AceProject Archives - Page 12 of 17

Motivational Friday: punish inaction?

Bob Sutton, the famous guy behind the “No *** Rule“, wrote a very interesting post titled: Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction.

Why would we reward failure?

Bob then goes to make a very good point:

“It is worth remembering research on difference between the most
creative and successful people versus their more ordinary peers.
Einstein and da Vinci had more bad ideas than their peers. Babe Ruth
struck out more. That is because they acted, failed, learned, and kept
moving forward.”

What Bob argues is that not doing anything is worse than doing something wrong. I agree with him. Inaction breeds a passive attitude towards problems and life in general.

Inaction gets you nowhere

Go ahead. Read Bob’s post. And think about what you could do to fix things in your project. No need to know for sure if it will work. Just try something.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-02-13T16:17:00-05:002009-02-13|

Optimization: observe yourself

We often think about optimizing our day, our work life, our home life. And by optimizing we thing or improving how we do things.

Here’s something else to think about: how many things to you do every day? How many of those things could you automate?

A good place to start is email. Most of us start the day by sorting and processing the email that came in since we left work the day before. Could you setup rules to automatically sort emails, automatically forward emails to the right people? The amount of time you will invest in setting up the automation will pay for itself in no time.

Here at Websystems, we receive payment confirmations via email and we need to sort those emails in the morning. It doesn’t seem like a time-consuming activity (it takes Sylvain about 20 minutes every morning to sort payments). However, if we count 20 minutes per work day, the total is 80+ hours! That means that Sylvain spends over two weeks a year just sorting emails.

Implementing an automated system to sort […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-02-12T19:46:00-05:002009-02-12|

AceProject 4.7 in the works

We’ve started testing phase 1 of AceProject 4.7 last week. So far, we’re really impressed with Pascal’s work. Not only is the software working as expected, but there are very few bugs to fix.

Phase 1 was mostly focused on improving task dependencies. Most AceProject users will tell you task dependencies are very rigid in AceProject. We use only hard logic: the predecessor task must be completed before its successor can start. Dates are mandatory. It makes it difficult to use task dependencies efficiently in the current system.

In AceProject 4.7, we introduce non-mandatory task dependencies. For dependency chains that can accept flexibility and overlap between tasks, you’ll be able to start a task even if its predecessor is not completed.

(Click to enlarge)

Even better: if your task doesn’t have dates or has incompatible dates with the predecessor, AceProject will propose some dates to you in a pop-up, so you don’t need to remember when the previous task ended.

(Click to enlarge)

We are […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-02-09T20:44:00-05:002009-02-09|

New case studies available

We’ve added two case studies to AceProject’s web site. Those are stories from real clients, telling us how AceProject helps them work better with their clients, with their employees, and with their students.

How AceProject helps a video game creator to manage time sheets

Beenox, a video game studio from Quebec City, needed a new employee time management system. Véronique Lessard, recruitment coordinator at Beenox, explains: “We needed to be able to manage vacations, time off and banked time. Since we are a video game company, it is essential for us to be able to know how many hours were worked on each project, and even per trade.”

Teaching project management – the hands-on approach

The engineering department at Quebec’s University in Rimouski (UQAR) regroups three disciplines: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and electro mechanic systems engineering. During their academic journey, students must pass three courses that include a real design project, during their third and fourth year of training.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-02-04T16:27:00-05:002009-02-04|

A development process without a good dose of crazyness is wrong

I saw this great comic at Stack Overflow this morning, and I though I would share it with you.

No matter how much method we want to have in our development process, there is always a part of it that looks (or feels) like the comic above. It’s normal. When it’s over, it’s funny. Some of the best ideas can come out of those all-nighters.

Even though at Websystems we feel our development methods yields a much higher quality of product that the “lone coder” ways of our beginnings, there always comes a point when we all run around in circles. Usually in the bug fixing stage: everyone wants the software to be perfect, and we all want the software to be released. Inevitably, something will happen to threaten both our desires, and that’s when the running starts!

By Daniel Raymond|2009-02-02T15:29:00-05:002009-02-02|

Estimates, guesstimates

We are currently working on AceProject 4.7. Since we’ve implemented agile-style development methods, we have been packing more into our version releases. The issue we are having is estimating how long it’s going to take to build something, and ultimately how much new stuff we can put in the next version.

Because our developers hate to be late, they tend to over-estimate the time it will take to code something. So we end up with a nice problem: things get finished faster than expected. It’s better than being late. But then, how much more could we put in the release if we had estimated better?

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-28T19:42:00-05:002009-01-28|

Human resources management: what do you bring to the table?

I’ve been reading on HR management for my upcoming PMP exam. According to the PMI, HR management is about getting the right team for the right project, and developing that team so that the product of the project is delivered on time and on budget.

As the project manager, what do you bring to the table?

It’s is easy to know what the software developer brings to the project. It’s harder to know what the PM brings to the project. We’re usually the cat herders: we do our best to keep the project on track, the team happy, the stakeholders under control and the deliverables…delivered!

It doesn’t feel like a productive job. But without a project manager, how many projects would ever end, let alone on time?

That’s what project managers bring to the table: cohesion and coordination.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-26T19:24:00-05:002009-01-26|

The downfall of Internet Explorer

It seems to me it’s only a few years ago that Internet Explorer took 80%+ of the browser share from my website visitors.

How things have changed. Internet Explorer is now used by only 49% of AceProject’s visitors, while FireFox is preferred by 40% of them. FireFox and Internet Explorer are now nose-to-nose.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-22T18:50:00-05:002009-01-22|

Surviving the recession: chose your partners wisely

Recession is on everyone’s mind these days. Whether your organization is currently affected by the economic conditions or not, most of us are looking at your spending, to see if where we can save.

Another place to look is your partners: your business partners, your suppliers, your clients. If your main supplier goes bankrupt, it could affect your business as significantly as if your biggest client cancels all orders.

In a recession, the businesses that survive are those with the least debt and those with enough cash flow. As sales may dwindle from lower demand, businesses that are debt-free will be able to weather the storm, while those with a lot of debt would fold under the pressure of the payments.

Furthermore, recessions are good times to invest, to be ready with new offerings when demand picks up on the other side of crisis. Because demand always picks up, sooner or later. However, if all R&D activities are suspended while money is tight, the business falls behind its competition, and it’s very difficult to pick up that lag […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-19T12:48:00-05:002009-01-19|

About the Websystems family

I never thought about our workplace in terms of family-friendliness. Still, there are nine of us at Websystems, and there always seems to be a baby or two on the way.

So I started counting. Between the nine of us, we have 19 children! That’s more than 2 per employee. I think that makes Websystems a very family-friendly workplace!

For Websystems, it’s important to hire the right people and to keep them. By making it easy to balance work and family, we are creating an environment that makes us happy.

For more information on happiness at work, check out the Chief Happiness Officer.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-15T12:29:00-05:002009-01-15|