QG Software Blog

If you have anything to do with software development and didn’t read “Joel on Software” by Joel Spolsky yet, you should.

Joel is a software developer who lives in NY city. Before starting his own company, Fog Creek Software, he worked for big players like Microsoft and Juno. Joel shares his thoughts on his blog from 2000, and this book is a compilation of posts from it.

The book is entertaining, informative and easy to follow. You can read it on and off without going through each paragraph a dozen of times. I actually took it on the flight to Europe and was reading it through that long journey - in the bar, in the airport, on the plane. I finished reading it somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and almost felt sorry getting to the last page. Coincidently, the purpose of my trip was to conduct a bunch of interviews and the book had a great chapter on this subject.

A lot of startups bloomed lately, and new software spawns every day. Novel approaches to development are evolving (check “Get Real” by 37Signals). With all that web2.0 buzz going on, Joel takes a more “traditional” approach on developing software. He keeps it up to date but relies on experience accumulated over the years. Here is an interesting quote from his book:

“A lot of software developers are seduced by the old ‘80/20′ rule. It seems to make a lot of sense: 80% of the people use 20% of the features. So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and you can still sell 80% as many copies. Unfortunately, it’s never the same 20%.”

The book is mostly about desktop software development, but a lot still applies to the web development world. He writes about planning, putting together specs (the Achille’s Heel of many failed projects), assembling teams, testing, selling, support and many more business related issues.
When it comes to scheduling and tracking tasks, he recommends keeping it simple - just use lists in Excel. I would go even a lower tech route and use good old paper and pencil. Nothing feels as rewarding as crossing out the completed tasks at the end of the day. However, what works well for one person may not work as well for a group. Especially when people working on the same project live in different places and even different time zone. Having a central location, where everybody can see what needs to be done and what has been done, is essential. A piece of paper can not send email notifications or have files attached to it. Eventually you may need something more.

In case you are looking for a solution to synchronize your team efforts and keep track of your daily tasks, give a try to Project and Team Manager. It’s a web-based application and can be accessed from anywhere, making it easy to maintain virtual teams. You can check the online demo here.

- Sergei

Well, as you can see it has been a while since my last post. Time seems to slip away rather quickly. This makes me think about time and projects (what a great segue.)

It is certainly one of the elements of project management that can be valued differently based on need and the type of project. If you bill by the hour or charge based on your time then it is critical. Many projects use time to quantify when a task will be done or how long it will take. But the time element is not the outcome but rather a method to track progress. This point is where many project management applications force you into using the time methodology such as hours per day, hours per resource, working time, holidays and more. Certainly there is a need to form some some quantifying blocks in which to measure progress. However, I do question the method (for many projects, not all) of the heavy-duty time based project management. I need to manage to an outcome, are there dates and times that are part of it, yes… but again it is but one element. This where we have tried to elevate the “manage to an outcome” approach with PTManager. We really believe that creating and managing projects should not be a completely arduous task. There are options here… more complex project management applications and a simple paper based list. We hope to find the ground where most people find themselves. The need to manage to an outcome, with as little distractions and barriers as possible.

I hope you will give our application a try. See if it helps you manage without requiring PM certification.

–
Greg