Drupalcon Day 3
So, I didn’t recap right after, so I’ll guess at what my impressions were right after. I learned a lot about Drupal Project Management and Process Management.
It was very helpful to see how other companies do their project management… even if they weren’t using drupal their methods are so effective! So I was doubly happy when I found that our methods are very close to the methods. What methods you ask? Well they talked a lot about waterfall vs. agile development… the great debate. Where you start one task and you don’t start another until the previous is complete (waterfall) and agile where you start one task.. if you get stuck go work on something else… and do iterations of changes, tasks overlap in the timeline, etc. They say waterfall works great for old school sites with site maps and exact hierarchical structure. But realistically websites today (and especially dynamic sites built with drupal) are not hierarchical. Pages and articles link to each other in all different ways. There’s probably a primary and maybe a secondary navigation… but that’s it, the rest is a cloud. So it seems the best way to do this… (which we do, yipee!) is first stage planning, second stage design AND development. That’s right not design finalize and stamp of approval on design and then start development. We design and develop at the same time. That way while developing we say “hey, wait that doesn’t work the way we thought… it has to work this way… um, designer, can you change it so we can style it when it works like this?”. It goes through iterations of what works back and forth with designer and developer.
Another helpful tip, more interestingly enough… don’t show the client anything until the wireframe stage… don’t talk to them about content types, CCK, workflow and other drupal mumbo jumbo. It will only have them trying to speak your language (incorrectly) and create a communication divide. Talk to them in “real-world language” and then go back and talk drupal with your team. Don’t teach them more than they need to know… with the client less is more. Deliver wireframes to your client, deliver mockups to your client and deliver alpha site to your client. Never deliver an unthemed site to your client. We learned this one… it can terrify the poor client and they can lose trust in you. They don’t understand CSS and theming. All they see is something they didn’t want… whether it functions the way they asked or not! This was one minor mistake we had with our last client, but luckily the client didn’t overreact and only said uhh… can that all be on the same line and can’t that look like this? Which created extra time spent on communication and reassurance, but it could have been avoided… if we only showed the alpha and not the prototype to the client. If it were a different client it could have gone worse though… much worse.
Another interesting debate in these project management/process sessions was number of mock-ups or wire frames to show a client (as in different mock-ups or wire frames). Some people said you should only show one, the one the design/dev team agree on. Some said you should show many. I agree with showing many… but before I wasn’t convinced really in one direction or the other… though in practice we show many (3-4). Most times the design your team prefers (though maybe not unanimously) is not the design the client picks. But this isn’t a bad thing… because a client does not always know how to say what they need but they can point to it. You may not realize it when they pick the less desireable design but later in the process you will learn you did the right thing because the client picked it for a reason. When showing only one design, the client may be fine with it, but later may feel like you limited their choices and didn’t really hit on what they were looking for.
Diversity in the workplace!
Because so many of my coworkers are not from the area or state… or country… Simon a cube neighbor of mine and I decided to create a “Where are you from?” map. People can interpret it any way they like… where they live now, where they came from, where they were born… however they like and put pins with their names on the map. It’s a tactile version of Google’s “My Maps” feature.
Our map filled up fast… after one day, we all think India will disappear from the map soon and just be names!
Represent’in Buffalo! Already had 3 people ask if I was Canadian :[
Employee of the Month?!
I was in for a surprise at work today. I was chosen for Employee of the Month! This is going to sound like a big gloating post but I don’t care! I’m a winner! 
Both a business client (Fleet training) as well as my supervisor nominated me for employee of the month. I was taken completely by surprise. Surprised because I’ve never been recognized for my work or diligence with something like this before, I’ve never been chosen student of the month or any of that kinda stuff. Especially in a company of 1500 people shoreside! It feels really good because I always try to help everyone with their work and projects to help them get the best solution and product. I also try to go the extra mile to make sure it turns out perfect… which could be a downfall and probably has selfish reasoning behind it (if my name is going on it… ). Sometimes I meet people with the attitude of no one appreciates it, so why even try. I’ve always believed the reverse- work hard and do the best you possibly can, but don’t expect anything in return. I guess it does pay off somehow in the long run 
My boss pulled me out of a meeting/conference call with offshore (India) and said I had to work on an urgent project that just got bumped up in priority. Of course it was a project that I had just received on Friday at like 2pm and still didn’t have all the content for.. so I was a little perturbed. So I go to my desk working away and then hear a little commotion but I thought nothing of it because we had a new ship debut today (Queen Victoria)… so I thought they were going to do a little announcement or something. The IT president called into my cube asking me to join everyone.. I was just going to blow it off, like I have time for that! hah.. but felt embarassed when the president singled me out. Then I heard it was an employee of the month ceremony and still thought nothing of it. Then they started reading about the “winner” that was still anonymous and mentioned CBTs one too many times (computer based training). One of my major job responsibilities is building/coordinating computer based training modules in Flash for our shipboard employees. Then I realized shoot this has to be me… there’s no one else doing this except contractors that are ineligible! I’m having a bad hair day! I woke up late and didn’t have time to iron my pants! Yes this all ran through my head so that when it was time to walk up and do a speech.. my mind went absolutely blank and I mumbled some kind of thank yous and left a lot of people out I’m sure (I didn’t thank my Mom and the Academy!). I was just so surprised even after I realized it must be me.
The Employee of the Month program includes a plaque with name hung in one of the buildings, a t-shirt, mug, etc. that say Employee of the Month and a check for $500! Employees of the Month are also eligible for Employee of the Year which comes with a whole bunch more recognition, $$, and swag. In the “ceremony” I even got one of those cool huge checks, 2′ x 5′. I want to take it into Citibank and try to cash it Sign in really big sharpie on the back to endorse it. Totally.
now playing: TV On The Radio - Satellite
New Building!
We moved into the new building at work, it’s nice and new. I’m way closer to a window and the cubes are brighter too. Only downside is the window between my cube and my supervisors, but he already put paper up and i wanna put curtains up, but it’s too much work to sew them right now. I might stop by ikea this weekend and see what i can find.
I posted some pics in the photo gallery at the right.
now playing: Alkaline Trio - Metro
Stressful work…
Work has been a bit stressful this week, so i can’t wait for today to be over and the weekend to start. We might/probably will go jetskiing on Saturday that always lets off some steam and then Josh’s parents arrive this weekend. The weather looks like it’s gonna be fantastic.
After their visit I have a business trip coming up to Atlanta that I have mixed feelings about. It’ll be nice to go to Atlanta and see my sister and maybe Dale, but I’m not very happy about who I’m going to Atlanta with. I think I’m gonna have to plug myself into my ipod the whole time.
now playing: The Shins - Split Needles
