Basic Project Management

Project Management exists on many levels and with many degrees of complexity. For example, at one end of the scale, I learned project management in the Navy, training to use PERT systems in shipyards on New Construction. I was on USS Enterprise during refueling and USS Virginia when it was built. Building something as complex as a Nuclear Cruiser is a massive undertaking requiring not just one project manager, but many of them.

At the other end of the scale, project management can be just a step above time management where instead of just a task or a set of unrelated tasks that need to be completed, you need to complete a set of related tasks all of which lead to some goal. Building a Customer Facing System is in between these limits.

Most of the writing projects I’ve worked on have been at the lowest level, what I like to call ‘Everyday Project Management’ while others involved complex systems, thousands of agents, multiple sites, and so forth. No matter what the size though, there are some constants in Project Management.

Over the years, I’ve needed to teach basic project management to teams that simply never thought of it as important. I’ve taught it to developers, consultants, architects, magazine editors, executives, and others. For the last several years, I’ve used the book To Do Doing Done by Lynne Snead & Joyce Wycoff as my text. For a more detailed treatment that covers the full range of project management, I refer people to the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) PMBOK:

I’m going to expand on some of my other writings I’ve done on project management to highlight some things that EVERYONE should know. This isn’t about being a project manager, but it’s about understanding enough of the basics that

1. You understand when you need a project manager
2. You understand what the project manager is telling you
3. You understand why the project manager is asking for some things

VPIC

I’ve been in too many projects where there was a rush to jump in and get things done. This is a major mistake!

Let’s understand something right at the beginning, no plan in the history of the world has ever worked EXACTLY as planned! Things change; Needs change; Circumstances change; and we just down right make mistakes. it happens on every project. Some people tend to think the time spent planning is a waste of time. Nothing could be further from the truth

Planning is essential to successfully completing a project, not because we’re going to build a perfect plan, we’re not. It’s essential because of the time you spend thinking about it. Thinking through what you’re going to do, thinking about contingencies, thinking about resources, all of that gets you ready for real life.

Overall, a project will roughly break itself down into 4 major pieces according to Snead & Wycoff. These go under the acronym VPIC:

• Visualize - every project starts with an idea, something you want to do or build, so we start by getting a clear picture in our minds of the end point
• Plan - once we know where we’re going, we need to know what we have to do, who’s going to do it, and how much it will cost in time, effort, and money.
• Implement - any project involves some amount of communication and control. When there are several people involved, this becomes more obvious, but even if we’re working on something alone, there is still a need to manage communications and control the project.
• Close - one of the big things that often gets missed is closure. I’ve seen to many projects where the people thought it was done when things when the goal was reached. If you don’t do some clean up and take advantage of the chance to learn something, you’ll never get better.

Over the next several weeks, I want to expand on some of these themes and relate them to more formal project management methodologies. We’ll talk some about several methodologies I’m familiar with:

• PRINCE2 Methodology - (Projects In Controlled Environments). This is the standard in the UK and I was trained on it when I was working on projects in the UK. It’s a thorough, comprehensive system.
• PMI Methodology - (Project Management Institute). Another comprehensive methodology
• A variety of methodologies adapted to specific areas like Agile Development

We’ll spend some time discussing methodologies and what they can do for us in case you’d like to learn more. Why bother if all I’m doing is writing for a presentation or to deliver a proposal? It’s simple. If you’re anything at all like me, you will forget something. If you have something to do which involves more than one step, then some basic project management will help you do a better job.

Categories: The Basics, Tools
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I teach several technical courses online and I’ve been thinking about ways to get my students more involved in a group. However, being online, that’s hard, so I’m trying the idea of collaborative mind mapping with my students in Antenna Modeling. I’m trying two sites where free accounts are available. On Mindmeister (http://www.mindmeister.com) and Bubble.us (http://www.bubbl.us/).

The major objective of this effort is to see if I can help people more with the course, to improve the graduation rate. Antenna Modeling, since it’s setup as a self-study course with little need to send things to the teacher, often has problems. It’s easier when I can teach in a classroom where I can see people’s reactions and jump in to help when help is needed. Online I can’t see a problem developing, so it’s hard to help until it’s almost too late.

