New Project - Application Development Schedule

Every once in a while, I get to start a new project. This is always the best part: you get to imagine all the possibilities your newborn can have, the great and powerful new features you've been dying to try out and the excitement of adventuring in the unknown. However, before I can write my first line of code or draw up some templates, the higher ups want to know how long this new project is going to take me. Whatever the result, one thing remains constant: I have to plan ahead, cut the project in parts, and evaluate how long each of them can take to develop. The result showed to the client will vary, and I experimented with several solutions. I tried the simple approach: write up some nice schedule in Word or Powerpoint manually. This seemed archaic to me, so I decided to try to make an Excel template instead. By feeding it steps and timelines, it would calculate an estimated delivery date. However, this quickly proved to be quite limited, and I found myself wanting more. That's when Project moreADS was born.

The purpose of Project moreADS is simple: take in the steps for completing a project with their associated timelines, and crunch out a delivery date. However, to justify the more in the project name I need to pad this simple premise with some nice additional features. I'm not going to give out too much details yet, as I'll keep that for a separate post (Thursday if all goes well, next Monday if not). Nevertheless, I can give you an overview of the features I would like to see in this new project (on top of the basic premise, of course). Here they are, in no particular order:

• Ability to define holidays, since the system cannot know them by default;
• Customizable options (access to project, notifications, etc.);
• Workgroups (regrouping users);
• Portfolios (regrouping projects);
• Ability to halt development;
• Ability to schedule vacations, or leaves of absence (automatically delay schedules related to the developer);
• Nice printable format (PDF, CFdocument?)
• Notifications and subscriptions (status updates, timeline changes, project delays);
• More to come...

I'll have some time tomorrow to think on this idea more. I know I said I was working on Project Arcturus, but I guess that idea's been put aside for a while. Work, family, the holidays and those darn games just keep me too busy :P. However, Project moreADS has been growing in the back of my skull for a while now, and now seems like the perfect time to get it out. Besides, it'll make my job easier! So stay tuned for news. This is going to be a great project, and you're all invited Thursday for more info ;).

Gimme, gimme more, gimme more, gimme more time to get this done...