A Project Manager
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I was having a conversation with Chris earlier and we were working on ideas on how to get some of our projects of the ground and get them the development help they need. After a lengthy but interesting conversation, we have come to the realization that we need a project manager.
What is a project manager?
A project manager is a person who will lead a team of developers and ensure that they work on tasks effectively
How will the project manager really handle things?
A project manager will ensure that whatever task is given priority based on community feedback, will get completed on time. The project manager will also ensure that people working on tasks are actually putting in the work and are completing goals on time. A project manager can, if he chooses, kick people from the development team if they fail to meet certain deadlines.
What else will the project manager do?
A project manager will ensure that everything is in sync. For instance, lets say a certain project is complete, the project manager will then inform the pr team to start pushing it out to relevant websites or blogs thus ensuring that the project gets visibility. A project manager will also be responsible for providing updates on whatever task is being worked on, including the due date or requests for help or ideas.
Will the project manager be compensated for his time and effort?
Yes a project manager will be compensated for his time and effort through donations and so will the development team. At the end of the day this will be a community effort regardless of whether you are in the team or not. You can provide your support by donating FTC or any form of help you can muster.
Who is the project manager for now?
As of this moment Chris is the project manager and I have donated 150 FTC to him as a gesture of good faith. Chris has more than willingly offered his help to ensure that we work and complete our tasks. Chris will be handling the trello page and will keep the community updated.
I urge you all to take some time and think about what you want from FTC and what you want it to become, if you have a genuine interest in FTC and want to see it stand out from other coins or whatever you have in mind, then please speak up and let us know. If you have some FTC that you can spare, then please donate them to Chris (not right now, we will setup a donation page). Chris will use these funds to compensate for his time and share them with the developers. This will ensure that people who actually put in the work are getting compensated for their time and effort.
Again, Donation accounts will be setup for this endeavor in due course. If you are a developer and your services are for hire, then please approach us and we will try our best to offer you what we can to compensate you for your work and time. You can work for free if you like.
Forgive my grammar and spelling, its 6 in the morning.
Regards,
Motherlode1
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Hey,
So this isn’t so much about kicking people or making sure things are done to deadlines it’s about managing the agreements people make and making sure they have got everything they need.
Our enemy is apathy and procrastination. A giving up on the future and falling in to despair and feeling like everything is hopeless.
I cannot be the only person to do this as my time is very scarce right now. I will need someone to partner up with. We need to be available everyday and making sure that people who are working on projects have everything they need to get the job done.
If they do not think they are going to meet the original deadline they need to communicate that as soon as they know. There should be a burn down chart which plots the Expected Time of Arrivals of all projects and that can be adjusted on a daily or weekly basis.
The project manager should be the person or people who brings the most energy to that role and who can constructively help other people. It’s not about nagging or chastising because we’re all here for free. It’s about managing expectations and holding people accountable.
We need to focus the most on the doers.
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I think this is a very important thing, It is worth trying. :)
I expressed my support.
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Hey,
So this isn’t so much about kicking people or making sure things are done to deadlines it’s about managing the agreements people make and making sure they have got everything they need.
Our enemy is apathy and procrastination. A giving up on the future and falling in to despair and feeling like everything is hopeless.
I cannot be the only person to do this as my time is very scarce right now. I will need someone to partner up with. We need to be available everyday and making sure that people who are working on projects have everything they need to get the job done.
If they do not think they are going to meet the original deadline they need to communicate that as soon as they know. There should be a burn down chart which plots the Expected Time of Arrivals of all projects and that can be adjusted on a daily or weekly basis.
The project manager should be the person or people who brings the most energy to that role and who can constructively help other people. It’s not about nagging or chastising because we’re all here for free. It’s about managing expectations and holding people accountable.
We need to focus the most on the doers.