Most of my work so far has been on Mindmeister. One of the mind maps I’m working on with students is about selecting software. Here’s the start of the map:

We’ve started another map on definitions and another on basic modeling. You’re welcome to come take a look at what we’ve done and are doing, or join in the collaboration if you’d like. If nothing else, we’re building a collection of maps that will be useful for figuring out what’s important to learn.

If anything useful comes out of this effort, I’ll share it with you. If you’re working on assembling some sort of knowledge, whether you’re teaching something, designing something, or just learning something, an online mind map built as a collaboration can be an effective method of bringing everyone together. I used to do this kind of thing using GoToMeeting, but this looks like a better, more hands on way to do it.

UPDATED: Spelling correction

Categories: Practical Applications, Tools, Web & Internet Communications
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As I’ve said several times, my journal is important to me. I think of it as an intellectual toolkit that helps me think thins through. I’m not always good about keeping it up, but I know I should.

I ran across this article about journal writing and decided that while I apply it’s basic points differently, they still are meaningful even in my context.

My journal is an important part of my work and a lasting record of my thoughts. I’ll draw in the book, do mind maps, diagrams, notes, snippets of code, design patterns, use cases, UML diagrams, or whatever. I’ll also take notes there when interviewing and notes when I’m studying a problem I’m trying to solve. I have journals that go back as far as the early 1960s. There are plenty of gaps, but I always come back to using a journal because it’s so useful to me.

• Get the Right Tools - Working in a journal needs to be about what you’re thinking and not the tools. You need tools you’ll be comfortable with. I don’t use top-of-the-line quality, but I work on good paper and with writing instruments that feel good in my hand. Currently, I’m using notebooks I picked up at an Office Max with pretty good quality paper. I splurged some years back and purchased a leather cover for my journals that the notebooks fit in nicely.
  

  Along with it, I purchased a leather pen holder which can hold 6 pens. In it, I keep a Black, Blue, Red, and Green pen (currently Pilot G2) and my pen & pencil set. I do my initial work in Black and use Blue, Red, & Green to annotate and add to the basic entry.

• Make it a Habit - I spend time writing in my journal daily. As a minimum, I try to capture major events during the day. There are days where I’m so involved in something that I completely forget the time and everything else. I’ve slipped into a Flow state and am oblivious to everything. When that happens, I’ll probably not get a journal entry that day because I usually don’t snap out until someone gets ready to turn out the lights and say it’s time for bed. I realize I’m so tired that I just can’t think and off I go. I may have a bunch of notes in my journal or my popup wiki, but they’re associated with whatever I’m working on and nothing else. I DO try to make it a habit though and put an item daily on my task list for the journal.
• Fire Your Inner Critic - Once you start putting things in, turn off your inner critic for a while. Let yourself go and just start dumping. Go free form whether you’re using a mindmap, doing a freewriting exercise, or whatever. Sometimes the best, most creative stuff comes out when the inner critic is off. There’s a time for being critical, certainly before anyone sees what you’re doing. But the journal is private and just for you. What you put there is yours alone, so open up and get it down.
• Use your Journal for Mental Food - the article actually said ‘article food’, but I use it for food for all of my mental & intellectual pursuits. It’s my notebook when I’m learning something. It’s my dumping ground when I’m trying to test what I know. It’s my source for what I’m doing whether I’m writing my blog, a program, or a proposal. My journal is my source, my playground, and the place where I keep everything I want to think about. When I’m on my laptop working like this, it’s inconvenient to write in my paper journal, so I use a popup wiki that I can add thoughts to easily to capture what I want to remember.

Journal writing on a regular basis gives you fodder for all the things you do. Right now, I’m working on a Ruby/Rails project, reviewing some material and testing things. I’m doing rough notes and diagrams in my journal, getting things out of my head. When I see my rough notes on paper, I find I can think about them better and my journal never forgets.

I’d extend the list a bit too

• Keep it or something to write on with you all the time - I always have some way to take notes with me. Even when I’m driving, I have a small portable recorder near by because sometimes I get good ideas when I can’t stop and can’t take my eyes off the road. So I speak it into my recorder. At night and whenever my journal can’t be near, I have a ‘Shirt Pocket Briefcase‘ always at hand with a small pen or pencil. I have two, one which I carry with me and another which has a pen loop on it that stays by my bed.
  

