My new Gantthead column is up, Who’s Playing Agile Schedule Games? If you liked the schedule games from the more traditional projects, you’ll love the agile schedule games. Please comment over there.
Doug was concerned. He was the project manager for a brand new product. After a few specific features, the product manager wasn’t quite sure what needed to be in the first release. The developers were working in a new language. The testers had never seen this new database. And, his management wanted the first release
Feature Article: 90% Done Is Not Almost Done Back when I was a new developer, my boss asked me how long it would take to complete a specific task. I looked at it for about 20 seconds, and said “Four weeks.” “Great,” he said. At the end of the first week, I was 25% done—that’s
I write a roughly monthly email newsletter, the Pragmatic Manager. I (finally) posted Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game. Yes, I’m working on the July issue now. Enjoy!
Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game You see your manager bounding down the hall towards your office. You know what’s going to happen before he gets there–he’s going to ask you to take on yet another project in addition to the three you’re trying to juggle now. You want to run and hide.
Imagine you’re working on or managing a project. You’re dealing with risks and making technical decisions–pretty much humming along. The project isn’t easy, but you’re making progress. One day, you arrive at work and your boss says, “Stop working on that project. Work on this one instead.” You do. A week later, the same thing
Imagine you’re a project manager. You talk to your technical lead and ask how far along the team is. “Oh, we’re about 90 percent done,” he says. If you’re like most project managers, your heart sinks. You’ve been here before. Ninety percent done means the other 90 percent is left to do. But what can
Tristan, the senior manager in charge of all projects, strides into Ilene’s office and plunks himself down in her visitor’s chair. “Ilene, you are the project manager in charge of the project to save the company, right?” Ilene nods. “I really need you to fit this other feature into this release,” Tristran says. “We’re toast
Months ago, Debbie asked this question, “Do you have any comparative analysis on the disciplines (project management and program management) that you would like to share?” To me, program management is the ability to take a project or a series of projects and manage those (see Program Management: Multiple Projects With Multiple Deliverables) in the
I’ve learned about schedule games from lots of people and projects. Here is the list of acknowledgements, as I remember them. If I left anyone off, please let me know. We had a discussion of schedule games on the AYE wiki, which helped me remember just how many games there are. I’m pretty sure I