I hate to say I’m moving toward an agile process and risk becoming too buzzword-focused. But I’m quickly realizing how important it is to have an effective methodology for managing yourself as a consultant. I’ve used task lists for quite a while as a developer, and that’s fine for the most part.
But as a consultant, you really have an extra layer of self-management. I’m always being asked what I’m working on, when it will be done, etc. I started my own custom task list in Outlook and shared it with the team lead, but I’m thinking that it’s really a narrow solution. In addition I’m often seen as outside the regular flow of management; and by that I mean sometimes I’m viewed with more suspicion since I’m new and a consultant. I’m also more likely to be given the side tasks not the core tasks, and sometimes those are overlooked. In my particular case, the management of our project is so bad, they’re having trouble even coming up with a task list or agreeing upon features for a given iteration.
That’s what brought me to thinking of how I might go about implementing my own agile methodology. Given that requirements are never fixed here, tasks are not well defined, and iteration deadlines are the only thing that are noticed, I need to find a way to get myself there. And the more detailed information I can give my team lead about my tasks, the issues that come up with each task, and estimates for completing them, the better.
Also there’s the issue of what happens if something goes bad and the customer gets angry? Again, the more detailed information I can provide to show what I’ve been working on and when, the better.
Today I started down that path… setting up a locally running TRAC instance to manage my own tasks.
I’m hoping this will help when I’m assigned my next major task, such as the scheduling app that just went to QA.
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3 Comments
That is actually a neat concept; applying a methodology to manage yourself, not just a project that you are working on.
I think that idea in addition to practicing mindfulness could actually lead a developer to complete satisfaction.
Are you a practitioner of mindfulness?
I don’t know about complete satisfaction, but it’s nice to have a feeling of control. I’ve been thinking more about how to deliver what the customer actually needs from me.
So, for example, the customer is tracking tasks via Project. They’re not updating the tasks, they’re struggling with keeping track of them, they’re missing a lot of them. They’re not managing requirements, they’re not concerned about keeping track of estimates, etc.
I know that I need to manage requirements- and that’s not currently being done.
I know that I want to obtain my velocity from my estimates so that I can get a better idea of how long things actually take.
I know that I should be able to convey actual tasks better than my manager, and that it should be easy for her to keep track of them.
And in the end I know I should have a list of completed tasks to show the customer that I’m actually doing work.
This, it seems to me, is going to be a constant battle in consulting… so my goal is to come up with a set of tools I can use to manage my tasks to deliver the type of information I know every customer will need, even if they don’t know they need it now.
I am but a padowan learner.
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