Second Chapter Fun-a-Thon

Ok, so there’s a lot going on with this post so I’m just going to knock out the topics one at a time. First off is the second chapter review of making things happen. This chapter was all about scheduling, and man, did I learn that I’m pretty much doing it all wrong. Basically, the book described 3 things that schedules do, they show objectives for a project and when they have to be done, force people to work on projects and to track progress and help break down work into large chunks. The really interesting thing that I learned about is something called a forcing function. This is a psychological shift that when an employee actually see a timeline or schedule when things have to be done, there more inclined to work on the project and get it completed by that time.

The next issue tackled in the book is, understanding the ideas of creating a schedule instead of just going with the technology to create schedules. A lot of people run into issues because they think a certain method or technology is golden and will always solve an issue.  You need to understand the basics first. Then the book started to discuss ways of building a schedule and different methods of doing it. These ranged from questions that should be asked while creating a schedule, to trusting you programmer’s opinions.

Finally, the book discussed reasons that schedules fail and this includes banking on a schedule and blaming it when it doesn’t work, not including holidays or special events, ect. What I learned out of this chapter is that I guessed on my Client’s project timeline. The reason I had to do this is because I am unfamiliar with a lot of the information required to complete this project. I also learned that my guess at a timeline can alter up to 400%. I think I’m going to take the weekend and try to learn more on my project so I can create a more accurate timeline to reflect the project. I still feel that I have more than enough time to complete this project, but I don’t want to get stuck behind.

Alright, moving onto the next and final part of my blog (I guess there isn’t really that much after all), I met with my client today to show them the comps for the site redesign. They liked some of the ideas incorporated but I guess they were looking for something a little more like other theatre websites. The client wasn’t upset with my progress, and she seemed confident that after the meeting, that I will have it together next time. I think the issue we ran into was that I didn’t ask enough questions about how the design should look, and she didn’t give me enough information to get there.  There was some miscommunication between both of us, but I think that everything is clear now. So, with that being said, I’m working on a few more comps with the new design we discussed to be shown next Friday. Once again, I must ask anyone who is willing to take another look at the comps (when I get them up) and let me know what you think. What I have to give back to you is this little bit of advice, Take all the time in the world to ask your client questions about a project. Pick their brain till they bleed because it will help way further down the line.