  I have specially printed cards that I keep in them which include the normal stuff on a business card. I can write a note and hand it to someone or keep it for myself. Later, I can transfer the notes to my journal and throw away the 3X5 cards.

Categories: The Basics, Tools
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SECOND - Mindmapping - Mindmapping continues to be a major tool in my arsenal when it comes to initial work on topics or problems. I worked with several tools in the course of this project and don’t see a way to get rid of any of them.

My Journal - Mindmapping in my journal is essential to me as i start making sense of something. I can get high level information together, find links between different pieces of information, and develop my understanding.

As I read or study a piece of material, I mind map it in my journal. I normally use a two-page layout for major mind maps with lots of information and one-page for high level overviews. I also use my journal for mind dumps to get out what I know when I’m starting to read.

Mind Mapping Software - I find that there is a definite advantage at some point of shifting to software to work with the information. The point in this project where it started to make sense was just before I started writing. As I was gathering information and sorting out my sense of the situation, I used my journal to mind map informally, but as I got near to needing to put the information into a meaningful linear format, I used mindmapping software to 1) dump everything I could remember about the specific piece I was working on. I did this for each lesson. 2) I reviewed my mind dump and determined where I had holes. I indicated this by putting questions into the mind map which I wanted to answer. 3) I found answers within my research material for the questions I had on the mind map. 4) I did additional research as necessary to answer the remaining questions. Finally 5) I organized the mind map into an outline to order my thoughts for linear presentation. In some cases I would have liked to use a non-linear presentation, but the format required linear presentation for the material. It would also have taken time I was not given to translate the course into a non-linear format.

One piece of software I used extensively in this process was the freeware FreeMind. For example, this is part of a dump I did on NVIS propagation in the final stages of writing a new lesson:

I find this is a very good way to get all the information out and organized so I can get ready for the actual writing.

Categories: General Thoughts, Practical Applications, Tools
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As I finish up a major project updating some online training material, it’s time to reflect on the tools I’ve used and what they brought to the effort.

FIRST - Scrivener - This was my first major project where I used Scrivener to support the project from beginning to end. I played with it and used it for portions of other things, but this time I started with it to start the project and finished with it as well. So on reflection, was it useful or not?

I have to say that Scrivener was of major use to me during the project. I setup my research in different folders, identified and drafted the lesson units, and brought everything together easily. It’s ability to open two document windows allowed me to see what I was writing at the same time as I had a piece of research available online.

During the writing, I reorganized several times, shifting research materials and building new categories as folders in which I placed other folders. My biggest problem was keeping my references straight. If I kept the full web page as I needed to, I had to download the page first to edit and get rid of extraneous stuff in the page. If I let Scrivener bring the page it, it brought the whole page including embedded ads and such, but it kept the reference to the page straight. Eventually, I developed the habit of recording reference information as part of every research document, but it took some time to sink into my head.

… More later

Categories: General Thoughts, Practical Applications, Tools
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I mentioned in an earlier post that I was trying these applications to see how helpful they are. I have to admit, I’ve become dependent on them. I work on them daily and they’ve become my standard places to work on things.

Scrivener

Scrivener has become the place that I go to build the stuff I write. The more I learn about it, the better it’s become as a tool for me. I use it to manage writing projects by:

• collecting my research on the topic
• organizing my drafts as I work through them
• roughing what’s being written
• managing my references

I’ve modified my workflow now so that I usually work on something like this

FIRST - I start sketching out ideas in my Journal using mind maps, drawings, or any other way of feeling out the topic
SECOND - As soon as I’m ready to start looking ANYWHERE, online or off, I open a Scrivener project for the topic and start collecting information
THIRD - As I collect my material, I’ll start drafting parts of my piece, reorganizing as needed to find something that makes sense
FOURTH - When I have what I think of as a FINAL draft ready in Scrivener, I’ll export it to WORD and polish it. Most places I need to deliver things to want WORD format, so that becomes my final stop.

Scrivener is available from the Literature & Latte web site for $39.95.

MarsEdit

MarsEdit has become the way I manage my blogs. I find it very easy to use and more than capable enough to handle what I need to do. At least, I haven’t been limited by it except in handling comments. MarsEdit is only available at the MarsEdit web site for $29.95.

