Open Source Project Management Part 2

In a previous post, I had written about needing to find a project management tool.

Really, though, what I want is integration.

The application workflow is really simple, actually:

• Initialize the project requirements internally, based on my team's understanding of what we think the customer is asking for.
• Review the task list and all dependencies with the customer in MS Project, or a tool (like those posted previously) that can export MS Project files.
• Then, get all that now-approved info into some calendar tool, somehow, that we the project team all have access to. We don't all have to have the same *level* of access, mind you, just the ability get there somehow, easily.

And then I ran across this, which exports a MS Project file to Google Calendar. Now, I love the fact that this open-source tool does for me exactly what I need, and all I have to do to get my team on the calendar is send them the WebCal URL for the final calendar.

http://www.daball.me/2011/04/convert-microsoft-project-to-google.html

High Achieving

First, stop and go read this:

12 Ways to Spot a High Achiever

The point of this post is NOT to criticize his article.

Instead, what if you're just starting out? How would you do these things? How would you know how to recognize the signs that either you're really one of these people (while containing your ego there, champ), or to direct yourself to become the person described here?

I suggest, if you’re just starting out:

1. Ask, ask, ask. Ask for what you want. This does not mean be pushy, it means learn the difference between what you want, what you need, and how to not be passive aggressive about the difference between the two.

2. Learn when to cut and run. There are times where it makes sense, strategically, to quit, but this doesn’t just apply to jobs. It can be people, equipment, projects, etc.

3. Accept the reality around you as fact, and find a way to define what you’d like to see. Knowing the difference between where you are and where you want to go, but clearly, is the first step. From here, you can make a list of steps to get yourself from-here-to-there.

4. Help others. I’m putting this last, even though it really is first, because until I learned how to ask for what I wanted, I couldn’t really help others, because I wasn’t sure if I was helping myself, since I didn’t know what I wanted.

Open Source Project Management

I like open source software for some things.

Interoperability is king, though, when it comes to providing a lower-cost alternative to products that are marketed more strongly.

Two project management applications I've recently tried?

ProjectLibre
http://sourceforge.net/projects/projectlibre/

and

GanttProject
http://www.ganttproject.biz/

These are both installable applications for PC, Mac & *nix.

Having played with ProjectLibre for a while now, I was looking for two specific features in it, and GanttProject.
1. The ability to schedule the Summary / Parent task either separate from, OR as a result of the children. In other words, I first want to make the parent task (that is, the phases of the project), define the dependencies between them, and then go back and fill in the tasks per phases.

When I fill in the tasks per project phase, I want the tool to stretch the dates of the parent automatically. It also works for me if, like MS Project, there's a button I can flip that tells the tool "manual or auto" for the date scheduling.

I use this all the time for roughing in phases - much faster than tweaking task dates first - and to quickly communicate in Gantt chart form.


2. Date selection that works. The dates, although you can manually define them as what you want, don't work, and aren't user friendly. For example, in ProjectLibre, I can't just type in today's date, and the tool figures out that "Oh, hey! You want to use today? Sure! I'm just going to assume the normal start/end time for that, OK?"

Instead, it requires manually typing in the date in a programmer-decided format. NO! Bad coder! I want to type in the date, not have to be precise. I'm trying to manage a project here, and prototype phases with dates, not get stuck in a syntax war with my software tool.

Time-travelling DNS

I’m going to have to rebuild the DNS of my test lab domain.

At some point, it WILL happen.

When it does, what would I like to tell my future self?

IP addresses are irrelevant, because within the test network, those change all the time. (That would be the point of the home lab, wouldn’t it? To be able to build and rebuild as much as I want from within Workstation 9 and the VM’s?)

I think that I would like to remind myself that, when setting up a home lab for the first time, VMnet8 (NAT) is going to be your very bestest friend.

 

Open the VMware "Virtual Network Editor" to see which IP subnet’s configured and to also disable the “local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs”.

 

Then, inside each VM? Go with IP address ranges
192.168.xx.3...50 (fixed, for the DC’s) and
192.168.xx.51...100 (for the clients & lab boxes).

The gateway address to use for configuring the Ethernet adapters in the VMs is 192.168.xx.2. You can find this by clicking on the “NAT Settings…” button in the Virtual Network Editor window.

 

Then, once all that’s done:
1. set each VM's DNS IPv4 server settings to point to the virtual DC

 

2. on the DNS servers / DC’s, setup DNS forwarding to send DNS requests for other domains (that is, for the Internet) to the same IP as listed as “DNS Server” on the Host PC.

 

Last step, as always, is to prove it works. A quick test is this blog. If that succeeds, then check for updates using Windows Update.

Build a VMWare Workstation 9 Home / Test Lab

So I’m building a test lab at home.

This post is going to grow to become a directory of the issues, I think, that I post about that over time.

For now, here’s the plan:

Dual Windows Domain Controllers
Separately from the two DC’s, SQL Server 2012
Windows 8 Client PC

…and all on Workstation 9.

I’m building them in order to test SQL 2012 in a domain, of course, because I want to just jump in log in with Windows Authentication to SSAS, and I can’t do that without a domain.

I mean, I think I can – I’ve seen some articles about cobbling things together to do so, but honestly, I don’t really want to. Really.

I want to get as close to “best practices” as I can with this setup, since that’s what I’m expecting the exam(s) to cover.

Free software?

It really bugs me when free software functionality isn't included as a part of the base product.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/essentials

For example, the Windows Essentials group of applications from Microsoft.

This seems, to me, for Windows 8 at least, to be not-quite-optional functionality that really has a place in the "installed by default category", with one large caveat. That is, if you're installing on a desktop.

And there is the other issue - why am I, with a mouse and keyboard on a laptop, having to suffer through gestures?

Perhaps in the dawning age of the tablet, I'm the odd man out for wanting a desktop, but really, let's face it. I LIKE having a mouse and keyboard. They allow me to function with an efficiency that currently just isn't possible any other way.

That said, I'd like my apps to be apps - getting redirected by a Fortune 500 company's website to their "full experience" on my Android phone is ridiculous. I also want my programs to be that - programs. Sized for the screen, not dependent on gestures, and for the love of Pete, to not assume a layout and control structure UI that requires a small screen to make any sense.

Public Data - Reference Post

These are some public data sources. 

This page is intended only as a reference for later use... I hope to update it as I'm able to categorize and collect mroe of these links.

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ushcn/background.html

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/ushcn/

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ushcn/v2.5