Presentation from Midcamp Drupal Camp in Chicago on March 29. Overview of project management Methodologies, Domain Knowledge and Softskills

1. BECOMING ATECHNICAL PROJECT
MANAGER
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2. ABOUT SCOTT
• Current: Director of Customer Success @Pantheon
• Past: Support Manager, Promet Solutions, Drupal dev shop
• Service Manager, MSP in Chicago
• IT Project Manager, Consultant; Oilily, Chiasso
• Management Consulting
• Certified Scrum Master
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3. ABOUT JOHNNIE
• Current: Senior Project Manger @Prometsource
• Recovering Developer
• Construction Management
• Certified Scrum Master
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4. RAREST ORCHIDS
Kinds of PMs in Drupal:
• PreviousTech Exp
• Owner
• PMbot
• “Assistant”
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5. BAD RAP ON
YOU…
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6. WHAT ITTAKES
1. PM skills
2. Technical knowledge
3. Soft skills
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7. PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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8. MAJOR METHODOLOGIES
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9. AGILITY
• In general, agility is defined as "the ability of a
[system] to rapidly respond to change by
adapting its initial stable configuration”
• agility or nimbleness is the ability to change
the body's position efficiently, and requires
the integration of isolated movement skills
using a combination of balance, coordination,
speed, reflexes, strength, and endurance
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10. AGILE MANIFESTO
• We are uncovering better ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it.Through this work we have
come to value:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
• That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value
the items on the left more.
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11. LIES ABOUT AGILE
• It is a silver bullet that fixes all problems
• Agile is the right approach for all projects
• One Agile framework is good for all the projects you do.
• Agile will stop you from making bad decisions
• Agile will immediately show results
• All clients love Agile
• Your love life will improve if you adopt agile.
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12. AGILE FLAVORS
Agile Modeling
Crystal Clear
Dynamic Systems
Development method
(DSDM)
Exia Process
Extreme Programming
(XP)
Feature Driven
Development
Open Unified Process
(Open UP)
Scrum
VelocityTracking
Kanban
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13. WATERFALL
it just flows!
• Discovery
• Planning
• Development
• Implementation
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14. Monday, March 31, 14

15. DUNDER-MIFFLIN ♥’S WATERFALL
Document Objective
SOW What client wants
Charter Attributes of Project
PRD
What you will buildTRD What you will build
Func Spec
What you will build
WBS Fantasy timeline
Change Requests Reality
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16. TECHNICAL SKILLS
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17. JUST LEARN:
Linux
Apache/NGINX
Vim
How to code
Drupal: Entities/Taxonomy/Users
Drupal: Site Building
Drupal:Theme Layer
Drupal: Panels? Domain Access?
Display Suite?
Drupal: the config & content
database knot
Drush
IDE
MySQL
Application layer IP: http, ftp, ssh, ssl/
tls, dns,
telnet, ldap
Wireframing
html
CSS
javascript
PHP
SASS
xml
rss
REST/api
CRUD
CI
simpletest
caching
reverse proxy caching
performance testing
New Relic
Symfony
ux/ui
SEO
Version control
Photoshop
provisioning
QA/selenium/behat
SOAP
PCI compliance
Virtualization
Vagrant
Composer
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18. JOHNNIE’S KEYS LEARNINGS
• Drupal Ladder
• Buildamodule
• Modules Unraveled
• Drupalize Me
• Google is your friend
• Have smart friends
• Someone on D.O
has probably had
same problem
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19. ALWAYS BE LEARNING
• Projects aren’t the best place for it
• Build your own plan
• Things you should focus on:
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20. JOHNNIE’S RECCOMENDATIONS
• Google is your friend
• someone on D.0 has probably done it before....
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21. SCOTT’S RECOMMENDATIONS
• 1,000,000 questions
• 90 days of …
• Books:
• D7 Module development
• Front EndTheming
• Build a Megasite
• Do your own retrospective
• Immersion: Podcasts, Blogs,
Meetups, Classes
• Camps/cons
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22. SAMPLE 90 DAY SPRINT
• Objectives:
• Code everyday
• Build a site with CDN, SSL, SOLR, Redis
• Content from Feeds
• Deliverable: Site, Notes, Commits, Retrospective
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23. SAMPLE/HTTP
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24. MY RECOMMENDATIONS
• BloomsTaxonomy
• Knowledge: RepeatTerms; “List”
• Comprehension: Understands
how to repeat examples;
“Describe”
• Application:When to use;
“Apply”
• Analysis:Why that works;
“Appraise”
• Synthesis: Extend knowledge;
“Create”
• Evaluation: Understands the
entire sphere; “Predict”
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25. OTHER PM SKILLS
• Organization
• Look for the similarities
• Set expectations early: Kickoff, Onboarding, Change requests, Decisions, Estimation
• Think Binary
• Pick your tools and get to know it
• PMTool (Excel)
• Waterfall/Agile/Scrummerfall
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26. TRACKING PROGRESS
守: Obey 破: Detach 離: Depart
Drupal
Linux
Apache/NGINX
MySQL
PHP
X
X X
X
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27. SOFT SKILLS
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28. Monday, March 31, 14

29. • How to handle 11th hour stakeholder
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30. • How to handle 11th hour stakeholder
• Working with the enemy of success
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31. • How to handle 11th hour stakeholder
• Working with the enemy of success
• How to handle black swan events
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32. • How to handle 11th hour stakeholder
• Working with the enemy of success
• How to handle black swan events
• How to handle the 11th hour stakeholder brought in by the project enemy during a
black swan event
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33. 7 HABITS
1. Constant Self Improvement
2. Confrontation: Get Good At It
1. “No,”“Not yet,”“That is out
of scope”
3. Be Fun & Interesting
4. Ask, Listen, and Repeat
5. Relentlessly attack blockers
6. “Success” is subjective:
1. Detach with Love
2. Champion the project
7. The last 20% is what makes
you a great PM
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34. PROMISES
• Projects will succeed
• Authority andTrust will grow
• You will be surprised at what comes out of your mouth
• You will work more efficiently (so you may be busier, but less reactive!)
• You will be able to do the stuff you have in your head
Monday, March 31, 14