Herding the Cats

Time for BADCamp - and cat herding has you fit to be tied.

How do you wrangle all those little critters, making sure that the proverbial ducks are in a row? What can you do to make sure your projects come in within budget and on time?

What management techniques should you use on your project? People throw around the terms "cowboy", "waterfall", "extreme", and "agile scrum" and none of it makes sense.

Learn about them all and how to avoid pitfalls that can kill a budget, poison a timeline, and ruin professional relationships. We'll sort out myths from facts.

Project management requires a blend of techniques and tools to effectively shepherd projects from ideation to release. We'll explore and discuss different tools and methodologies that can help make your project successful.

Saunders has 18 years of project management experience at a variety of shops and is currently Director of Client Services at Aten Design Group. He writes at Dogstar.org regularly - mostly on the business of open source and Drupal.

He's presented at a wide variety of Drupal events including:

Boston http://archive.org/details/DrupalconBoston2008-PopularScience-CaseStudy
Paris http://paris2009.drupalcon.org/session/agile-not-cowboy-spelled-backwards-redux.html
DC - http://archive.org/details/DrupalconDc2009-Pregnancy.orgACaseStudy
Denver - http://denver2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/tools-tips-techniques-project-management-using-hybrid-agile-development
Munich - http://munich2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/agile-gymnastics-and-timebox-tumbling-hybrid-approach
BADCamp - http://2012.badcamp.net/program/sessions/contact-management-drupal-getting-results-crm-core
Drupalize Me Podcast on project management http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/62482147
Drupalcamp Austin Keynote - http://vimeo.com/33626265

Transcript

1. Herding Cats Effective Internal & External Communication Matthew Saunders matthew@atendesigngroup.com Saturday, October 26, 13
2. Hi, I’m Matthew Saunders atendesigngroup.com association.drupal.org atendesigngroup.com @Creech Aten Design Group, VP Project Management Drupal Association, Board Member Writer, dogstar.org d.o, MatthewS G+, saunderm IRC, j_matthew_s Saturday, October 26, 13
3. atendesigngroup.com @atendesign We design, build and support websites for organizations doing good work all around the world. Saturday, October 26, 13
4. Project Mangement Why Do We Do What We Do? atendesigngroup.com bit.ly/BADCats2013 Saturday, October 26, 13
5. We NEED Project Management for Successful Outcomes. b4b2 on Flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
6. I had a client... • a couple of months ago call me at 6:30 in the morning yelling and screaming because his site had been down for over an hour. I drag myself out of bed, get to the computer and his site comes right up... I told him to try to get on Google. Guess what? According to him Google was down too. I politely told him to call his internet provider because that was down and once his internet came back up to use it to search for a new developer. Saturday, October 26, 13
7. I had project... • that had multiple decision makers. They wouldn't move forward unless they all agreed on any one point. And they couldn't agree on anything. Saturday, October 26, 13
8. I met a drunk guy... • "Oh, you make sites? Let's make something like Facebook and earn alot of money! I'll come up with ideas and you make it.” • Me: “Got any suggestions?” • Drunk guy: “Yeah, we need something like Facebook so we'll be rich! You go make it!" Saturday, October 26, 13
9. I had a client... • who didn’t know what they wanted. • They spent endless hours in meetings with you "throwing ideas around". • Despite warnings that they were consuming their contracted hours in this fashion, insist that they shouldn't have to pay for the time because the site still hasn't been built. Saturday, October 26, 13
10. Lack of... • Planning • Communication • Process • Focus Saturday, October 26, 13
11. and Cultural Differences Saturday, October 26, 13
12. make for nightmares for us, our partners (internal and external), They bring us to an Open Sourced “Arkham”... and we feel... Saturday, October 26, 13
13. ... the “Call of Druthuhlu” Saturday, October 26, 13
14. Bring Calm from Chaos. Saturday, October 26, 13
15. star5112 on Flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
16. Saturday, October 26, 13
17. daveknapik on flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
18. 3 Methodologies Saturday, October 26, 13
19. anyjazz65 on flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
20. Cowboy or Extreme • Highly informal • Focuses on Stakeholders • Can be used in very unpredictable projects • Can be excellent for rapid prototyping Roy Montgomery on flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
21. n.hewson on Flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
22. Waterfall • Highly Formalised • Focuses on Requirements • Inflexible • Planning is Frontloaded Saturday, October 26, 13
23. Can Feel Uncontrolled When Inevitable Change Occurs Saturday, October 26, 13
24. SheltieBoy on Flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
25. Agile • Defined Timeboxes • Iterative Development Methods • Incremental • Collaborative Requirements and Solutions • Rapid and Flexible Responsive to Change • Self Organizing Teams Saturday, October 26, 13
26. The Hybrid Saturday, October 26, 13
27. Saturday, October 26, 13
28. Saturday, October 26, 13
29. Saturday, October 26, 13
30. Roles Saturday, October 26, 13
31. Project Manager • Scrum Master • Lead Pointing • Defense from Distractions • Helps team avoid mistakes • Manages Schedule Saturday, October 26, 13
32. Product or UX • Backlog • Personaes, Epics, Stories • Clarify Business Needs • Demos Saturday, October 26, 13
33. Developers • Self Organize Stories • Communicates expecations of what can be completed in a sprint • Defines how business needs should be architected and executed • Executes Saturday, October 26, 13
34. A Sprint Model Saturday, October 26, 13
35. A Sprint Model 20/40/60 Day overlap Saturday, October 26, 13
36. Saturday, October 26, 13
37. Saturday, October 26, 13
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39. Demos and Retrospectives Saturday, October 26, 13
40. Communication What is a SCRUM? Client Check-ins? Saturday, October 26, 13
41. Variations Multiple projects Saturday, October 26, 13
42. Saturday, October 26, 13
43. Well Oiled Machines on flickr Saturday, October 26, 13
44. IRC Saturday, October 26, 13
45. Google Docs Saturday, October 26, 13
46. Saturday, October 26, 13
47. Great Process Faster Better Awesome Saturday, October 26, 13
48. Thanks! Matthew Saunders @Creech MatthewS Saturday, October 26, 13