Better Project Management via a Better Definition

This last year has seen a number of changes to the way our business is managed. We have tried just about every project management tool under the sun, from the popular Basecamp and open-source web-based alternatives, thought to the bloated Microsoft Project - all without much success.

And it turns out that my struggle to get this part of my business right has been based on a bad definition. (Or probably, more accurately, no definition.)

So in order to find the right tool - the question must be asked: "What is project management?"

And the answer is best summed up in explaining what it's not.

Earlier this year I purchased Sitepoint's The Principles of Project Management - and on page 8 the obvious truth stood out:

Firstly, project management is not personal productivity. This is an easy mistake to make, however. Most folks’ early experience with project management is on smaller projects on which they’re doing most of the work themselves. It’s easy to start treating the project schedule as your diary, the task list as your to-do list. But as soon as you add anyone else to the project, be it a client who wants to understand the time line or a colleague helping out with some of the work, this approach starts to cause problems.

If you make your project management tools double as personal productivity tools, you’ll almost certainly be including far too much detail. Keep a clean line between what you need for yourself personally, and what the project needs. This way, when you have slightly larger projects with more people involved, your tools will scale.

If you think about it, many of the project management tools pitched at web design businesses are very much focussed on tasks. Way too much detail - and the whole project management things just gets way too hard.

So I have found a solution that is surprisingly low-tech:

A whiteboard.

Yep - that's it. It happens to be a magnetic whiteboard though. So here's what I do.

1. The whiteboard is divided up into columns - with each column representing a milestone. "Received Content"... "Design Approved"...  I have about 7 stages I think from memory (I'm writing this from home) but there's no magic number. Divide your workflow into milestones you can tick off.


2. Each project is represented by a little piece of paper with some essential details. And it's held to the whiteboard with an amazing piece of technology called a magnet. When you have received the content, move it into the next column!

This overcame a couple of problems:

1. Software wants you to enter due dates for everything, whereas in reality a lot of when something gets finished depends on the client. So due dates regularly got missed, and planning went out the window. The whiteboard has no dates.


2. It's quite easy to stand back and see any bottlenecks on your process. Got a lot of projects sitting in stage x? Why? Then do something about moving some of those along.

That's about it. Check the whiteboard once or twice a week with your team and get progress on where everything is at, and what projects can be moved to the next column.

This does not address the question of the detail though. What actually needs to be done during each stage of development? And how do you know when it's done?

Ah, well that's a topic for another post...

Adding ringtones to your iPhone

You'd think that with thousands of songs on your iPhone, making a ringtone out of one of them would be simple. Yes? No.

Found a post that almost explained it all here - but it didn't quite work for me. I didn't have an option to convert to AAC! Then I found another post here that helped me figure out why.

So here's the trick:

1. Go to your Import Settings in iTunes (they are in different places depending on Mac or PC). If it's not already, set it to import files as AAC.


2. Locate the track you want to use in iTunes. Many songs start out a little quiet - which is no good for a ringtone - so play the track and write down the times where the ringtone should start and finish.


3. Right-click the track and click Get Info. On the Options tab mark the start time and then end time for your ringtone. Click OK.


4. Right-click the track again and choose Create AAC Version. (This won't be there if your import settings are set to MP3.) This will create a new track based on the times you have entered, in the same folder as the other track.


5. Right-click the track again and choose Show in Finder (Or Show in Explorer).


6. Locate the new file and change the filename so it ends in .m4r instead of .m4a


7. Double-click that file and iTunes should then import it as a ringtone, not a normal track.


8. Go to the settings in your iPhone and the new ringtone should t=be there under the Custom heading (after you have synced it of course!)

Phew! But it saves buying ringtones for songs you already own!

iTunes 8

I was prompted to update iTunes today, but little did I realise what was in store!



A new feature called Genius looks at your tracks and can suggest playlists based up any track in your library that you select. And the Genius Sidebar links off to iTunes Store where you can purchase other tracks by the same artists that you don't have, as well as other related suggestions.

It's optional, but I think it's a nice addition. Of course, I expect it's sending info about the tracks you play off to Apple, so if you're concerned about that then it's probably not for you.

Telstra Offers iPhone

If there aren't already enough iPhone posts running around the blogosphere already, I thought I'd add my own.

Hooray! Australia gets the new 3G iPhone!

Bummer... only Optus and Vodaphone announced they'd carry it. Which is no good for those of us not living in a capital city – as Telstra is the only carrier that really offers decent coverage. Sure, the others are represented, but their coverage just isn’t the same as Telstra’s.

