Speaking of Teamwork…
19 Jun 2008 | Filed Under: Design + Technology
A few days ago, I read somewhere I can no longer find that the average person can’t efficiently manage more than three open projects. To be honest, I was very surprised by this number; I really thought it would be more than that. Most people I know who freelance seem to carry more than that at once, although I haven’t really done an official poll or anything.
However, this piece of information did encourage me to get more organised about an overview of the projects I am juggling, and so I went out in search of some project management systems because Post It Notes are just not cutting it anymore. I looked at Basecamp and Project Place but ultimately settled on Walter Wynn’s suggestion of Teamwork. (Everyone uses Basecamp, and while I’m sure there’s a reason for that and it is jolly nice, I like to throw money out of the mainstream every now and then.)
So far I am delighted with Teamwork; it’s really easy to use, it has everything I want, and when I sent in a suggestion about how they could improve their conversions from their Features Tour, I got back a very nice and responsive email right away. The later discovery that Teamwork is based right here in Cork, meaning I can go round and break their kneecaps if they go out of business and take all my projects with them, was just a nice bonus on top of a great product.
I started entering all my projects, and nobody was more surprised than me to find out that I currently have no less than 15 open gigs going. Except possibly the two clients who I had forgotten about entirely, which if nothing else points out how very, very badly I need to plug into a project management system. Also how much I need to apologise to them, pull my finger out, and deeply discount their invoices.
Even before today’s headcount and dropped client fiasco though, I had begun to grasp that this workload isn’t particularly sustainable. I mean sure, you can survive on four hours of sleep per night for a week or so, but after that you really can’t remember anything, let alone produce anything. Sleep: it does a body good.
So for the past few weeks I have been working with two entirely fabulous people I am incredibly lucky to know. I am still doing 100% of the design work, but a lot of the actual CSS and XHTMLing has gone out to my new CSS Overlord Guillermo Moreno, who quite frankly kicks ass all over town. He’s going to be a superstar when he grows up. (At this point, however, I still worry about keeping him up past his bedtime.)
My very talented friend Katherine Nolan has also been doing the heavy lifting on the e-commerce side of things. We actually met on a forum for our favourite shopping cart software almost 10 years ago, but at this point, I’m about 5 versions behind and she is much better equipped to hack sort out the cart system than I am. (She also happens to be the world’s leading expert on Coranto, which can be very handy.)
So hopefully in the next week or two, things will calm down here and some of the decks will be cleared. It is frankly very hard for me to to let go of any part of what I do because I am a complete and total control freak when it comes to work, but I couldn’t have put any of this stuff in safer hands and I’m really pleased with the work that’s come out of these projects.
So there you go: no woman is an island, and 15 projects is too many. Who knew?
Darragh says:
Fantastic recommendation Sabrina, thanks. Going to sign up now!
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:19 amSabrina Dent says:
I swear to God, this thing will make you happy you were born. It has made my week, if not my year. :)
Enjoy!
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:20 ammartin says:
Of course, there’s the cynical response: if you’re overloaded with work, you’re not charging enough :-)
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:27 amSabrina Dent says:
Yeah there is that too :( I *still* haven’t addressed that. I have vowed to raise rates in September though.
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:33 ammartin says:
Just surveyed the Teamwork site – looks interesting, but in the kneecapping process, could you suggest to them that they really, really need support for:
1) Issues (as separate from Risks which are Bad Things which might happen: Issues are Bad Things which *have* happened)
2) Change Requests
3) Requirements and/or Scope definition
4) Deliverables – the formal things that are contractually signed off & handed over.
and – assuming IT projects – some support for Test Cases/Defects would be useful.
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:33 ammartin says:
Oh, and a Risk Register is by no means the wonderful modern invention they think it is…
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:34 amSabrina Dent says:
See, actually, I *like* that it isn’t so specifically defined like that, but at the same time all the tools are there for you to create all of those things if you want them.
1) Issues
You can create discussions in different tabbed categories. I would create a tab in called Issues there and let people log bug reports that way.
2) Change Requests
See above.
3) Requirements and/or Scope definition
There’s a Notebook feature for documents, and I’d create a notebook for requirements.
4) Deliverables – the formal things that are contractually signed off & handed over.
You can create To Do lists and even re-useable To Do list templates. I am working on my boilerplate Deliverables which will be a to do list with all tasks assigned to me. I can tick them off as the project goes along, and push the Project Report button to create a PDF report of the current status for the client.
5) and – assuming IT projects – some support for Test Cases/Defects would be useful.
Again, a specific tab for that with discussion, or a notebook.
* * *
This might not be sufficient for IBM-level needs, but presumably that’s why you guys rolled your own :) For me, this is pitched at exactly the right level and I’ve had four clients I’ve pushed stuff to jump right in and start using it with not a single “how do I…” question or even an email.
That alone is worth not having a lot of extra stuff, to me at least.
And yeah, couldn’t care less about the risk register :)
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 10:44 amDavid McDonald says:
I’m a Basecamp fan myself, love their new reply via email feature, but Teamwork looks to offer much the same functionality – I know a few of these services are quite similar. Didn’t know Teamwork were in Cork though, I always like to support the Local Heroes.
I also use an offline task manager ‘Omnifocus’, wonderful as Basecamp is there are time when I am offline and cut-off from the data. Omnifocus is only for Mac, but stunning new iPhone app arriving soon and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a web service running eventually.
If you want to get deeper into ‘real-world’ techniques for Getting Things Done you should definitely read David Allen’s seminal book on this, at least twice! His techniques work on everything from paper lists to Saas offerings like these.
Good luck with the new ‘Super-organised 2008 model Sabrina’
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 11:43 ammartin says:
Oh for sure, even at this level, Teamwork looks waaaay better than having nothing.
Not sure a categorised discussion hits the mark for Change Requests, but sure, if you can upload documents (with some degree of version control/audit trail) then that’d be fine for Requirements. Audit trail of approvals is always useful, mind.
Thursday, 19 June, 2008, 12:31 pmSabrina Dent: Pixel Pushing Ireland » Doing Things Right says:
[...] other day I blogged about choosing a project management system and my decision to go with Teamwork instead of ProjectPlace or Basecamp. Six days later I can [...]
Wednesday, 25 June, 2008, 2:07 pm