Problem juggling projects 5

[zkent]

I am a one-man IT department for a small company in Vermont. Though my title is IT Director, I do it all. I have a side project for one of our clients to do (a Flash feasiblility study) an I was told that "all company work comes first." However, taking this advice realistically means that I will never get to the client's project. I recently made a list of my current projects (mostly datbase development and coding, debugging, etc for a web-based application we produced) and other ongoing IT duties (network maintenance, backups, etc). We are also setting up an offsite disaster recovery location with full redundancy and failover for our web apps and database. There is a lot to do.

In my attempt to get these projects organized, I input all of these projects into MS Project (its what I have). I broke eahc project down in to sub-parts and linked them properly. However, right now the projects are in MS Project as if they were all going to be done concurrently. A few of them can wait until others are done but most of them need to be in work at the same time (e.g. one of our in-house programming projects AND the client's project AND the disaster recovery project). However, since I am the only resource available to be added to any of these projects, I am torn (no pun intended) on how to make sure that the projects get worked on simultaneously. Should I devote certain days of the week to certain projects? I already write Mondays off because of meetings and organization. If I go this route I have no idea how to code this into MS Project so I can give management a realistic view of my schedule. I would love to show them that there is too much work for me to do and give them a reason on paper to hire additional personnel.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[Scott24x7]

zkent,
Welll... you have a real problem on your hands. I can say , I have personally been there before as well.
My advise is this... take it back to simple project managment. You are going to have to be VERY STRONG with your leadership.
Here are the keys:
Your company has a finite amout of the 3 following things:
1) Time
2) Funding (cost)
3) Resources

You will have to be FIRM in your commitment to these things. You have to illustrate to them that you can ONLY do X amount in a given time frame. That if they want more than that, they will have to expeind Funding (increase costs) to increase your resources. It is a triangle, and you cant have 1 without the support of the other 2.
It is completely unrealistic for them to expect that you can deliever on these 3 items without some level of undersatnding. You can also equate the triangle this way:
1) Faster
2) Effective/Efficient
3) Low Cost

Again, you can not have 1 without the balance of the other 2. If you want high quaility, you are NOT going to get that fast or cheap. If you want it cheap, it is not going to be fast or efficient... you get the idea.
I don't envy your position. I would suggest that you are working for a firm that does not really value your capability or competency. If they can't see this, you might want to consider other options.
You are a human being, and desirve to be treated like one, not some slave who performs miracles because of their beliefe that it should only take 15 minutes....



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[zkent]

Scott,

Thanks for your comments. I have forseen the "you want all this, ante up" meeting coming for a while. In an IT capacity, I have always worked alone. I began moonlighting building web sites (didnt we all) and got into programming via the web. I began doing that full time for a couple of clients for many years. I never got to the point where I needed a second body to get it done. As a sole proprietor, I was used to working as much as needed to get it done. Long story short, my bread-and-butter clients tanked and I got this job. The company is small but is currently breaking into (and doing well) a market with multi-million dollar banking and real estate companies. I have some gripes with the company and thoe job (as most do) but I would like to be here when the company takes off (famous last words?)

Anyway, being unable/unwilling to put in the kind of hours that I did when it was *my* company, I am going to have to shed some light on the reality of IT and development or look for something else, as you hinted.

So in the meantime, any suggestions on how to split time between multiple projects effectively? You know... when they all need to be done yesterday.

 

[alvinpm]

I think you are digging yourself into a big hole and eventually your hole will crumble with you in it.

IMHO, I say you break down the time it will take to complete each project in working days. In each project show the milestones and the time for each one. You then go to your leaders and say what do you want first and/or how much should you dedicate to each project. You let them choose the schedule. And if they say they want everything you point your finger at your schedule and say that is not possible. If you are lucky they will tell you that maybe they should hire an additional person.

It is very important you manage expectations. Not just the expectations from managment, but the expectations you have for yourself.

 

[eyeswideclosed]

I was in a similar situation, they hired another programmer to "help" with the workload, he turned out to be a schmuck, now I have to spend extra time rewriting/redoing what he does so it works right and doesn't crash stuff, I told my boss please don't try and "help" me anymore, at least when I was alone I knew stuff got done right, this isn't digging ditches, sometimes more bodies hurts not helps, I dream of being alone again...

 

[zkent]

Hehe. Talk about opposing opinions... I have always wanted to work on a small team of good programmers or network gurus, but only if they aren't schmucks. I have had a time where I would have liked to hire someone (when I consulted from home full time) but I was afraid of spending hours to train and orient some goob that would leave eventually. Having considered options, I am leaning toward what theManiac and alvinpm have outlined. However, I rue the day I might have to find a geek to hire.

I realized that I was in trouble when I went to a Microsoft training weekend in Boston and I had trouble deciding which meetings to attend. They lectures were broken down into different tracks (data, programming, networking, security, etc) and I needed ALL of them. Afterward, when my boss asked me what I had learned, I said "I learned that I am crazy to be doing all of this alone." which was the truth. It is nice to hear from others that I am justly frustrated.

Since my personal client's companies tanked (no fault of mine) I have not had much work outside my day job. I have thought about even asking them if they would sub-contract out a project or two to me. I doubt they would go for that though.