So any chance I had of possibly getting an iPhone hinged upon an announcement from Telstra.

And today I discover some good news!

Of course, we don’t know pricing yet, but the normal thing to happen in Australia is for carriers to subsidise the initial cost of the phone in exchange for a contract (typically 24 months).

So as long as the plan isn’t ridiculously expensive, roll on Jull 11! Fingers crossed!

Energizer Software Gotcha

I had a bit of a rant recently about the software that comes with some new USB Charger packs.

Well, not I feel like a bit of a goose... It actually installs as a Dashboard Widget! Found it totally by accident... but there it is!

Ah well...

Engergizer Software Low on Batteries

Purchased a nifty little USB charger yesterday that charges a couple of batteries - you guessed it - straight from the computer's USB port.

Cool!

It even has software you can download so you can keep an eye on the charge level on screen.

Cooler!



Except do you think it will install for me?

I download the Mac - Intel version, expanded the folder, and ran the install program. At the end it wanted to restart the Macbook (that sounds a lot like something that Windows wants to do) so I did. But alas, there's nothing there!

Nothing in Applications. Nothing in Spotlight (apart from what I downloaded). Nothing in Quicksilver. Nada. Zip. Zero.

I thought that maybe plugging the unit it will launch something? Nope.

So I installed something, but I dunno where it is, or how to open it. Hmmm.

Anyone managed to successfully install this software? Does it work?

Video Conferencing with Messenger

Video conferencing with Windows Live Messenger was always a great way to keep in touch with family spread far and wide. It was a bit of a pain hooking up the webcam though, so it didn't really happen as often as it should.

So my new Macbook has a built-in webcam. Handy! Time to get back to using video.

Except everyone I know uses Windows Live Messenger.

I had Adium installed - a great little IM (Instant Messaging) program that you can use to type notes to people with Live Messenger (among others). But no video.

So I tried Yahoo Messenger. Yep, it has video. Yep, you can message people using Live Messenger. But you can't video conference with people using Live messenger. Sigh.

Microsoft even make a version of Messenger for the Mac. But would you guess? No video!

It was actually while writing this post that i found aMSN - a Live messenger clone that actually supports video! So instead of signing off this post with despair, I have a glimmer of hope. About to download it and try it out now...

New MacBook

Well, the bug bit.

Having to share the iMac became too much. My new MacBook arrived today!

It's a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM, with OSX Leopard (10.5).

And of course, it has the cool little Apple logo that lights up on the lid when it's on, too!

One of the things I miss the most is the old right-click - but I'm pleased to say that's been taken care of on this new machine.

Go to System Preferences and choose Keyboard & Mouse. You'll see this:

The bit that says "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" basically lets you tap the trackpad with 2 fingers for a right-click. Easy!

And the 2 finger scrolling is pretty cool too. That saves trying to line the mouse up on the scrollbars.

Now, back to playing,,,!

Printing from Open Office

Had some trouble printing from Open Office Writer (an open-source word processor). Didn't seem to matter what setting I changed, it didn't fit on the page properly.

I even contacted Canon who emailed me some steps to follow. It was around then that I figured out it was printing fine from other applications, just not from Open Office!

Fortunately, Open Office lets you "Save as a PDF" - so that's my temporary solution... Save the document as a PDF, and then print that.

Hopefully the next update will fix that little bug.

The end of the line

I was playing around in Aptana (a code editor) and was desperately trying to get the cursor to the end of the line. In Windows, pressing then End key does that (and Ctrl + End takes you to the end of the document).

Not in OSX though. 

I tried Command + End, Control + End, Option, Shift, and just about everything else I could think of. 

The trick?

Command + Right Arrow!

And obviously (once you know that) Command +  Left Arrow takes you to the start of the line.

I found a screensaver!

Just a quick follow up post to yesterday's gripe about not being able to find any software for OSX Jaguar (10.2) - I found a screensaver!

It simply displays this big retro-style digital clock on the screen.

Yeah, I know, it's not much. But at least it works on Jaguar!

I'll post if I find anything more interesting...

Software for older versions of OSX

I have a couple of Macs in my life these days: A shiny new 24" iMac, and an old G3 iMac like the photo here.

The new one is running OS 10.4 - so no dramas there. But this old one is on 10.2. Not that old - but I can't seem to find any software for it! Everything I find (either free or commercial) wants a newer flavour of OSX.

So with the exception of Firefox (which I'm using at the moment) I'm stuck with whatever came on the OSX Jaguar CDs.

