Hot answers tagged project-management
10
1) Do you have written specifications for what he/she will be building?
2) Do you have a written schedule for the building of this web site?
3) Do you have a written set of project deliveries, each of which is supposed to be complete by a specified date?
4) Do you have a written budget for this project?
5) Has the developer agreed to 1 - 4 (above)?
Treating ...
9
I have 5 users and the server edition of FogBugz was the way to go. We had used BaseCamp for a year prior, without success. Cost-wise:
$50 Basecamp version = $600/year
FogBugz Server 5 users (@ $200/ea) = $1000 upfront
Depending on the # of users, and if you can afford the upfront investment, the server edition of FogBugz will pay for itself over time ...
8
NO!
I would say that you can never be too organized. In my case for example I have a 2 person gamer server hosting company, but I use Confluence to write docs and wikis not only for my future team, but to ensure that we are consistent across everything that we do. Trust me, if you don't write it somewhere it will change or you will forget, potentially a ...
7
Been using and unfuddle and fogbugz for 3+ months, we finally moved away from unfuddle and settled down with fogbugz.
Fogbugz has the worst usability but you'll get used to it.
Unfuddle has a great interface but it's limited in the functionality level. SVN support of unfudle is great as well. Especially if you want to separate SVN access for contractors.
...
7
If it was a local team I would say it is due to boring work. Great developers take motivation out of building great software. Maintenance periods, too much bug fixing, doing the same thing for too long are examples of things that will make their productivity go down.
In a remote team, you can take all of that in consideration, plus the fact that they might ...
6
There are a dizzying number of online time tracking apps out there. So you definitely don't need to build your own. Here are some reviews of various apps:
from Lifehacker
from WebWorkerDaily.com
from FreelanceSwtich
from Mashable
My team uses Harvest, which has served our needs well. It's not a free app, however (there are plenty of free ones on the ...
6
Well if your not a company (and I suggest you create one) then you basically say
Revenue - Running expenses = Profit
Running expenses can be servers, wages, coffee, travel, marketing costs for Ads etc.
You then take the profit every 3/6 or 12 months and say we will invest X% back into the company to grow and we will spilt the remainder between us.
How ...
5
This could be a starting point: http://pm-sherpa.com/features/basecamp-alternatives/
There are 45 alternatives to BaseCamp there and counting. It's strange... Who knows how many competitors exist (and survive) due to BaseCamp's refusal to make a danged Gantt chart. 37signal's systematic dismissal of the massive and continuous customer demands for Gantt ...
5
How many are you? How much do you follow agile processes? I've been really happy with PivotalTracker, even if we're not an "agile shop" per se: http://www.pivotaltracker.com for feature tracking / bug tracking / todo tracking.
It's super light weight, but plenty powerful. The real-time-collaboration aspect is killer. Highly recommended. Also, it's free but ...
5
C'mon Man! You can get an hour a day and two on the weekends.
Set a time and place to work. Beg, borrow, negotiate, plead, barter or whatever it takes to get this time for yourself.
Let everyone around you know how important this is to you. They need to know that you HAVE to do this. Hopefully they are not so selfish that they can't respect the time you ...
5
There are multiple tools you can use
Skype for communication
Collaboration & Project Management tools like Basecamp or JIRA Studio, depending on the level of complexity of your processes
Google Apps for Email, Document collaboration
These should be good enough to start with
5
I don't believe in no-support mantra, or charging for extra.
It's SaaS you keep charging them every month/year. Just give the support and add it to the cost. If it's cheaper make it expensive but with the support, don't make support cost optional either. You want all your customers happy right? Not only rich ones.
If your product is not profitable after ...
5
Most of the tools you mention are really too much for a startup weekend; you have to consider that you'll be all in the same room, and for a short amount of time. What works
Dropbox to share documents, code, images
Google Docs for writing documents collaboratively
source control (github, for instance) for source code
To collect user feedback and conduct ...
4
I know exactly how you feel, I am in the same boat. Every time I start getting frustrated I remind myself that this is not supposed to be easy, I'd like to think that the harder it is to get to release date, the greater the reward will be :)
Keep it up, remember the reason(s) you started working in your project in the first place, that usually helps me get ...
