Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with projectmanagement

Needing a project management silver bullet

quadog — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:29:34 -0800

I need recommendations on a solution that will solve the project review and approval workflow at my ad agency. The current review and approval workflow in my agency is . . . well, it needs to be improved. Work is getting emailed around the agency for review. Emails are getting lost. People don't know their next actions. Getting approvals is like pulling teeth. We're going mad.

There have been numerous askmes posted on the topic of project management. The usual suspects always come up. I'm overwhelmed by the number of options and the various features.

What follows are the requirements for the solution. Actually, if the solution did only these items it be even better. The solution must:
- be easy for everyone (eg, non-technical account folks to geeky web developers) to understand and utilize. I don't want anyone telling me "they don't get it".
- allow designers to present and version work (eg, banner ads, web site concepts, links to development pages, pdfs, etc.) for review to both internal folks and outside clients
- give the option to show/hide work based on user type (ie, if you are a client, you shouldn't be able to see the early rounds of a web design, but if you are a creative director you should be able to have access to all rounds)
- important: include an clear place for feedback and approvals by multiple parties
- allow the project manager to assign and manage tasks (or cite bugs), flag contingencies, present milestones

If there's no single solution then maybe it will require a combination of solutions. Or maybe it means developing a custom solution. All ideas are welcomed.

Festival Management 101

divabat — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:08:41 -0800

I'd like to start a festival. This time I actually have a plan and possibly some people. Where do I start? After being mildly frustrated at the local alt-arts scene, I made a plan for a fringe/indie/alt arts festival that showcases minority and culturally diverse performers. I've been inspired by the upcoming Shades of Burlesque festival and the Kaleidoscope Cabaret festival (both for burlesque performers of colour; Kaleidoscope has a more queer focus) and basically want to do something similar in Australia. It would be the first of its sort in my area, if not the country. (Kaleidoscope has a pretty good outline of how I want my festival to run)

I made up a quick plan outlining how the festival will run, a wishlist of people and resources, and further questions. I've got a few people interested, and just had a chat this afternoon with someone whose job is to help young people with their creative projects. I've also been collecting advice here and there.

Where do I start? My contact this arvo suggested I write a 1-2 page brief to the organisations whose involvement I'm after outlining the festival idea and what I need. Who should I go after first - venues, presenters, sponsors, all at once? It seems a bit chicken and egg.

I figure the earliest this festival will take place will be mid-late 2010. Right now people are finishing up year-end projects before going on holidays, so any major meetings will only really take place in January. What can I do between now and then that won't take up people's time? I anticipate that some of my presenters and brains will likely be from outside Australia - how do I plan for travel expenses and that sort of thing?

What resources have you found useful in festival planning? Any software, reading material, guides, people that are handy? Any grants or funding bodies that make good contacts? (I'm not a permanent resident yet so 99% of Aussie grants are off-limits to me; however, if I'm auspiced, the auspicing org could apply on my behalf) Any creative methods that have worked well for others?

(The plan is in a public Google document; MefiMail me if you'd like to take a look.)

Help this department of 1 get things done

genial — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:59:23 -0800

As a one-man IT department I'm beginning to have trouble juggling multiple projects along with the day to day stuff. What can I do to make this easier? Searching along this topic yields tons of GTD advice along with plenty of software to help with project management. But a lot of stuff assumes different situations involving a team of people working on something or one person tracking individual tasks. My job is comprised of being Helpdesk day to day for all the small software/hardware/networking/setup issues that arise along with a growing list of short and long term projects. For the past 5 months I've been juggling things ok, but as the list of projects grows and I'm with the company longer I need to figure out a way to manage all of this without sinking.

What I do need is good advice on ways of managing short term and long term goals. I'm a geek so anything software related that will help me is welcome. What I don't need is overpriced packages of software or the advice to just keep a to-do list. That's not working at this point. I know this question is likely somewhere in the archives but I'm having a lot of trouble finding scenarios where 1 person manages an entire department with no "team" and needs to manage short and long term projects. Help?

Online tool for planning and visualizing project pipelines?

jruckman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:26:23 -0800

Is there a web-based app that lets you plan project pipelines, and set up pipeline templates and associated tasks for common project types? I love the functionality of Daylite and Contactizer for Mac, but they don't live in the cloud, and their syncing is problematic or in the case of the latter, non-existent. For my small, sometimes remote team, this is a no-go.

But I love the pipeline visualizations and associated task templates they both offer. No other solutions, including Basecamp, Omnifocus, etc, offer this.

Here's an image of the pipeline view I'm talking about.

Suggestions for an online replica of this type of functionality? Any alternative suggestions?

Which is better project management certificate program - Bellevue or UW?

matildaben — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:42:03 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with the Project Management certificate programs at either Belleuve College (previously Bellevue Community College) or University of Washington Extension? Any comments on which is the better program? I'm thinking that the Bellevue program would be a better value career-enhancement-wise because of stronger connections to Microsoft and the tech industry in general, but UW is a better commute for me. This is for a person who has over 10 years of experience as a software developer and is looking at a career transition during the economic down time. Good understanding of and integration with Agile/Scrum would be a plus.

Project manager? Technical lead? Code monkey?

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:04:51 -0800

I'm happy at the tech company I work for but am increasingly concerned about my career progression. Nearly a year ago, I took on new role as a project manager, moving from a role with a mix of development and client technical liaison/consulting. My company is currently strongly encouraging me to take on even more of a project management role. I think I'd rather move towards working as a technical lead, I'm concerned that getting myself too far removed from technical work now could make it too difficult to move back later. I could really use some advice from Metafilter-ites with experience in tech firms and technical project management! I'm having a bit of career crisis/confusion and was hoping people out there could help me out. Some background: I'm a 27 year old Engineering graduate working for a small/medium (just under 70 staff, 40 of whom are technical), successful software house. Most of the people here have Computer Science degrees (rather than Engineering). I've been here for 4 years, coming straight out of university. I'm asking anonymously because, well, this is to do with work. I've set up an email account if you'd like to get in touch - careercrisisanon@gmail.com.

Nearly a year ago I took on a new role as a Project Manager, moving from a role with a mix of development and technical liaison/consulting. My role basically involves overall ownership of a number of our products, along with a team of 5, where I carry the responsibility of Line Management for the team, Technical Lead for the products and Project Management for the medium/long term feature roadmap for the products my team maintains.

Realistically this means spending about 50% of my time planning work (a mixture of technical 'how are we going to actually do this' and 'how long is this going to take' type work, as well as some 'in what order are we going to do this to make our clients happy' etc type work), probably 20% of my time line managing, doing appraisals/1-to-1s/being stuck in meetings etc, 10% ish of my time feeding all this back to senior management, 10% of my time keeping an eye over our Account Management/Technical Account Management teams and ensuring our current and any existing clients are happy and finally 10% of my time coding/getting on with implementing technical stuff.

Looking forward to the next year I've been told that we're looking to increase my Project Management responsibilities in terms of running the team and organising work and that some of my technical responsibilities will naturally fall down to the guys in the team, and that this is basically needed for the next 6 - 12 months for the team to grow etc etc. However, I'm very aware that technical work is something I'm very interested in. I don't think I want to go full steam down the management route - in fact, from a long term career point of view, I think I'd rather head in a technical lead/team management with a lot of technical responsibility route rather than line/project management. I'm concerned that getting myself too far removed from the technical work now could make it difficult to move back across later.

My boss here has told me that he thinks my skills lie more with project delivery in terms of the 'full product lifecycle', i.e. getting business needs out of the client, turning them into technical requirements, managing the different needs of the project and getting it delivered on time and working. He also thinks I'm making a good Project Manager but that, after only a year in the job, have a lot more to learn and that leaving it now might not be the best plan for my career - and that by leaving this role now and coming back to it later in life I'd basically be starting from scratch again. As such they're recommending I carry on with what I'm doing/what they want me to be doing and stay less technical, and move across later if I decide I want to.

There are some other options available to me. I could go into a full development position, although that would probably have to be taking a step backwards and I'm not 100% convinced that I want to spend all my time coding without having wider responsibilities. I certainly enjoy having business/client focussed aspects to my work, but am just getting frustrated at the lack of any implementation in there.

There is also some discussion about having a 'Bespoke Projects' team which would probably entail managing a much smaller team (maybe me + 1 other) on shorter projects but probably re-hashing similar architectures again and again. This sounds like it could be interesting except for the 're-hashing similar tech again and again' side of things.

I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads, and that I need more information to make an informed decision. I'm wondering how much of a blocker doing more technical work is likely to be in the future if I move away now, and how that might effect my job prospects in the future. I'm certainly not convinced I want to be a full time manager for the rest of my career!

I've very happy with the company in general but to further complicate matters there is also a possibility that I may move abroad (from the US to Canada) with my girlfriend in the next 12 months or so, and I want to make sure I'm in the best position possible there for getting a technical job (probably in a small -> medium company) if/when I do.

