TI2011 Spring 2020 – Page 37 – Project Evaluation and Management

Chapters 3, 4 & 5 reflection

--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management

Chapter 3

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This chapter goes more about the work that was offered, where Morovia is, because it leaves you with the doubt of where this socialist country, that is located in the south of Italy. There is also talk of the contract that is being offered to Mr. T, which is a two-year contract and payments are ready to be delivered if he accepts. This contract specifies things that you have to do in your work. in other words are your terms and conditions that you have to complete.

Photo by **Rodolfo Clix** in **Pexels**. License Can be used for free.

He begins to see that they have good engineers and are well trained and it seems all excellent, because he believed that they did not have the engineers for this project. but what they explain to him is that morovia has a good education. Despite being a third-world post-Communist country, their people have many skills. to which they answer “The Communist world did some things badly and some things well. What it did badly was to make the centrally planned markets work so goods and services could find their way to where they were needed. What it did well was education”. English-language skills are important so everyone knows how to write, read and speak in English.

With this they want to show that their engineers with the ability to develop the 6 projects they have for these two years. What they really want to do for projects is to experience how their workers would behave under certain circumstances. This puts him in doubt as to how he will solve all this, since he will not need everyone. for this they tell him that “You have got all of

The Deadline – Chapters 3-5

--Originally published at Coder Bebop

I am starting to like the picture the author is painting in this story. We have a protagonist with experience, probably seeking redemption for a mistake he did in the past, an ambitious leader with an awkward past and even weirder plans for the future, and a prosperous country waiting to be exploited correctly.

I find Mr. T’s journal entries to be a smart exposition device. This way, the message and thoughts the author wishes to transmit are clearer. Instead of lazily writing them down for us to be bored by them, I begin to understand the direction this story is point to: one in which we are exposed to the lessons of a management book but tied up to first hand examples from a story. This way not only do we learn, but are greatly entertained and intrigued by this story, almost like a children’s book.

Until now, I have had very few dislikes (for lack of a better word) towards the story up to this point. Mainly the way the character interactions go, which involves the constant “Mmms” and “Uh-huhs” the characters do, or the fact that he seldom pauses to explain which character is saying what, so we must assume it directly through dialogue. This has forced me to go back a few lines before to understand what is going on. I hope this does not go on forever but here’s hoping.

Economics of Software Engineering: Analysis and Estimation

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

Previously, when I was going to start working on a project for school, I started by deciding the programming language I was going to use, how the classes were going to be structured, and what each member of the team was going to work on. However, after reading about the economics of software engineering, I realized that there’s so much more that goes into a project before you even do any coding. Maybe, the reason why I didn’t realize it was because the projects were for school, I’m not making any money from it. When you actually want to make money out of a project, you have to take into account many other factors. Using a certain library may seem convenient, but can somehow increase the cost of the project. The economics of software engineering is about making decisions about software engineering, but taking into account the business side.

Now, let’s talk about goals, estimates and plans. When starting a project, all these three things need to be established, all three of them are different. Goals are about business needs, such as generating profit, and how to reach them. Estimates consist of thoroughly evaluating the resources and time that will be needed for a project. Estimates are used to know if a project can be done within the limits of time, budget, etc. Plans are specific activities that are needed to reach the goals of a project.

Image source

The problem that I see with all this is that a lot is based on predictions. Nothing is really certain. But that’s just how businesses are, there is no path that will guarantee success 100% of the time. That’s not to say that goals, estimates and plans are useless. They vastly increase your chance of success, but you shouldn’t be Continue reading "Economics of Software Engineering: Analysis and Estimation"

Let’s talk about Economics of Software Engineering, Yes it exists!

--Originally published at TI2011 – FABIAN'S GEEK STUFF

Being at 6th semester of the major, this is when they tell you being an Engineer is ok, but you can be better, because the past 5 semesters were about learn how to be an employee on any good company, which is also nice, so this is how you can enter in the world of... Continue Reading →

Review on Chapters 3,4,5 of “The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management”

--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management Reflections

Chapter 3 – Leaving Your Comfort Zone

Thomkins wakes up in an unknown environment, with Lahska sitting next to his bed.
He complains and wonders how she could be so mean, but even he has to recognize that he actually had nothing to lose and in fact, only things to gain.

On top, Lahska took his cat „Seafood“ and other personal items from his home such as „his familiar pajamas, […] sheets he´d had for years [and] his favorite molded pillow“ and even the old rocker of his grandmother’s. This somehow shows that she is an empathetic character, even though her job is to spy or kidnap people.

You could even argue that while he had nothing to looe, his cat does need an owner with a job – so for the cat, his kidnapping and new job could turn out well…

By presenting him with a seemingly impossible task and saying he´ll „never catch up“ on the schedule of his new job, Lahska lures him out and wakens his interest. One thing from his response that we can take away for project management is that „if a schedule is impossible to catch up with, it has been designed wrongly from the beginning.“

Even though Mr. Tompkins pretened to be quite uninterested at first, it is amusing to observe how he first inquires about all monetary aspects of the job before actually asking about the job itself.

