--Originally published at Hector's Blog
Partial 1 – TI 2011
--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management Reflections
Reflective and prospective post on the course TI 2011 – Project Evaluation and Management
What have I learned so far in this class?
During the lectures so far, I could learn about different concepts regarding economic engineering which are relevant to project management and software development:
- Concepts & elements of economic engineering
- Money value throughout time
- Simple and compound interest
- Nominal and effective interest rate
- Minimum acceptable rate of return
- Net present value
- Internal rate of return
- Investment recovery period
- Economic life of an asset
- Depreciation
- Taxes
- Inflation
- How to estimate in software development
- Influences of economics in our daily life
As I am reflecting on project management topics each week by writing weekly book reflections on the book „The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management (Enlaces a un sitio externo.)“ by Tom DeMarco, I have learned already a lot about the important tasks and skills for managing people and (software) projects. So far, the topics discussed included:
- Essentials of managing people (Hiring, matching people to tasks, motivating, team building)
- Important requirements for successful projects (investments, support, location, scheduling, timeliness)
- Importance of safety for employees and how to lead change
- The importance of sticking up for your employees and for your job
- The effects of dishonest communication and the effects of honesty, motivation and collaboration
- Important skills a manager needs to learn on team building and team leading (leading with heart, trusting in yourself, building soul into your team, develop an instinct for problems)
- How to interview people and to which clues to look out for (listen more than speaking, observe interactions with the team, talk to the team)
- Identifying and managing risks in projects (identify, assess probabilities, costs and indicators, monitor, follow emergency plans)
- The importance of both, success and failures
- The value of modeling system dynamics Continue reading "Partial 1 – TI 2011"
Remote – Podcast
--Originally published at Coder Bebop
Pivoting – First Partial Exam
--Originally published at Coder Bebop
I quite often hear people saying time is a non-renewable resource, “carpe diem,” don’t count the days, make them count… People in general have the utmost reliability to find/bring problems to the table, though they are seldom good at solving them. With this said, I found the class we had on finances to be nutritious to our brains. The person who came to give us the talk brought us an alternative to use our money in such way that we have a mattress to fall back shall we ever need to. It also made us reflect on the economy to a level which our career would usually never take us to, and I find that interesting, since one of my objectives would be to get into fintech if possible.
This was a very peculiar class that we are having, but it is something that I have been waiting for all my life: having all the semester’s homeworks laid so that I can finish them as soon as possible or as late as possible (I usually do everything as soon as a receive it). It made me more aware of the fact that I am learning more from the way and the moment that I decide to deliver my work, rather than doing it because the teacher told me to. Also, the fact that the teacher (you) is not really on the lookout for slackers or unattentive people makes me care even more for the class, similar to reverse psychology. The more an educator asks for attention, the least you want to listen. When someone is just chilling while giving a class, you feel as if that person has actually something he/she that needs to be said and listened to, something important. That is why I enjoy these classes.
Evil mister Belok
--Originally published at Blog Oliver
This chapter starts with Webster having a really nice and calm walk to the work. Webster was having a good time, everything was going according to the plan. But nothing last forever. We found out NNL (who is secretly bill g…….shhhhh) went back to the states, along with Lahksa and they will be out for a long time, so we meet the man that will be in charge meanwhile.
Mister Belok its like the master mind behind all financial decisions NNL has made, he even tell Webster that NNL success its because of him. Belok is more strict and severe compared to NNL, we even see him loosing his temperament and raising his voice to Webster.
Mr Belok came to talk to Webster about the deadline that was established and about Webster experiments. The deadline was reduced to only 420 days. Even thought Webster was going to ask for more time for some projects. Mr Belok also demand that Webster dissolves the three teams for every project and merge them in one bigger only team, Belok thinks more people is equal to less production time. But software dont work this way.
We also see Webster putting his job on the line, to defend his
Nose-smelling bull (The Deadline: Chapters 6 and 7)
--Originally published at TI2011 – Luis Wilson
Chapter 6. This one was kinda interesting. Tompkins needs to manage about 18 different teams for their projects and knows he can’t do that alone. He gets sent a stack of resumes that need to be worked out in order to find the appropriate people for the task. As any normal human being, he procrastinates his work and starts reading a book. This makes me realize that something as minimal as a manager’s mood may affect their decision on hiring you, even if you put in hours into your resume, but more on that later.