Any advice on how I can best manage my career for the short (~1 year) and long term very much appreciated!

What the best way to track my work projects?

Optimus Chyme — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:38:46 -0800

What the best way to track my work projects? I usually have thirty to fifty different projects going on simultaneously, all in various stages of completion. I am interrupted often during the day, need to switch from project to project quickly, and I spend half the day out of the office sometimes. Ideally, I could see the customer, contact info, due dates, notes, color-coding based on status, that sort of thing.

I'm looking for something either electronic or physical or transcendent - all suggestions will be considered.

Managing projects with no resources

cereselle — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:55:03 -0800

I would like to use project management software to track medium- to long-term library public services projects. I need it to be a) free, b) web-based, and c) hosted. Am I SOL? Unfortunately, my workplace does not have any PM software at all, and while I've pointed them to several open-source alternatives, I highly doubt (based on experience) that anything will be approved and installed before at least a year. We users have no admin rights, so cannot install anything on our machines. Likewise, we have no budget to pay for a hosted system.

I am particularly interested in open workspaces and assignable tasks and milestones. (Opengoo is my favorite so far.) I fiddled around with Google Sites, but I am not a designer, and lacking a template, I'm finding it slow going.

Advice and solutions are much appreciated. If there's no hope, well, I'd like to know that too.

Looking for a good web-based task management system

Eastgate — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:20:59 -0800

I'm looking for a web-based task management system. I want to be able to create projects and individual tasks and assign them to different users with deadlines. A user needs to be able to login to see his/her assigned tasks. Any suggestions? I have had a look at TaskFreak and it's pretty close to what I'm looking for, but want to see some alternatives too. Whether it's a script I install on my own server, or it's a service hosted elsewhere doesn't matter. Free is always good, but I'm willing to pay for a system that does the job. It definitely needs to support multiple users, and be able to handle lots of different projects and tasks, as I want to use this to help manage contractors for my web development business, so it's not just for my own use.

Any suggestions on a good system to handle this would be appreciated!

What is a realistic website to build for $2000? Can a non-designer be the client-side web project manager?

salvia — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:02:31 -0800

I owe an organization about $2000. We've discussed me paying this back by doing some work for them. The work they want is web design project management. Can you help me figure out a realistic plan? In one of the stupider things I've done, I accepted an up-front payment from a tiny organization I was consulting for without a clear plan for what work I would do for that money (end of fiscal year, accounting simplicity for them). The work I was doing fairly quickly wrapped up, nothing new arose in my area of expertise (we've waited about 18 months thinking something would, and it hasn't), so now I owe them somewhere between $1500 and $2300 (I need to add up the hours to know the exact number). I could just repay them in cash, but I'd prefer not to of course, and the other option they've proposed is that I help them make a website.

Now, I don't know much about web design, but it might work. My day job involves project management and report writing, so I can think about scope and approval check-points, and I can ask questions about their audience and goal. I also understand the content they'd be trying to get across, so I could help them organize the content and write some of the copy. There are plenty of technical things I don't know, but I have found CSS templates and modified the CSS and the HTML to change the content and appearance and put that online, so I do know the basics. My cousin is finishing his undergrad in graphic design and has taken several web design/programming classes, and he is willing to work for free because he is looking for portfolio work. So, I can imagine myself serving as the go-between between them as the client and him as the designer.

I am not underestimating the project management issues that are going to arise here. I think it's easily $2000 worth of work. These clients know little about web pages and have expansive, ambitious, and free-flowing brainstorms about what a website could do and what could be on it. Also, this is a hobby for them. And my cousin is a student, so though he does great work, he doesn't have a set process that he uses with clients. For example, he was going to do a basic front page for them for one of his classes, and they weren't available to approve the design at 11 pm, but he had to start coding it anyway to turn it in the next day, and they didn't quite like it. So, I'll have to be the one to create a workable process, set deadlines, and check up about whether people have done what they said they'd do.

My plan, then, is to potentially be the project manager -- write a contract, set up check-in points where people sign off on things, help narrow the scope to something realistic, help them shoehorn their ideas into that scope, etc. I could also offer my cousin some financial incentives if we meet the deadlines.

My first question is: do you think this will work? I know that people do this professionally, so is it crazy to think that my background in writing paper-based reports and doing project management for other types of projects will translate over?

My second question is: what is realistic? Narrowing the scope seems like a very important step here. What is a realistic website to build for $1500-$2300? I want to be fair to them. If a website of that scope is beyond my ability to manage, I don't want to take this on. But I suspect the website we've been envisioning is one that a design firm would charge $30,000 to build. (And of course, making it would take us 10 times longer than it would take that design firm.)

