A novel idea! A novel about Project Management

I just finished (today) a terrific novel (of all things) called "The Deadline - A Novel About Project Management" by Tom DeMarco. It's a 1997 read that absolutely blows my mind. It considers basic principles of management in ways and in relationships I simply didn't consider before reading this 300 pg short book. The author illustrates in first person prose in real terms how to put simple change in place - and we're not talking about PMBOK 4 101 here....

The author gets into intimate details about where problems in projects (systems) reside, how to solve them, and more importantly for me, shows you how it's really done all within the confines of a myriad of characters, actions, and personalities. This book illustrates quite openly about how management involves four key things: heart, gut, soul, and nose...among many other great points that the main character collects throughout his tour of duty. I'll note those in a future blog post (I tend to take notes about my findings to paper since I don't memorize key points in books as easily). I know someone that sure can do this though...like a human journal, he is!

But for now, take my word that this book is as relevant as ever. Tom even has some keen insight in this era (some 14 yrs ago now) that is spot on with today's complexities building and deploying software. That Lahksa Hoolihan character is engraved in my head - engaging, cunning, and beautiful all in one;).

Taking myself from adequate to extraordinary

Alright gang...I finally bit the bullet, and I mean bit-down-hard.

I'm officially on a book kick and I've got self-motivation on the horizon where ever I look...So, I'm jumping in with both feet, with the following two goals solidly on the front burner.

• Number 1: Evaluate myself. Where/how can I achieve better results in my personal life and in my professional career? How can I learn more about the inner workings of really being a "Manager". I can only do this with some serious reading - not just books I've read, but a barrage of books on several different levels - books I wouldn't think of picking up one yr ago.
• Number 2: OK, so I finally self-admitted that I need a coach, a Life Coach. No..A Motivational Coach. Well, sort of. A Personality/Attitude Coach....Well, close, I suppose. A Leadership Coach...yes, that sounds closer, I think. Maybe counseling to help unlock my "strong adult" vs. my "child"...hmm, that sounds eery, like a need a shrink or something.......I don't know what this goal is exactly yet, but I know I need professional support, a real person able and willing to guide me on my journey, someone I see biweekly or more and someone I confide in for support.

I'm excited, nervous, slightly overwhelmed, but giddy like that first day back in Grad school in a Dynamics of Social Relationships course. Let's see where this takes me. I've already jetted through a great book and I'm seeking a life coach next week to see if it's the right angle for me...

Native screen snapshot recorder inside Windows 7

OK, so I was blown away this week by a feature inside of Windows 7 that frankly I had no idea existed...it's one of those hidden treasures that's not visible or start menu or searchable unless you use terms like, "snip", "steps", "recorder"...It's called Problem Steps Recorder. I've been using Windows 7 for 2 yrs now (or something close to that while on the beta program) and never realized it was there. That was definitely a RTFM dummy episode, but I'll survive.

Off topic...ok, so I'm a huge Microsoft OneNote fan, and I was looking for the native screen clipping tool that ships with Windows 7 for a colleague (BTW, that's called Snipping Tool). I don't use it because I love the functionality and clarity of capture provided by OneNote's capture utility and integration thereto.

OK, this utility, Problem Steps Recorder is now available on most legacy OS's as well: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=B72D3AC2-4352-4184-9992-E122DBB80883&displaylang=en

This thing lets you hit record, perform any array of steps on your desktop, add textual comments where ever you like, and press stop to generate a web archive (.mht file) compressed into a tidy zip. And this is an enterprise-ready solution as-is. Starting the web archive file spawns a detailed collection of image snaps and human readable commands performed during the session, not to mention an incredibly useful slideshow view, all in the browser. Microsoft got it right on this one! You can even define the granularity of screen snapshots captured and whether or not to include the screen image (for private data scenarios). Most important to me is that it's lightweight and fast.

With the Silverlight plugin, you can get a quick demo here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd320286

I can see huge advantages for QA resources creating an archive as needed to satisfy repro steps for the developer/designer resource...huge time saver, and with team foundation server 2010, this zip could be attributed to a bug item for posterity. I'm probably behind the 8-ball, but I'm stoked about this little gem and will be trying it out with my team.