Ever find yourself looking at some older articles on someone’s site and wishing you had read them about a two weeks before you actually did? Well, Joel on Software has some great posts regarding the Iceberg Secret which points to his post on Painless Software Schedules. Both of these are excellent reads. Thanks Joel!
Interesting articles by Joel. I think his spreadsheets would be good input for a project manager to create a project schedule from. I worked with a development manger who used similar spreadsheets. Project is easier to show the effects of slipage on the end dates and lets users see what is happening.
As far as the users never knowing what they want -it depends upon the users. ultimately they need prototypes and will change their mind – that is part of the process. But becoming or having a subject matter expert as part of the project is the key. Whether that person is part of the development team officially or not his participation will enable a succesful development effort.
I think more sophisticated project management software has its place, especially if software development is only part of an overall project. I think it is crazy to expect anyone other than a project manager to update a schedule in something like MS Project however. Having the development staff use the spreadsheets would go a long way toward helping them estimate the duration of their tasks more accurately.
This guy is awesome. I read these articles and a number of other ones on his site, and I pretty much agree with everything he says. I’m also wondering if his bug tracking system would be a good investment. His description of the usage methodology of the app (as opposed to more formal tools) struck me as right on. The product page is http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/. What do others think?