Agile Project Managementon the Clouds

Intro

SometimeagoIdecidedtowritelongarticleorshorteBookaboutsimpleapproachinProjectManagement.IncomparisonwithexistingbooksaboutPMthiseBookwilldescribeagileapproachinEstimation,Planning,TrackingandManagingofProjectsusingonlyweb-basedtools(GoogleDocsandGanttzilla) where Software Development used as domain for real examples.

Sothisisit.I'llpostfragmentsofthiseBookintheBlog.I'llappreciateanycommentsandcriticism.

New project was born

IntheverybeginningIwascontactedbyUSArepresentativeofourcompanywiththerequestfordevelopmentofnewproject.Customeristheownerofpopulargolfclubandhewantstocreate web site for his business. Benefits he is expecting are the following:•attractionofpotentialclientswiththehelpofinteractivecontent(googlemapswithclub'sfields,webcamerasvideobroadcasting,interestinggamevideos,on-linebooking and reservation services);•creation of virtual community around the business;•socialnetworksmarketinginitiatedbyintegrationwithlinkedin,facebook,andtwitterservices.

Defining User Stories

We'll go with agile approach for this project and start with defining User Stories.

Marketing content

•Allow visitor to view home page content.•Allow visitor to view news.•Allow visitor to view upcoming events.•AllowvisitortoviewpopularBlogPost,VideoandPhotocreatedbyVirtualCommunity.•AllowvisitortoviewfeaturedBlogPost,VideoandPhotocreatedbyVirtualCommunity.•Allow visitor to view Picture Gallery.•Allow visitor to view map of the Golf Club fields and buildings.•Allow visitor to view materials on golf training.•Allow visitor to view price list for Club services.•Allowvisitortoaddsocialbookmarkstothiswebsiteunderhislinkedin,twitterandfacebook profile.•Allow visitor to join public profile of the Club in linkedin, twitter and facebook.

On-line Services

•Allow visitor to register an account on the web site.•Allow visitor to login the website. After successful login visitor becomes user.•Allow user to view calendar with already assigned reservations for each golf field.•Allowusertobookgolffieldforplaying.Duringthisarrangementuserwillbeforwarded to order payment page on PayPal.•Allow user to view hour/date calendar with already assigned training reservations.•Allowusertoordertraining.Duringthisarrangementuserwillbeforwardedtoorderpayment page on PayPal.•Allow user to subscribe to the Club's newsletter distributed over email.

Virtual Community

•AllowusertomanagehisCommunityProfile.ThisprofilewillincludeWall,Photos,Videos,BlogPosts,Messages,Followers(twitter-likeapproachforRoF)andFollowingsections.•Allow user to follow another user.•Allow user to vote for another user's Photo, Video, Blog Post.•Allow user to exchange private messages with one another.

Back Office

•Allow administrator to manage contents of the home page.•Allow administrator to create/edit/delete Public Event.•Allow administrator to create/edit/delete News Article.•Allowadministratortoselect/deselectVirtualCommunityBlogPosts,PhotosandVideos for presentation on the Home page.•Allow administrator to create/modify/delete photos in Gallery.•Allow administrator to manage contents of the Golf Trainings page.•AllowadministratortoaddspecialmarkersandpolygonsonGoogleMapforpresentation of Club's facilities.•Allow administrator to view and print arrangement reports.•Allow administrator to view and print payment reports.

Development platform

Customerhasnostrictrecommendationsconcerningdevelopmentplatformforthiswebapplication.Alsothereisnorequirementtosupportextratraffic.Thiswillberather*usual*webapplicationtiedtosomelocalenvironmentratherthanN-billion-users-web-2.0-Super-Star.WedecidedtouseavailabledevelopersfromourRuby-on-Railsteam.Sodevelopmentplatform will be Ruby-on-Rails 2.x.

Estimation Matrix

SometimeagoI'vestartedusingsimpletableforpresentationofinfluenceofcrossingArchitecturalaspectsontoUserStories.Let'slookatsuchatableforourGolfClubproject.By the way I've used Google Spreadsheet for this purpose.Hereisafirststep-creationofnewspreadsheet.Gotohttp://docs.google.comandthenclick "Create New" - "Spreadsheet" menu item: