On The Margins

Monday May 01, 2006

[ Work ] Why Schedules Fail

Thus, writes Scott Burken in his The Art of Project Management:

Project schedules are the easy scapegoats for everything that can possibly go wrong. If someone fudges an estimate, misses a requirement, or gets hit by a bus, it is the schedule (and the person responsible for it) that catches the blame. If the nation's power supply were to go out for 10 days, or the team's best programmers were to catch the plague, invariably someone would say, "See, I told you the schedule would slip" and wag her finger in the schedule master's face. It's completely unfair, but it happens all the time. As much as people loathe schedules, they still hold them up to an unachievable standard. Even the best schedulers in the world, with the smartest minds and best tools at their disposal, are still attempting to predict the future——something our species rarely does well.

But if a team starts a project fully aware of the likely reasons schedules fall apart and takes some action to iminize those risks, the schedule can become a more useful and accurate tool in the development process.

We're lucky to have a good writer explain all that in a truly well-designed book.

2006-05-01 13:22:49.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Sun Microsystems Inc. ] 15 Days Left to JavaOne

Right about the time of JavaOne conferences in the last three years, I was either attending meetings of Open Mobile Alliance or visiting some mobile telecommunications partner of Sun in Europe. Although it may seem otherwise, this was a dear price to pay to miss one of the most important developer conferences on Earth.

Check out the list of JavaOne exhibitors, and if you're a member of the media, the "Media Center" is the right place to start if you're looking for some special privileges or other tid-bits of news and blogs, including the one from the honorable James Gosling himself.

(This year, OMA has acted more wisely with the timing of its meeting which will be held in Osaka, Japan.)

This year, it looks like I may be given the opportunity to attend JavaOne.

So, like others, I need to find some time to get ready. Only 15 days are left to JavaOne 2006!

2006-05-01 11:11:59.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.