Simple Project Management

Project Management Thinking
Simple, Agile.

About me.
Sault Ste Marie, ON
Assoc. Director VeloCity
2 kids (boy/girl)
BA, Msc
Co-founder

About you?

Observations
Project Management: designed by engineers for engineers
Software is designed to support specific types of projects and people
Project Management is a people process

A Project is… “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”
– PMBOK Guide (2004)

Typical project
Building a few web pages for a department.
Developing a simple web application that collects student information.
Using Twitter/Facebook/Ning for whatever specific reason*
Recruiting cycle for students.

A Project is… “ongoing, with many false starts and chronic scope creep. Governed by committee(s), success is not often tangible.”
– Higher Ed.

The Chaos
Conflicting expectations
Isolated or independent departments
“This is my ‘third hat’ I am wearing”
Committees.
Never ending change requests.

Essential tool #1 – Text editor.

Project definition
First meeting needs a “memorandum of agreement”
Define the goals, objectives, and/or outcomes
Sign it.

Triple Constraint
Scope
Time
Cost

Triple Constraint
What am I trying to build/deliver?
How long will it take?
How much will it cost (time = money, etc)?

Follow a process, deliver a product.

# S: (adj) agile, nimble, quick, spry (moving quickly and lightly) "sleek and agile as a gymnast"; "as nimble as a deer"; "nimble fingers"; "quick of foot"; "the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it"
- http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=agile

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/18091975@N00/

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/orcmid/3879384912/

What about software?
Web based or not?
How many people are using it with me?
Privacy implications?
Cost.

There are three choices.
Microsoft Project (larger teams)
OmniPlan (for the mac users)
Basecamp*

Microsoft Project is bad
Forces you into a resource driven process
Assumes people will do the task assigned
Full time job to use the tool efficiently
Expertise is required

Gantt charts
Allow you to break down the task list to chunks
You can assign resources
You can management from a central hub

Hosted solutions
Good: Allow for more flexibility on access
Good: Monthly costs, do not go for per user model
Bad: Does not connect with your directory service (ADS, LDAP, etc)
Bad: You don’t know where you data is unless you install something yourself*

Ground rules
Question the use of gantt charts
Organize into short iterations
Requirement-based approach
Schedule tasks involving external groups
http://bit.ly/psweb_agile

Track the project.

Use a process that works for you and don’t let software dictate how you do it.

Contact me.
Jesse Rodgers
Associate Director, VeloCity -- University of Waterloo
Blog: http://whoyoucallingajesse.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jrodgers
Email: jrodgers@uwaterloo.ca

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Simple Project Management

by Jesse Rodgers

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