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Scrum basics

on 18. February 2010

Hi, this is me Perri…

you probably know that during my internship by ProjectWizards, I am not only up to learn how to use Merlin, but also more about project management.

So while searching the internet for understandable documentation to Scrum, I came up with a post listing its basics. I really liked the 3 questions on the daily scrums when doing the sprint:

  1. What did I do since our last daily scrum?
  2. What am I planning to do until the next daily scrum?
  3. What is stopping me to do what I plan to do?

I also see a great benefit in the sprint retrospect with the next 3 questions:

  1. What went well?
  2. What can be improved?
  3. What will we focus on improving in the next sprint?

I intend to plan my work to meet the scrum basics. It really makes sense and I am very curious to see  how it helps me delivering successful projects.

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When to sprint

on 19. January 2010

Hi, this is me Perri…

I had the other day a good idea to blog about and I though, I should write a ‘to-do’ before I forget it. So I started our Daylite, logged into the server, added a new task and written down a resume for the feature blog post. I categorized it, set up a priority, even entered some referencing URLs for external links and as I was about to save the task I remembered what I had read in the blog post Sprint is a Great Idea of Pawel Brodzinski:

Next time you have a task which you should take you fairly short time (a few days) try to sprint. Not much strategy, not much thinking about anything else – just run as far as you can.

So… canceled saving, copied the summary, logged into the Merlin blog, created a new post, pasted the clipboard and simply did my sprint. Editing and posting was quicker than task creation or scheduling and had not really delayed the other plans of the day at all.

I really have to write a post-it for this:

Remember: Scrum techniques apply on many areas, not only on project management.

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Meta blogging…’the new team’

on 14. January 2010

Hi, this is Perri…

the theme of the latest Project Potion episode is ‘the new team’. Bas de Baar and Dave Prior are talking about interview situations, their favorite questions while assembling a new team, kick-off strategies, the rules of engagement for project launch, how to make sure that people stay engaged in daily scrum stand-ups and how to manage problems with team members not meeting the expectations.
It’s very interesting and as always entertaining as well.
But why making a short story long?
See it for yourself or at http://projectpotion.blip.tv/file/3071826/

Which are your little tricks when it comes to similar situations?

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Too late for resolutions?

on 8. January 2010

Hi, this is me, Perri…

is there still some time for new year’s resolutions? Yes? Great! I was hoping you would also think so and have a little PM blog-tip for you:

The Checklist for Goals and Resolutions post of Jurgen Appelo, the writer of the www.noop.nl blog.

Enjoy and best of luck for all your new resolutions :-)

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Have yous

on 5. January 2010

Hi, this is me, Perri…

searching in the internet for PM information, I happened to stumble upon presentation chunks of Tom Peters. I assume you know him and maybe have already read his books (In Search of Excellence to name one). I must confess I hadn’t until yet.

Following a hint in a blog post, I located a PDF file called Top 50_HaveYous. I find the questions very interesting and probably very helpful in making good things even better.

As you can see the file was created  in 2007.  What do you think? Is there a ‘Have you’ Tom Peters might have added meanwhile?

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Distributing budget

on 1. December 2009

Hi, this is me, Perri…

in my last project, planning moving houses for a friend, I have learned how to work with budget in Merlin projects. There is nothing to it actually, it is very easy.
I simply need to define a budget for the project in the closed ‘Budget’ section in the ‘Finance’ pane of the inspector and see it get transferred in the ‘approved’ and ‘undistributed’ areas. To distribute my budget to the various activities I enable the display of the column set ‘Budget planning’, showing among others the columns ‘approved budget’ and ‘approved budget undistributed’.
If I now enter the amount of ‘approved budget’ to the activities of my project, the project’s ‘approved budget undistributed’ gets recalculated accordingly.
In case I mistakenly distribute more than my approved budget, Merlin will show up a warning in the scheduling conflicts.
Cool and easy?
Well, I have told you it was very simple.

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Warning…

on 19. November 2009

Hi, this is me, Perri…

the moving houses project is in progress and the Gantt in Merlin’s project very colorful by now. Lot’s of green diamonds and bars, some in yellow and the rest in blue. The actual move is planned to happen in 3 days. What? In only 3 days? I hope you do not mind me not writing any further. There is so much to be done until then… and we will have to check their progress. So here you are, my motto for the following days:

  • Dates in a calendar are closer than they appear to be.
  • The more you plan, the luckier you get.

    • Which is your motto, when planing?

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    Can you cope when things happen earlier than expected?

    on 10. November 2009

    Hi, this is Perri…

    remember me? I am Perri Pappas, coming from Greece, doing my internship by ProjectWizards. I am into this moving houses project right now. The project is up and running. Significant milestones are completed. The painters are renovating the new home. Everything is still on time. Lot’s of people around to help. We even got a big lorry from a friend for free. So everything is cool one may think.
    Everything? Well almost everything.

    Today we got a call from the Internet provider. They would send a technician to enable DSL over cable at 11 o’ clock… Great, wonderful, it is 2 weeks before schedule. Stupid that we cannot be there to let the technician in… But wait.. the painter is there, he can let him in. So no problem, everything is cool.
    Everything? Well almost everything.

    Because what happens if at the time point when one technician arrives the other one goes for a lunch break?
    You’ve guessed right. Now we need to set a new appointment for the technician enabling ‘DSL over cable’. Hmmmm….

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    Moving houses or House moving?

    on 30. October 2009

    Hi, this is me Perri…

    while helping this friend planing moving houses, I consider everything making our tasks planned easier. We sync all events on iCal, iPhones, iPod, setup a Merlin plan (which we decided to plan backwards by the way), we engaged craftsmen to do the house improvements and of course tell everyone who does not want to hear it, that we need people on the moving day to carry the boxes ;-)

    Great what you can do when you apply project management to your goals. It helps you see whether your plans are realistic or not. If you do it right, and foresee the risks involved, there will be no problem if a craftsman fails to deliver on time. Small things going wrong will not throw you off the plan.

    Right now, we can cope with a certain amount on more costs or over utilization, but we simply have to avoid breaking the deadline.

    Here some links in case you are interested:

    What to know about moving houses: For better packing

    How House Moving Works: When you simply love your house but hate the neighbors  ;-)

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    How would you do it?

    on 23. October 2009

    Hi, this is me Perri…

    I friend of mine is about to move houses and asked for my help. Of course I am going to do my best not to let him down. There is so much to do and to plan. Informing the old landlady, the electricity and phone company. Finding a painter, packing, finding helpers and a big car…
    I proposed setting up a project in Merlin for us to know, how to proceed and as I am entering the activities and milestones in the activity view I wonder:

    Shall we plan the project starting today and running forwards?
    Or
    define the project’s latest end date and set the project planning direction ‘backwards’?

    Hmmm…. How would you do it?

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