When working on projects with a fixed budget you will for sure recognize the time registration need. @GOYELLO we use our Redmine Project Management Environment to register time. Unfortunately, it is very boring and time consuming job. The good news is that we found a way to maximally simplify the time registration process by developing one simple tool…
It is impossible to work between 9-5
Have you ever wondered how many hours do you actually work at the office? Excluding lunch breaks and other ...
We all have to register time, but why bother?
CommentsHow to improve client communication while reducing emails by 95%?
Comments
Some time ago we decided to change our issue tracking system. We were using Trac which helped us a lot but at a certain moment it was no longer sufficient. The reason was simple. We wanted to create one work environment for our clients together with our developers and project managers. Among others we aimed to limit the amount of emails in between client and project manager. Was it a good decision to invite our clients to use our Project Management environment?
HOW TO: manage email notifications in Redmine
CommentsRedmine is a very lean and powerful web application for project management. GOYELLO is using it for managing all different client projects. Recently we realized that the email notification mechanism could be improved to reduce the amount of spam sent to the team members. Read further to learn how we managed to do it, and besides we will share our plug-in with you!
How to make your clients Agile without teaching them?
CommentsAgile SCRUM defines the way how people should cooperate on the dialy basis. However, reality brings several situations where Agile rules are hard to use. How to handle such exceptions not destroying Agility in the team?
Projects are usually done in few phases. Like I described in this post, the delivery phase is usually the hardest to manage. Why? In reality, you get customer attention at the end of whole development process. This of course shouldn’t happen but… Life is life. How to manage such exceptions?
1. Have a good talk with your customer and construct the contract in such way that it will clearly state when changes in the software are allowed and when not. Also, when you notice lack of interest from the client side after providing to him sprints results, inform him that later changes will seriously influence the delivery date. This usually works.
2. If the second step won’t work, you can construct the contract in such way, that after each sprint, customer gets invoice. Of course not whole project cost, but the part that was made for him. This is just a trick that always works. Suddenly, next day customer is sending replies on old emails and checks your results very deeply. This is not the best solution for lack of response from the client side, but made in polite way, can bring only good things to the project.
What is most important! Customer attention and remarks while the product grows is the most important aspect of the whole Agile development approach.
Agile SCRUM defines the way how people should cooperate on the daily basis. However, in reality we are faced with situations where Agile rules are hard to use. How to handle such exceptions not destroying Agility in the team?
Project management in the age of Web 2.0
CommentsThey already managed ages ago! So why don’t we manage to realize something as simple as a web application? Ages ago people managed to fulfill miraculous projects with hardly any tools. Today we can choose from a wide range of tools, but still we do not manage to run a project according to the client’s needs. What goes wrong?
Agile development – how to handle customers
CommentsIn my previous post I outlined the issue of too flexible approach towards the customer. In the example I provided you were presented as a painter and me as your customer. A few changes of my ideas regarding the color of the room resulted in you spending 3 more hours to complete the job and spending additional 10$. Not very good. On the other hand, not too harmful so what’s a big deal ? Unfortunately in the real world, where money matters – this is a very huge one.
Agile development – advantages and disadvantages – Part 1
CommentsIn GOYELLO we are always trying to use all the best tools and practices available. Currently, we are evaluating the Agile methodology with the SCRUM’s, sprints and all other things related to it. This post opens the series of short articles about Agile and how I am experiencing it. Let’s start!
