Gain control of your Drupal project from the ground up, by organizing and tracking the work with cases. By following a simple rule of One Case equals One Task for One Person, work on the project becomes more predictable.

1. Happiness is anOrganized Case QueueBy Jeff Diecks and Don VanDemarkMediacurrent

2. Clients want quality service… Photo by protoflux / Flickr

3. …with constraints. Photo by protoflux / Flickr

4. Developers want to be a chef … Photo by manoelpetry / Flickr

5. … not a vending machine. Photo by Andrew Maiman / Flickr

6. Project Managers don’t want to be yelled at. Photo by andreas-photography / Flickr

7. Cases…That’s the ticket!

8. We sell this. Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video / Flickr

9. Clients see this. Photo by jwilliford.com

10. Developers see this. Photo by consumerist.com

11. … and Project Managers get this. Photo by parkydoodles / flickr

12. This is not natural. Photo by Mr. Hodgson / flickr

13. Will any of these solve this?

14. ` Does being agile solve every problem? Photo by Barry Goyette / artbyyouandme.tv

15. ` How about planning everything out? Photo by nakae / Flickr

16. ` Do the same things at a large company... Photo by youcube.us

17. ` … work for a smaller shop? Photo by rogerart.com

19. Think!Can I solve this in 15 minutes?Is this a simple task?

20. Easy?

21. 1 case=1 taskfor 1 person(and are you that person?)

22. TaskDo you have what you need?

23. State Your IntentionsTask PlanTarget DateEffort Estimate

24. Task Plan (10/1/11 - JD) -I will add a view block to the sidebar region of the homepage-The new view to be created will filter by content type News, Published=yes-Title and Published Date fields will be displayed in HTML list style-Titles will link to the nodes for each news item- Published Date will display inline, unlinked, after the title in “time ago” format-5 items will be displayed, sorted descending by published date-The view block’s title will be “News Updates”

25. Think!Do I need approval?Did the scope change?

26. Are we there yet?Attention matters.Where we are going is as important as where we’ve been.

27. ReviewIf you have teammates,use them.(p.s. this is easy if your task plan is clear.)

28. Done is beautiful.

29. Features Ready to begin? State Your Intentions Task List Manage Scope In Progress (as tasks) Review

30. Now, we plan.

31. 9/22/11

32. Estimating resources http://civicactions.com/estimating-worksheet http://www.lullabot.com/articles/art-estimation Johnnie Fox – 4 PMProject Estimation: Survival GuideRoom 119C - Turner http://nodeone.se/blogg/resources-for-my-session-on-early-estimating 9/22/11

33. An estimate separates out the time required for each task. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Install Config Theme Custom code Test 9/22/11

34. A single person would line the tasks up. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Install Config Theme Custom code Test Project completed in 19 days 9/22/11

35. But reality works more like this Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Time to renew license Client doesn't finish list of reqs Theme Install Config Config Client takes vacation and doesn't answer e-mail Theme Custom code Client requests new feature. You code and theme it. Test Your 19-day estimate turned into 30. 9/22/11

36. A multi-person shop can split and stack the work where possible but that complicates the process of forecasting Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Install Custom code Project C kickoff Custom code Config Test Theme This works well for a firm with only a single project... 9/22/11

37. but most firms have more projects than people... Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Custom code Install Project B emergency Custom code Client points out missed req Custom code Config Config Theme Theme Sick days resulting in missed deadline, bad quality, postponed projects and frazzled nerves 9/22/11

38. As with case management, forecasting has no silver bullet. 9/22/11

39. Most PMs love their spreadsheets... ...the goal is simply to know who's doing how much to what. 9/22/11

40. Tips to help your forecasting 9/22/11

41. Communicate Communicate Communicate 9/22/11

42. Know the quality of your estimates 9/22/11

43. Build in margin .project .task { margin: 0.25%;} 9/22/11

44. Jeff Diecks, Sr Project Manager Twitter: jeffdiecks jeff.diecks@mediacurrent.com Don VanDemark, Sr Project Manager Twitter: DonVanDemark don.vandemark@mediacurrent.com Jeff has posted a blog going over the same details as this presentation at http://mediacurrent.com/blog Don will follow up with one on forecasting next week. This presentation can be found on slideshare.net/mediacurrent Questions? 9/22/11