Blue Sky? 98 Questions for the IT Project Manager pptx

As an IT project manager, it’s your job to understand the goals of your project and help your team reach them.. Does anyone on the team know how the legacy system works?... Do you know w

Blue Sky?

98 Questions for the IT Project Manager

byCharlie Close

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction: Why Should You Read This Book?Blue Sky?

About the Author

Books by Charlie Close

Visit Charlie

For Kathy

Introduction: Why Should You Read This Book?

This is not a book of answers It’s a book of questions

As an IT project manager, it’s your job to understand the goals of your project and help your team reach them I can’t give you advice on how to do that I don’t know anything about your project and in my experience most problems have more than one solution So: you’re on your own

However, I have noticed that the best project managers I have worked with are worriers They are ALWAYS asking questions They know they don’t know everything, and they know that what they don’t know could be the thing that hurts the project or it could be the next big opportunity Therefore I have prepared a book of questions to ask yourself To help you worry

If you are not a worrier, use the questions in this book to start practicing If you are already a worrier, here are a few more questions to add to the list Worry about these too Go ahead You’re welcome

I said a moment ago that I can’t give any advice That’s not completely true You’ll find that the questions here are not profound and abstract They are narrow and specific Here’s the one suggestion in this book: if you want to take care of the big things, start by taking care of the little things

Blue Sky?

Is the Sales organization selling the product you’re building?

Is the client making plans for the new campaign without consulting you?

Does anyone on the team know how the legacy system works?

Do you have every team member’s personal phone number?

Do you know what time zone all your team members are in?

Is Sales going to get a signed purchase order before the end of the fiscal year?

Are there any holidays between now and the deadline?

How long is nine story points going to take?

Has the director signed off on the new servers yet?

How are you going to answer the oldest team member’s request for a refrigerator by his desk?

Have you checked whether people from the other team will be available to work with your team when you need them?

How is the new business analyst going to learn the system?

Would this bar chart look better in red-green-yellow or orange-blue-pink?

Can you find a place for the visiting consultants to sit near your team?

Who will be conducting interviews for the new team members?

Do you really need to add three new people to the team at the same time?

Should you review the expense report before you pass it up the line, or is it probably fine?

Who’s going to attend the conference in two months?

When is Ramadan this year?

Could you recruit people from your rivals if you set up an espresso stand outside their building?

Have you seen the director’s budget plan for your project?

How do you know whether the web site will integrate with the database if they’re being developed separately?

Has the domain name been acquired yet?

Are the vendor’s security safeguards as good as yours?

Does your plan for “acquire new hardware” include time to install and troubleshoot it?

Is the business analyst writing requirements clearly enough for the developers to understand them?

How does the video conferencing equipment work?

Do you personally understand the requirements?

Can you get the guy to move from the other team to your team in time for it to help your project?

Has the technical team tested ALL the integration points?

How are you going to collect feedback from your users?

Why are there eighteen people scheduled to be on this conference call?

Are you wearing the right clothes if the client wants to go out on the town after work?

Does anyone on your team attend the meetings of the local Users Group?

Does anyone know how to prepare a $%^*&^ change request anymore?

Does the team like Chinese food?

What objectives is your boss getting compensated for this year?

Does anyone on the team know the candidate from a previous job?

Do you know what you would do if you were the client?

What’s one more project to manage?

What percent complete of done-or-not is it?

Are there cultural or religious conflicts between team members that you aren’t aware of?

Why is continuous integration breaking more often lately?

Have you asked the technical lead whether the new guy is working out?

What if the system you’re integrating with doesn’t have a release until three days before your release?

Who’s ordering lunch for the meeting?

Is the project sponsor reading the status report you send every week?

Does this shirt make you look fat?

Is your most skilled team member going to quit when he gets back from India?

Did the director make the phone call you asked him to?

If someone leaves your team, what do you need to do to keep the headcount?

Do the company’s two ERP systems give consistent spending numbers for your project?

How will you find out if Sri is a male or female name before you have to interview him or her?

Will HR do you a favor if you volunteer for the charity dunk tank?

Did the team member upload the documents like you asked him to?