I’ve also experimented with Windows based editing tools for blogs inluding Blogdesk, BlogJet, and Windows Live. I know Microsoft’s entry gets a lot of good press, but I think I prefer Blogdesk at the moment.

Categories: General Thoughts, Tools
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Over the last several days I’ve done a number of things with my journal that have led me to say something about how important a journal can be to your writing and speaking … in fact to everything that you do. I’m going to use the next several posts to discuss my journal and how important it is to me and the many ways I use it.

My journal is a notebook, roughly the same size as the composition books you may have used in school. I stick to a size around 6 X 9 inches. Some years ago, I purchased a leather cover in that size to make it more acceptable in high-level meetings. I keep the journal in ink and use multiple color pens.

Some of the things that I do in my journal include:

• Writing letters that will never be sent - in order to help me decide how to vote, I wrote a letter to John McCain which will never be sent. In it I expressed my thoughts, frustrations, and the issues as I saw them. it helped me to decide on my vote. I’ve done the same thing in the past with letters to bosses and others to get all my ideas out and review them before I actually try to communicate. If I don’t take the time to do this, it’s easy for me to literally trip over my words and miscommunicate what I really mean.
• Organizing Impressions - I’ve been working on a case study about HP Printers. I took a 2 page spread in my journal and started mind mapping everything I knew and then started filling in holes that I found in the mind map by researching additional material
• Mapping Concepts - when you are writing or speaking, you need to be very clear on the concepts you’re using, not just for yourself but for your audience. Mapping the concepts and their definitions in my journal helps me to be clear and communicate well
• Meeting Notes - When I’m in a meeting, I normally take notes in my journal. This gives me a record, taken during the meeting and carefully preserved in my journal, that I can go back to to make sure I’ve got things right. The 6 X 9 inch page size gives me enough space to record what’s important.
• Organizing Notes - After a meeting, I’ll take a different color pen and add to the meeting notes as I gather information on important points. I’ll use a highlighter to mark commitments made during the meeting.
• Planning Projects - One of my first steps in organizing a project is to create a list of what needs to be done. I do that in a mind map in my journal.
• Laying out Lesson Plans - I’m working on course notes for an online course. I’ve mapped the important points in my journal as the basis for additional research
• Blog Post Notes - The start of this post is a mind map that started with the central idea ‘Keeping a Journal’. Several other blog posts are in various stages of development in my journal as well.
• Notes on Books I’m Reading - One of the most powerful ways I know to learn is to take notes on the material, ask yourself questions to answer during your reading, and relate the material to things you already know. I’m doing this now on a technical book I’m working through right now.

Seems like a lot doesn’t it? It does, but each of these are taken from pages in my journal starting on the 1st of November, just a few days ago. Some of these pages were written in the middle of the night when I woke up and couldn’t sleep without dumping something out of my mind. Others were written while reading or in meetings. I find that I need to get ideas out on paper when they come to me, so my journal is always with me for just that purpose.

Over the next several posts, I plan to discuss my journal, the mechanics of how I make it work for me, and why I think a journal is an important tool for making your ideas clear. Tentatively I plan to split the discussion as follows:

• Journal Mechanics - how I make my journal work for me
• Journal Tools - notebooks, pens, and other tools I find useful in journaling
• Alternate Journal Formats - keeping it on your computer, online, in your day planner, or in other ways that are convenient for you
• The Journal Process - my journaling is integrated into a daily process I’ve tried to make into a habit so it happens automatically
• Practical Journaling - ways to use a journal
• Thoughts on Journaling - other thoughts about journaling and its benefits

Categories: Practical Applications, The Basics, Tools
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No matter what you’re writing or speaking about, if it’s more than a few lines, it deserves some attention and some planning. That’s basic emphasis of my whole approach. it doesn’t require Microsoft Project or similar software and doesn’t require full-blown project management or a specialist like a certified PMP. You need something that I call ‘Everyday Project Management’

What is Everyday Project Management? It’s an approach between time management and project management that uses tools and techniques of both to deal with projects too big for a todo list, but too small for project management tools. I’ve discussed many of the principles in my paper Notes on Time and Project Management. You can also find some applicable information in my introduction to Project Management ‘Project Management 101′

Let’s consider an example.