All help, and all constructive cautions, are welcome. (There's no need to waste your time typing up an explanation of how dumb I am. I won't ever get myself into this situation again.)

Help me organize my time and projects by the hour.

metalheart — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:51:29 -0800

What time/project management software or sites might be able to help me view my week in hourly clumps and allow me to check off completed tasks or monitor their success? I've tried a number of GTD services, but none of them has been quite right, so I'm looking for suggestions. I've searched through Ask MeFi, but I've not really found anything like what I'm looking for, so here goes.

I really want to manage my time better. I already do pretty well on the whole, but I want to do better, so I can accomplish more. I already use Google Calendar for basic things, like house chores, but I've found it doesn't really cut it for me on other things--for whatever reason.

Pen and paper doesn't work for me, as I'm a very computer and mobile-oriented person. I've tried Todoist and liked its more textual system and idea of checking items off as you completed them, but it too fell short in the end. (It wasn't as intuitive as I'd have liked.) I tried Basecamp, but I hated the interface design and found it to be way too basic.

Currently, I'm trying out RescueTime for my computer time management, but I'd rather if it could do offline goal tracking and statistics as well...

It seems, overall, that I need a few features from each of these services, really, and I can't seem to find anything that fits that.

What I would like to find is some (preferably) web-based or desktop software that will work more on an hourly basis. What I mainly want to do is work a certain number of hours on various tasks, each week. I'm a student, and it's my summer holiday. I want to freelance several hours a week, work on art for a number of other hours, write, etc.

What time/project management software or sites might be able to help me view my week in hourly clumps and allow me to check off completed tasks or monitor their success?

P.S. - It'd be great if there were some sort of mobile alert thing for this as well, but it's not necessary. Would just be a nice to have.

What is project management?

Pantengliopoli — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:14:13 -0800

Amid brainstorming future job possibilities, I've suddenly got a bit of an opportunity at my current job. With the hope of keeping me around, I'm being offered an "on the job" project management position for the redevelopment of our company's website. What the heck does that mean? I've got no background in web development, nor any experience in project management, though during my time at this company I've been intimately involved in an extensive software conversion project and have been a strong contributor to its success, along with a great team. Now that things are back to normal, I'm near terminally bored and my boss knows this. She wants to keep me around and thinks that I'd be a good fit.

All parties involved know they're getting someone with little to no experience at the job and are willing to train me as we go along. I'm definitely going to take the opportunity, as skills and experience are good no matter what, but what can I do with it down the road?

What's a PM's job like? What kind of opportunities may present themselves for future work? Any tips for coming out of the gate without tripping over my own feet?

Schrodinger's Paper filing system

sio42 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:33:03 -0800

(Project Management Filter) I've looked around but I can't seem anything to answer this that seems right for me. Maybe experiences of others will help me navigate. How to coordinate paper and electronic files and emails etc when dealing with many vendor/many location things... At my fairly new job, I have a problem figuring out to organize stuff. I (help) manage the telephone, internet, and cell stuff for an entire state of branch offices, about 30. it's not overwhelming in scope.

However, let's say that an office is moving. How do I file things? I can't put stuff in two places, so I have to put it under the vendor or under the location. There's often paper that is involved so everything can't just be digital. Even if it was digital, I'd still have the same problem.

I used to use an alphabetized system I think I got from 43 folders where you just did things like have a folder labeled "passport" instead of "important documents" and that's what goes there (haven't lost it since!). But my new problem is much more complex than that (it seems).

I'd like to know, say, what issues are still going on with that Office X move without having to go to every vendor's file to see what the progress is. I'd also like to go to Office Z's file and see what issues are going on there, if any.

The person who did this job before me didn't have anything organized in a particular way and left several months before they found a replacement they liked (me!).

Please feel free to ask questions. I check everyday and maybe a few questions would help me distill what I'm trying to do in my own mind.

I'm not looking for a remember the milk type thing. I could never get the hang of all those things. I don't think I'm looking for task mgmt so much as getting a general idea of where everything is and what's going on management.

How to project manage for a website redesign?

soleiluna — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:37:43 -0800

I work for a performing arts ensemble/non-profit. We need to start a full redesign of our website (with a huge emphasis on multimedia). I will be project manager, but I haven't gone through a website redesign project like this before. This makes me a bit unsure about how to proceed. Lots of associated questions inside... So far, I've begun looking at other companies for benchmarking (mostly bands and arts organizations) and taking notes about companies that designed sites I liked. I've also made a wishlist of features/functionality. My colleague and I have approached several peer organizations to ask about who designed/manages their websites. I've just purchased the book Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow That Works, with hopes that it will explain the planning/managing process.

