TI2011 Spring 2020 – Page 10 – Project Evaluation and Management

All good things must come to an end (to start a new story)

--Originally published at Blog de Célia

It is the end of the book and the end of the journey of Tompkins in Morovia. It is the end of a great adventure. When I read this chapter, I had just dropped a friend off to the airport. It was the end of her journey in Mexico (after one crazy year), soon it will be the end of my experience here too.

During all the chapter, my brain was comparing Webster situation to mine. This sensation of melancholia, to already miss something you are still in… As Tompkins (and everyone should do it), I must take all the positive, everything I learnt in this year of exchange. Remember everything I have done and at the same time going forward.

The end of something is always the beginning of something else, new adventures are coming. If Mr. T looked sad in the book, at the end, he finally jumped in a new adventure. He is now NNL in Bulgaria and Lakhsa and him will get married !!! His experiences there in Morovia has been amazing in the learnings, achievements, personal life… However, it is time to start a new adventure that will be great too.

It made me draw a parallel, I did not handle a project management during this year, but it was a new adventure in a new country (as T) during which I have achieved many things and I feel grown up. I feel that, that kind of experiences (living in another country, far from your family, your marks) will always help you to discover who you really are and what you are capable of. Leaving your comfort zone (as Webster did at the beginning even if he did not realize) is something amazing. Even if it is scary, it so rich in learnings.

Kanban Tool
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Continue reading "All good things must come to an end (to start a new story)"

Formula for success

--Originally published at Site Title

Money is not the key. This is the mistake that most of the business use to make and is the why they end in a failure, of course capital is the fuel of any business but is not the engine.

When you are an employer or the head of a company normally the most pressure come from the bills and payments, you have to keep them on time. Sometimes when you are under a crisis or a bad moment on the market you have to cut the budget or make some arrangements to preserve on the market and that is totally cool, you have to survive. However when you recovered you have to return to the old scheme and maintain the quality of the service and the environment of your employees, and even if you can make an improvement, it can be difficult not seeing enough profit for a time but that is what make the difference for your people and your customers is the reason why you still on the market.

Unfortunately, this does not happens all the time, ven is weird. Nowadays most of the business are created to the only idea of generate profit and it does not matter at what price, is the quality of service or product is bad or if the employees are in deplorable situation. At first sight they start gaining a lot. Nonetheless most of the time they are on the edge an the first moment the customer or employees realize the product does not worth enough they are going to come all the way down and end as most of the business failures of the 21st century.

Your people and your quality talks by themselves, so every time try to give the best of them it does not matter if the Continue reading "Formula for success"

Dealine 17, 18 & Interlude

--Originally published at TI2011 – The Broken Wallflower

Before reading

The last post actually ended pretty good, even tho the chapters were not the best of the best they were what I wanted and expected so I was really happy about it, that much happy that I decided to do this post after the other one, yeah I’m in that mood so ready steady and go, lets read this things and see what does the book has for us, cant wait, or can I?

Chapter 17

Aparently the problems around our hero are way to far from ending, because in this time we are going to talk about conflic and how to solve them, well… kind of. Conflict in our field occurs more than the amount that we want it to, because as developers we think that one way to do things is the best way to do it, and other can actually think the same for other ways… so in this case conflict becomes one real deal in the business something these conflicts can be solved just by talking, something easy something simple. But what happens when the conflict becomes that big that one talk is actually not enough?

Apparently our super heroes decided that getting someone that can teach them the proper way to solve conflicts, and the best way to avoid having those, even tho they are really common they can be avoided, soo if they want to learn how to treat conflicts they need to understand conflicts as they pure form, where does most of the conflicts originate? and Who is the one who solves those conflicts, well in kinder garden usually kids tend to get into a lot of trouble, and of course there is someone, an adult, who makes things calm down, they needed to find that adult that Guru of conflict

Deadline 15 & 16

--Originally published at TI2011 – The Broken Wallflower

Before reading

In the last post we actually discussed about two different chapters, one that was actually not that good, and other one that actually shined in both of them there was actually no important story related things, some little problems that were solved at the end of the day and some learning that gives us something to discuss at the end of the post, so yeah, I am actually hopping to see something cool, extravagant and explosive, I dont know if because of the mood that I have or something else but lets star reading, lets go.

