Current workload
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I have to rewrite 20 Windows Services and update an application that interfaces with the EPA. But if you want to compare active clients, I only have 2 atm, 4 on call though. The biggest challenge is that their emergencies always sync. Although, I would rather have too many clients so I could hire staff than not enough.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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I have to rewrite 20 Windows Services and update an application that interfaces with the EPA. But if you want to compare active clients, I only have 2 atm, 4 on call though. The biggest challenge is that their emergencies always sync. Although, I would rather have too many clients so I could hire staff than not enough.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
have to rewrite 20 Windows Services
only 20? sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I too, would rather have too many contracts then no contracts. :thumbsup:
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) -
How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I am on four that require daily attention, 10 that require work on at least a weekly basis and a total of 20 that I am responsible for. I have so many various IDE's open I don't know how my computer can support it. Thankfully I can run two eclipses, and four each of visual studio 2010, 2008 and 2005.
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)My workload varies wildly, depending on who calls me. Right now I have 2 on-going projects, and 3 waiting for info, approval to start, etc. Plus my own software development. Not counting studying for my qualifying exams next week and my research efforts so I can graduate sometime.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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My workload varies wildly, depending on who calls me. Right now I have 2 on-going projects, and 3 waiting for info, approval to start, etc. Plus my own software development. Not counting studying for my qualifying exams next week and my research efforts so I can graduate sometime.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
Good to see you around, Walt. :)
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) -
How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)At 14 at the moment at various states in the life cycle :((
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I work on only 1 main project, but have about 6 sub-projects. Then there's the day to day stuff like keeping it all running (everything from the hardware up), bug fixes, new work requests etc. An 8 hour day is a short (and rare) day!
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At 14 at the moment at various states in the life cycle :((
Life cycle... what's that?! I have chicken scratch and my own design docs all over my desk, but it's not a policy. We use the "sit down and code" method here. Note: in the following process it's very important to keep the actual code and progress as secretive as possible. 1- Start writing the program with no type of planning other than what you want it to do, don't waste time on design or collaboration. 2- Follow the "move this left", "this should be bigger", "that's the wrong color" instead of finishing 3- Write massive side modules/objects/functions/etc because of poor planning 4- Follow the "move this left", "this should be bigger", "that's the wrong color" instead of finishing 5- Forget project and move to the next exciting tangent from management 6- Hack in bandaids and go to production with unfinished product 7- Forget product until 2 weeks before next time it's going to be used , at which case you start over I just brought up SCRUM and/or AGILE recently. I've heard someone brought it up before and failed,I can only hope it takes.
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Life cycle... what's that?! I have chicken scratch and my own design docs all over my desk, but it's not a policy. We use the "sit down and code" method here. Note: in the following process it's very important to keep the actual code and progress as secretive as possible. 1- Start writing the program with no type of planning other than what you want it to do, don't waste time on design or collaboration. 2- Follow the "move this left", "this should be bigger", "that's the wrong color" instead of finishing 3- Write massive side modules/objects/functions/etc because of poor planning 4- Follow the "move this left", "this should be bigger", "that's the wrong color" instead of finishing 5- Forget project and move to the next exciting tangent from management 6- Hack in bandaids and go to production with unfinished product 7- Forget product until 2 weeks before next time it's going to be used , at which case you start over I just brought up SCRUM and/or AGILE recently. I've heard someone brought it up before and failed,I can only hope it takes.
I used to work in that kind of environment. I'll add... 1. Finish project A. 2. Have it canned because someone has feelings that it may be too buggy. (ie: Doesn't want to allocate resources for testing) 3. Start a new high priority project B. 4. Start a new high priority project C. 5. A is now a priority again. 6. Merge Project A, with no changes into a very old incompatible code base. 7. Accept criticism that that I made too many changes to force incompatible code to work together. 8. Jump to B. It's now hot... 9. Explain why I'm not done with C. 10. Watch A get put through another developmental cycle because of feelings... And so on....
