I’ll go over all of the tools that I live and die by, because it’s the question I get asked most often.

What tool is going to be my magical robot pony and fix all of my project management woes?

I’m sorry, but I’m going to level with you here: There is no ‘project management tool to rule them all’. It’s going to be the one that has enough of the features you really need (and this list is different for everyone!): time-tracking, ticket creating, milestone making, invoicing, version-control connecting, report making, whiz-bang graphical burndown charts, etc… But it also has few enough features that you don’t get distracted by what else the tool could do for you.

Resist the urge to go all in and find the tool that does absolutely everything. My biggest line for a tool is: Am I decently happy when I’m using it? This is very nebulous, but I want something that doesn’t frustrate me. It doesn’t have to think as fast as I do, but it shouldn’t get in the way of getting my work done.  Thus far, only Klok and I have stayed friends. And Klok’s just a beautiful time tracker.

A year ago, we had people interested in project management, but not a whole lot of people actually doing it in Drupal. This morning, we had the Project Manager Birds of a Feather session in a room that ended up being standing room only. Sure, there were a few laptop dwellers (and sometimes I’m one of them), but with roughly 40-50 people there, it’s the biggest PM BoF I’ve seen in the year and some change of getting really involved in Drupal community. So thanks.

We also had a panel today on The Care and Feeding of Project Managers, which was a lot of fun. The hour went by fast, with conversations about backgrounds, where we come from, but how we’re all sortof on the same page about how we build our processes.

The four of us (myself moderating, Wendy Iguchi, Chris Strahl, Crystal Williams, on the panel realized that project managers in Drupal haven’t really committed much back to the project itself. Just because there isn’t really a space for that in drupal.org is, realistically, no excuse, and I’ll be the first to say that I haven’t done a good job of putting my own work anywhere useful to folks. To paraphrase Dries, ‘Talk is silver, documentation is gold’.

I’m not sure where things will go from here, because the firehose of crazy projects + conferences + life is totally here, but I’ll be spending some time in the coming months on giving back.

Hope to see some of you in the Managing Expectations talk tomorrow morning, too early!

A SMART goal is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timed. List each of the nebulous things you want to do. Use deadlines that are already fixed. For example: end of the year, before the next class starts.

Specific: I want to have more people in this class that I am giving.

Measurable: I want at least 5% more people here for the whole class, not just the first session.

Attainable: 5% is a reasonable goal. 500% for a first goal would be unadvisable.

Revelent: Yeah, I struggle with this too. Is this really important to what I’m doing?

Timed: Deadlines, they’re useful. They’ll get you to action. Let’s say that the class starts in a month.

Now you know what you want?

Here’s how I get there:

I use Remember The Milk for my own projects, things that I want to get done. I have about 10 different ‘buckets’, which are targeted lists, so that I don’t end up getting distracted from one list to another. Getting more people into a class that I’m giving would fall under my ‘Worktime’ lists. So, start at the end: ‘Class Starts May 1st’. Now work backwards: Who’s your ideal candidate? How many people do you need to tell about it? Those are two different steps. The ideal candidate profile is something I should start working on right away, so I’ll have that due at the end of today, April 1st. It doesn’t have to be long, but I should know who I’m looking for. How many people do I have to ask is harder, but not impossible, break it down into: 30 people, 60 people, 90 people. Despite the fact that it’s Thursday and the end of the week, I want to put out a mass mailing for the first 30 people that I need to talk to by next Tuesday morning, April 6. (Timing email newsletters and useful correspondence is another post.)

Thus far, we’ve got two tasks:

• ‘Ideal Candidate Profile’, end of day.
• 30 people mailing, Tuesday, April 6th.

You can’t do the mailing until you know who you’re looking for, and there’s a hidden task in there after you’re done with the candidate profile. Your to-do list in the 5 days between has: Go through the mental rolodex and identify who needs to be in that 30 person first target area.

Haul out your calendar, because dates in calendar are much closer than they appear. You’ll want to followup with those 30 people to see who’s really interested, if you got your ideal candidate right, and if you need to adjust that. Take a subset of 6 from those 30, and make sure that you get to that by Thursday, April 9th. You’ve got the 60 people to pester on April 13th, so broadening the net at little wider, and the 90 people to ask by April 20th, so continue to add the ‘sifting through the mental rolodex’ tasks, and creating that correspondence.

• ‘Ideal Candidate Profile’, end of day.
• Mental Rolodex Sifting for the 30 most suited people
• 30 people mailing, Tuesday, April 6th.
• Follow up with 6 of those candidates that you think would be the most intestested, re-evaluate profile, Thursday, April 9
• Re-sort through the network for 60 people, possibly not as suited
• 60 people Mailing, Tuesday, April 13
• Follow up with 15 people from that list, Friday, April 16th

Now shake the bushes and attempt to get 90 people who might be vaguely interested.
*

90 People Mailing, Tuesday, April 20th.

By this point, everyone and their mother should be aware that you’re giving the class. You’ll probably assume that you’ll get questions, or you’ll want to be able to provide more information on your own website, without really spamming everyone.

• Page on Website describing Class, Pricing, Location, Duration, everything anyone might reasonably want to know, Up by Sunday, April 4th.

You’ll want to link to that in all of your direct marketing emails. Think about what other trade groups might be interested in coming and learning as well, but add those people to your 30-60-90 groups. Everyone’s going to be hearing from you, but if you’re going to meet your goals, push yourself on this one.

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We’ve gotten to two weeks before the class. You’ve paid attention to your reminders, and you’ve gone and shaken the bushes. Hopefully, your hard work is paying off and people are signing up in droves. However, you’ve also given yourself a good cushion to be able to evaluate what’s working, what’s not working, and where you can improve. Now’s the time where you’re setting a plan in place for the class to succeed, because you know you’re going to have enough people in the door.

Can you use other systems? Of course. The most important part is: Once you’ve set yourself deadlines, let something else hold you accountable to them. Writing them down is not enough, have something else nag you about them, because it’s too easy to put them in a text file and never look at it again. BaseCamp, OpenAtrium, Google Calendar + Tasks, or any number of systems will fit this bill for you. But the short answer on the Best Task System Ever is: anything that you like to use and will be able to meaningfully remind you.

Cute, neh?