Yes, it’s Chinese, but is it the right dialect of Chinese?

How will you know if the production system goes down?

Do you have fresh batteries for the microphone?

Are you calling bullshit today?

Did you reread the email before sending it?

Did you actually ask if anyone would work over the weekend?

Does it have to be an exclamation point, or will a period suffice?

What if a team member is unwilling to pair program?

How long has it been since each team member took vacation?

What are the main selling points of your company to potential new team members?

Is it practical to expect her to master both the business and technical aspects of the system in less than six months?

Why have the recruiting companies stopped sending you candidates?

Does the end of the quarter fall on a weekend?

What if the purchase order finally arrives while your boss is traveling to Hong Kong?

If that team member leaves, who else will follow him?

How can you celebrate the team’s success for less than $100?

When is the baby due?

Should you assume from the client’s Muslim name that he will not want to go to the bar across the street for drinks after the meeting?

Are there enough chairs for the meeting?

Do you know where the nearest photocopier is if this one is broken?

How will you know whether to believe the tech lead when he says it can’t be done?

How large a team can your technical lead manage and still have first-hand working knowledge

of the system?

Do any team member’s personal interests highlight skills you have not put to use on your project?

Are you sure you didn’t accomplish anything today?

What will you say when a team member tells you he was under too much time pressure to write tests?

Are you testing developer candidates for the technical skills they will actually need for your project?

Has this suit gone to the dry cleaner since your last business trip?

Do you often cancel meetings because you get too busy?

Do you like to write scathing emails?

Is your primary competitor having success with offshoring their services?

If you put the emotion back into the decision, do you still make the same decision?

Have you tried asking the team how to improve it?

What do you want the departing team member to do during his two-week notice period?

Is anyone checking that the new feature is working as expected in production?

Why have there been no system error emails in the last week?

If your project were ended a month early, would it have accomplished anything?

Do you know the names of the recruiter’s children?

Why is the team saying they need to build a code generator?

How will you prevent the time you need to plan the next release from getting eaten up by the time you need to complete the current release?

Is the structure of your argument easy to follow from the sequence of slides in your presentation?

Do you know who your replacement will be?

Of all the constraints on your project, which one should be alleviated first?

Are you looking for new people in the places where talented people gather?

That’s ninety-eight questions, as promised But because you like to exceed expectations, here is one more.

How far is your desk from the development team?

And because the client asked for last minute changes and you had to adjust quickly, here’s one last question.

Does the conference room have fresh whiteboard pens?

Enough for now?

The End

About the Author

Charlie Close has been an IT professional since 1992 He has makes a daily practice of helping others and solving problems large and small He currently lives with his wife Kathy in southeast Michigan, USA

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlieclose

Books by Charlie Close

Charlie and Kathy Stories

Burning Embers and Other Stories of Marriage, Work, and Family

My Darling Husband, Charlie and Kathy stories of gifts and surprises

Love and Hug Therapy, Charlie and Kathy stories of living with a fool

Blissful Morning, Charlie and Kathy Stories of living with a writer

Lightning Drive, Charlie and Kathy stories of family, love, and fear

Guilty Women, Charlie and Kathy stories of what Kathy wants

Burning Embers and Other Stories of Marriage, Work, and Family (Print edition, ISBN 1598588187)

978-Stories of Growing Up

Jeffrey’s Last Trick or Treat, Autumn stories of growing up

Roaring Crowd, Winter stories of growing up

Stubborn, Winter into spring stories of growing up

Very Short Stories

Kites and Weddings, Very Short Stories

Rough & Beautiful, Very Short Romance Stories

The Art of the Very Short Story, A Guide for Readers and Writers

The Book of Shotguns

The Book of Shotguns, 129 Names for Your Rock Band

The Second Book of Shotguns, Evil More Names for Your Rock BandThe Third Book of Shotguns, Rock Band Names from Hell

Other Books

A+, Stories of the author as a boy

Ask the Page, Three stories for frustrated writers

On the Way Home in the Dark, Stories Set in Motion

Blue Sky? 98 Questions for the IT Project Manager

Visit Charlie

http://charlieclose.com

Twitter: @CharlieClose