Archivo de la Categoría 'Herramientas'

Web based project management tool

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Abril 15, 2008
en Framework y Herramientas
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More than ten years I was forced to wait to see a real web based project management tool -by real I mean a decent software product that seems to address the PM needs and it is not a poor desktop application pushed to the web -like Microsoft Problem Server -oops I mean Project Server. Browsing the web I found the PMXPO 2008 and the SIIA CODiE Awards 2008 pages. Looking at the CODiE Awards 2008 finalists’ list I found @task, a company dedicated to deliver real software that uses the web.

I will try to get a demo or at least a try to that software product. As developer I know a lot of things about web development but also as PM I feel frustrated about the poor quality of the products delivered -that is one my personal reasons because I decided to start the SpZ Framework project. However, there are hope on new products that are jumping in and doing a great work.

Integrated open source tools

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Abril 10, 2008
en Framework y Herramientas
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PM should not have to deal with IT project strategy however almost all the time PM are “abandoned” in the middle of nowhere with a simple request: build a software tool that probably the client do not understand at 100% and it for sure is not documented.

The first steps are to (re)build the project scope and have a plan, but in the meanwhile your new team will need to have the tools to start their work. As PM you probably will have your own tools and templates but the team will have an IDE and that’s it. You should not deal with technical issues, but the reality is that as PM team will depend on you to get the right/optimal resources to simplify the developers work.

If you are those lucky guys that receive a software project since the beginning and not sometime after then you will have a better chance to get the right resources. My recommendation: Keep it simple but useful -even notepad is a useful tool if you use it correctly.

Your team needs:

  1. Deal with versions. Even before start your coding phase you MUST have a concurrent version system. In the market you will find a lot, but probably the common ones -and open source are: CVS and Subversion (a.k.a. SVN). Versions will force the team to work closer and with the same structure. If your IT team do it well, you will appreciate it a lot.
  2. Common IDE. Developers have their own affairs with specific IDEs. But you are the PM, ask your IT lead and force them all to use the same. I don’t like democracy, PM rules! However, as developer, I love Eclipse IDE.
  3. Documentation System. Most of the developers around the world will hate to document their code or applications. At least here in Colombia, when you ask developers to document their code or provide formal documentation they will give you the bad-eye look (in Spanish the malde’ojo) and you will understand that not the greatest documentation will be available at the end of the project. So provide the team with the tools to make this pain softer. I recommend only WYSIWYG tools like a Wiki, Google Docs, or any other fancy tool.
  4. Track their progress/work. Development tracking tools are suspiciously linked to Bug Tracking but it is not necessarily the truth. I’ve been using bug tracking tools like Mantis BT and Jira as Tasks Assignation tools. Keep in mind that a Bug is a request to do (fix) something. So why you cannot split your work packages in work items and assign them to the team -as you do with bugs.
  5. Provide test environments. I have to say this, why non-developer centric companies like Creative Agencies building Web applications do not understand that a Test Environment IS NOT the developer’s computer. What is this all about? What is the mystery? Test environments are needed, mandatory needed. Release building is a complex task that will have a lot of manually interactions -team pushing changes and enhancements- and it is NEEDED to have a place where to put all together and validate it before release it to a client -even to a client test environment. Please do not cut costs here. I will start a facebook group named “Why we do not have a test environment?” -BTW I do not like facebook, I do not even use it.
  6. Put it all together and working. This is the real thing about IT support. Install software is a piece of cake, is not a complex task, put all together and make it work smoothly is the key. So ask you IT team to do it, or do it yourself, like I did for some of my dev projects. There are many ways to integrate everything but I’m giving you some useful links to found the way to do it:

SpZ Team is currently designing an All-in-One integrated solution. For latest updates check the Framework page.

Open UP project management - Set your information system

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Abril 7, 2008
en Framework y Herramientas
. 0 Comentarios
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Project managers who work in software development projects could be those who know about the software development process, probably because they were developers in the past, or those who do not have or do not want to have any technical knowledge and decide to delegate it to a third person -also know as Technical Director, Technical Lead, Team Lead, and other nice names for the man who really manage the software development process.

However this is an article for those who put their hands on projects, probably not coding but are PMs really involved in the software development process. I will explain how to set a project information system based on Open Unified Process and open source software.

The idea is simple, set a information repository accessible by anyone in the project, since the beginning of the development cycle to avoid miscommunication errors. The strategy, use a formal set of templates to document the business needs and the software design and publish them in a project site, but allowing the full access to the development team.

Before begin: you are the PM, if you do not want to go into the details ask IT team to handle the process, it is not so complicated but it takes time. It is not that easy

  • Share the information since the beginning

    • Software projects have this quality, share the information is good, all the information related to the software design and software implementation is good. There is no restriction, developers will understand better their work and BTW you will be reducing drastically the “developer” dependency -does this line sounds familiar to you? “I didn’t do it, I do not understand the code so it will take a time to do/fix/solve it“The easiest way to share documents is to have an open system that allows you to publish information in a public site -public means only to those person you want to have access. There are many ways to do -share a folder through the network :-(, share a folder through versions management system :-|, or to have groupware like Microsoft SharePoint. My case is to publish them since the beginning by setting a Wiki software that will have an ACL, a version management incorporated and all directly online -my team members do not have to install anything else than any web browser.Do not trust the model? Check the proved model by browsing Wikipedia. There is no bigger documentation team in the whole world.