My questions:

Any recommendations (books, websites, etc) for ways I can prepare to manage this project?

How do I plan a timeline for this, since I don't have a good sense of the milestones or completion time needed for tasks? Or will the company we hire do this?

What questions should I be asking when talking to companies and designers and deciding if I should get bids from them?

How do I go about soliciting bids? We're a company with a reputation that is much bigger than our budget. I don't want to waste time or mislead companies we cannot afford.

Our previous designer had bad communication / follow-through skills, despite good design ideas. What to watch out for / ask in order to avoid this next time?

Suggestions for a CMS that handles multimedia well, and is flexible? Or will the company we hire worry about this type of thing?

And finally, any recommendations for companies I should check out?

Misc relevant info:

My background is in communications/marketing. I'm fairly tech-savy, so I'm not too concerned about my ability to understand things during this process. Management strongly wants to work with someone in San Francisco / Bay Area.

Most of the recommendations I've been getting from peers are of the "my neighbor Joe makes websites on the side" variety. We want to avoid that type of thing, and I was hoping for "here's an established company who does this full time."

Project Management Tips

jasondigitized — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:50:04 -0800

I am now officially a full time project manager. I have no other responsibilities. I know all about project management methodology. But what I want to know about are the things you can't learn from a book. To the super hero project managers out there, what tools and techniques help you do your job better? How do you stay organized across multiple projects? Moleskines? Laptops? Wikis? How do you reduce administrative overhead and collect and disseminate information? How do you get people to do things when you aren't their direct manager? Turn me into a super hero pm!

What is the most streamlined and effective way to use Sharepoint to track and manage events?

thewrongparty — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:04:59 -0800

Hello, cat-herding, project management expert mefites! Please help me figure out the most streamlined and effective way to use Sharepoint to track and manage events. I work at a non-profit currently going through some growing pains. We added more people to our education department and are taking on much more work than in the past. We are updating our systems to manage that work. The chosen system, by managerial fiat, is Sharepoint. The additional work that I am responsible for is the management of our outside speaking engagements.

Here is what the tracking of a typical speaking engagement entails:

*We are hired to speak at someone else’s event, so I need to gather all the details of their conference (due dates, location, agenda)

*Set up all of the travel arrangements & accommodations for the speakers (our staff)

*Set and meet lots of deadlines, different for each event (Oh, I wish this was automated somehow. Since I manually add these to people’s calendars, it’s like I need reminders to add reminders)

*Make sure everyone on both ends understands what is going on, has all of their materials, the final versions of presentations, etc.

*Be able to quickly and easily report on the status of each several events that are all at different stages – what’s due when, what is missing, what the different players need to do, what’s been completed, what’s been discussed between various players.

I don’t really come from a meeting planner/events management background and struggle a bit (okay, a lot) with time management. I feel like there must be a simple strategy to get a handle on this stuff beyond the one used by the staff member who used to do this. She just kept everything neatly filed and scheduled in her brain. My brain lacks that feature; I need something external.

I have been told that I make things way too complicated and I agree. I have been using this ugly access database as glorified checklist, loose pieces of paper with scribbled notes, and flagged outlook emails. This non-system system is a big FAIL in many ways too boring to go into detail. Also, the outside speaking engagements are only one of many projects I am keeping track of in my department and it really gets in the way of completing other things, so that’s another issue.

So, I am writing this because I thought some input from experts might help me figure out if some of the ideas I’ve come up with to transition all of this from my current method of operation to Sharepoint were off track and the beginning of another ineffective mess.

Also, yes, I realize that the ineffective mess in this scenario may primarily be me and a new system won't really make a difference. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit how much I’ve been befuddled by all of this, so yay for the anonymity of the tubes.

I don’t want to make this question even more long and boring, so I’ll pop in and answer your questions if this is all too vague…

MS Project HELP

sweetkid — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:38:29 -0800

MS Project...how can you set a task so that it MUST begin on a tuesday? At work, I am a pm for a technology project. All copy must go into "copy clearance" for two weeks. The copy must go into copy clearance on a Tuesday. if it misses the tuesday deadline, it must wait until the next Tuesday to go into clearance again.

I would like to represent this condition in the MS Project Timeline. I would like to set the Copy Clearance task such that the task cannot begin until the Tuesday following the dependency above it (Copy Complete). Once the preceding task is moved, the copy clearance task should be moved to the next Tuesday.

