Powerful Information! | ChatGPT AI | Project Management System | Steps | Software Development | UML IDEs | Patterns | Phases of a Project | Agile | DevOps (Support Knowledgebase | System Scheduler | Indexing and Updates Tracking | Version Control) | Speed Kills |
See also: Data Integration |
Outside: PRINCE 2 | PMBOK7 | Agile Manifesto | UNSPC (United Nations Standard Products & Services Code) | Robert's Rules of Order
Knowledge is POWER!! As a librarian, I have felt that power in Dewey or meta data. Now I am using it in my favour here in the guts of a messy project map. I intend to manipulate that informational power in our favour no matter what stuffing around the customer tries on us! I'm falling over I'm so happy to be on top of the project again, not the underling any more!! I am in control, not the customer with their limited knowledge and business prowess. I am ready for all comers. I will nail down words and keep track of hassles. Everything will be logged and analysed and teased out into patterns to guide our little ship away from the reefs or plundering pirate ships!
In January 2023, I started using AI via ChatGPT to answer many tricky questions. This led to me being able to design a Web development project when customer was too busy to give me a spec by using ChatGPT to help me design database and neural network. The productivity was an order of magnitude bigger. AI has become sidekick that helps humans to do better programming and system design.
I have a competitive edge because I built our own project management system and can now control the customer and halt them and keep the project on track and not losing money. I got more out of building our my project management tools than the fee we charged the customer for the software I developed! I invested my own money in the project management system and own it and can modify it to improve it and do not rely on the customer stuffing me around.
In January 2006, after 5 years of hell doing larger Web portal projects by the seat of the pants, I have developed a comprehensive project management information system which I use to monitor and control costs in my larger projects. If the customer does not submit to our methodology we import their emails and chat sessions and documents no matter and edit and create my own version of the specification. This helps me get on top of the messy design strategies many non-technical users try to use on me to get their way.
It is proving a winner and I wish I had spent the time and money 5 years ago to stop the rot of progressive losses through many many complex and hard to handle jobs from small business customers who have all the ideas but have no idea how software is developed, tested and deployed so try to cut corners and make me live in poverty through their mismanagement and tricky ways.
In November 2017, I did PRINCE2 Primer MOOC with CSU IT Masters, a very popular powerful project management methodology.
In June 2022, I did PMBOK7 (Project Management Body of Knowledge 7) MOOC with CSU IT Masters, the update to PMBOK6. With that I redesigned my project management system's navigation to follow PMBOK7's 12 principles and 8 performance domains which helped make the system more efficient, productive, consistent and easy to use. Before I did custom design of navigation using information management, tagging and software engineering.
These are the specific steps we will pursue to collect information for project management - like it or not - I will not be phased by non-technical users evading hard work. Once I have collected and entered the costing, timesheet, design, infrastructure, bug and module information, the computer does the number crunching for me quickly and on time to stop rorting and hopeless management practices by non-technical users.
This is the beauty of having information management and computer software skills - I can build a killer information system that really kicks butt!
By absorbing the costs of software management, both I and the customer win. I save time and money and the customer cannot swindle me and gets a predictable result. If the customer won't run their business properly re technology, I do and this feeds back to me in savings all around. A small investment by me has paid off dividends that go straight to the bottom line!
As of January 2007, I used UML briefly (ArgoUML in Jan 2007, now PlantUML in Feb 2023) to model my projects using OO (object-oriented) methodology. This started to help me simplify and shorten the process of designing or redesigning a large project. However the customer was lost so I resorted back to using my project management system again (plain text and images) instead of classy UML to remain viable.
I use generic programming patterns for successful projects to create specifications if the customer fails to communicate with me what they want to save confusion from illiterate ramblings. I have handled 2 attempts by an illiterate customer to write gibberish and get away with it. Now I make a guess and build the site and modify it near the end to save useless design decisions by an illiterate customer putting me off track. This also stops stalling and cost blowouts by mismanagement at the customer end.
I prefer 'agile' software engineering methology which requires large amounts of testing with some refactoring or rewriting of existing source code or software during the development cycle. This involves incremental design which I find stays on budget better than the monolithic 'big bang' approaches to design that wait for testing at the end when it is very hard to fix and may in fact destroy the project if it fails at this point.
You can liken the monolithic approach to the fixed price mentality of project management where the customer forces all the risks and costs on the developer so they don't have to pay for the stress. However we just do a fixed price on the initial quote and then give incremental mini-quotes for any additional changes the customer dreams up and drives the risk back to the customer which usually stops many silly ideas in their tracks when the real cost starts to emerge and some compromise has to be arrived at to stay on budget and finish the project with less feature points but adequate functionality to achieve a satisfactory outcome.
In April 2007, I setup a simple knowledgebase for each customer to provide self-serve support since as I was remote in Orange at the time and could not always give immediate support onsite, over the phone or internet in person. Many customers need extra help as they are small businesses and struggle with using and setting up basic computer and communications technology and I have limited resources to fill this gap in person. This came out of a suggestion for support from a customer which I felt the KB was the best way to fill that need without travelling or always being online or hiring extra staff.
In the end I had to look up the knowledgebase for the customer and this assistance saved me time in processing support requests. The customer had no time to look up the KB.
WWWalker has a lot to offer in system management. Don't overlook our skill level. As I compare what our business has to offer with other much bigger software houses I can see I am competitive and businesses should give me go! I use my system programming ability inhouse also for my own benefit.
In October 2007, I built a Web-based scheduler which takes data imports and queues and runs them using scripts. This can be adapted to any production line software or data processing system. The scripts are fully configurable and flexible and require little rewriting or editing as I use agile development methodology. This will increase productivity for our project development and decrease costs in managing complex projects or testing schedules leading to a win-win situation whereas many jobs run over budget and cause major headaches picking up the pieces. This shows our ingenuity and skill at managing big complex jobs because I am a system programmer and can program at a low level to achieve increases in productivity.
In June 2008 I wrote a Web-based indexing tool to create an index and bibliography for a book I was editing. This allows me to work anywhere on the Internet.
In August 2008 I wrote an updates tracking system so I could see when a change request to a document went through or was omitted and manage the updates process.
In July 2011, I am looking at implementing system tools using Amazon Web Services Cloud.
In June 2014, I started looking at Microsoft Azure for machine learning and system management.
In July 2021, I use AWS CLI in Perl and Python on Windows and Linux to manage EC2 instance and S3 storage buckets for backup.
In Febuary 2021 I started using Gitlab with git for CI/CD training.
In 2011 I started using Github with git for openaustralia project.
In December 2011, I started using a Subversion repository for storing and managing version control of software source code, HTML, graphics and any digital media related to a project.
In March 2014, I started using Bitbucket Git repository for storing and managing version control for a mobile project.
The faster a programmer works, the faster the boss or customer expects them to work.
Created: 24 Jan 2006 16:33
Last Updated: 4 Oct 2023 2:44