Assume you need to make a presentation to the executive committee in your company to provide technical justification for a project that you believe in. There’s a business manager who will handle the financial justification, but you need to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the project. You’ve got to make the presentation in a week, so how will you use your time to be ready when your turn comes up to speak?
When I’m going to make a presentation, I start by doing some simple things:

1. I open a tab in my day planner for the presentation and put related notes there.
2. I make a list of everything I know that I’ll have to do to get ready, working through what are generally called planning and visualization
3. I assign dates to the items in the list and put them on the appropriate task list in my day planner. If I have an automated calendar that I’m using for a group collaboration, I’ll enter the items there and set alarms.
4. I open my day planner to the day of the presentation and start a list of last minute things (charge my laptop battery), things I want to make sure are ready, and things to bring (water, power cord, handouts, etc.).

Planning and Visualization are two parts of almost any project, but for Everyday Projects, we do an abbreviated version. For myself, I like to get the goal sorted out and written down. I find it helps me to define the goal in writing. To define the goal, I use the old SMART thumbrule:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timed

These are really thinking points to make sure I haven’t left something without thinking about it. My goal is my end point, so I’ll start with the end, my presentation, and what I want it to me like.

My most important list is what I need to do to get this done, my task list. For an everyday project, I set it up in the back of my dayplanner behind a colored tab.

I try break tasks out so that no single task takes too long. I usually use a mind map to build the list because my thinking is non-linear. I’ll translate it into a linear plan later. In building the list, I’ll ask myself some basic questions:

• What things do I need to DO to get ready? My tasks
• What will interfere with getting things done? My constraints
• Are there any sensitive issues I need to be aware of and handle carefully?
• Are there any logical groupings of tasks that I can use to make what I need to do easier?
• Is there one sequence that makes more sense than any other?
• Is there anyone else I can delegate some of the responsibility to or anyone whose help I need?
• What is my time limit for preparation? Not for delivery, but for preparation. I may need to leave time to review my material with my boss or get copies made, or even get approval before the presentation.
• Are there any costs associated with what I need to do? Is the money allocated to do it?

Once I have my task list in hand, I set aside a box or folder to put things in like reports, books, or anything that I might need to refer to during preparation. I’ll also setup a folder on my computer to hold files that I’ll need to refer to.

All of that is a pretty good start, but there’s more to consider. I’m writing a White Paper which I’ll post to tie it all together.

Categories: Skills, The Basics, Tools
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Finding a useful application isn’t always easy. I downloaded an application for blogging that’s impressed me, but I’m just getting started, so it will take some time to find out if it really works for me.

MarsEdit is a Mac-only application specifically for blogging. I’m using it to support a group of Wordpress blogs. I don’t know if I’ll keep using it, but if I find I like it in the next 30 days, I’ll find the $29.95 for it somewhere.

So far, I’m seeing a lot of good in it. Once I started it, activated XML-RPC on all of the blogs, MarsEdit downloaded everything I’d written and presented it to me to work with. I’ve written my first couple of entries using MarsEdit and I’m impressed. It’s be exceptionally easy to work with.

I’m sure I’ll run into some problems over time, but so far it certainly looks like something I’ll want to use.

Categories: Tools
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If you actually like to write and like to write large pieces like books, reports, or anything involved, then the application I’ve been playing with might just be the thing for you. I’ve just taken it out for a 30-day trial, I haven’t bought it yet, but I’m very impressed with what I’m seeing.

I’ve always found that most application have too many features. Word, for example, is bloated with stuff I’ll never use or understand. I like it and for final preparation it’s hard to beat, but for drafting or research, I find it very difficult to use. I ran across Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/) by accident in something I was reading and decided to take a look. Unfortunately, it’s MAC only, but it has so many neat features that I’m enjoying playing with it. Since I work on Mac, Windows, AND Linux … I’ve always got an environment I can run something in.

I ran through the tutorial tonight and was impressed with the quality of the application. Everywhere I looked, care and effort seems to have gone into how everything works. Outlining integrated with note taking integrated with research and more makes this a dynamite application for a writer. AT LEAST I THINK SO. I’ll be working with it during the 30-day trial and report back on it here. If I like it enough, you can bet I’ll fork up the $39.95 it takes to buy it. I do so much writing that this will be a godsend.

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