Ramdan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, celebrates the revelation of the Qur’an, is also a month known for its amazing dinning, late hangouts and short working hours.
Regarding the shorter working hours, you might realize the challenges facing software development companies that haven’t factored this into project management schedules… deadlines overdue, increases in risk and increases in cost.
I’d like to share some pointers that I usually follow during the holy month of Ramadan to make sure that I manage to stay on schedule. If it is too late for you to re-estimate your task deliverables or you are late delivering a project already scheduled for, then these tips might be especially valuable.
Is your environment organized in terms of human resources and task allocation?
Do you have the right tools of collaboration within your team(s)? Are tasks split equally among your developers? Could there be one developer hiding behind his/her computer? Find those strays and get them to work. Anyone on vacation? Bring them back into the office (sorry guys, but we need you back to work).
Another point, peer programming is an amazing system when it comes to productivity. The synergetic nature behind it allows developers to be very productive, just be careful and choose people wisely as it can back fire if the wrong individuals are placed together.
Are you using open source components? Then what are you waiting for?
Developing your own components from the ground up is sometimes a fun thing to do, and much more customized, but when there is little time and days are cut short for the next month, don’t be a cowboy developer and reinvent the wheel just because you can. Get online and search for the components you need. Some say open-source lacks documentation. In some cases this might be correct, but maybe it is because you can’t put your finger down on the right source of information. What you need could be on a discussion form, blog, wiki, etc. In many cases it just takes a little bit of research.
Be flexible
Loosen up and stop prioritizing the formal communication of task deliverables a bit. In some cases, the administrative work can consume more time rather than just making sure that your development processes are in place. Try increasing stand-up meetings, and have managers go down to the developers themselves and see how they are doing instead of taking them away from their computers, and thus away from their tasks. By making sure developers stay focused, you can save time and allow them to produce as much work as possible given the shorter working hours.
When it comes to open source and necessary components, whether it’s a complete subsystem of a project or a simple component like an uploading tool, here are some places that may provide you with what you’re looking for:
Sourceforge – www.sourceforge.com
Apache Foundation – www.apache.org
Google Code – code.google.com
Vanilla – www.getvanilla.com
Source.net – csharp-source.net/open-source/forum-software
And here’s my favorite open source version and source control software out there that I’d recommend to everyone any day – Subversion – subversion.tigris.org
I hope this information is helpful for all of you out there, Ramadan Mubarak and happy developing!
