pelago

Tonight we open up the beta program for Intervals. If you are a dollar for hour service company or just need to know where your time is going, Intervals may be perfect for you. Intervals is web based task and time management. Although most would consider it a “Project Management” application we consider it an “unproject management” application. Most tools in the space are nightmares to use …so we shy away from calling it a “Project Management” tool.

» Learn more about Intervals

Last week I attended a training session by Adaptive Path on user experience design and two nuggets stood out:

1. Adaptive Path has formulated a very powerful tool for explaining the components needed to build a successful web team.

» The Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams

This wasn’t the main point of their training, but I found it extremely valuable. We are a web only shop and sometimes our clients don’t fully appreciate what all that entails and what kind of expertise we bring to the table. The web is a multi-disciplinary animal and the 9 Pillars does a powerful job of showing the pieces. It’s also a great tool to think about your own career development and what may be missing from your team.

2. It’s great getting together with peers in the Web Development industry.

It’s rare that professionals from small and big companies, generalists and specialists, get together and talk shop. Our industry needs to make more efforts for collaboration and discussion. Maybe we should host an event in Santa Barbara?

-Michael

1. Be Narrow
2. Be Different
3. Be Casual
4. Be Picky
5. Be User-Centric
6. Be Self-Centered
7. Be Greedy
8. Be Tiny
9. Be Agile
10. Be Balanced

Read the details here: http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

Our guiding principals for Intervals development are very agreeable with Evan Williams’ thoughts. We have been around for over 6 years, so we’re not a start-up, but our decision to develop a web-based product definitely makes part of our company a start-up. We see many companies, and especially small companies, trying to niche products in the market for the new type of consumer. We are optimistic that Intervals will fill a need for folks who need a no-nonsense time and task management system.

We’ll see how it goes in 2006 – Michael

>> I regularly follow the Joel on Software blog and this manifesto on the best people and the best working conditions yielding the best software is definitely worth a read.

- Michael

“By Joel Spolsky
Monday, July 25, 2005

In March, 2000, I launched this site with the shaky claim that most people are wrong in thinking you need an idea to make a successful software company:

The common belief is that when you’re building a software company, the goal is to find a neat idea that solves some problem which hasn’t been solved before, implement it, and make a fortune. We’ll call this the build-a-better-mousetrap belief. But the real goal for software companies should be converting capital into software that works.

For the last five years I’ve been testing that theory in the real world. The formula for the company I started with Michael Pryor in September, 2000 can be summarized in four steps:

Best working conditions >> Best Programmers >> Best Software >> Profit”

Functional specifications (functional specs), in the end, are the blueprint for how you want a particular web project or application to look and work. It details what the finished product will do, how a user will interact with it, and what it will look like. By creating a blueprint of the product first, time and productivity are saved during the development stage because the programmers can program instead of also working out the logic of the user-experience. It will also enable you to manage the expectations of your clients or management, as they will know exactly what to expect.

“Many organizations appear to be complacent about the situation, figuring that once they implemented a project management office and a project management methodology, all they had to do was sit back and watch the benefits flow in. Wrong. What is missing is that more focus needs to be put on project management as an operational competency.

Success in supporting project management as an operational function requires two things;
1) an understanding that project management is a tool, and
2) implementation of organizationwide discipline related to the management and practice of the tool. ”

>> We see this frequently in our day to day relationships with vendors and clients. Project Management is often viewed as a destination instead of a way of doing things….and the “Project Management” term has become a buzz word. You don’t just install Microsoft Project and say “we’re doing project management now”. Project Management is a way of getting work done and the software is the tool…not unlike Adobe Photoshop for a designer. – Michael

“The Build versus Buy Decision from Journyx

The build versus buy decision is often a hard one since software vendors routinely over-hype their products. Buying point products that are “best of breed” and simple enough to be piloted in your environment with your data is the only way to get past the hype. Buying suite products that attempt to automate everything imaginable, always entails a high upfront cost and a high risk of project failure. Some vendors have gotten this message and are starting to modularize their products.”

>> For our internal time tracking, we installed and tried a lot of third party applications and weren’t satisfied with any of them…so we built our own. It is time consuming building your own tools…if you can find a third party tool that’s affordable and does what you need it to do there usually is not a compelling reason to re-invent the wheel. – Michael

In a recent survey by OfficeTeam, nearly half of the more than 500 respondents said that an individual’s communication style has the greatest impact on his or her professional reputation–one that can mean the difference between a career that soars or sinks.

http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/juggle/0,,88,00.html

In any commercial enterprise, Web sites exist for one of two reasons: to help the organization save money, or to help it make money. In both cases, the user experience can make the difference between a successful site and a failure.

http://www.newarchitectmag.com/documents/s=2452/na0303c/index.html

>> A funny cartoon for a fiesta friday.

- John