All of the constraints in MS Project are dependent on actual dates, not days of the week. I found some support information on this topic, but it is really old and suggests doing something in Visual Basic. There is something about recurring tasks but that doesn't seem to work, because this isn't recurring. If I can solve this, my coworkers will be impressed and my friends will love me. Ok, maybe just my coworkers will be impressed. And it's a new job! so thanks in advance.

Help me manage my projects

katieinshoes — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:20:12 -0800

We think we need project management software, but we have no idea what features to look for. Help! Hi. We're a web team at a newspaper. The team is one designer (and a second one sometime soon), two content producers, one code monkey (me) and our boss.

I think it's fair to say that newspaper people are not so good with long-term projects. If it needs to get done today, it will get done just fine. If it needs to get done after that, it will fall into chaos. But we have some long-term projects that we really don't want to screw up. As the team has grown from one person a couple years ago to soon-to-be six, we haven't developed a good way to keep track of deadlines and responsibilities.

So we need to keep track of what we're up to. Deadlines, to-dos, who's responsible for what, a way to keep notes/brainstorm for things that are way out on the horizon. So we need project management software of some sort, right?

Google tells me I have near infinite options as far as PM software goes. But I don't know how to narrow the field.

Here are my concerns:
- I don't want to adopt a program/workflow that will be so cumbersome that we'll abandon it. It needs to be super painless.
- I don't want to adopt a program/workflow that we'll quickly outgrow as we evolve our way into a system that really works for us.

Here's what I want to know:
- What features are absolutely essential and why?
- Are Gantt charts really the awesomest thing ever? Why?
- What software have you used and loved?
- Any tips for making your coworkers actually use the software (semi) religiously?

Here's some requirements, etc.:
- It probably needs to be web-based. Some of us are on Macs, some of us are on PCs, and we all work from home sometimes.
- On the other hand, we have an Exchange server, so Mac people are using Entourage (2004, although we may get upgrades eventually) and PC people are using Outlook (2003, although they may also get upgrades before long). If we can get organized using the task management and calendaring features of those apps, that would likely get certain coworkers to comply more reliably. Is that worth considering?
- Oh, yeah, we're broke. This needs to be cheap/free. And monthly fees are friendlier to our budget than a big up-front cost.
- Major points for prettiness. Previous efforts to use a less-than gorgeous app (Trac) were met with general disinterest. Cliche web 2.0 slickness is actually a plus.

I'm thinking about Goplan (hi, Goplan people). Comments from people who've used it are very much appreciated.

How can I learn more about project management beyond to-do lists?

cadge — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:42:35 -0800

I'm a web app programmer lacking good project/time management skills, and I'm not really in the best environment to pick them up. I'm OK at the lower-level tasks like daily to-do lists, but how can I learn to handle higher-level tasks like estimating time, prioritizing, and planning project life cycles? I'm a web app programmer with a computer science education. My jobs have mainly been in education and non-profits; it's very fulfilling but they haven't been the best environment for picking up good industry practices.

My current job (small development team, mostly working alone on projects and doing all my own bugfixing/testing) requires a fair amount of independent project management, and I just don't feel that I have the training. I can maintain a daily to-do list and activity log just fine, but I am falling down on things like:

Figuring out how much time a project should take

Handling existing projects with deadlines AND incoming requests (ranging from "This would be nice" to "This is broken on Production FIX NOW")

Prioritizing when reporting to several project clients

Project life cycle planning

Effective project management tools

I feel like I'm having to research or invent a lot of this on the job, and that's not where I excel at all. I work best if I can learn from a class or if I can pattern myself on a role model (and that last option is not so applicable right now - mostly I work alone on these projects).

I'm not sure where to begin. I'm afraid that I will pick up a book and get completely lost in a world of baffling Gantt charts, workflows better suited for gigantic corporate projects, or outdated/discredited practices.

Are there courses, books, or online resources out there that might help? How can I learn more about practical project management from a macro point of view - the month-spanning project level, not the daily task level? This is actually freaking me out a bit lately - I am swamped with work and requests, and I just don't feel equipped to properly handle it all.

Agile development books/tools?

xmutex — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:40:33 -0800

What books and tools would you recommend to a first-time manager of an agile development project? Big upcoming development project that I will likely have the luxury of managing. This will be our company's focus, and I want it done right. I've worked on projects as a dev using Agile and found the iterative approach to work well. What books can you recommend to someone managing it for the first time? Also, what kind of tools would you recommend? I was thinking of looking at Basecamp or somesuch.

