MS Project Certification

Microsoft rolled out MS Project certification ( IT Professional Exam 70-632) . The areas covered in the exam are,

• Configuring Tools and Options (13 percent)
• 
  
• Setting Up a Project (10 percent)
• 
  
• Estimating, Scheduling, and Budgeting Tasks (29 percent)
• 
  
• Resourcing Project Plans (24 percent)
• 
  
• Updating and Reporting on Project Performance (24 percent)

The exam is for Microsoft Project 2007 Standard or Professional desktop versions.

More details can be found at Preparation guide for exam 70-632

Getting PMP PDUs

Are you a PMP? Looking to add PDUs to you account?

Listen to Project Management Podcast's episode on getting PDUs.

Off shore Agile development

Todays post is on Agile for off shore projects. As all know employing agile for a global team is not alwys easy, colocation is one of the home grounds for Agile.

Antony Heath in his article "Managing Agile Projects off shore" lists the below operational aspects for managing your agile off shore projects ( with respect to Scrum).

1. Choose a Scrum Champion
2. Reduce Dependencies of Scrum Teams
3. Promote Team Building
4. Schedule Regular Interaction
5. Conduct Daily Scrum Meetings
6. Emphasise Information Sharing among Teams
7. Split the Project Planning Exercise into Two Sessions
8. Manage Builds and Configurations
9. Minimize Sprint Backlog
10. Adhere to Standards

Agile Methodology

Agile project management is building working software where people can get hands on very quickly rather than spending time on initial documentation / specifications.

Agile focuses on rapid iteration, with as much as customer inputs along the ways as possible.The Waterfall develop in layers where are Agile develops end-to-end functional slices.

The agile is considered as an adaptive methodology where changes are always welcomed and adapting quickly to the changing realities.
Waterfall is a predictive methodology, planning the future in detail. These projects have difficulty in changing direction. – They are inside a change control board where only the most valuable changes are considered

For predictive the success is measured - a project's on-time and on-cost is considered to be a success.

But in agile the question is business value - did the customer get software that's more valuable to them. Working software is the principal measure of progress.

Agile Home Ground

• Low criticality
• Sr Developers - trust among the team
• Requirements changes very often
• Small number of developers

The commonly used agile methodologies are,

• XP
• Scrum
• Crystal
• DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Methodology)
• RAD
• Lean development
• Feature Driven Development
  

Waterfall methodology

As I told you yesterday, now I am working on the methodology stuff and investigating which one is right for my company.

I prepared a note on the classic, predictive, rigid waterfall methodology and it is given below. This is based on my point of view on the methodology and may vary from yours!



























Waterfall methodology is like a production line. Here, strict controls are placed on the deviations from the plan; to ensure what is produced is what was designed. The positive side of this approach is, it is supremely logical; think before you build, follow a plan, and keep everything organized as possible.

And the flipside is, this approach requires all good ideas come at the beginning of the SDLC where they can be incorporated into the plan/design – almost impossible!

This approach hinders innovation, project managers often try to categories the new ideas as scope creep and believe their job is to save the project from changes !
Since this is a resitance process it results in low quality mediocre products. The product will be only as good as the initial idea, not the best.

Home ground for waterfall / plan driven development methodology is

• High criticality of the work

• Jr developers as the project team

• Low requirements change

• Large no of developers and co-location is not easy

• Culture that demands order

പ്രോജെക്റ്റ്‌ മെതൊഡൊള്‍ജി (Project Methodology)

കമ്പനിക്കൊരു മെതൊഡൊളോജി വെണം. ആത്‌ അജെയില്‍(Agile) വെണൊ അതൊ വാട്ടര്‍ഫാല്‍(Waterfall) മതിയോ അതുമല്ലെകില്‍ ഒരു കൊമ്പിനെഷന്‍ (Combination) വെണമൊ എന്നതാണു ചിന്ത. ഈനി കുറചു കാലം വര്‍തമാനം അതാകാം

ജഗജീത്‌ സിംഗ്‌ ഗസലുകള്‍

മനസ്‌ പ്രക്ഷുബ്ദ്‌ മാകുമ്പൊള്‍, ഈപ്പൊള്‍ സുഖം തൊന്നുന്നത്‌ ജഗജീത്‌ സിംഗിന്റെ ഗസലുകള്‍ കേള്‍ക്കുപൊഴാണു. Thanks to www.musicindiaonline.com

വേളിപാട്‌

ഈ കഴിഞ്ഞ ആഴ്ച നസീര്‍ "എന്താ എപ്പൊള്‍ എഴുത്ത്‌ നിര്‍തിയൊ' എന്നു ചൊദിചപ്പൊഴാണു അന്താ ഒരു ബ്ലൊഗ്‌ തുദങ്ങിയല്‍ - എന്നു തൊന്നിയതു. ഈ എഡിറ്റര്‍ ഒക്കെ ഉണ്ടായാലും... ഈതു ചെറ്രി യ പണി ത്ന്നെ

ഉച്ചപ്പൊതി

കമ്പനിയില്‍ പുതിയ കഫട്ടെരിയ വന്നതില്‍ പിന്നെ വീട്ടില്‍ നിന്നായി ഉച്ച ഭക്ഷനം. ഭക്ഷനം കഴിച്ച്‌ പാത്രം കഴുകാനാനു പ്രയാസം. അതിനാല്‍ വാമഭാഗതിന്റെ ഉതതരവുണ്ടയി..... കമ്പനിയില്‍ നിന്നെതി പാത്രം കഴുകിയാല്‍ മതി

വേനല്‍ മഴ

വെനല്‍ ചൂദിനെ തനുപ്പിക്കാന്‍ മഴ എത്തി. എന്തൊരു ചൂദ്‌ എന്നു പരഞ്ഞവര്‍ ഈനി മഴകരനം ഒന്നും നദക്കുന്നില്ല എന്നു പരയും. ഈ കഴിഞ്ഞ ആഴ്ച തിരുവനന്തപുരത്ത്‌ 38 സെല്‍ഷ്യസ്‌ ആന്ന് താപനില രേഖപ്പെട്ടുത്തിയത്‌.