The planner
November 27, 2008
The scheduler is an important figure in the current projects. It is the responsibility of putting in a spreadsheet (good, good planner said Excel) a series of columns and rows. Normally they are:
- Columns: milestones and targets impossible to meet
- Rows: people (well, they say resources) always less than the actually needed
Or conversely, in columns and resources in the ranks milestones. The work of the planner is not simple, it is a very painful, you need to be made of a special paste to be a good planner. In many ways a planner is rather like a bread (we would say a baker), picks up his meal of resources, adds the illusion of its yeast and expected to leave the bread alone. Moreover often coincides with the bread that his best works are being done at night when nothing and no one can bother the planner, he runs his best plans. This is very normal that when we got the resources to work early morning, we find in an email message sent to the planner 2 am, with a huge spreadsheet, with different colors and formulas and related … Almost an hour later when we understood that spreadsheet, we see that there are two messages one at 3 o’clock in the morning and another at 5 o’clock in the morning, with new spreadsheets that extend or cancel the first.
But the planner is faced with great challenges as the rest of the resources we do not understand. If the planner is not the head of the project, should try to convert babbling and desires of top management into something coherent and meaningful. But the best thing is when someone decides to senior management plan. Hence the success and happiness of resources is secured.
A few weeks ago I had an instance of a senior planner making cakes in the workshop of his head. She was with a partner who is stuck in a software project, which has about 400 developers, 200 testers, 100 inmates … let developers something light and easy to manage.
My friend is at the head of a group of internal development (which we are not a consultant) and it depends a score of outside employees (the planner has thought that instead of hiring, subcontracting better, and then when you finish The draft [ever] bids farewell to business and everything is cheaper). I was watching a solution to a problem we had in a test, when my friend asked me if I can help answer your planner.
I ensaña a spreadsheet full of milestones, tentative dates, final dates … and as I do not understand anything, it makes me a quick summary: “At this stage of the project, how do we get the 1.0 version of the software, since all external consultants are 100% committed to solve problems presented by the 1.0 software. But the improvements that are required for the 1.1 version is going to make the development of another group of consultants. And then there are the big improvements in version 1.2 and 1.3, they want to make my work group. But the great planner, you do not want it out of version 1.2 and 1.3, is within one year, so we have decided to parallel planning. The company that runs the project, will continue for three months, changing the version 1.0, until there are no errors for their actual output in May. The other consultant, will begin to work on improvements in version 1.1 from now. And I have to start working now in version 1.2 and 1.3. And I ask that makes planning in detail how I’m going to do “
The project is really big, also based in large machines and old programming languages. And my friend to do development in a work environment and with version 0.8 that is now underway. So for half a year we will have four lines of development:
- The 1.0 made by the company owner in the program
- The 1.1 done by another consultant
- The 1.2 done by my partner
- The 1.3, also done by the team of my friend.
And the best thing is to do a report on how it will succeed.
I have given several choices:
- Dear great planner: there is no problem to meet their wishes. The work plan we are going to continue going to be as follows:
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- For a week we are going to attend a master of quantum physics, string theory and black holes.
- During the week 2, we’ll get to design a time machine
- In the week 3, build a time machine
- At week 4, we will have a milestone of control. Diving at the time six months and be able to copy the project in version 1.0 and bring it back to our time
- At week 4, we’ll give you the version 1.0 that the group should do the version 1.1
- In Week 5, to jump back in time six months and copy the software version 1.1 and will bring to our present
- As of the week 6, will develop versions 1.2 and 1.3
- Dear great planner: over the next six months, we will dedicate ourselves to bring to Bonoloto, blind, the Primitive, the National Lottery, football pools do … with the hope that we can touch something and flee here.
- Dear great planner: we believe we can fulfill their wishes without any problems, and how we are going to about resources, I shall give him a list of milestones that we can also try to fulfill:
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- Ending the global economic crisis
- Finding a cure for cancer
- Finish the Windows 7 …
At least we laughed … but in the end the Excel (sorry, spreadsheet) must be completed at the end. And so no one tells me in the comments, the planner is a great Computer Engineer … or he can not be accused of not knowing what you’re asking.
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