Our team will be about six people. I'm excited for the opportunity, and looking to really nail it.

Can I save my job?

sweetkid — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:11:09 -0800

I am 99% sure I will be out of a job this week...am I on the right track professionally? What next? I have been working for a year and a half at a small technology company as a project manager. I was the first project manager and as such took on a lot of different hats at the company. Now they are saying they would like to let me go in order to hire someone new with more programming background...I have been working in technology project management for almost five years and have a great deal of experience managing projects throughout its lifecycle, managing QA, resources, etc. I'm not a programmer by any sense, but have never run into problems with lack of technical experience until now.

I have an opportunity, which may or not pan out, to "reapply" for my own job and show them that I can do a more formal project management job. The job previously was a hodgepodge of project management, administrative stuff, general office function. I know I can do a more formal job at this company and elsewhere. My question is, how can I try to convince them of this, and failing that, should I switch course if I don't have a programming background? What do I do next? Sorry if this post is a bit incoherent, but this really came out of the blue, just yesterday.

Project Management Software For Frequently Changing Variables

salvia — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:07:56 -0800

It's time for yet another round of "What is the best project management software!" Come meet the final contestants. Particularly if you have used Microsoft Project or Open Workbench. I'm trying to figure out the best project management software. Microsoft Project, OpenWorkbench, and dotproject are the ones that have been recommended to me. Or something else? (Basecamp is out. We need Gantt charts.)

We have multiple projects with short- and long-term deadlines, all drawing on the same pool of staff members (and possibly additional staff).

The projects have lots of variables. Most tasks could be done to 98% perfection or 30% perfection, most tasks could be done faster if we threw money at them, and most projects have some "black box" phases where we don't know what we'll do or how long it will take (we can't even figure that out until X or Y happens).

Our best guesses about these variables change all the time, so I find myself repeatedly mapping out short- and long-term milestones, what tasks are involved, how long they will take, who could do them, and what the weekly schedule would then end up being to meet (or miss) the various deadlines.

I'd love to have a robust system that could automate calculations and let me play around with scenarios. What will happen if I do Task A the 2-week way or the 3-month way? How much extra help would I need to meet X deadline vs. Y deadline? How much sooner would we finish if we added entry-level staff, or more experienced staff (with the default being that I do everything myself)?

If you've used this software and have an opinion about which is best, I'd love to hear it. Microsoft Project looks like it'll do what we want. (I haven't yet figured out how to get Project to assign a task to "Person A if available, or if not, then Person B.") Or is there something with the same features as Project but with better algorithms for figuring out who is going to do the work as the number of staff assigned to the project shifts around? OpenWorkbench claims it has superior "resource leveling" and "auto-scheduling" -- do you think this is true? And is the learning curve much steeper?

Details: I'm running Windows XP. Something that allowed multiple people (all on our network) to work on the project planning files would be nice, but this is not a requirement. (An additional issue is that one or two of those potential people are on Macs, but my first priority is just getting something that works well.)

Help me pick the best business producitivity management tool(s) for my consulting practice! (Not Daylite)

healthyliving — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:14:49 -0800

Hello MeFi peoples, I am trying to find the tool or tools to run my sustainable business consulting practice, which I started in August, and I've been going a bit nuts with too many choices. I've been looking all over, and am getting near hits, but all "not quite there"s. Highrise sort of works, but has some quirks that that it doesn't hit the mark, and it's missing some of what I want to do. Daylite looks interesting, but no...well I'll explain below. Basecamp, same thing. Copper, ditto. Help me find the needle(s) in the haystack! To give some background, I am a sustainable business consultant who at the moment works solo. I imagine I'll be collaborating with others on some projects, but not necessarily regularly, not as the same company, and definitely not in the same office. I work on a Mac, from my home office. I imagine in my business I'll be working on site at some places.

I asked a friend who knows me well for advice. They said get a tool that works for the near future, that as my business unfolds, it will become clearer what the needs are then, and that I’ll have the funds to take action on any new tools needed. I asked about Daylite, and they said it would be ok, but their sense is there’s something that will work even better, last me longer. I named off others, like Basecamp (doesn’t work enough how I think/work, they said) Copper Project, Contactizer. All No.

