Jesses Project Management Tips

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Jesses Project Management Tips

• 3/25/2005

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Outline

• Four General Tips
• Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

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General Project Management Tips

• 1. Get EVERYONE to love the project.
• What if I dont love it?
• If you dont love it, pretend to. We become what
  we pretend to be.
• What if my other team members dont love it?
• Help them find a way. How can I bring you in?
• What if my client doesnt love it?
• Big problem. Find out what they really want see
  if you can do that instead!

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General Project Management Tips

• 2. One-on-one meetings eliminate potential
  problems.
• People dont always speak the truth in public.
• Producers should do these regularly, formally or
  informally.
• Faculty should do these at least every two weeks.
  

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General Project Management Tips

• 3. Keep in Constant Communication
• Be in the same room
• Everyone should know where everyone is and will
  be, and how to reach them
• Do some social things. Dont like your teammates?
  Pretend to.
• Do internal demos to each other at least once a
  week!

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• 4. Producers Carry the Water.
• Make sure everyone has what they need all the
  time, whatever that may be.
• Be the Den Mother.
• Learn the joy of servitude.

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 1. Define the problem.
• That is, What is the goal of this project?

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 2. Pick a solution.
• Preferably, as simple as possible!
• Once you pick it make a detailed plan for how
  it will happen. A plan is a real thing.
• Dont get too attached to your solution.

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 3. Manage risks.
• First Identify Risks.
• Second Decide how you will mitigate them.
• Third Periodically review your risk list and
  mitigation strategies.
• You might notice that mitigating risks often
  requires multiple early prototypes (or,
  iterations)
• The Spiral Model is a great way to manage risks!

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 4. Do a detailed task breakdown.
• Put tasks in categories, and label how long they
  will take, who will do them, when they need to be
  done, and how important they are.
• How much detail? Remember, the more days there
  are in the estimate for one task, the less
  certain you are about how long it will really
  take.
• EVERY task should be on the list.

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 5. If you are in the red, get out.
• You can beg for more time.
• You can change the solution (Begging may be
  necessary).
• You can cut lower priority tasks.
• You can add people to the project with extreme
  caution!
• The important thing Get out sooner, not later!

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 6. Update the task list weekly.
• Each week, everyone should answer two questions
  What did you do this week, what will you do next
  week?
• Feedback on predictions is how you get better at
  predicting!
• Stay out of the red!

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The Seven Steps of Successful Scheduling

• 7. When the project is over, do a post-mortem.
• How else will you know how to do better next
  time?

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Project Management Summary

• General Tips
• 1. Get EVERYONE to love the project
• 2. One-on-one meetings eliminate potential
  problems.
• 3. Keep in Constant Communication
• 4. Producers Carry the Water

• Successful Scheduling
• 1. Define the problem.
• 2. Pick a solution.
• 3. Manage risks.
• 4. Do a detailed task breakdown
• 5. If you are in the red, get out.
• 6. Update the task list weekly.
• 7. Do a post-mortem at the end of the project.

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Projects we should examine

• Dinosaurs Alive!
• The Virgin Island
• Tabletopia
• The Aqua Lounge
• That ill-fated animation project from 2001?
• AugCog
• Hazmat
• Others?

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Hey! I was on your project! You didnt always do
all these things!

• Reasons I sometimes dont do all of these things
• Lack of time (a bad excuse, but there it is)
• Some projects are so exploratory that scheduling
  them is not really useful
• Sometimes, things are just going so well, all the
  formality doesnt seem necessary