Chapter 15

In this chapter feels like everything is going down for Mr T, even he got rid of Dr M and all the things that wer actually making him struggle, there was actually one man that was triying to make it hard for our beloved hero, and this was Mr B, he of course wanted Mr T to get things done quicker, because all the projectsthat Mr was developing were costing tothe Morovian goverment 30 millions a year, so a lot of money was on the game and they could not be loafing around anymore.

This ment that Mr B wanted everyone to be working on the projects, it does not matter if overwork hours were needed, those projects must be ready by that deadline yes or yes, this could be a problem for the morovian workers because as we are goig to see later working more hours definitely does not means things are getting done quicker, just a spoiler for next posts.

And if that was not enough a new notice came, aparenlty the olimpic games are going to be hosted in another place, and can you imagine where? Exactly in Morovia, what a great time to add more work

The crown is for one

--Originally published at Site Title

Being the head of an organization is mainly about making decisions and making the right ones. To make this possible can be use some help from a consultant, a person of trust or can be made with the team. At the end the most important is to make the right decision.

Nonetheless, everything change when the decision has to be made by a big group, where everyones benefits can be affected by the final election, so get a deal about how things will work become a complete disaster, because they will never all be satisfied.

So to make an agreement on a table where there are many interested the best strategy to achieve this goal is to only keep on the room the ones that in this specific moment are crucial to the selection of the future activities, this allows to the rest keep more time to work on a better idead when they time comes and have more time to work in their own activities is a win win for everyone.

But remember that this strategy is not as easy as it sounds, it requires a leader who would be the one meeting end who would take the decision and stay in that position for future meetings.

Besides patience and tolerance is needed to hear all the opinions and try to cover the needs of the majority.

Deadline 13 & 14

--Originally published at TI2011 – The Broken Wallflower

Before reading

The last time we talked dicussed about the book it was kinda like something that we actually did not expected to happen, the promotion of Waldo to a manager, it of course adds to the book a little bit of spicyness, which is actually what we needed from the book, as we totally know this book is like a roller coaster, sometimes it makes us feel like we are on the top of the hill and sometimes it makes us fell the other way, but lets look what the book has for us.

Chapter 13

This chapter actually feels like nothing that important, because it actually star with Mr T wanting to accelerate the things, aparently the QuickerStill project needed to be finished before Mr B’s new deadline, and of course as its name tells things needed to get quicker still if they really wanted to be finished by that time.

Just a little problem with the project, now Mr T needed Waldos’s help, because he was the one who adviced him on this hard situation but now Waldo has other business to attend because he got promoted the last chapter, and this new assistant was good but he wanst Waldo at all, time’s running out and the software needs to be ready, so the only thing that comes to Mr T is to speak with the people he already know and ask them about how to accelerate things, little did Mr T knew that the solution that we will be given was the one he already had, there is no such thing as short term, every project is different in its own way, this means that no other schema needs to be followed, instead make one for QuickerStill, thats the only way to get things faster,

The End

--Originally published at The Awesome Blog

This semester was not what I expected, actually, I think it was not expected from anyone. We started like any other semester and by the 15th of March, we got quarantined. We had no choice, it was something necessary for everyone, but the world has been changing since then. We opened the doors to the idea of working from home, the issue here is that we also opened the doors for a global economic crisis and a possible recession. We learned the importance of enjoying every moment you spent with your friends and family, and we learned a lot from our classes. I learned that lots of students are not used to study from home and that while this is a hell for them, I think it’s not that bad. Of course, I miss the presential classes, but I think this is a good way of learning.

Talking about our class TI2011 I had the opportunity to read a marvelous book, called The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management, this book is awesome if you want to understand the principles behind Project Management.