4
I find it hard to be productive int he few hours I have - but when I do focus the time is very valuable. I was used to working with large blocks of time. This has been one of the hardest challenges - finding ways to use 30 minutes here and there. I still have not gotten a handle on it.
In any case, prioritization is key. Communication is really ...
4
You profit is anything you say it is. You can calculate it in a myriad of ways, which could result in a profit of $0 on every sale. Your finder has no idea what your profit margin is. It's what you tell him or her.
The only thing your finder knows is the percentage you promised him and the cost of the job. I have never heard of finders fees based on ...
4
We offer two types of maintenance: prepaid (based on the licensing cost) and per incident (more or less an hourly rate). In addition, new features are done on a spec, time & materials, basis -- if we'll add them at all.
It's pretty standard to do this (unless you're 37Signals, then you just don't listen to your customer at all and expect them to get ...
4
Well it is and it isn't.
People who work for startups like making up the rules. This is one of the "hidden benefits" of working at a startup. If your startup requires creative solutions, you want to attract creative people. When you ask that question they here "why don't you fit back into this box" ... its an ego/point of difference thing ...
In the ...
4
The thing, in answering this, is that you're expecting to hear big names such as Facebook. But industry trends are quite different nowadays that they were at the peak of the internet bubble.
Back then:
Find a few million
Spend like crazy on pricey tech
Hire dozens of people
Eventually go bust
Now, it's more like:
Grab an open source solution or a dirt ...
4
Craigslist would probably be the closest to what you are looking for, but I think you are wrong to insist on the condition that no funding ever occurs.
If you bootstrap a great startup, similar to Google or Facebook, investors will eventually knock at your door. Then, it will be foolish of you to refuse all terms. Money (investment) is just anything else, ...
4
A good start would be to limit yourself to asking questions instead of giving answers.
"Why is this code all in one file?"
"What are some ways you could make the code easier for new developers to understand?"
Etc. Your questions can be pretty leading but you're just asking questions, which prevents people from going on the defensive.
4
Ultimately, every organisation needs a boss. Anyone can do the easy stuff, but there also needs to be someone empowered to make the hard, unpopular decisions and then take responsibility for seeing them through.
If you find it impossible to agree on one of you for this role, perhaps look outside for someone to be CEO, or at least someone who can moderate ...
3
What sort of "project management" did you have in mind? Hosted or locally installed?
Are you trying to manage work by external people, or just for your internal team? Interactions with customers?
More interested in task/time tracking, or general feature/release management?
I'd split it into a few groups (assuming hosted):
Software project management ...
3
It is important that you remember that this is like pushing a stalled car, it's going to be hard to get started but once you build momentum it gets easier and finally the thing really starts. After that it becomes a whole different experience.
I am the only programmer in a team of 5 and it has taken 3 years, and 3 completely different builds of the site, to ...
3
When I do consulting work, I always let my clients know when something is outside of my expertise. That is just the ethical thing to do. They are paying decent money for my expertise, so BSing them is highly unethical.
That all said, I almost always have a subject matter expert in any of the areas I do not cover. I am always more than happy to introduce my ...
3
It's a great idea to work hard and have fun with a team. And you can do a lot in a week...
A cautionary note is that if you have a great time, it's easy to get emotionally over-committed to that v1. Maybe it'll be a great product, or maybe it'll be the makings of a great team. Get trusted, critical friends to help you discover which you have on your hands ...
3
What you mentioned is good. Also, Dropbox is a great idea as it allows you to have a "cloud folder" that synchronizes automatically to every computer of authorized participant. Good for storing a "common" folder structure containing documents, tools, etc. It's also free for a 2GB capacity which is more than enough for a small startup.
In addition, you might ...
3
You might consider a free trial of FogBugz and Kiln. You can add as many users as you need for the trial and you get a full-featured task management system combined with excellent source control. I'd recommend spending a little time getting comfortable with the tools before diving into the weekend.
Disclaimer: I work for Fog Creek Software and live within ...
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