Yet, once he actually starts considering the job, we can once more learn a few things about managing, especially on such a large scale (15,000 senior software engineers, six key development projects, six software produtcs!)… According to him, a few things are inevitable to success in such a task:

Investment in people, training, equipment
Support (in form of P. Continue reading "Review on Chapters 3,4,5 of “The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management”"

The Deadline (the novel), first impressions Part I & II

--Originally published at TI2011 – FABIAN'S GEEK STUFF

I was really excited about reading this book at the beginning, because after read The lean Startup that energy of an entrepreneur keep me going... https://media.giphy.com/media/5bgIRlYc3OiOdsOcb8/giphy.gif I am not one of those who prefer to read on an electronic device, I prefer to read it with the physical book, although most of the books that... Continue Reading →

Chapter 3

--Originally published at Erick learning experience

After Lahksa kidnap Mr. Tompkins in this chapter finally we are told with what purpose Lahksa did that, if I were Tompkins I would be very scared of Lahksa because she even know the name of his cat, but to wake up in a suite can compensate that.

Some things that I consider in this chapter are first when Tompkins complain about dealing with impossible schedules, I consider this important because some times employees are given a lot of work in a short period of time and that makes them to burnout, in other words they finish their job very stressed out and without motivation what leads to one of the main topics of the chapter two of maintaining the team motivated.

Investment in people, other concept touched in this chapter was the big investment you have to put in people to develop a project and when Mr. Tompkins started to select key persons he mentions the importance of have all the staff in the same place, because you never get something done if people are all in different places, but that means a lot more money has to be spend to recruit people.

Chapter 4

In the chapter 4 at the beginning were mentioned again the Four Essentials of Good Management 1. Get the right people, match them to the right jobs, keep them motivated, help their teams to jell and stay jelled. And it was important to me because in my opinion is a good idea to write a Journal with all the important thing you have learn during the day.

One of the thing that call my attention in this chapter was when Mr. Tompkins starts talking with Mr. Mopoulka about the CD-ROM plant and how he was worried about everything, first he couldn’t start working in

The Deadline – Chapters 1-2

--Originally published at Coder Bebop

I am wondering what’s next for Mr. T. I would suppose he is going to be a little bit of a goofy character, given that he talks about managing people, yet he let himself be managed by a complete stranger, even after hearing her talk about kidnapping and business espionage. He might have not been thinking clearly, given that he was just RESO’d and probably thinking what to do, but come on! Now I see why he was so desperate to learn the art of treating people. It leaves me wondering what would the woman have done if he had not accepted the Diet Dr. Pepper…

Then we have a classic flashback exposition in which we have our protagonist’s goals explained… sort of. Is it some sense of entitlement which makes him react the way he reacted with the seminar’s teacher? Will this kind of behaviour continue as the story progresses? My guess would be there is going to be a clash of egos between his employer(s) in the future, and he will have to take a hard decision in order to stay true to his motives (?). I might just be overthinking it but let’s be serious: a character who is shown to have some attitude either is bound to have it resurface or is simply a not so well developed character. Unless he is meant to have a change of heart or developement, which does not seem to be the case in my opinion, since we are talking about a character in his fourties with a formed mindset.

Economics of Software Engineering

--Originally published at Coder Bebop

In every business, no matter how promising or ground-breaking the idea is, it may not enough to have a good product. Two important factors that not everyone appreciates about doing business are: the presentation, how we sell the idea. The other one, which comes after getting into the market, is basically to not ruin it! Now that you had your kickstart, the worse thing that can happen is to mismanage it and go back to the beginning.

Who would have thought the software industry in the inside is a business like every other? You have finances and accounting department, HR, risk calculating, etc. On top of them all a group of rich/experienced folks giving the orders as they see fit. In the end, every job requiring large amounts of people needs to follow some guidelines to pull it off day after day. People need patience, support, motivation, a sense of belonging, and/or a goal.

When you put all the parts together in an enterprise, you create a mattress on which to land when things go wrong, if things go wrong at all. Having the right people in the right place makes an enormous difference in big companies. A good management will have gathered enough data over their history to include contingency plans for emergencies. For that and for many more reasons, we need people who consider every aspect of our company, either in relations with other businesses, in money-managing, etc. On top of it all: a healthy business will be integer in its product as in its management.

Never accept drinks from strangers, even if they’re hot (The Deadline Chapters 1 & 2)

--Originally published at TI2011 – Luis Wilson

When our instructor said that this was actually a novel and not a ‘normal’ textbook I was skeptical on the quality of entertainment of the book. To be honest, I really enjoyed reading through the first two chapters.

Before my reflections on the chapters I want to address the elephant in the room. What really got me into this story is that there’s an industrial spy in the story. For a second I thought they didn’t exist but it turns out that they’re real. Not sure why she (Hoolihan) opened up so easily about it (haven’t read second chapter yet, as of writing this paragraph), but hey, it’s a novel!

Also, accepting drinks from strangers, especially if they just said the word ‘kidnap’ and that they’re ‘spies’ is a very novice move (I can’t remember the right words right now).

Even if it’s a novel I get that there will be some important concepts that are given to us ‘under the hood’. The one that stood up to me the most is that the most difficult part about management is the people. I don’t have any experience in management (thank god). I know that eventually (and hopefully) one dayI’ll be able to be in one of those ‘higher positions’, but first things first, I gotta be an employee first.

In my past and present job experiences I have only done ‘engineery’ stuff, not actually interacting with people outside my team and mentors. I have so much respect for my current boss (an entrepeneur) that talks with investors, presents on shows (on stage), opens up about his ideas with others.

Just thinking about doing that stuff myself gives me the chills. So even though I haven’t done any of the management stuff I SEE that