MeggBrown.com

Jess Rodgers, University of Waterloo. “Web Project Management: Strategies for chaotic web projects in Higher ed”

A project is… “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result” PMBOK

A Web Project is…

• Building a few web pages for a department
• Developing a simple web application that collectis student informaiton
• Using Twitter…
  …

A Project is… “ongoing, with many false starts and chronic scope creep. Governed by committee(s), success is not often tangible.”
— Higher Ed

The Chaos

• Developer coems in sometime after noon
• Designer that doesn’t answer email
• Department wants to see the term “pedagogy” on something aimed at parents
• Committees
• Never ending change requests

Learn a little from software engineering

• Pick a dev strategy: understand clearly what you are doing
• Version control
  • // Number one recomedation for anything working with code
• Issue tracking

Project definition

• First committee meeting needs “a memorandum of agreement”
• Define the goals, objectives, and/or outcomes
  • // sometimes folks get them mixed up, that’s ok
  • // set something you can measure yourself against
• Sign it
  • // anyone do this? And it works? (nope) Can’t stand alone

Follow a process, deliver a product.

• // you need to deliver something; you need end it and move on

Triple Constraint

• Scope
• Time
• Cost

The three things you have to worry about with a project.

• What am I building?
• How long will it take?
• How much will it cost to develop?

Dealing with the “what”

• … missed these

What really happens

• I would like a web site that looks like “(insert newsworthy site of the week)”
• // etc

Manage Resources

• What are the skills and people available to this project
• How much time do they have?
  • // getting people to be honest about that is not easy
• Is there a lot of communication between you and your resources even when not working together in the same place?
  • // be up front about what you expect then you won’t have miscommunication (as much)

Identify risks

• What could cause this project to be delayed or fail?
  • // make a list for this project so we’re all aware of what could go wrong
• What will you do about them?
  • // some gets sick; what if the content isn’t provided – is there a backup?
• How much will it cost (time/money)?
  • // estimate hourly rate per person

Break Project down

• Web project timeline [graphic]
  • Defining requirements
    • Development
      • User testing
        • Public beta
          • Bug fixes

Two week chunks

[graphic]

Critical path

[graphic]

Weekly planning report

[image of report]

For the students

[image of report]

• Task group
• Name
• Work to be done
• Intention

Didn’t work as well as they thought.

Agile

definition. It’s quick, nimble… we’re higher ed, that doesn’t happen.

Agile is really just getting things out on the wall for people to see. If you break it apart and do baby steps. Post rank wall — wall of sticky notes.

Smaller scale works too — don’t have to take on the whole methodology of scrum and create full backlogs. Little chart on a wall with stickies is fine — the point is to have the visual of how much you’re working on.

// having daily check-in on projects isn’t helpful for seeing the large picture — sure, we’re reporting the status of projects, but we don’t have the picture in front of us of all that is going on

Agile process

[graphic – simplified agile process]

Get involved

• Use Basecamp or excel or a word document
• Break down the project for the sponsor (and you_
  • // be honest — don’t say a month if something can go wrong and it’ll likely take 3
• Provide time estimates for each phase
• // set milestones — they don’t have to be set in stone, you can move them — you can always adjust as you go along
• Follow-up with daily/weekly updates on progress
• Share information
• // really boils down to sharing information

PM software?

• Microsoft Project (larger teams)
• OmniPlan
• Bascamp
• check the wiki page — full list

so much out there you could drive yourself crazy. Start with word or excel — start somewhere.

Learn how to use version control software

[graphic]

When you have a big “oops” you can roll it back. You can roll it back really fast with version control.

Version Control Software?

• Github
• Subversion (svn)
• Team Foundation Server
• CVS
• Google Code (svn)

Track the project

Issue tracking

• Document milestones
• Track conversations, changes, rationale
• Generate reports (if you want)
• Helps you control your scope

Bugz

[image of report from Bugzilla]

Good to see these totals because you see progress. Celebrate your success.

Issue tracking software

• Bugzilla
• Trac
• Team Foundation Server
• Basecamp

Use a process that works for you.

About me

Jess Rodgers
Associate Director, VeloCity — University of Waterloo
Blog: http://whoyoucallingajesse.com
Twitter: @jrodgers

Question… does Bascamp replace stickies?
Nothing replaces that wall.
// print cards

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.