How to improve productivity???
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Hi all, I read a lot of books about time/project management but all of them assumes that you live in a perfect world. I work for a small company and I'm working (or trying to) on 5 projects right now. Is there anyone in the same situation? If so, how do you guys handle planning, schedulle, people? What I'm doing now is to spend some time everyday on each project, so I don't "forget" the details about each one. Any ideas/suggestions/resources that I can take a look? I thing I'll go back to my tenor sax... :) Regards, Wanderley
Really??? You Are Welcome to the life of the developers. You never received a requirement for yesterday?:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: I can't rememmber the number, but with the time it is common, in that case I don't work in VC++, I work in CTRL+C, CTRL+V, and F7.:(( Carlos Antollini.
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Hi all, I read a lot of books about time/project management but all of them assumes that you live in a perfect world. I work for a small company and I'm working (or trying to) on 5 projects right now. Is there anyone in the same situation? If so, how do you guys handle planning, schedulle, people? What I'm doing now is to spend some time everyday on each project, so I don't "forget" the details about each one. Any ideas/suggestions/resources that I can take a look? I thing I'll go back to my tenor sax... :) Regards, Wanderley
5 Projects! I hope they are paying you a lot of money. Are you the sole developer on these projects? My own project management strategy is fairly text book because I'm a contractor so I have more leeway than most developers. 1. Function spec. Create, review, modify, signoff 2. Split the project into achievable milestones 3. Split the milestones into the features 4. Priotize the features 5. Split the features into tasks (This is done during the design process by the developer(s) who will be coding the feature) 6. The developer then estimates how long each task will take (in hours) 7. Project schedule created from developers estimates 8. Start coding. Developer updates the task list with current time elapsed and updates the estimate if the time elapsed is greater than the current estimate. 9. Revise the project plan when lots of tasks start to exceed their original estimate. 10. Review features and chop features if it looks like it's going to slip badly or get new deadline. 11. Repeat until project complete This works for me (just about). Never had to run more than a couple of projects at a time and most of them are staggered so that I'll be creating a functional spec for the next project whilst the first is being coded. Michael :-)
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Really??? You Are Welcome to the life of the developers. You never received a requirement for yesterday?:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: I can't rememmber the number, but with the time it is common, in that case I don't work in VC++, I work in CTRL+C, CTRL+V, and F7.:(( Carlos Antollini.
You never received a requirement for yesterday? Not a requirement, but how about a new software tool for the next week? The guys here know how to drive me crazy... :) :) Regards,
Wanderley
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5 Projects! I hope they are paying you a lot of money. Are you the sole developer on these projects? My own project management strategy is fairly text book because I'm a contractor so I have more leeway than most developers. 1. Function spec. Create, review, modify, signoff 2. Split the project into achievable milestones 3. Split the milestones into the features 4. Priotize the features 5. Split the features into tasks (This is done during the design process by the developer(s) who will be coding the feature) 6. The developer then estimates how long each task will take (in hours) 7. Project schedule created from developers estimates 8. Start coding. Developer updates the task list with current time elapsed and updates the estimate if the time elapsed is greater than the current estimate. 9. Revise the project plan when lots of tasks start to exceed their original estimate. 10. Review features and chop features if it looks like it's going to slip badly or get new deadline. 11. Repeat until project complete This works for me (just about). Never had to run more than a couple of projects at a time and most of them are staggered so that I'll be creating a functional spec for the next project whilst the first is being coded. Michael :-)
No design?? ;) Kind regards, Tim
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5 Projects! I hope they are paying you a lot of money. Are you the sole developer on these projects? My own project management strategy is fairly text book because I'm a contractor so I have more leeway than most developers. 1. Function spec. Create, review, modify, signoff 2. Split the project into achievable milestones 3. Split the milestones into the features 4. Priotize the features 5. Split the features into tasks (This is done during the design process by the developer(s) who will be coding the feature) 6. The developer then estimates how long each task will take (in hours) 7. Project schedule created from developers estimates 8. Start coding. Developer updates the task list with current time elapsed and updates the estimate if the time elapsed is greater than the current estimate. 9. Revise the project plan when lots of tasks start to exceed their original estimate. 10. Review features and chop features if it looks like it's going to slip badly or get new deadline. 11. Repeat until project complete This works for me (just about). Never had to run more than a couple of projects at a time and most of them are staggered so that I'll be creating a functional spec for the next project whilst the first is being coded. Michael :-)