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) -
I used to work in that kind of environment. I'll add... 1. Finish project A. 2. Have it canned because someone has feelings that it may be too buggy. (ie: Doesn't want to allocate resources for testing) 3. Start a new high priority project B. 4. Start a new high priority project C. 5. A is now a priority again. 6. Merge Project A, with no changes into a very old incompatible code base. 7. Accept criticism that that I made too many changes to force incompatible code to work together. 8. Jump to B. It's now hot... 9. Explain why I'm not done with C. 10. Watch A get put through another developmental cycle because of feelings... And so on....
JackDingler wrote:
1. Finish project A.
I can agree with everything but that. We are not in the business of finalizing anything. I understand that software isn't ever "finalized", but I hope you get my meaning :D Switching priorities is not even that big of a deal to me. It's that there is no good way to go about a set of software at all. There is no design, there is no group/team implementation, there is no good time for other people to give input. We have people worried about design hammering you before you even get done with the product. We have projects that are hoarded, etc. I could jump from a to b and back and forth if there was even a definition of the software. Sometimes I asked to take over project B , or implement something on someone elses software.... and there is no good way to do it.
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JackDingler wrote:
1. Finish project A.
I can agree with everything but that. We are not in the business of finalizing anything. I understand that software isn't ever "finalized", but I hope you get my meaning :D Switching priorities is not even that big of a deal to me. It's that there is no good way to go about a set of software at all. There is no design, there is no group/team implementation, there is no good time for other people to give input. We have people worried about design hammering you before you even get done with the product. We have projects that are hoarded, etc. I could jump from a to b and back and forth if there was even a definition of the software. Sometimes I asked to take over project B , or implement something on someone elses software.... and there is no good way to do it.
That happens a lot in this industry.
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I've got two projects on: - one has me running around picking up the toys to put them back in the pram. - the other alternates between needing to be spoon fed and shitting all over us. :-D Happy days indeed.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)couple of months ago, the count was 3 now its 2. On an average I always find myself working on 2 projects, with occasional interruptions in the form of issues for the deployed systems (setting up data, solving site crashes or expired server security certificates etc). A new project is coming my way in the upcoming weeks, but hopefully by then one of the projects i m on at the moment will have been deployed. Oh and I have 1 personal project at home under development, 1 project that i m yet to start and 1 that is sort of in the PoC mode...
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I am currently working on 7 ( Yes Seven ) projects... I work for a large corporate that has 5 companies and just one IT team and I am fortunate enough to work on seven projects at a time.. All my processors are at full throttle... :)
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf * Math is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) -
I've got two projects on: - one has me running around picking up the toys to put them back in the pram. - the other alternates between needing to be spoon fed and shitting all over us. :-D Happy days indeed.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
Challenging indeed. And long-term - job safety guaranteed? :laugh:
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Slacker007 wrote:
How many hours a day do you put in on average for these ten projects?
i work 8-9 hours each day. but it's hard to say how those hours divide amongst the various projects. most of the projects are in a support phase, so i only need to touch them when issues come up. but, some of them are very active and generate a lot of issues, so i spend a couple of days a week on them. a couple of projects are new development, so i try to spend as much time on them as i can, but they tend to get bumped by urgent support issues. i just try to get it all done.
That's not project work. A project is something with a start, a well-defined end and a well defined scope (ideally).
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How many projects are you working on right now? I am currently working on four and it is becoming quite the challenge.
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011)Are the four things you work on projects or products? A project has a well defined start, a well defined and and a well defined scope. (And a well defined budget, usually, but that's not relevant for this discussion, I think.) Adding small features and fixing bugs in existing code is regular maintenance work, and does not fit the definition of a project. (And yes, it's a very bad way to move ahead with a product, and the safest way to completely thrash its design, if it ever had one, eventually leading to unmaintainable code.) Are you also in charge of the project management part? I.e. reporting, talking to the various stakeholders, keeping an eye on the budget etc.? Do you just get ToDos in a list, each one consisting of a very specific coding task? If you do indeed do project work, how large are the projects? Do you manage other people's work too? Regardless of what precisely you do, if you feel overworked, it's definitely too much, and you should start shouting until somebody listens, or else the quality of your work will go south eventually. And it's not just you who will suffer, but also your employer and the users of whatever code you create. Crying out loud early on does a favor to anybody. When you're overworked, it often helps to organize things differently - better organization may reduce effort. So you might want to ask for advice for the very specific type of work you are doing.