It's been over a week since I took the dive into trying to develop a way to consolidate all global people, projects and activities that care for and celebrate nature. Actually, it wasn't like I was just starting out - for years I have been pondering this as I have worked on various technology projects in countries like South Africa, India and China, and working with developers to create solutions for education, accessibility and environmental awareness. It's been a long road to this first week, and this first week has taught me that there are really so many good people around who are sincerely interested in doing good things. It hasn't been a true to form calendar week of seven days, but more like a mental week, of working through days of activities and insights, communicating through various channels and streams of conversations, and then, on the Sunday of the flow, resting into some reflection and gearing up for the next week.
Although I have managed various technology projects, this week has taught me that I still have a long way to go to get in synch with the realities of a truly global software project that is open-ended at best. I'm going to look into a project management training, course or insights, possibly a book, something that will allow me more insight into the nuts and bolts of facilitating a software project, possibly to get in tune with evolving a project along the lines of the outline below, extracted from one online course description.
Business reasons? Presently there is no business. What I want to do is to create a space for sharing. Where's the business in trying to develop a way to bring people together for the greater benefit of our global environment? Maybe others can find good business in this - collaborating on maker projects that repurpose materials, discover ways to bring green technologies into everyday activities, figure out how to get people to "find nature", which might allow more people a space of reflecting on their place on this earth and how their actions inter-relate with everything else around them...
Conducting a Project Kick-Off Meeting
The business reasons for the project
- Where the project fits in the business
- How this fit influences your chances of success
The project customers
- Identifying stakeholders and their needs
- Developing strategies to manage involvement
The project objectives
- What success looks like
- Making the team's success visible
- Managing the project to build customer confidence
Balancing Development Needs with Organizational Expectations
Selecting software development life cycle models
- Comparing SDLC models
- How to identify the right model
- Analyzing strengths and weaknesses of Traditional vs. Iterative vs. Agile (e.g., XP, Scrum)
Designing a road map for your project
- Mapping your PM process to your project's SDLC
- Optimizing time, cost, function and quality
Translating Stakeholder Needs into Actions
Structuring content for your software project plan
- Providing initial top-down estimates
- Identifying tasks and phases using a WBS
- Calculating realistic bottom-up estimates
- Sequencing tasks into a network diagram
- Constructing Gantt charts to assess resource needs
Getting the right resources
- Identifying resource needs using your plan
- Delegating work effectively
Reality check for your project plan
- Testing the plan before you begin
- Assessing the project using risk management
- Involving the team in planning
- Building confidence for your plan
- Selling the plan to relevant stakeholders
Running the Project: Day-to-Day Decisions for Success
Focusing on the project management process
- Putting theory into practice
- Early warning signs
- Building team commitment
- Day-to-day tracking and management
- Measuring progress with milestones
- Defect detection and prevention
Characterizing the software development process
- Analyzing how the SDLC drives deliverables
- Pressures to expect at each stage
- The major stages and how they relate
- Determining the working practices in traditional, iterative and Agile developments that offer the greatest impact
Building successful teams
- Getting technical teams to work collaboratively
- Engaging the team in the planning process
- Empowering team members
- Managing the stages of team development appropriately
Driving the Implementation: Recognizing and Overcoming Challenges
Tracking and control
- Measuring software progress
- Linking progress to success
Implementing change control
- Principles of change control
- The value of configuration management
Controlling risk
- Analyzing project risk
- Changing the risk profile
- Planning for contingency
Closing the Project: Learning from Experience
- Sharpening your project management skills
- Influencing the continuous improvement process of your organization
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