Project Round Up - 2

Project Round Up 2 - the title seems is definitiely a sequel to the previous Project Round Up that I posted almost a year ago. Yeah, sticking to its title, this is definitely a sequel with the project expereinces that I gained in the project that I have worked in last one year.

The first time that I had Project Round Up was my first onsite engagement based in LA, CA. I had lot to learn on that engagement, lots of interesting and valuable experiences. Moved on from that project to another project in Denver, CO. This project also had taught me good lessons. This project I took up as a full time co-ordinator for both PI and ABAP. Man, it is tougher to survive as project onsite co-ordinator than as the full time onsite developer. 

(a) To be a successfull co-ordinator you need to be very well organised and complete your daily tasks on a daily basis. 

(b) Never have any tasks delayed for the next day. Prepare the taks list for the day and complete the tasks on a daily basis.

(c) And the most important thing is to make people work for you than having the impression that you can fix things once you get the object developed from offshore. Yeah, I agree that you will be a good developer and may have the strong technical skills but still at the end of the day you are not a machine, hence cannot fix multiple objects in a single day. If you cannot fix multiple things in a single day, you are going to loose out on the turn around time. 

(d) Never think that you are going to get things sorted out during the weekends and make up for the loss of time. Weekends are not meant for work, weekends are to be utilised for recuperating your energies and enjoy your time. Though you think you can work over the weekends your mind does not respond unless it is urgent. So no weekend work. 

(e) No online articles, newspapers, cricinfo's during work hours. Office time is meant to be spent on official work.

(f) Now, coming to the points that matter the most, communication skills and have a good / great relationship with your team lead. Your relationship with your immediate reporting manager matters that most than anything else. Keep your manager happy, this point will take you places.

(g) Always be confident of what you speak and spend the time in improving the subject knowledge.

(h) Email Communication, follow up only with Emails. This will help you keep track of the assignments, follow up with people and keet every one informed. Else you are going to spend most of your time explaining people (unnecessary effort that can be avoided and guarantees peace of mind).

I don't know why, as usual I always try to analyze the project in the end and keep a lot to be desired from the next project.

Ok, and one good thing about the as usual stuff is always I find my well wishes. As I found in my previous project, I found some real good friends and well wishers who cared about me and my achievement as much as they cared about their. Man it takes time to identify the right friends but it is always good to find them. It is never too late. Try to preserve these friendships and learn from them.