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Availability

I am currently fully booked until the end of October 2008.

Please contact me if you have a project which needs to be delivered after then.

Welcome to the Blog

The articles here will help you to manage your IT projects effectively. Please feel free to comment and come back regularly for more.

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Juggling Projects

Posted by Cathryn in : Miscellaneous , add a comment

I’ve just taken on a new project, which will keep me busy about 8-10 days a month until the end of March. I’m still available to take on another small-medium sized project, which needs a project manager 2-3 days a week.  (more…)

First Day

Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , add a comment

Freelance Project Managers are expected to come onto a project and be ready to get into the driver’s seat immediately. They join a project midstream, at any stage in the project lifecycle and with the project in any state from well-run to completely out of control. It can be like getting on a moving bus at the back, and trying to get to the drivers seat before it all crashes.

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Playing Poker

Posted by Cathryn in : Planning, Project Management , 2 comments

For some time now, I’ve done estimating with developers using a technique called Wideband Delphi. It’s fairly simple and is an excellent way of making sure that a good range of developers are involved in the estimates. (more…)

Certified ScrumMaster

Posted by Cathryn in : Miscellaneous, Project Management , add a comment

I spent six months this year as Project Manager for a major website upgrade, working with a team of developers and web staff using the Agile methodology, Scrum. For a fairly traditional project manager, this was something of an eye-opener. (more…)

Do you need a Project Manager?

Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , add a comment

One of the things I love about freelancing is that every few months, my work at a client comes to a natural close, and its time to look for something else. I’ve handed over my latest project to the permanent staff member who has been working towards being ready to take on the role for the last few months and, apart from a few days over the rest of the year to support him, I’m now looking for more work. (more…)

Design Patterns Explained, by Alan Shalloway and James Trott

Posted by Cathryn in : Book Reviews , add a comment

This is the first software engineering book I’ve read in years. As a project manager, I rarely become involved in software design, except perhaps to sit in on reviews, but it is useful and interesting to improve one’s understanding of the other important disciplines involved in projects.

Design patterns had their origins in architecture, and the work of Christopher Alexander, who is an architect (of buildings) and has had enormous influence on design, in both computer science and architecture. A design pattern is a conceptual solution to a common problem, and a good working knowledge of the ones which have been identified, according to both this book and the developers I’ve asked while reading it, essential for any developer designing software now.

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Brainstorming Online

Posted by Cathryn in : Technology , 3 comments

I’ve used interactive, online tools like Google Spreadsheets often, but I’m about to start a little exercise with a colleague and we’re looking for an online brainstorming / mindmapping tool.
I’m looking for something which :

  • is free
  • allows multiple people to access the same map at the same time across the internet
  • allows notes, sketches and links (I like to scribble as well as mindmap tidily)
  • can be rendered into a general format, such as a PDF, for printing and using elsewhere
  • simple and stable

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Chucking it over the wall

Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , add a comment

Through the life of the project, you involve the people in IT Operations who will be supporting it.  They’re keen to help, and everyone says all the right things.  If things go very well, the right documentation is produced, perhaps someone from the service desk or a service manager is seconded onto the project team for a while, training is timely and thorough, and Operational Acceptance Testing is a wonderful collaborative effort between IT Operations and the Project Team.
Or is it more like this? (more…)

FOWA 2007, day two

Posted by Cathryn in : Technology , 2 comments

FOWA logoThe day starts inauspiciously with sales pitches thinly disguised as serious talks from Adobe and Microsoft.  The wifi still isn’t working and someone postulates the theory that the failure to repeat last year’s booing is down to the lack of a backchannel for coordinating dissent.  BT had promised to try and get it running, but that’s BT for you.
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Impressions of FOWA 2007

Posted by Cathryn in : Technology , 2 comments

Today and Wednesday, I’m at the Future of Web Applications conference in London, mixing with geek entrepeneurs. 

The speakers are a parade of young Americans.  Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, turns thirty tomorrow.  These geeks are remarkably articulate.
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