They’re bad with names sometimes, but she said she got the hit that it might be something/some company that starts with “Ser...” she also got that it may be a series of interlocking tools, rather then one. She had me search on the web, name off what I saw, and these were the maybes, that I in looking at them didn’t get that they would be it:

Zoho 1st Manager Teamspace Goplan Vertabase

When I told her this, she said that Daylite might be it, that there is the possibility that what they may have in mind isn’t something that I’ll recognize/believe I’m capable of using yet.

~~~~

That said, I'm looking for some thing or things to do the following:

Manage my contacts, and be able to associate emails, files, and tasks with them, make them actionable, rather then just another name/company I have on file.

Have a calendar that I can visually see what I (and future collaborators) are up to

Organize tasks and steps around projects

Day to day tasks, not necessarily around a project (as in not all geared to group collaboration, projects. It covers the “me” things.)

Invoicing, time tracking

Something to associate the various components of my business together, so information doesn't just get lost in the void, in a place where it's not going to get action taken on it.

Be able to collaborate with others on projects, but not require them to have a specific computer platform, or buy expensive software, since we may not work together more then once.

+++

That's what I want to do, and here's the qualities I want in the tool(s) I use:

Computer based (no handwriting for me)

Friendly, human interface, rather then cold, hard, mechanical

Geared to the creative/business minded, but works on a practical level

Preferably web based (to allow easier, more malleable collaboration, without need for others to have the same software/platform)

If software based, still allows for others in projects that don't have software to get meaningful, actionable information to work on the project.

Mac style interface, as in well designed aesthetically and functionally, intuitive to use, robust in features, and useful ones at that.

Mac tool integrated, or at least open to any mail client, not Outlook/MS Project/etc linked/dependent. I do have MS Office (Word, Excel) so that’s fine.

~~~~

So that’s what I’m looking for, I look forward to your suggestions! I imagine for invoicing that I could use Billings, but if your suggestions incorporate it in some other tool, fantastic!

How can I track ideas for my project?

cptspalding — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:18:19 -0800

What tools exist to track ideas in a project? I oversee a project that has a lot of moving parts -- various deadlines, multiple "bosses" with their own ideas about what should/could be done and lots of little milestones. I've been able to develop a method for keeping up with deadlines and milestones, but I've yet to find something suitable for tracking what I call nuggets of information. These are more amorphous ideas and concepts that come up during meetings or conversations and don't neatly fit into a deadline or milestone but still are important to remember. (It's hard to give an example, but sentences that start with "It will be important to remember...." or "We should really be sure to consider...") usually contain nuggets. Right now, I just record them in my project notebook, but then I forget about them, or can't find them when I need to. As a result these can often slip through the cracks until six months later someone remembers them.

In my younger days I could remember these things, but either my work has gotten a lot more complex or my memory isn't what it used to be (or both) So what I'm looking for is something that would allow me to track these nuggets. I'd like to be able to store the nugget, the date, who said it, priority and some keywords associated with it. I could then query the nuggets, prioritize them and find them if I needed to at a later date. If the app was online, that would be ideal, but its not a necessity. Also Mac or PC -- I could handle either one. If nothing like this exists, I can set up a quick Access database for this, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Solutions I've tried and found lacking for this task: Backpack, Omni Outliner, Word file, Curio.

Does an nugget tracker exist? Is there something I'm missing about the solutions I've listed above that would allow me to do what I want? How do you track these kind of things?

Help me understand billable hour expectations for people other than lawyers....

twiggy — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:48:31 -0800

Help me with Web / IT consulting and billable time. Consulting firms make their money on billable hours - what percentage of a 40 hour work week needs to be billable for different roles within the company? I work for what I'll call for neutrality's sake a "web shop", though it fancies itself a consulting firm as we do things by the billable hour. I've worked in the industry before, but I really don't know what sorts of things are "relatively standard / commonplace" in the industry.

My google-fu almost exclusively finds me stuff on lawyers, so here comes my request for help...

We have developers, designers and project managers, each of which have their own billable hour expectation (much like I understand lawyers do). I'm trying to understand what expectations are reasonable while still maintaining profitability, so I want to know the following:

- What is a reasonable billable hour expectation in a 40 hour work week for a developer? A designer? A project manager?

- In a project estimated at say 100 hours of billable work by the designers and developers combined, how much project management time do typically add? Fixed amounts? A percentage? We have a standard - I'm curious if it's in line with yours.

- What sorts of things do you consider billable beyond development, design, and "obvious" project management stuff like creating documentation, requirements gathering, etc. Do you bill for internal but unplanned conversations about client work (i.e. a 5 minute catchup between the PM and a developer). Do you bill for estimates of additional work, even if the client elects not to go through with the work? Do you bill for every email and phone call you spend time reading/responding to from a client?

- What sorts of things are definitely nonbillable in your company, or just your mind?