3 minutes read
This Drupalcon session is about managing your projects from a technical level. I'm not really a project manager but I'm trying to get better at managing large projects so I can make sure me and my developers make the right choices.
The Dos and Don'ts of Technical Project Mangement
Definition of a Project Manager - hearding cats. Hopefully the audio & slides get posted on the Drupalcon site.
Taming two lions:
- Clients
- need proper expectations
- need educations
- need big dreams brought to reality
- firm empathy
- Developers
- Don't need distractions
- Communicate red flags to the client
- Need to fed words of encouragement
Technical Project Manager
- competent folks who worked up the technical ranks
- became project leader through wit and skill
- able to communicate clearly to the non-technical
- Time <> Money <> Features
- Trying to figure the actual solution
- Daily life
- write a few status reports
- compose a dozen emails, take more calls, chat on slack, send more emails
- help team prioritize the latest set of technical issues
- assist in identifying the problem at the root of several technical issues
- employ one or more mitigation strategies for technical risks
- !!! pull at least one person out of tempting rabbit-hole
Transitioning to a TPM
- PM -> TPM
- Understanding Drupal
- Structure: Learn the Drupal Basics
- Tools: How Development is done
- Investigation: How to find the problem
- Research
- Dismantle to learn
- Stack exchange, Stack overflow, drupal.org
- Learn the fine art of boolean search operators
- get thee to meetups! (I like this one as an idea for people to learn)
- Hands-on Learning
- Dive into techincal support
- Create documentation
- Assist during emergencies
- Take notes, ask questions, take on tasks
- Understanding Drupal
- Dev -> TPM
- Mental shift of what a workday looks like
- keep troubleshooting skills sharp
- develop empathy and interpersonal skills
- verbal judo (how to verbally de-escalate)
- Challenges
- Communicating clearly, non technically
- document ALL THE THINGS
- balancing thinking time vs talking time
- Don't book meetings back to back
- every half of meeting you have you need at least that much time to do the work
- people coaching skills
- Don't bully your developers
How to rock as a TPM
- Quick tips
- clear your inbox before EOD
- understand priorities
- stay close to the code
- own your mistakes and your developer mistakes
- be available, be calm
- sometimes it's good to help out randomly late at night
- double your estimate, both time & money
- know when to ask for help
- be humble, curious and unexpecting
- know when to shut it off
- Trust your gut
- if you think we're going to be late, talk to them early.
- Know how to read people
- Face-to-face meetings are best with clients
- Understand balance
- balance clients needs with your developers skills
Getting into the weeds
- Creating Tasks
- understanding the problem
- co-create the solution
- write testing criteria to define done
- determine estimate
- check in on developer early
- Create a User Story
- Estimation
- You're going to mess up a lot!
- Toolbelt
- Channels of communication
- development methodologies
- project management tools
- automated reminders
- set a reminder the second you say you'll do something at a particular time
- testing, testing, testing
- firefighters
- intense client situations
- budget / timeline / scope changes
- magic words
- keep calm
What does success look like?
You never know if you've made it, just like everything else in life.
Takeaway
They said "hey it's just a website" which is what we've been saying which is awesome! Being a TPM is a big thing, curious if this is sort of the role I'll be falling into or not. I did find some good things I'll be sharing with our product owners.
:wq