That strikes me as a bit weird. Surely there must be a place to go for older OSX software. Anyone know of such a place?

No right answers for IE8

There has been quite a lot said recently about Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Should it default to "standards mode"? Or default to "IE7 mode"?

But Joel on Software has put things into perspective: Neither side is right, and neither side is wrong. Because there is really no right answer here.

It's a long read, but worthwhile if you've been following the debate. It also add some understanding as why Vista is so plagued. (And yes, I'm one of those who has gone back to Windows XP)

Before reading Joel's article I didn't really have an opinion on what IE8 should default to. At least now I can say that maybe having no opinion is the right one!

If things stay as they are, we may all have a lot of work to do - going back and fixing old sites. Grrr.

The saving grace in my case might be the use of very specific stylesheets for Internet Explorer. We have used a conditional comment to call a stylesheet for IE6, another one for IE7, so IE8 shouldn't read either of these - and just worry about the main stylesheet designed for Firefox etc.

I hope. I'll have to check...

Jailbreaking an iPod Touch

I had heard about "Jailbreaking" an iPod Touch but until recently had no particular reason to do it. Until I found MobileScrobbler - and little application that runs on your iPod Touch (or iPhone) and sends info about the songs you listen to to last.fm. (More about that in a different post - but it's the source of the song list to the right of your screen.)

But needless to say, I had a reason.

Sure, Apple have released an SDK which means in June you'll be able to download Apple-sanctioned third party software. But I'm not known for my patience!

So anyway - my first attempt didn't go very well. I got this BSD error message hat just kept appearing on screen.

After doing some digging on how to restore the iPod Touch I found out that the Jailbreak didn't actually work for my 16 GB Touch with 1.1.4 installed.

Until this post (and video) show you how to do it!

So now I have MobileScrobbler updating my last.fm profile via WiFi - regardless of how often I sync the iPod back up.

Yeah, it's geeky, but it's cool.

What's all this about then?

Everything "cool" these days seems to be prefixed with an "i".

So what does someone who's been using Windows since version 3.1 make of all this?

As they saying goes: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

I purchased my first iPod - a Nano -  back in October 2005, and fell in love. I have since added a Touch and a Shuffle to the lineup. Let me tell you: the Touch has been an experience! More on that later.

As far as the bigger ticket items are concerned, I was fortunate enough to win an iMac at a conference last year (thanks guys!) That was a real bonus - being able to try out a Mac without having for put my hand in my pocket!

It seems that more and more people are switching from PC to Mac - so we all must be having similar issues. Like not being able to maximise a window. And plenty of other stuff. So I thought I'd post some experiences and observations here. Feel free to add yours in the comments too, and maybe together we'll figure out all these "i" things!

Don't Let Email Sit in Your Inbox Unpunished

If you're anything like me, you receive a lot of email. Some days I feel like the only thing I've done all day is deal with email! Given the amount of other things that must be done in business, it's easy to just put it in the "too hard basket" - but that can also be very dangerous.

I read this article on email and customer service about 6 months ago but while I was looking at some goals for 2008 I thought it was worth revisiting. So how do you stack up in those figures? If I'm not careful I tend to find myself amongst the 70% who fail to respond within 24 hours. Definately something I'll be fixing for 2008. A good tactic is mentioned in Mike's first point:

Automatically respond to all emails received: People will be more willing to wait for a reply if their initial communication has been acknowledged. Include a commitment to act on the issue and when you will respond fully.

I think people will generally understand if you can't address the issue immediately - but it's important to acknowledge the email and set an expectation of when you will be able to do so. It also ties in to something I wrote back in 2004 about controlling your email (instead of the other way around!) - it's as relevant now as then. So, my top tips:

1. Choose when to check your email - don't let your computer decide for you


2. As you're going through your messages, fire up your diary (or whatever time management tool you use) and mark a time to actually attend to the task or issue


3. Respond to each email as soon as you read it (even if it's only a brief response) - and at that point you can let the other person know when you'll attend to is as well

Of course, if it's an emergency you may need to deal with it straight away and all the above advice is null and void, but we don't live in a perfect world, do we?

Originally posted at almostanything.com.au

The Death of Netscape

Announced recently was the end of the production line for Netscape Navigator. I haven't used it in years, but I do remember how much better Netscape 3 was than IE3.

Netscape probably started it's decline when IE4 was released - a far superior browser at the time. Netscape never really recovered, nor reinvented themselves to create a case to change back. And it's probably fair to say that Firefox helped to make Netscape obsolete as well.

Like sands through the hourglass...