We also had the opportunity to have Meetings almost every week with important persons from the industry. For example, we had Francisco Barros, Jorge Suarez, and several more.

At the beginning of the semester, I had the chance to learn about Economics, an important Topic related to Software Engineering as well as to our personal projects. I still think this was the most important topic of it all since the principles of this can be applied to our everyday life. Of course, the most important principle is SAVE A YEAR OF SALARY IN ORDER TO FACE PROBLEMS (for example COVID-19).

If I had to list all the things I learned while reading the book, or while

Partial 3 – TI 2011

--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management Reflections

Reflective post on the course TI 2011 – Project Evaluation and Management

What have I learned so far in this class?

Thinking all the way back to February (I can´t believe how much time has passed), so many small things come to my mind that have helped me in the course as well as in other courses I had. One of the most important ones were the conversations we had during class about the book chapters and our takeaways. It was amazing to see how each one of us had connected different topics and examples to the lessons of the book, and talking about those really helped to put together a ‘big picture’.

Another highlight was to work together with students not coming from a business background but IT. I realized that we were able to complement our knowledge very well, and at the same time I found that, with their help and some effort, I could also learn small coding steps quite easily.

Sadly, due to obvious circumstances, our lectures had to take place online. However, in my opinion this was another opportunity to prepare for a future work environment, where more and more people will have to work from home. This requires discipline and the ability to structure ones one schedule, but also trust and the ability to find a way of co-working with other people in other time zones.

Personally, I believe many companies which were reluctant to do so before have now been involuntarily thrown into the cold waters and were forced to let employees work from home, adapt more flexible ways of working, change business processes accordingly and also start to interact differently with their customers.

I could imagine that many people, managers as well as employees themselves might have been surprised

“Hullo, Webster” – Chapter 23

--Originally published at Meeting the Deadline

Sad doggo foudz at https://www.pinterest.com/pin/93731235981516574/

This is the end of the journey.

The journey started 22 or so chapters back then.

There’s not much to say about chapter 23. Mr. T had a very weird dream (seriously, what the heck), all (or most of) the loose ends where tied up, people got promoted and well positioned in places Mr. T considered appropriate given their set of abilities, and so on.

Mr. T handed his journal, because he knows he won’t need it anymore and prefers that other people can benefit from its knowledge within. A very noble thing to do.

He returned home, but on the way SURPRISE! A little stop in a foreign country now ruled by a new Noble National Leader.

And when going to greet him ANOTHER SURPRISE! He IS the new NNL! WUUUUUT?

And then at last (and I mean AT LAST) he proposed to Lahksa. Not in the most romantic way, but it worked! And they set on their way to their next adventure. One they would tackle together.

This last chapter was more a conclusion than a lesson in my opinion, but it was necessary in order to give closure to the story, to tie loose ends, give resolve and a sense of purpose to the beloved protagonist and secondary characters. It was, in my opinion, rather hurried and maybe not well thought, but hey, it worked.

This might be a brief introduction to them topics of project management, but I’m glad it was a funny one, with narrative and “real life” examples that could illustrate the reality of this.

But even more than an introduction, it was a inspiration for me, to learn more about the life and many challenges of a manager, and the lessons one can learn in Continue reading "“Hullo, Webster” – Chapter 23"

The Final Deadline

--Originally published at The Awesome Blog

There are a lot of things you will never expect, but being a leader is a natural process and gives you the opportunity to jell with your coworkers. In some cases, they might become close friends. It’s easy to become a manager, but the real challenge is to become a good manager and a leader. Of course, this path is very hard and very demanding. Time is going to be always behind your back and you’ll have to push yourself to the limits. Only to find that this is not a work for anyone.

23 Chapters are enough to express this and the author doesn’t hesitate to write about it. Tompkins, Lahksa, Belinda, Aristotle, and the other characters are awesome, they always have something to teach you.

The truth is that it’s kind of sad to say goodbye to such awesome characters, but that is what makes The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management such a nice book.