[thelist] program management software?

Casey aspnet at thecrookstons.com
Mon Oct 3 21:58:41 CDT 2005


Thanks Ken.  Is there some sort of class a guy can take to learn all of 
this?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Schaefer" <Ken at adOpenStatic.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 8:57 PM
Subject: RE: [thelist] program management software?


> Project would be overkill for something like this, unless you need to 
> manage
> quite a few concurrent projects. Project handles things like resource
> leveling where you may have a resource (e.g. a person, room, computer)
> over-committed at particular points in time after you add all their 
> different
> commitments. So, you can then have Project analyse the critical path, and
> move tasks around so that the resource is not overcommitted. Stuff like 
> that
> is part of heavy-duty PM tools.
>
> You can use Visio for doing various flowcharts, UML, ER diagrams etc. If
> these are web applications, I certainly wouldn't just have a flowchart. 
> You
> need more comprehensive documentation to prevent scope creep. You should 
> have
> flowcharts and use cases to start off with (or similar high level 
> conceptual
> docs), and then as you develop your classes, each and every interface with
> their properties and methods should be documented. One thing you may also
> wish to look at is Test Driven Development, which is one of the hot topics 
> at
> the moment. But that requires writing your tests before you write your 
> code -
> so yet more up-front documentation work.
>
> Cheers
> Ken
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-
>> bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Casey
>> Sent: Tuesday, 4 October 2005 11:25 AM
>> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
>> Subject: Re: [thelist] program management software?
>>
>>
>> > I suppose Casey needs to list his requirements.
>>
>> Right.  Good point.
>>
>> For several years now I have been subcontracting as a designer and
>> developer for a very small, one man shop.  The owner has recently
>> expressed an interest in hiring a project manager.  Keep in mind that the
>> projects we are talking about usually have a total of 3 or 4 people
>> working on small projects and 6 or 7 on the larger ones, so they are by 
>> no
>> means enterprise level. (Worked as a PeopleSoft developer for two years 
>> in
>> a mammoth company of several hundred people in the IT department alone -
>> we are not talking anywhere near that level). But, we do do a fair amount
>> of web based application development, usually for small to medium
>> companies with anywhere from 3 to 50 employees.
>>
>> What I had in mind:
>>   a.. Create and document the project's initial scope.
>>   b.. Create a flow-chart that outlines the logic flow of the 
>> application.
>>     a.. The idea here is to have the client sign-off on the flow chart to
>> prevent scope creep
>>     b.. This flow chart should also be such that it can be handed off to 
>> a
>> developer who can create the application with little or no other
>> guidelines
>>   c.. Ability to break down the flowchart into specific tasks or objects
>> and assign them to team members (workflow)
>>   d.. Allow team members to document progress and others to view the
>> documentation
>>   e.. Develop bids
>>   f.. Track hours
>>   g.. Document management (nice, but not required)
>>   h.. Help desk - create tickets, assign them to team members, document
>> progress, etc.  (nice, but not required)
>> I have a hunch that MS Project would be like killing a gnat with a canon,
>> but I'm open to input.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
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