Wronowski

One of the most important tasks a PM has on a software development project (maybe in all projects) is setting priorities. Usually time and money is shorter than everybody would like and you have to choose what to develop and what not to develop. It takes communication skills, a lot of negotiation and, at the end; everybody is a little bit frustrated… If your team is developing software iteratively and incrementally (and you should… but that’s a theme for another post), you have to prioritize each iteration sub-scope. To make scope more clear, at my company we adopt the MoSCoW list. I believe it originally has roots on DSDM (although it is used similarly on SCRUM, UP and it has elements of Cockburn’s actor-goal list) and it is a very powerful tool. Simply stated, it is a list of requirements (or actor-goals, or use case titles…) each one prioritized with a letter MSCW (Must, Should, Could and Won’t – that’s the origin of MoSCoW list name). I simplify the explanation to my clients, key-u

In my previous post, I mentioned I have been using GTD. In fact, I’m a big fan of it. I have worked for many years as a programmer, then as a systems analyst, also as an architect. Of course you have a lot to do in this positions! But it was when I occupied the Project Manager and the Consulting Manager positions that my to do list exploded. It seems that in these positions you substitute some big tasks for a plethora of small tasks. You have some tasks to solve problems with development, another set of tasks to solve problems with analysis, with infrastructure, with architecture, with you stakeholder management needs, with your project bureaucracy, with updates on workplans, with status reports… Basically, David Allen (the author of GTD) suggests keeping everything out of your mind – you make a mental dump on lists. Then you organize the lists: you identify the “next action” for each item (e.g.: for an item like “Fix the car” you probably have a next action of calling Dad and get the

I just licensed a new software for my personal organization system: TimeTo . It tries to conciliate your schedule with you to-do list, automatically scheduling your tasks based on priorities and deadlines. It has helped me in maintaining the concentration on what I’m doing at each time and how much time I spend on doing each type of task. Additionally, I have a very powerful way to complete my timesheet. I can tell you exactly what I was doing at a specific time in the past. It is not easy to conciliate it with GTD and I still keep my lists on my Palm but I have improved my focus and I’m achieving more. I suggest you to give it a try.

My Vacations After vacations, children is instructed to write a “my vacations” composition. This is “my vacations” blog ;-) I’ve been to Italy looking to some of the greatest projects of mankind - Coliseum, Caracala Baths, Sistine Chapel… Tourists usually think: “Uau! That’s big / old / beautiful”, or something more elaborated like “That’s a fundamental part of human history” or “Too many people died here”. I must admit that my PM (project manager) bias took me to a particular version: “Uau! Without gantt or pert diagrams (or MS-Project) or even without any Excel Spreadsheet!!!” PMs usually complain against these tools and the triple constraint (time, money and scope) - I imagine how these old PMs could control and deliver without these tools or EVA techniques etc. Depending on their mistakes I imagine a PM could be “invited” to be part of the show with lions… As expected, I tried to research on “ancient project management” - I could not find any references. I found material stating t

After some months desiring a DVR (VCR-like equipment with a high capacity hard disk) I found a Sony HDD250 for 20% of the regular price in a prestigious US store. The price was due a small scratch and a missing manual. I bought it! Back to Brazil I downloaded the manual and installed the cables but…the remote control did not work - it was of another equipment. OK, I should have noticed that but… I was VERY frustrated. The wrong side of customer care: 1. I wrote BestBuy. In a canned answer they suggested me to phone the store attendant or returning the equipment. They neither tried to understand my problem. 2. I talked to Sony (I have two of their “universal” remote controllers). Answer: if the code was not in the manual I could not operate the DVR. They suggested me buying a replacement control from a company that …did not sell it. In another demonstration of “customer care”, their product forum has many complaints about not being possible to manually setting the clock - and no answer

As vacation season approaches, our interest in traveling increases. I addition to my recent trip to India I have made some other trips on the job or on vacations and I collected some interesting websites that can assist in planning trips, cross-country meetings or even dealing with other cultures. Have a nice trip! First of all, what time is it … there? To avoid calling someone in another country without noticing it is 4:00AM. I strongly suggest consulting TimeAndDate . In my personal page, I have two links to this site: one to the “Personal World Clock” and another to the “Meeting Planner”. It works great when my group is organizing concalls with people in India, in Europe, in Brazil (of course) and in California/USA. Another preoccupation: how much is it? (or how much it was, when you’re creating your expense reports). I usually recommend oanda website converter. It allows you to convert between many currencies in specific dates and also allows you to print a convenient conversion

Some time ago I read an interesting article from Scott Ambler where he suggests using whiteboards for initial modeling and later, photographing the whiteboard as documentation. I don’t think he created the technique but it was the first time I saw it and I like it very much. I have been recently working on Bangalore, India, assisting my client in negotiating a new plan for their project with the company we were visiting. My colleague used heavily this trick - people even mock at the “Picture! Picture!” motto. This simple technique was one of the key points in our work. It’s was an aid for everybody’s memory, it permitted a double check to our annotations and it was a proof of the decisions made. I’d like to point some tips: 1. a good digital camera is fantastic for this task but even your cell phone photos can sometimes do the job; 2. the flash of your camera can make some points of the whiteboard unreadable. Try with and without it. 3. you don’t necessarily have to improve your pictu

When I started this blog I faced a dilemma. Should it be in English or in Brazilian Portuguese? In Brazilian Portuguese, my mother tongue, it would be easier to write. I would make fewer mistakes and it would probably take me less time (and effort). I can also use more local expressions that would make my text more natural. In English I would (potentially) reach much more readers. Since I don’t like to loose time, reaching more people seems to be a greater return on investment. As most of my friends and colleagues read English, I’ll keep the “better ROI” approach. If you are a reader and you’ll facing difficulties with this approach or would like me to change to Brazilian Portuguese, please drop me a comment.