Michael's Coding Den: Consulting

Check your project health

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:21:29 GMT

As we all know the most projects are ~~suck~~ not good as they should be. So, the early understanding of the project health is really vital for the success.

Today I've found the good and simple project health checklist. Consulters should print it and use as questionnaire in first day with client :)

Mirror: Check your project health

23.5 Rules of Thumb (podcast)

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:38:40 GMT

Recently finished watching the classic "23.5 Rules of Thumb" video of Jim McCarthy about the rules which each of IT person should follow. Jim tries to explain what happens in dev world from the pragmatic perspective and his explanations reveal the things which we usually tend to ignore.

Fantastic podcast. Highly recommended

Some cites to summarize his video

Shoot down all those who dumb and active.
Software is always late or is nonfunctional... too
Developers are in dreamland, they are away from reality. You need QA who is pragmatic
Know what u don’t know
Learn how to cope with uncertainty
Deliver everyday
Work as team and express your ideas
Achieve the quality u decided to achieve.
Have a short milestones
Be accountable for the small deliverables
User in-out approach, and never trap into out-in approach
Avoid "software dream syndrome"
Don't change the release date, concentrate on milestones
Present the "low tech" to the customer, not your long-term strategic vision
Design the software to build on time
Most software sucks
Software should have a purpose
Make software useful and usable
Establish shared vision in your project and company
Ship quickly in frequent cycles to keep customer happy
Be in ship mode.

Mirror: 23.5 Rules of Thumb (podcast)

MS Project on WM Devices

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:00:28 GMT

Today I've found the interesting tool PocketPlan from www.twiddlebit.com guys. IT allows your to use MS Project on WM Devices.

I found it really useful when u are working as consulter and very often you live on the road in virtual network space, with limited access to your IT infrastructure. An such tools allows you to to control situation in such environment.

Mirror: http://msmvps.com/blogs/laflour/archive/2008/02/08/ms-project-on-wm-devices.aspx

Teddy Bear factor IS a "paradigm shift"

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:15:13 GMT

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them" (c) Albert Einstein

Discussing the recent post about "Teddy Bear factor" with my mate Basil, I realized that Teddy Bear factor reflects the Einstein idea.

We need the "paradigm shift" to solve our problem and "paradigm shift" applied when we try explain our code verbally to whoever stay next to us. At that moment we are on next level when we created the problem

So that's how "Teddy Bear" factor works

Teddy Bear Factor

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:56:56 GMT

Try to remember how much time u've met the case when your are calling your colleague to look on issue you can't solve, and asap the colleague comes it's solving without his assistance :) Just because he had stayed next to, you found the solution

I bet each of us meets this scenario one-two times per month. This is standard situation and this is absolutely normal. People, by nature, can easily miss their errors, and that's why the team inspections are essentials, but this is another story

I decided to write this post when in one day in our team each of us asked another assistance and the problem was solved when u just stayed in 1 meter from person :)

This is usually known as "Teddy bear factor", the factor when you need to sit your favourite teddy toy near, and everything will be okey-dokey :)

Mirror: http://msmvps.com/blogs/laflour/archive/2008/01/06/teddy-bear-factor.aspx