I hope they are paying you a lot of money. Well, I can't complain. But the stress is killing me and my motivation is going down. X| Are you the sole developer on these projects? No, it's me and another programmer, If you can call him so... :-) ...This works for me (just about). The thing is ... I do all of that! I have now a lot of function specs and task lists, just waiting to be implemented. One issue here is how to make an efficient schedulle without getting crazy? :confused: I usually have to do a lot of different tasks everyday, like coding or design another function or feature. And design is hard when you're not completely relaxed to concentrate. This way my average productivity is always lower than I wish. :( Do you have this situation too? Regards, Wanderley
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I hope they are paying you a lot of money. Well, I can't complain. But the stress is killing me and my motivation is going down. X| Are you the sole developer on these projects? No, it's me and another programmer, If you can call him so... :-) ...This works for me (just about). The thing is ... I do all of that! I have now a lot of function specs and task lists, just waiting to be implemented. One issue here is how to make an efficient schedulle without getting crazy? :confused: I usually have to do a lot of different tasks everyday, like coding or design another function or feature. And design is hard when you're not completely relaxed to concentrate. This way my average productivity is always lower than I wish. :( Do you have this situation too? Regards, Wanderley
For me task switching takes time. So I try to organize my time so that I can concentrate on one project at a time. Jumping from project to project makes me less efficient so I try not to do it.
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Hi all, I read a lot of books about time/project management but all of them assumes that you live in a perfect world. I work for a small company and I'm working (or trying to) on 5 projects right now. Is there anyone in the same situation? If so, how do you guys handle planning, schedulle, people? What I'm doing now is to spend some time everyday on each project, so I don't "forget" the details about each one. Any ideas/suggestions/resources that I can take a look? I thing I'll go back to my tenor sax... :) Regards, Wanderley
We use (translation: management understands, endorses and requires it) XP where I work. Check out: http://www.xprogramming.com/what\_is\_xp.htm /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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No design?? ;) Kind regards, Tim
>5. Split the features into tasks (This is done during the design process by >the developer(s) who will be coding the feature) The design process is built into creating the tasks. This is left to each individual developer to design the feature. Any user interface has already been specified in the spec. Any interaction between features has also been specfied in the spec, usually as a technical note. To be able to specify a time in hours for each task, the developer has to think about how they will implement the system, i.e do the design before doing a lot of coding. The system isn't perfect but it works for me 90% of the time. It's sort of evolved over the last 12 years. There was a time as a young foolish programmer that I though specs were useless and that scheduling was a waste of time. I learnt those lessons the hardway :-) Michael :-)
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>5. Split the features into tasks (This is done during the design process by >the developer(s) who will be coding the feature) The design process is built into creating the tasks. This is left to each individual developer to design the feature. Any user interface has already been specified in the spec. Any interaction between features has also been specfied in the spec, usually as a technical note. To be able to specify a time in hours for each task, the developer has to think about how they will implement the system, i.e do the design before doing a lot of coding. The system isn't perfect but it works for me 90% of the time. It's sort of evolved over the last 12 years. There was a time as a young foolish programmer that I though specs were useless and that scheduling was a waste of time. I learnt those lessons the hardway :-) Michael :-)
Looks like our project management strategies are very much the same. The only other step I would add is for beginning new projects. Somewhere between step 1 and 3 I would add a brief System Design that shows/explains the interaction/functionality of the major components of the project. I find this very helpful when there is a lot of functionality required at the backend or at the lower level(device communications, etc.). Kind regards, Tim
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Hi all, I read a lot of books about time/project management but all of them assumes that you live in a perfect world. I work for a small company and I'm working (or trying to) on 5 projects right now. Is there anyone in the same situation? If so, how do you guys handle planning, schedulle, people? What I'm doing now is to spend some time everyday on each project, so I don't "forget" the details about each one. Any ideas/suggestions/resources that I can take a look? I thing I'll go back to my tenor sax... :) Regards, Wanderley
The best way to improve productivity is to own your own company - at least until you get to the IPO, then you just buy the boat in the Med, 6 dangling beauties and it's bye-bye coding! :suss: Old Simon HB9DRV
