While I was thinking what I was planning to say, other people had already
come up with a proposal. I was also not excited about the domain like my colleagues.
Therefore, I didn’t propose ideas.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
After the assignment, I realized that I was not comfortable with remaining in the
background. I am creative person and I have to show the others my potential. I should
be more assertive and defend my ideas with strong arguments and metaphors. I also
want to appreciate my own ideas.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I should express myself fluently in English in order to be assertive and defend my
ideas. For that reason, I will watch a movie with subtitles and take notes once a week.
Moreover, every day I will learn 5 new words as I did when I was preparing for IELTS
exam. In addition, for the first in-house project, I will rehearse what I am going to say
to the group members before each meeting.
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Group Work; Rocket Simulation
1. What did I do?
My role was a Program Manager. At first, I was very uncomfortable about the idea of
leading people. However, I thought that I had to do my best to satisfy my role. First, I
proposed my team to understand their roles. Second, I prepared a strategy about what
we were going to do. Then, I followed the plan.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
I set a goal to be more assertive during discussions, after the “City Expansion” project.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
I tried to follow my role as a Program Manager and assign tasks to my team. As a
team, we had a very well structured plan. The communication inside the group was
very effective. I manage the team well until the end of the assignment! Everybody in
my team did their role as I described. However, I missed two things: risk management
and taking initiative as to communicating with other teams. I delegated the
communication to the communication manager but although I felt the need to
interfere with other teams, I thought that it was the communication manager’s
responsibility. At the end, we didn’t make an agreement with NASA team. In the end,
they refused our offer. However, I still think that it was not our fault! I followed the
written description.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
I want to learn the risk management as well as being adaptive to the changes during
software projects. I also want to learn how to assign the tasks to the team members.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I will practice during the first in-house project. As I am not the project leader in the
project, it may not be possible to assign tasks. However, if I realize a shortage about
the process, I will inform it the project leader. As for the risk management, I will make
a plan for my duties in the team on each Monday. At the end of the week, I will
control what I have achieved and whether I need to change my strategy. I will also
take the initiative to organize a meeting with Test Managers from other groups at the
4th week of the project in order to exchange information about software testing
techniques. I will continue these meetings until the end of the project.
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Group Work; Desert Case
1. What did I do?
This time I was very active. I used the tips that I acquired from the previous
simulations. I tried to be more assertive and it worked! I proposed ideas and didn’t
avoid arguing with other people in order to defend my ideas. I think I influenced the
team about structuring the problem. I remind them to follow our plan during the
discussion. I was the time keeper and warned the team about the time.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
My objective was to be involved in the solution process more actively than the
previous project.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
I mostly work on structuring the discussion. I was active during the discussion. As a
team, we also built a structure for solving the problem in the beginning. Everyone was
involved in the discussion. However, it turned out to be a chaotic discussion in the
middle of the process. We sometimes talked at the same time. There were subgroups
talking to each other.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
In that project, I realized that a problem well understood is a problem almost solved.
As a professional, I want to learn to allocate enough time to understand the
requirements of the project given by customer.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I will practice during the first in-house project. I am going to revise the requirements
of the current project with team members each week. In addition, after each meeting
with client, I will evaluate which requirements still exist and what parts of the project
need to be improved. If there are changes, I will continue to acquire necessary
technical skills as fast as possible.
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Two-way Conversations
1. What did I do?
My role was a project leader who was forming a multidisciplinary project team and
looking for a person that would motivate the team to increase the production. I had
an interview with an actor and I convinced him to participate in my team. I
concentrated on just convincing him regardless of the price. I started the conversation
very politely and continued that attitude. Actually, the conversation was going so well
that I forgot that I was the recruiter!
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
I wanted to convince the actor to participate in my team.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
My voice and attitude was good. I was polite and quite professional. I accomplished to
convince the actor but I was not critical. Therefore, I accepted most of the things that
the actor wanted.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
I want to be critical when discussing about a topic or arguing with another person.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I will practice during the first in-house project. For each meeting with team members,
I will be not simply accept the other people’s ideas if I have some doubts.
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Other: My master’s project
1. What did I do?
I worked as a researcher for a national research project at the last year of my master’s
degree. I was a member of a team which consists of four people. My role was to
develop a part of the software system. I usually worked alone as there was nobody
studying at that topic.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
My objective was to learn a new programming language, software development tool,
translate what I learned to the colleagues and develop basic software prototype.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
As I studied alone, there was no other person that I can ask for help. There were also
problems with other group members who regarded my work as an easy job. In other
words, they did not appreciate my studies. However, I learned the language and
succeeded to implement the system that I was responsible for. I also submitted a
paper to a top journal with my supervisors. Although the paper was rejected, we
received review with 18 pages which was a useful guide for the future of the project.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
If I have a problem with colleagues, I would like to resolve it in a short time.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I will practice during the first in-house project. If there is a misunderstanding among
members in the team, I will talk to the persons in order to maintain healthy
relationship.
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Reflection on the workshop Communication Skills
1. What did I do?
I made a presentation about explaining the OOTI to the clients.
2. What were my objectives (learning points) concerning this subject (if I had any)?
My objective was to use my personal experience, tie it to the domain and draw a
circle. I also wanted to use the room by walking around.
3. What went well and what went wrong (what have I accomplished)?
I included the presentation my personal story about software engineering and used a
metaphor about music. Then, I tried to tie the metaphor to the software design
process in which the team work was essential. I was good at making people to remind
the presentation by telling a movie about Mozart. However, I couldn’t end the
presentation as I desired. In other words, I couldn’t finish the circle in the end.
4. What do I still want to learn concerning this topic (future goals)?
I want to be more relaxed during the presentation and impress the audience.
5. Concrete actions to reach my future goals (on short term)?
I am going to prepare short presentations, say 5 minutes, twice a week. I will also use
that technique in the Bosch project when transferring my knowledge to the team
members in weekly meetings.
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