Thanks Padu,

Actually today I started to tending towards XP and SCRUM reading those
Agile documents suggested. So far I have not found an uber-alles tool
either -- so maybe I will continue on paper but with a better
methodology.

Thank you very much for the link!

Tamas




On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 5:20 PM, Padu Merloti <padu@merlotti.com> wrote:
> I've been developing software for almost two decades now, so I've been in
> projects large, small and everything in between. I've used several methods
> for PM, but the one that I felt more in love is SCRUM.
>
> It goes the complete opposite of all other methodologies that preach using
> the tools, usually expensive ones, and obviously made by the guys who
> invented the methodology (did anybody say rational?).
>
> SCRUM preaches simplification, being responsive and agile. In fact,
> estimation and tracking are made on pieces of paper. And that brought me
> much better results than any other software package.
>
> There is a very practical and easy to read book on the subject. You can find
> it here:
> http://www.crisp.se/ScrumAndXpFromTheTrenches.html
>
> Cheers
>
> Padu
>
>
>> Sure. So my first assumption was that whatever I did so far was more
>> like an ad-hoc development. But then I achieved better results and
>> faster turnouts when I wrote down tasks and to-do-s onto a piece of
>> paper (notebooks usually -- the original paper one, not the computer).
>> So that way I knew how much stuff I needed to still do to finish the
>> project and the like, then later on I could look back what did I do.
>>
>> So it turns out that it is nothing more than a to-do list, and maybe a
>> ticket based bug-tracking system -- but in a paper. So I thought I
>> might need a computerised to-do list and/or bug-tracking system. Then
>> I started to thinking about more and more, that I would need something
>> that could show dependencies of these tasks, deadlines, hours needed
>> or other resources like hiring someone, outsourcing (for example PCB
>> manufacturing) and so on. And then I thought it is nothing else then a
>> project management really.
>>
>> I know these stuff are still in a very early stage, basically all
>> major project management was developed by recent years. So it is not
>> perfect by any means, however, it should be better to think about a
>> project and the goals and the risks etc in advance than doing nothing
>> -- that was only my way of thinking and I may well wrong on this, just
>> please let me know. Anyway, in my way of thinking I thought whatever
>> project management I start with is better than just using nothing. So
>> why not start with something that is easy of use and maybe not that
>> sophisticated but at least something that leads my learning curve on
>> managing my projects.
>>
>> Not sure yet which way is the best so I am open to any suggestions,
>> and would very appreciate any advise on this!
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> Tamas
>>
>>
>> >
>> > Personally, I have an aversion to project management software. They
>> made us
>> > create Gantt charts in college, and nobody followed them, it was just
>> a big
>> > waste of time. In fact, trying to follow a Gantt chart was worse than
>> > submitting one for a grade, and then tossing it in the trash bin. The
>> > biggest fallacy of Gantt is its treatment of assumptions made a long
>> time in
>> > advance, as fact. It assumes that requirements won't change,
>> resources will
>> > be available, and deadlines will be met. Show me one example of a
>> project
>> > where this is true, and I'll explain to you why it doesn't meet the
>> > definition of a project.
>> >
>> > We don't use any formal project management software at work. What we
>> have is
>> > a simple Word document which we update every week. We go over and
>> delete the
>> > tasks that were done the previous week, add new tasks, bold the tasks
>> that
>> > we plan to do this week, and then prioritize and assign them.
>> >
>> > Granted, there may be software that is actually useful for "managing"
>> > projects, but I'm yet to find it.
>> >
>> > Vitaliy
>> >
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> printf(s=%s%s%s, q=%s%s%s%s,s,q,q,a=%s%s%s%s,q,q,q,a,a,q); }",
>> q="\"",s,q,q,a="\\",q,q,q,a,a,q); }
>
>
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