Managing IT to deal with Climate Change
Cathryn
(1 comments, 34 posts)
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Home page: http://www.cathrynsymons.com
Posts by Cathryn
Solutions for the Inner City
0I’m passionate about Somers Town, the small corner of central London where I’ve chosen to make my home. Nestled in between the gothic splendour of St Pancras and the fifties austerity of Euston, its a tiny district of densely built low rise apartments, home to the British Library, the RMT and Unison, railway stations and about 8000 people from all over the world. I can walk to the West End, have Regents Park on my doorstep, and every amenity I could wish for a short stroll away. I’m not one of those ‘buy a small-holding in Wales’ Greens, and I’m sure Wales doesn’t want me and my 8000 neighbours to try.
Per capita carbon emissions for domestic and road transport use in areas like this are low(1), because public transport is good and the cost of heating small apartments is much less than houses. If we’re to meet the energy More >
Burning coal in central London
0The smoky coal fires of London were banished in the fifties and all that remains of that smog filled, grimy time are the blackened buildings of parts of Bloomsbury which haven’t been cleaned. Sunny days with blue skies are now common, but open fires very rare indeed.
Much to my surprise, coal burning is still possible. The Clean Air Act of 1993 makes it illegal to emit smoke in a designated Smoke Control Area, such as the London boroughs. You’re only allowed to use authorised fuels which include gas, electricity and anthracite – ie. coal.
Walking to the Wind
0Last week we started the first practical module and in December, in Wales, the choice is between Biomass in a nice warm boiler room or Wind and walking on hills. The Welsh weather gods were in a kindly mood, and rewarded the hardy with crisp, clear days, perfect for a morning spent on the hillside at Mynydd Gorddu.
Typical Welsh countryside at Mynydd Gorddu wind farm - green hills, clear blue sky, sheep and turbines
There are 19 Nordtank machines in the wind farm, 12 at 550kW and another 7 at 600kW. They’re the same machines, but the larger ones have short blade extenders at their hubs to increase the swept area slightly. When we were there, on a clear day with only a light breeze, they were still generating 2.3MW, powering a few hundred homes, or about a thousand kettles, all boiling at once.
Archimedes Screw Turbine
1What a fantastic piece of technology is the archimedes screw turbine. It’s simple, works in situations where other hydro power turbines aren’t much use, has a very low environmental impact and is even safe for fishes.
First Day
14 years ago
by Cathryn
in Project Management
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.
Most, but by no means all, companies will make some sort of plan for the first few days. At best this will be a well-organised handover from an incumbent project manager. At worst, the new Project Manager arrives into chaos and is left to sort it all out.
When coming into a new project, at whatever stage and state its in, it is essential to quickly:
- Establish it’s current state
- Get to know the people involved
- Make sure basic
Playing Poker
24 years ago
by Cathryn
in Project Management
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.
The designer, lead developer or, as a last resort, project manager, breaks the work up into smallish units of some sort – modules, screens, reports, whatever seems to be appropriate. A group of developers meet with the project manager to discuss the list, making sure its complete and that everyone understands what’s involved.
They then each go away and separately make the estimates.
In a followup meeting, they come back with their estimates and, facilitated by the project manager, review them and come to a consensus. I then feed this into the project plan and, with contingency based on my own judgement and perhaps in consultation with senior team members, More >
Certified ScrumMaster
04 years ago
by Cathryn
in Project Management
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.
A very able, empowered team who are used to working together to deliver high quality work is a dream situation for any project manager, and I became intrigued about the method helped them achieve this.
As ScrumMaster, I found myself calling on facilitation skills and soon realised that knowing when to keep out of it and let the team get on with their jobs was as important as trying to lead. Of course, like most projects, there were areas outside the development team that still needed project management, so there was still plenty of work to do.
When I moved on to the next project at the same client, they More >
Design Patterns Explained, by Alan Shalloway and James Trott
04 years ago
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.
Brainstorming Online
34 years ago
by Cathryn
in Project Management
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