 

[eyeswideclosed]

There are so many schmucks in IT, and sometimes the full schmuckiness takes time to become apparent, and by then the schmuck may be very hard to dislodge, then you are stuck in schmucksville, no, it is better to be alone, regardless of the workload, oh aloneness I crave! Once again to be isolated! It is something to be devoutly wished, you are lucky, savor your aloneness while you still can, for you will be in schmuckland with me soon I fear..

 

[eyeswideclosed]

Let's just throw money and bodies at the problem, oh don't get me started!

 

[zkent]

hehe eyes is on a rant. I do prefer working alone. I just don't like having some cool projects to work on but getting bogged down with the other stupid IT stuff that saps away my time. What I would like is someone to come in and take over the network and PC maintenance and let me do the application design and programming.

Stars for everyone!

 

[Scott24x7]

zkent,

So in the meantime, any suggestions on how to split time between multiple projects effectively? You know... when they all need to be done yesterday.

There is only 1 right answer to this question... Prioritization. How you go about that is the tricky part. In my experience, the best way to do this is to actually have your business partner priortize, though for now that doesn't sound too possible. I would suggest weighing what will deliver the most "value" (sometimes value is in perception, so you have to guage this one carefuly).
Focus on the things that will enable making other things easier as well. Not all tasks have the ability to be made easier by certain things, but some do, so look for those. Don't let others put their monkey on your back either... this is how you really get bogged down, and lose valuable time during the day on the "Fire-fighting" instead of making real progress. I know this sounds vague, but so is my knowledge of what you are trying to juggle.
At the end of the day, don't be afraid to just say, "I'm going home" when you pass a "reasonable" hour. Sometimes resting yourself is the best thing you can do for your future productivity.

Good luck.


Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[alvinpm]

This is not about throwing money/people at the problem. It is about managing projects and knowing when you need more money and people. And having only one developer is such a big risk for a small company because if that developer leaves the company can be screwed.

 

[eyeswideclosed]

Again, it depends on the developer(s) in question, all are not equal, there are huge differences from person to person.

If more than 1 goose are geese, why aren't more than 1 moose meese??

 

[PDQBach]

Technical question: how to make MS Project show that Mondays are not available for project work.

Answer:
1. Tools | Change working time
2. Click on the "new" button
3. In the popup change "Copy of Standard" to "XYZ Company", click the radio button next to "create a new base calendar", click on OK. "Create a new base calendar" was chosen because someone may have played with the Standard calendar and this way you can be certain you get a clean calendar.
4. In the pop up that shows the new calendar click on "M" (for Monday) to select all Mondays; click on the radio button "Non working time"; click OK
5. Project | Project Information.... in the popup change the calendar field to "XYZ Company" (or whatever you entered in step 3), click on OK.
6. View | Gantt
7. RightMouseButton on the Gantt chart and, in the popup, choose "Non-working time"
8. In the popup click on the radio button "In front of task bars", click on "Calendar" and choose "XYZ Company" (or whatever you chose in step 3).

You're done. Tasks will no longer be scheduled on Mondays.

 

[zkent]

Thanks PDQBach. I think my MS Project question got lost in the philosophical discussion.

 

[philhege]

When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that the objective was to clear the swamp.

But the good thing about this discussion is that it shows business environments and one's handling of them are just as important to success as one's technical knowledge. Project's just a tool. If you have a hammer, you at least need to know which is the business end to be effective with it. Using Project correctly will show the powers-that-be that you can't put ten pounds of potatoes in a five-pound bag.



Phil Hegedusich
Senior Programmer/Analyst
IIMAK

http://www.iimak.com

-----------
I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa.

 

[zkent]

Phil,

You're right. I think it has been a good conversation. Both Project and this discussion have help solidify in my mind what I am up against doing this job alone. However, as a result of both factors, my boss is bringing a programmer in for an interview today. It was one of those situations where as we were discussing getting additional help, he pulls a resume off of his desk that someone sent him at random and wants to see what the guy can offer. The guy is definitely qualified. Maybe too qualified.

 

[Scott24x7]

ZKent,
As a former CIO, I would say, any time I found someone who had made themselves "Irreplaceable", I replaced them... don't put yourself in that situation, and don't try to defend against additional people in the project by "Shoring up" your lone knowledge... it is a non-repeatable business model, and puts businesses at tremendous risk. In one case, I replaced the entire infrastructure of the applications used to run the business so that I could put one in that had long term commercial viability.
Just be cautious.


Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[zkent]

Scott,

I'm actually not trying to become irreplaceable nor am I set on working alone. In fact, I have worked for small businesses or full-time consuting almost all of my IT career and sometimes I long to have peers working with me as long as they're not schmucks (as eyeswideclosed put it). The guy that is coming in has more experience managing projects than I and doesn't have the exact programming experience (although he has a lot) needed to jump right in. He is getting interviewed because his resume happened to be on the president's desk when the topic came up. I was barely consulted on the issue of interviewing him.

 

[BNPMike]

z

You posts seem confused. You have too much work but you want to moonlight. Your boss seems to have noticed all this. The guy's not being interviewed because his cv floated onto someone's desk. If he was a ballet dancer, he'd be in the bin. Somebody thinks there's a problem in the IT Department. The fact that this has happenned without your input when you have the title IT Director is rather ominous. Fiddling about with Microsoft Project is not your priority. You should be talking at length with your management. Project Management is not about doing things. It's arranging for other people to do things.