Some days are cooler than others...

Today was one of them. I had the pleasant opportunity to go to a Bruins game with a client tonight. The client is the International Paralympic Committee. My company has been hired to help them produce the World Sledge Hockey championships next week in Marlborough.

Sledge Hockey, for those who don't know, is an incredibly fast paced league for people with physical disabilities which force them to sit down in a 'sledge', which to me just looks like a sled. I am really proud to be part of this. Given my history of growing up with a severely disabled mother...it makes me feel good to work with this organization and go above and beyond wherever possible.

Tonight we were there to cover the opening ceremonies. I had an all access media pass at the Garden. At one point my boss took me up to the control room. A 60 second commercial my team produced was presented on the big screens during the opening ceremonies...Right there in front of 10's of thousands of Bruins fans!! I was beaming with pride for my crew.

Anyhow...Now I have to sleep. The coming 10 days are going to be madness. Each day the videos we produce will be broadcast on TV networks around the globe. We have to tape and edit 3 games every 24 hours for a week...

Responding

I have been working on a lot of large scale RFP's lately. I find the work interesting because it allows me to really think through the project life cycle and imagine how my team will best respond to the potential client's needs. My approach is to read the RFP two or three times and then basically plan the entire project in a pretty detailed way. Once I have the entire project plan established I then write an approach document which adapts my process to the specific requirements as defined in the RFP.

When an organization has gone through the process of developing an RFP they will often have well thought out ideas about how to approach the project. This does not always align with my own theories. For instance, the discovery process may already be mostly complete. If an RFP has detailed requirements this means I do not have to tease them out later on.

For the type and scale of projects which I typically respond there is usually a team of people involved. This is another interesting dimension I like to explore. I have found it very useful to treat the response like any other project, with a timeline and deliverables which address pre-defined requirements and expectations.

Something as simple as defining the styles used in the documents which are authored by different contributors before they are written and then assembled into the final 'book' will save the team a great deal of time. For this I use a tool I call a content deck template. I also share this with clients who will be delivering content for integration with their new CMS during real development projects.

The further I get the more appealing planning and good communication becomes...

Kevin Smith sighting...

I met Kevin Smith last night while eating dinner with coworkers and clients in Pittsburgh. Read all about it on Peter Wilt's blog!

Disappointment?

Ah well...unlike 1984 I am not choking back tears with a half-eaten english muffin pizza on my lap while I watched 'Fridge' Perry roll across the defensive line and into the end zone. I am also not experiencing that sinking feeling of complete and utter failure like when Bill Buckner hammered the last nail into the coffin of 1986...a moment I will always refer to as the 'play heard round the league'.

There was, very likely, a moment of complete and utter silence across the entire metro Boston area tonight...at least the 30 people in my house fell completely silent for a good 30 seconds while they tried to understand how this was happening late in the fourth quarter...how could this be?

This kind of disapointment is like an old, well worn article of clothing...when you slip it back on after a couple of years in the closet it feels just right. No matter what...it was an amazing season. My friends and I watched 18 of the 19 games in my living room this year...only interrupting the flow once because I was stuck in Baltimore on business. I woke up at 5 AM that day to drive back to Boston just in time for kick off at Eric's house.

Sure, this is probably now the biggest choke in football history...but I wouldn't trade this season for any sports series in my lifetime. My friends and I are tighter than ever. Thank you 2007 NE Patriots!!

Honestly, I love technology...

I was fortunate to visit the offices of Attivio this week for a reception party where they announced the launch of their search platform. They had many interesting applications of the underlying technology to demonstrate their capabilities which you can explore in their web site (which my company built!)

The boy in me was most fascinated by the RFID located in my name tag. While they singed us into the party they asked some simple questions. In my case, where I had lived, went to school and worked in the past. As I wondered around the office space the RFID in my name tag was tracked by receivers strategically placed near large, flat monitors mounted on the wall. If I wandered within 10-15' of a monitor it would register my presence and the presence of those around me. Using their underlying database technology it generated tag clouds weighting items I had in common with the people around me more heavily.

Very interesting.

Google Groups for Collaboration

I have used Google's group application as a collaboration site on three very large scale software projects in the last 6 months. It works really well!! There is a simple file sharing repository, page creation and user administration with varying levels of access and update.

The coolest feature is the messaging component. When users reply to notes through the system it tracks responses and keeps a record of the dialog. Giving stakeholders the ability to communicate this way is very beneficial. One feature which seems very obvious but is missing is integration with Google documents, another favorite application.

Using the file sharing application makes it so incredibly easy to keep the client on track with the project deliverables and milestones. All the revisions and notes are stored in a central, accessible location which greatly serves to reduce time wasted on explaining why things happen the way they happen. When the progression of the project is right there for everyone to see everyone benefits.

Setting up a Group is about as easy as setting up a Google email account. Once you have Gmail check out the groups here!

Time to make the donuts...

The professional sports league and teams CMS web portal I am working on is coming together on a time line so accelerated and rigid I am being forced to rethink everything I know about managing projects. Although this pace would not be possible to sustain year round there are definitely some things to be learned from being able to focus all of ones attention on a single project for 4 weeks of 14 hour days. Hopefully soon I will be able to write a proper blog entry which discusses some of the things I have learned...but for now...time to make the donuts.

January 15 is the 1.0 release date.