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Student Spotlight
5 min read
Student Spotlight: Davide Loguancio
Davide’s decision to upskill in Digital Project Management has not only boosted his day-to-day performance at NBN, but also helped him build a transactional website for his wife’s new floristry business.
Running all kinds of projects with NBN, Davide decided to deepen his skillset and enrol in the Digital Project Management: Elevate course.
Can you tell us about your career before Academy Xi?
I’ve been working with a company called NBN for about six years, which is a government initiative aimed at improving Australia’s broadband infrastructure. I’m the Network Jeopardy Lead, which entails responding to outages, including any kind of natural disaster that affects the service across the country.
Before working at NBN, I had a role with a medical company. I started by working in the warehouse, but made my way up through the customer service team and eventually was placed in charge of running the methadone program.
More recently at NBN I’ve been involved in a lot of project work, which is not really on my list of business as usual responsibilities. I’ve been running pilots and writing reports and enjoyed all the extra responsibility so much that I decided to take a course in Digital Project Management.
I was already carrying out project management work so the logical next step was to undergo formal training. Plus, I wanted to be able to apply for Project Management roles and knew that having a formal certification would put me in a much stronger position.
What I really liked about Academy Xi was that you completed projects while you were learning the theory. Ideally, I'm not one to learn from books. I'm very hands-on, so I really appreciated that the course had a practical focus. In the end, that’s what made me choose Academy Xi.
How did you find the course?
I loved every minute of it. I really enjoyed getting exposed to new ways of working, particularly agile project management. At NBN, we all say that we use agile, but really it’s a hybrid or waterfall approach. We’ve got a lot of systems in the background and there’s always a lot that needs to happen before we can take the next step with a project. It was fascinating to see how quickly a project can develop when you’re using a real agile approach.
I also really appreciated having the chance to pick up new software. I’ve worked with Microsoft Projects in the past and was a bit concerned about switching to Jira, but it was really intuitive to use. Before long, I was able to use Jira to create backlogs and effectively manage sprints.
The pace of the delivery meant we had a chance to understand the theory and put it into practice before moving onto the next module. This meant that what we were learning didn’t become overwhelming. Before we tackled new topics and tasks, Marley made sure that everybody had a firm grasp of what we’d already covered.
Can you tell us about your personal project?
For my personal project, I completed a web design. My wife has been a photographer for many years, but is currently going through a career change and switching to floristry. We decided that I would design a Shopify-style website that not only sold flowers, but also acted as a platform where creatives can give workshops on arts and crafts.
It sounds like a pretty simple website, but designing it was actually quite complicated. I had to align all of the website’s different functions and get all the software working together properly. As an example, when somebody places an order and is waiting for it to be delivered, they can monitor the progress of the delivery live. Little features like that were quite intricate to put in place.
It’s taken lots of time and patience, but the website is now working perfectly. I’m really keen to launch it, but my wife wants to wait a little while because there are a few features she wants to adjust. It will be up and running soon though, which feels like an amazing achievement.
How did you find studying online?
I felt a little bit wary about studying online before the course started. I was worried I’d find the course content difficult to understand and wouldn’t have the guidance to get to grips with it. In reality, it was the opposite. I had loads of support and learned a huge amount in a relatively short space of time.
Studying online also meant that I could balance the coursework with my job. In my role, there are periods when things slow down, and others when I’m working flat out. With all the coursework laid out in advance online, I could get the next week’s tasks completed ahead of schedule. I studied that way throughout the entire course, which worked very nicely for me.
Even though we were studying online, there was a real connection among the cohort. It was a shame when we had to say goodbye at the end of the course, because we were getting so accustomed to catching up every week. Luckily, we’ve all connected on LinkedIn and Facebook and stayed in touch. I’m sure we’ll make plans to meet up soon and it’ll be nice to find out what everyone’s been up to since graduation.
Do you feel prepared to tackle projects now?
I certainly do. Before the course started I understood the basic methodologies that you need to run a project.
Now, I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of the processes that sit behind project management, which means I’m much more confident when I start something new. Even if I have to really dig deep to understand what's going to happen with a project, I don't feel like I'm starting from square one.
Most importantly, I feel like I’ve got the know-how behind me to help projects progress a lot quicker. Before the course started, developing the knowledge and confidence to lead projects was the outcome I was after. In that sense, the course was a real success.
Do you have any plans for further training?
I’m sure I’ll do more training at some stage. I’d like to get an ITIL qualification, just to round off my skills for delivering IT projects. Having ITIL capabilities would really help me get IT projects to a development stage. It’s definitely a qualification that I’ll keep in mind for the future.
For now, I’m going to take a little bit of a breather. It’s still quite cold when I finish work, so I just want to get home, rug-up and watch TV! At the same time, I’m really focused on putting everything I learned at Academy Xi into practice in my role. That’s more than enough to keep me busy for the time being.
A few of my friends and neighbours are looking to upskill in different areas and I’ve recommended Academy Xi. Honestly, I had such an impressive course experience, so if I do decide to do more digital skills training in the future I’ll definitely look at Academy Xi.
Are you keen to enhance your career by developing project management skills just like Davide? If so, check out our Digital Project Management: Elevate course.
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