About the book he was reading, Structural Cybernetic Management. I couldn’t find a book with that exact title (I didn’t even try, honestly), but I was curious about what cybernetic management meant. Okay so, there’s a book called Structural Cybernetics, and its ads didn’t let too much information links appear, but I finally found a Wikipedia page about someting similar. We get, Management Cybernetics, which is the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. According to Wikipedia as well, cybernetics is the study of control and communication between man (or animal) and machine. I’m not even sure if I fully got it, but apparently it’s all about seeking practical assistance in difficult ‘managerial’ issues. This then may need the development of new models, all with technology in mind. I can see how it relates to the story.
The main plot of the story wasn’t structural cybernetics (or at least not directly). Apparently, there was a previous attempt by Lahksa to bring in a new manager, but she (she was first confused for a man), politely declined. This woman Belinda, was a pro a few years back but allegedly burned out and is now a Continue reading "Nose-smelling bull (The Deadline: Chapters 6 and 7)"
Seize the day
--Originally published at Site Title
Is amazing the way you can learn crucial knowledge about management that you only would be able to learn trough years of experience in a short talk with a senior manager.
In the last chapters I just read, could discover how relevant a good advice at a good time from someone who just have the same problem before could be to improve your work.
Through the lecture Mr. T highlighted some points of two different experts that are important to take care while your project are in development.
From the first one he stand out that prevent risk is one of the most important tasks to improve the development, even more that try to be more efficient in the success. However. to archive this goal you need to take some action, like create an environment where people can communicate possible risks or failures, through an anonymous channel or through a spokesperson, because it is the only way to prevent it on time.
The last one spoke more about how important is to not waste time and make every day count, this means do not waste your time on failures and if you see something that is going to fail cut ti out and the moment and keep going forward, a day lost at the beginning is as painful as a day lost at the end. Besides, he touches on the importance of keep together a good team, if you find a group that work great keep them together, it would make thing easier.
Basically, talks you about being all the time a step forward to know exactly how to solve the problems.
Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs
--Originally published at Blog Oliver
I hate home office and online classes, I am not a person that likes to stay all day in one place. Having classes or work without really having contact with your classmates or teammates its hard sometimes, especially when you are facing problems or difficulties, it’s easier to blame someone else when you working online.
I must admit I skip classes a lot, I prioritize work more than going to classes, I think there are subjects you can’t learn inside a classroom. Because of this I often ask the teachers for help in specific themes. We only have communication with teachers via zoom or a class groups, so I can’t ask for this questions directly.
I have reflected all this time and I must say I am starting to appreciate things a little more. They way we live can change suddenly we don’t know what will happen in the future. So it’s a good time to redefine goals and review what we really want and how we will achieve this.
Listen. CBC Spark #469: “Remote”
--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management
The activity for this week is to listen to this podcast episode. CBC Spark is a great podcast which relates to me more as being a Canadian podcast from CBC Radio.
Link to that episode: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/working-from-home-trust-is-key-says-ceo-of-company-with-completely-remote-workforce-1.5504872 (Enlaces a un sitio externo.)
Opinion:
Working from home can be a double-edged knife, because I think this because it can happen that you you trust yourself how comfortable it is to be at home and you cannot manage in your time to do your activities. In order to organize yourself well, I think that you have to continue your daily life as before, even if you no longer go out, you have to continue with your common activities.
Something very important to be able to work at home is to have a good internet connection, since this is essential, due to different things, in order to take the classes, as is my case, I have to be zoomed in to see my teachers as If the class was normal, I also have to have a browser open to carry out the activities or upload them. The point is that in your house your relatives may also make a home office or they may only be Netflix or YouTube who are applications that demand enough broadband it is difficult to work like this.
It happens to me that sometimes the internet connection is blocked by the use I am giving it and because the other people in the house use it, but I feel that if everyone agrees on what times not to use certain applications it works Well because that way the connection is not lost much.
Also an important point is to have your work area organized since
Math in the bone
--Originally published at Blog Oliver
We can use the power of computers to create mathematical models in order to have a real way to quantify desired metrics, for example how many time we will finish a project if we add more staff, or how many productive hours we really have in our teams.
We can also take advantage of specialized software, to help us create a more efficient model. You can tune your models against actual results.
