Understanding your Job

Back in February I wrote a post about transitioning your job effectively to a new person.  I have used the same concepts and approach when helping people be more effecient and effective at their jobs as well.  What I find is that people don’t fully grasp all of the things they really do in a given day (or week, month).  Once they write it all down and analyze what they are doing is when an increase in productivity can be seen.

The tricky part is analyzing what you do and finding areas that can be improved.  People can be so deep in their work they can’t see around it – bringing in another person, which is the role I have played, is extremely benficial.

Original Post – here

photo credit: beija-flor

Dropbox – 2GB online storage, no gimmicks

Came across this earlier this weekend and wanted to share – Dropbox.  Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for your files – you can upload/download via browser or you can install their software (no ads, or spyware) that will allow for drag and drop features on your PC or Mac.  They offer a 50GB account for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.  My flash drive is 2GB so the free account should suit me just fine.  But if you are a pack rat or have large files to share – $100 is reasonable.

I have seen lots of these services that are tied to Microsoft Live (an account I don’t use) or similar – this one isn’t.  Until Google allows me to use my gmail space or google docs space for all kinds of files, I will stick with Dropbox.

Also – use this link when you sign-up and get 256MB more storage space.  I will get 256MB more as well so it is a win-win situation.  Referrals are limited to an extra 3GB – meaning after 24 referrals I could have as much as 5GB of storage space – awesome.  Anyone can refer so if you get referrals after you sign-up you can have more storage space as well.

- Bill Weber

Creating a Transition Plan – Effectively Moving On

In a fast paced consulting environment it is very common for resources to change projects several times per year – especially for junior resources.  Commonly, at Rosetta, we are asking junior level business analysts to assume more responsibility so more experienced business analysts can take on more value-add roles with our clients. This is the basic leverage model of many consulting firms.

This presents a real challenge for the person “rolling off” the project – you must…
1. continue to operate at a high level on your current engagement
2. effectively transition your current responsibilities to someone else
3. quickly become effective on your new engagement

In this post, I will visit item #2 – effectively transitioning your current responsibilities to someone else.  I believe that, of the three points above, this is the most critical.  Being effective at #2, will allow for minimal impact to your current engagement (#1) and maximum impact to your new engagement (#3).

There are three keys to an effective transition…
1. Task Transfer
2. Shadowing
3. Structured Oversight

Micromanagement

A few days ago I read this article from the blog, Coding Horror.  I read it fairly frequently even though it has a very technical slant to it.  It claims that if you answer yes or kinda yes to any of these questions – you are probably micromanaging.  I shared my answers below – in some cases I disagreed or felt it wasn’t as black and white as the article makes it out to be.

1. 1. Do you pride yourself on being “on top of” the projects or your direct reports? Do you have a solid grasp of the details of every project?
2. Do you believe that you could perform most of the tasks of your direct reports, and potentially do a better job?
3. Do you pride yourself on frequent communication with your employees? Does that communication include asking them for detailed status reports and updates?
4. Do you believe that being a manager means that you have more knowledge and skills than your employees, and thus are better equipped to make decisions?
5. Do you believe that you care about things (quality, deadlines, etc.) more than your employees?

Here are my answers to those questions -

15 Project Management Tools

I don’t use many sophisticated tools to manage my work or team.  While it may take me some time to create what I need in Excel – I find that the end result is custom fitted to what I need.  Luckily at Rosetta we have a Sharepoint implementation that allows us to version control and share (with clients) documents, bug lists, etc.  Some love Microsoft Project – I very much dislike it.  Too bulky and cumbersome for the type of work I manage.  When I have tried to use it I become almost obsessed with updating the workplan, etc and getting everything perfect.  Not a good use of my time.  Maybe if I were managing a 35 person team it would make sense.  But for the team I need to keep track of, I’ll take Excel.  Whatever you do – don’t fall in love with any 1 tool/app.  Have a solid process and approach that can be supported by the tool.  Don’t wrap your process and approach around some “miracle tool”.

I have looked into Backpack a couple of times and should I be in a situation where Sharepoint is not available to me, it would be my first serious consideration.  It does cost money, but seems very reasonable.

Here are some other free and non-free alternatives with reviews and opinions… 15 Useful Project Management Tools

- Bill Weber

photo credit: karramarro

Scrum – a Project Management Approach

Scrum – noun

1: a rugby play in which the forwards of each side come together in a tight formation and struggle to gain possession of the ball using their feet when it is tossed in among them; also: the arrangement of players in a scrum b: a usually brief and disorderly struggle or fight.  2a: (British) madhouse.  2b: a usually tightly packed or disorderly crowd

The Scrum I am talking about is none of these.  Scrum is an iterative process of software development that is typically used with agile softward development.  Even though it was intended to be for management of software development projects, it can be used in running software maintenance teams, or as a program management approach.

I have found it to be very effective in managing ongoing projects – meaning projects that are not building something from the ground-up.  If you read my post on Context Switching, you will remember the diagram of “Total Demand” to “Completed Work” – Scrum is the way in which I manage the “Total Demand”.

eCommerce Scams

I am still shocked that after all the resources that people can reach on the internet that they still fall victim to scams.  I frequently read theconsumerist.org and once or twice a week they have an article about someone getting ripped off.  My first reaction is a “aw man, that’s stinks” but then you read into the story you think “wow, what an idiot”.  Maybe that is because I have been actively buying stuff on eBay since September of 2000 and using online retailers even longer than that.

I have been “ripped off” once through eBay.  I bought a pair of speakers for my 1991 Saturn SL1.  They were way underpriced, the feedback on the seller was iffy and there wasn’t very much of it.  But for $35 I was WILLING to take the risk – the retail price was over $150.  I completed the transaction through eBay’s website and paid via PayPal (with Credit Card).  Speakers arrived – one was blown, it sounded like high pitched fuzz.  My fault – that’s on me.  I lost $35 – no real harm here.  I could have went after the seller – but for $35, the cost to ship the bad ones back, etc – I’ll eat the $35, live and learn.

BA/PM Resources – Methods and Tools and Productive Magazine

I have been subscribed to Methods and Tools for some time now and find many of the topics informative and helpful.  In the Fall 2008 issue they talk about Risk Management as well Scrum Meetings – both topics of these topics are relevant on my current project.  In the Summer of 2008 one of the topics was Control Your Project… again directly applicable.  There is a good mix of technical stuff and BA/PM stuff each issue (quarterly).  Take some time and go through the back issues here… http://methodsandtools.com/mt/download.php .  If you like it, you can subscribe here… http://methodsandtools.com/forms/submt.php. I just ran across this brand new publication (attached PDF).  Unfortunately it is a pay subscription but the first issue is free.  If you are familiar with the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodologies this will be a good resource for you.  If you are not familiar with David Allen’s Getting Things Done – this is a good way to get familiar with some of the concepts.  http://productivemagazine.com/

Productive Magazine Issue 01

- Bill Weber

photo credit: Eric Gjerde