Project Management
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
You should look for sample Project Management Plan (PMP) documents, specifically for software development. You may come across a "work instruction" for creating one that specifies all of the seciton headings and sub-headings and their content/purpose. One may or may not exist for your earlier projects. This formalizes the PMP document's structure. From there you can look at the broader picture which is sometimes calls a Quality Management System (QMS) hierarchy, where the PMP document is considered the root point of all project documentation. Separate from this document can be your Project Life-cycle docuement and countless general process area documents (CM, Risk Management, Data Management, QA, Training, Requirements, etc.) This methodology might be called CMMI, or some others maybe.
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Tricky people those customers... :)
------------------------------------- Do not do what has already been done. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.. but it ROCKS absolutely, too.
It's not our end customers. It's our internal partners (other division providing stuff we use), and marketing. You could argue that marketing is our direct customer, but that description implies that they care about what we provide. They don't. They only care about what we're doing next week, next month, and next year. What we did today is passe and boring.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
Add an entry on the local wiki server for the project and manage all project information from the wiki.
John
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It's not our end customers. It's our internal partners (other division providing stuff we use), and marketing. You could argue that marketing is our direct customer, but that description implies that they care about what we provide. They don't. They only care about what we're doing next week, next month, and next year. What we did today is passe and boring.
Software Zen:
delete this;Well perhaps if you would jazz it up with some pie charts or a graph or two... :-D
------------------------------------- Do not do what has already been done. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.. but it ROCKS absolutely, too.
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Well perhaps if you would jazz it up with some pie charts or a graph or two... :-D
------------------------------------- Do not do what has already been done. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.. but it ROCKS absolutely, too.
Unfortunately, the hair gel and Crackberry™ set only respond to large quantities of the long green.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Unfortunately, the hair gel and Crackberry™ set only respond to large quantities of the long green.
Software Zen:
delete this;Right you are. I confused them with management for a bit there...
------------------------------------- Do not do what has already been done. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.. but it ROCKS absolutely, too.
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I use Microsoft SharePoint and create a sub-site for every project we're working on. Being a web portal, you can easily setup your project website with document listings, task tracking, calendars, message boards, etc. I keep my requirements documents, specifications, documented reviews, test cases, test results, QA releases, and other files (all in digital form) on SharePoint. Since it is a website, you or your colleagues can easily access it when you travel. I work at an ISO-9001 compliant company and I'll tell you that the last auditor I had raved about what I put together. Well anyways, that's my success story. The downside of course is that you need to setup a Windows 2003 or 2008 WEB server and SQL Server with the necessary licenses... which isn't cheap but not terribly expensive either. I wonder if an MSDN subscription can cover the software licensing amongst the developers cheaply.
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I think that no matter what method, whether it be organized paperwork or wiki server or project management tool that keeps everything together, the point of it is getting organized and keeping the documents updated ! In my organization, we have all these paperwork that is supposed to document the systems and enhancements and all... and as time goes by, there are more and more of these and no one keeps them updated and tracking the bugs and enhancements are a nightmare! Because of this, there are frequent instances where there is duplication of effort somewhere. X|
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
We used Trac (edgewall software) and subversion at the last place and I am now introducing it at the new place... There are also the usual formal plan / design / test documents that get checked in to subversion (or possibly the LiveLink system, I'm still working on that one). But most planning, note recording and discussions should get recorded through trac tickets or the wiki and setting up new environments is quick and easy. All nice'n'liteweight
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I mix it up - some hardcopy and some software, though nothing fancy or expensive. I set up folders in Outlook to hold relevant correspondence, and create a project folder on a shared volume on the office server for everything else. Subfolders work well for Standards, Specs, Drawings, Contracts, Quotes, etc. The trouble is that my coworkers are so computer illiterate they won't look at the server for what they need, so I have to waste a lot of time printing stuff they want to see because they're too dumb to find it. I haven't found a way to fix that yet, but if you're doing software projects it's safe to assume you won't have that problem. Frankly, it drives me crazy sometimes. We use an accounting system that maintains Inventory, and will generate POs. The guy who does most of the purchasing, though, refuses to quit manually typing - yes, typing, on an old electric typewriter - paper PO forms. Worse yet, he can't spell and types about 6 words a minute. I've created templates for him for everything imaginable, and created folders for him to file various documents, but he just fills in the templates and clicks 'Save', thereby destroying the template, then saves things in whatever location pops up when he saves. If he doesn't retire soon, I'm going to kill him. But he's only 3 years older than me... :sigh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I've recently been introduced to MindJet (and other mind mapping software) .. but I hear MindJet is the "top Dog"... anyway I used thier trial and was impressed how I could "free hand" add thoughts ideas, comments about something as I thought of them.. quite random say .. such as random thought: "Oh yeah, remember to do a search and replace on the config file XXXX.cfg changing dohickytest to dohicky when rolling the system out" The software turned it into a chart I could navigate easy, drill down or not/zoom or not, make office presentations with, completely nagigatable multi-page web exports, all I can say is slick. There are also "light weight" project management addons as well. Oh, and it turned all my random notes into a completely perfect set of documentation complete with chapters etc in word. The other tool I use that I found for the price is dotProject - it's open source and it does a pretty good job of managing multiple projects, assigning tasks, tracking time, money, costs etc... pretty mature also! As for binders? Save a tree is my sentiment these days. --Jason
Know way too many languages... master of none!
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
Strangely enough, I'm a big fan of Microsoft's OneNote scrapbooking software. I, and my minions, create different folders for each project and then stuff all design notes, e-mails, etc. into the files that we all share on a server. We have other sections where we collect coding examples and general interest articles. I have what I call "Problem Resolution Solutions" where I store all the e-mails requests for ad-hoc database reports and the SQL used to generate them. Some of the people at our head office can't write whole sentences and frequently leave off words in their requests (they are such busy people). It has been great to search the subsection and find similar requests and how they were solved. I've worked at places with 2" thick standards manuals on how documentation is to be generated and resultant stack of paper ended up being a waste because it would never get around to documenting the programs or processes (but we had a Standard!). About as useful as tracking how long it takes to write each subroutine (been there, done that, have several T-shirts).
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11
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How do you handle your projects? The company I currently work for keeps a project binder that is for the formal paperwork like projected cost, approvals, etc. Then the individual engineers are required to keep a folder containing anything else they deem important. I haven't been here long enough to know what happens at the end of the project. I have a drawer full of folders from previous projects the guy before was working on. I just think there is a better system for this. Do you: 1) Put them in binder with tabs indicating different sections. If so, what sections do you have? 2) Use software to handle everything. If so, what software? 3) Some other methodology. 4) Projects??? We don't need no stinkin' projects!
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I am "basically" self employed with a few outside people who "help"... I'm a pewny business (as to differentiate between small business :-\ ) and cost is an issue for me. so I like to use:Office Live. Pros: Free, semi-secure (password, and privileges), has a large storage space, and web based. Cons: You must access it using a "Windows Approved" source i.e. not Linux.:confused: :omg: X| :mad: So if you don't use Linux.. you should be good.. otherwise your back at square one. p.s. my windows computer is down and all i have is my Linux... ever try compiling XNA on Linux?