Spot on, imho what makes a great PM is not being able to kick people into doing stuff (management by fear never works in the end). A great PM brings energy and enthusiasm and have the ability to transfer that positive feeling over to other people, thus motivating them to feel that it’s worth doing something :)
At the same time, offloading stuff like planning and track-keeping of a project can also help people get more done with the time they put into all the various projects we see here :)
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I whole-heartedly support this. Motherlode - why not you?
I wish I had more time to commit. Sorry guys - it’s been insane on my end.
Apparently starting a business isn’t all that easy. :)
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I whole-heartedly support this. Motherlode - why not you?
I wish I had more time to commit. Sorry guys - it’s been insane on my end.
Apparently starting a business isn’t all that easy. :)
But I do support it. Chris and I were the ones who came up with the idea
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I tried to express this issue way back (right after JABOT) (check skype log, search for scrum kanban etc…), not a freaking soul would listen.
Theese kinda things is what pisses me off.
Not a single fuck was given that day i tried to get this hammered through, now all of a sudden it is now done, and we have put our “PR” guy to do the job? When and by who was this decision made.
Im sure we have someone not that occupied and that might have more management experience to get onboard on this?
Previously experience shows that Chris and Devs not necessary get along…
Btw this is nothing personal against Chris, the only reason he ends up in the crosshair every time we discuss something is cause he seems to allways be the failover guy
when stuff needs doing. Which then again makes it halfass cause you can only juggle so many balls.
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I seem to be doing this a lot recently, but I partially agree with svennand. I support this idea, and Chris’s version of the concept sounds much more community friendly, but I have ongoing concerns about the way in which decisions are made and the way things come to fruition. It’s important that people can have ideas and people can run with it but plans and decisions should be discussed rather than decided privately and implemented (albeit it softly).
For any community to work, everyone needs to be singing from the same songsheet/rulebook/procedure. I think it’s important that these procedures get decided early. I propose we nail down the decision making process and document it first. Document the flow of how ideas go from concept to reality. Next, you’d need to work out which projects fall under the PM jurisdiction, in theory this would be any project decided and agreed upon by the team via the process agreed upon above and none that haven’t been through the process. Giving clear demarcation between official/approved ideas and just standard ideas which haven’t been scrutinised thoroughly.
:)
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Wow OK this is getting pretty heavy. I agree some kind of long term strategy and direction is needed. But be careful not to overdo the processes and rules. A primary agile principal is self organising teams with the authorisation to make decisions as required.
This is not a job for most people so where people have interests and ideas that’s most likely the best thing to actually work on. If people are interested in it it will get done more quickly and more time will be spent on it.
However saying that we do need so me kind of starting point to make sure a project is properly resourced and key features are prioritised. Again agile practices can allow us to get the %80 most important features done while only doing 20% of the work. (As the last few more complex features can be less important and likely more time consuming)
Short sprints releasing functionality at regular intervals. But this has to be from the guys actually working on the stuff. This may require a product owner rather than a project manager.
A representative that knows what they require of the end product and can make decisions rather than someone managing our time. Were not children.I’d be happy to help out as this is what i do for a day job. (Developer not product owner)
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I’m not advocating that teams are weighed down with policy and compliance, that’s the last thing a team needs. Quite the opposite, I’m suggesting that get the details agreed upfront so the teams can get on with their job. If I use this thread as an example, between ML and Chris, the concept there is a clear difference of opinion, this muddies the waters, is the project manager we are looking for a tough love corporate psycho or a team building, motivational and organisational genius?
And just for svennand,
“If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favourable to himâ€
;)
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I’ll do it.
If one or two others want to help me that’s would be kewl. I can dedicate at least an hour a day. Sometimes maybe more.
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I’m not advocating that teams are weighed down with policy and compliance, that’s the last thing a team needs. Quite the opposite, I’m suggesting that get the details agreed upfront so the teams can get on with their job. If I use this thread as an example, between ML and Chris, the concept there is a clear difference of opinion, this muddies the waters, is the project manager we are looking for a tough love corporate psycho or a team building, motivational and organisational genius?