    I will recommend for this experiment DokuWiki. It could be not the best, but is good enough. If you don’t like it there are hundreds so you can pick one. However I will recommend those with WYSIWYG editors to avoid the need of WikiSyntax.

  • Define what to share and how to share

    • At this point you know how to share whatever you will share. But, what is supposed to be shared? Many organizations already have their own set of standard documents, most of them because where certified in something. Like the ISO certifications. So, use them, do not worry, during the project evolution you will see how the documents grow and mature supplying with the appropriated information.Do not have template document? I see, you are on a small company or in a non-small-messy one. Don’t worry there are tons of templates available for free. ReadySET and Method123 will give you a hand but hey, you have to do your homework and build your own ones to fit your process and specific needs.

Know you are ready to start sharing your documentation. Give your team the freedom to work with the documents but track their changes, software design is not a democracy -brainstorming is a democracy where votes do not count. Software design is a Dictatorship where those who has the experience and knowledge will prevail.

Free project management software tools

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Abril 3, 2008
en Herramientas
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Let’s start talking software tools. Probably, if you work in a big company or an projectized one you will have an enterprise solution like Microsoft Project, Primavera, or Clarity. However there is a lot of small / medium and even big companies without any software tool.

This is the first of a set of posts when I will present how I start my projects when no software support is available. Of course I suppose you will have little help of the IT department to get at least some free/usable servers for your purposes. This one will present a small but useful list of tools and their licenses.

You will find a lot of tools that could make easier your life, but obviously, the success of any software tool is based on the use we gave it. Below you will find a list of project management software tools that I recommend for small/medium projects, all of them are free or open source projects

I think is good enough for now, I don’t want to make expectations about those projects, all of them have their pros/cons. If you have comments, feel free to submit them. The whole idea is to build a knowledge base for those who are starting to use a software tool or are evaluating its use.

Project management software upgrade

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Abril 2, 2008
en Herramientas
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We all know that Microsoft products are not the bests in the market -except for the all might Microsoft Excel. But when we decided to move from Microsoft Project 2003 to Microsoft Project 2007 we were not aware of the big problems we will face in the near future.

We all were more than happy with the Microsoft Project Server 2003 -this is a great product, not the best but a great product, I will not blame on Microsoft products. So when 2007 version came out we evaluate the migration and take the fatal decision: UPGRADE :-(

I hope Microsoft refund the company I work for, not only with the product value but also assuming the additional costs we incurred when started using it. We even set a SWAT team inside the company to address the software defects -WOW, could you imagine a SWAT MS Word team in your company to address MS Word defects?

These are the kind of defects we found:

  • There is no ability to add persons to a tasks when people already submit their time -i.e. if somebody is included during the task execution you will have to create a new one for the same purpose.
  • Do not put blank lines in your project plan -What? Are evil blank lines?

There are more issues that you could even imagine but, I doesn’t make any sense to write them all, probably you will need years to read them all :-). When you and your team are forced to log their time more than one time (yes we do that every day for every work day of the year) because of PS issues you will see how many defects this product has and will pray to the software gods for solutions.

Probably you remember the great launches of the Microsoft products that demonstrates that they usually promoted/release products without concerns about the quality. Did you remember the Windows Millenium Edition (a.k.a Windows Me)? Probably you don’t. Try to reach it from the Microsoft site, try to even get support, it was deleted from our minds. Probably Microsoft will do the same with PS 2007, so copy this entry in your computers so they will not be able to erase your knowledge.

I’m pretty sure the Microsoft PS team will have a better/decent product in the future but BY THE DATE OF THIS ENTRY PUBLICATION, I will encourage people to not use Microsoft Project Server 2007 -or at least try it before buy it -and when I said try it I really mean it.

LEGAL NOTICE: This is my personal appreciation of the product and DO NOT represent the legal company position. This entry is not related to the company I work for in any way. I’m writing it because I feel frustrated about the poor product as final user and I hope somebody found this entry it useful. BTW, What does PS means? Project Server or Problems Served.

Share information with Google Docs

Publicado
por
Alberto Dominguez, PMP
el Marzo 31, 2008
en Herramientas y Proceso
. 0 Comentarios
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Communications is the key of the success for any project. How you communicate the most valuable asset is a key factor to success. Information is the treasure of these days, our projects need it, used it and deliver it.

How you share your information will give you an advantage. Keep your team, and your stakeholders up to date will make your life easier and your projects formal. Some time ago, and still in many companies, the email is the key of the communication. Unfortunately, when teams grow the amount of emails becomes unmanageable, at the point that you probably will spend more time reading emails than working.

Innovative companies are step further using documentation management systems or even more specific to PM software tools. My sad case, we are using a fancy but nasty software of a well know software company. I don’t want to say names because I feel afraid of the power of one of the richest men in the whole world -if you know what I meant :-).

But, what if you don’t want to spend a lot of money in a software tool. What if you are starting your project and want to access the best of breath. Easy, Google Docs jump in into the scene to give us all a great tool.

Why Google Docs?

First time I used it I said “simple but powerful”. But know I’m sure I save a lot of time sending and reading documents just by publishing them using Google Docs.

Google Docs will give you immediate and secure access to your documents, and it will provide you great tools like Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Presentation tools. And if you want to address the notification issue and avoid the email rush, voilà it is done: Google Docs has a built-in news feed that will inform at the time you are publishing. And even more, are you afraid about offline periods of time? the you should try Offline Google Docs.

Share without restrictions, make your project communications plan simple with Google Docs.