Project Time Management – Part 3 Activity Resource Estimating
By Raymond Keckler | May 14, 2008
When estimating resources you will need some items. The activity list from the activity definition phase will be needed. It identifies the schedule activities for the resource that are estimated. The activity attributes will help provide the data input for the resource for each scheduled activity. We will also need a resource availability list. This list will tell us what resources are available and when. Resources might not be in the same geographical location. Scheduling will be an issue if this is not taken into consideration. In the beginning, both experienced and non-experienced personnel can be considered. Near the end, experienced personnel will be needed most. The pool of resources should be narrowed to those that are knowledgeable about the project. The last part needed is the Project Management Plan. We need the schedule of the project to coordinate the schedule of the resources.
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Failure Before the Project Starts
By Raymond Keckler | February 11, 2008
Some projects are prone to failure before it even gets off the ground. A company needs to make money to survive. Creating products that the company can sell will keep the business going. How does a business come up with ideas on products to sell?
It is amazing some of the ideas that come out of the marketing department. Ideas come out and start to get implemented without any thought to whether it will sell or not. There are lots of ways to see if the product will sell. What does your customer base want from your company? Are other companies having success with the same product? Was there a survey done to see if people want the product? Is the product linked to some specific business strategy? Without some support from marketing to show how the product will improve the bottom line, it will not get the support it needs as it is being developed. This means the project will be stopped short of completion.
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Project Time Management – Part 2 Activity Sequencing
By Raymond Keckler | February 6, 2008
In the previous post on Project Time Management, I talked about the first process, activity definition. Activity definition identifies the deliverables at the lowest level in the work breakdown structure. After you have this list, what do you do with it? You put them in order. Activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting the logical relationships among scheduled activities (PMBOK 130). The deliverables are put in a logical order of precedence. The outputs of the activity definition provide the inputs for the activity sequence process.
- Project Scope Statement
- Activity list
- Activity attributes
- Milestone list
- Approved change request
Activity sequencing uses several tools and techniques to complete its task. The activity list must be organized into a logical order. Precedence must be determined to ensure some activities are done before or after other activities. By setting up a proper sequence, we can create a realistic and feasible project schedule.
Precedence diagramming method (PDM) is one of the tools used in activity sequencing. PDM constructs a project schedule network diagram that uses boxes to represent activities and connects them with arrows to show dependency (PMBOK 132). These boxes are called nodes so the precedence diagramming method is also called activity on node (AON). This is the most common method. The PDN uses four types of precedence.
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The Problem with Sun Microsystems
By Raymond Keckler | February 5, 2008
At my day job we use Glassfish from Sun Microsystems. Glassfish is opensource. It is basically the beta platform for the Sun Java Application Server 9.X. We are gradually moving toward Java-centric applications and Glassfish is working for us. We decided to look for support. I called up my Sun representative to ask about support for Glassfish. I learned that Glassfish does not have support, but the Sun Java Application Server (SJAS) does. SJAS can be downloaded for free. It can even be used commercially for free. However, if you want support, you must buy the support and the license to use SJAS.
I am all for making a buck, but this seemed a little strange. You offer an application for free and everyone can use it for commercial purposes. Instead of just selling support you also sell the license for the software if they want support. There is nothing written on the web site for support that says you have to buy a license for the software. It really makes you think about what Sun is doing, not to mention that the license for the software is six times as much as for the support.
So, Sun gets you to use the free software for your business. You get dependent on the software for your business. You get to a certain point and realize that you need support to continue your business without any hiccups. Now you realize that you can have support after you dole out large amounts of money to buy the software they said you could use for free. What do you think they are going to do with MySQL? They just bought MySQL, but MySQL is also free. You can buy support for MySQL. They do not require you to purchase licenses for MySQL in order to buy support. Now that Sun has purchased MySQL, are they going to use the same process they use on SJAS? Are they now going to make a customer buy licenses for MySQL in order to buy support while still offering MySQL for free? I am not sure but it doesn’t look good to me.
Maybe I should look at JBoss and PostgreSQL.
Topics: Business, Chatter | 1 Comment »
Raven’s Brain
By Raymond Keckler | February 3, 2008
I happened to come across a blog called Raven’s Brain. I like the way she writes. She is entertaining and informative. The article that caught my eye was “A Guide to Managing IT Projects“. One of the points in the article is the Project Charter. A project must start with a Project Charter. In the post there is a link to a Project Charter you can download. The Project Charter is laid out nicely. It has all the items needed to define the purpose, objectives and stakeholder needs of a project.
There are plenty of other articles ranging from agile development to leadership. Each is educational and engaging. I highly recommend reading it.
Topics: Chatter, Project Management | 1 Comment »