And just for svennand,
;)
Your right and I agree on the type or project manager that would be best would be the second.
But what I’m suggesting is that we just have a rough guess at the start of the project about what to work on first and what features may be required.
The reason for this is that at the start of the project we know less than at any other time. This is where traditional waterfall prince2 projects fall over.
All a team really needs at the start of a project is
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A decision that the project is deemed to be worth while and the team can be dedicated to it.
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Someone who has a vision for what is going to be created. Not necessarily all the specifics but the power to make decisions on what is required as the project rolls forward.
Im not trying to be awkward or spoil this thread (too late? lol) im just maybe voting against a traditional “Project Manager” and voting for a Product Owner as the difference is huge.
EDIT: Although this does not mean that there needs to be a consensus made before hand on if the project is worthwhile and how should/can work on it.
EDIT2: I think Calem would be great he has good people skills. All that would be required additionally would be an understanding of the particular specifics/vision of the project.
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Wow OK this is getting pretty heavy. I agree some kind of long term strategy and direction is needed. But be careful not to overdo the processes and rules. A primary agile principal is self organising teams with the authorisation to make decisions as required.
This is not a job for most people so where people have interests and ideas that’s most likely the best thing to actually work on. If people are interested in it it will get done more quickly and more time will be spent on it.
However saying that we do need so me kind of starting point to make sure a project is properly resourced and key features are prioritised. Again agile practices can allow us to get the %80 most important features done while only doing 20% of the work. (As the last few more complex features can be less important and likely more time consuming)
Short sprints releasing functionality at regular intervals. But this has to be from the guys actually working on the stuff. This may require a product owner rather than a project manager.
A representative that knows what they require of the end product and can make decisions rather than someone managing our time. Were not children.I’d be happy to help out as this is what i do for a day job. (Developer not product owner)
Im not suggesting that it should be an papermill skyhigh for everything people wants to have done.
Im simple stating that getting an small “system” together to make it an more direct attack approach/structure both in time spent on each task, AND keeping it at an schedual would be pretty good and not to mention productive, this will also catch failing projects etc if someone gets bored or have their head under water. Then someone can scoop in an take over. This is much easier if you have an project segmented in sprints (scrum) if one branch failes/stops it doesnt slow down the whole production
Theres allready a bunch of awesome worktechnics invented out there (scrum,kanban and some others), check em out on youtube.
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“If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favourable to himâ€
FIXED!
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I agree at work we work in an agile way with sprints / retrospectives etc etc a little like scrum but less strict maybe more like kanban.
But I think your right we need some kind of overseeing board? what can prioritise different projects and help where needed.
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I’ve gotten really use to Trello all ready, If someone is working on a project, I’ll need them here - https://trello.com/b/cfUhrHjM/team-todo
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I can keep track of everything myself, but it would help everyone in the project if they were able to cross things off lists and move jobs around etc.
All the planning and major communication will be done as it’s always been, through the forum and skype, but project organisation should be done through Trello.
People can jump onto trello first thing in the morning, pick a project and away they go without needing to stall for any reasons.
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Im more interessted in knowing exactly what resources Feathercoin has atm.
What skillset do people have, how much can they contribute?
An burndown chart might be as professional as possible, it still doesnt help if theres no teams behind it actually putting in the hours with it.
Just look at the feathercoin market for example, that on took FOREVER, and one of the main reasons for this is that bush had to do it all himself.
Quite an large task for one man, and by the end of it he was probably so feed up he felt feathercoin scratching his tonsils
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I’m in favour of a board in control of multi Sig wallets voted in by the community (with veto powers to Bush if needs be). I’d even pay annually to be a part of the community.
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svennand, can I add you to the list of resources (the team list been worked on). What can we use you for.
Kris, did you want to change your title… I’ve put you down as Merchant Development but if you can code maybe we put you down as General Development?
This team page is the first step in what I will try do. Give me a shot, and I’ll get a run down of everyone on the team, and ill put something together which will help with workload balance etc.
