Category: Posts

2022-08-04

Why program management matters in open source

In my latest article for Opensource.com, I explain how program managers help combat the exponential increase in communication channels.

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2022-07-29

Your open source community needs a program manager

My latest article for The Pragmatic Programmers explains why your community needs a program manager and how to find one.

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2022-07-19

A quick intro to development methodologies

Just as there’s more than one way to pet a cat, there’s more than one way to develop software. At the risk of over-simplifying, you can consider two broad methodology categories: waterfall and agile. Strictly speaking, these are software development methodologies, not project management methodologies. You can plug any of them into your project management lifecycle. Over many projects, your...

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2022-05-09

A picture is worth a thousand words

Sometimes following your own advice makes you realize that the advice is good. This is one such story.

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2022-04-14

Using variables in Smartsheet task names

Using variables in Smartsheet makes copying new schedules easier and less error-prone.

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2022-03-11

It’s Never Too Late to Fix Your Versioning

Release numbers should clearly communicate the scope of changes. If they don’t, you can fix that any time.

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2022-02-02

Use individual accountability to avoid the bystander effect

When you have a team of equals, taking turns being accountable for the tasks reduces confusion and improves sustainability.

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2022-01-28

Using conferences for connections

I no longer primarily attend conferences for the talks. Now I attend to make and reinforce connections with community members.

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2022-01-19

Spreading the work with infrequent contributors

Over on The Pragmatic Programmers, I wrote an article about spreading the work fairly when you have infrequent contributors. This is a common issue in open source projects that have people who work on them as their full-time job. Contributors are the lifeblood of an open source community. You want to attract and retain people so that the project is...

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2022-01-12

Picking the right animal metaphor

“Herding cats”, “aligning ducks”, “Nemoing tuna”. There are so many animal metaphors for program management. Which one works best?

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