Worked late (4:30-ish AM) finishing up that lagging project (finally!!!) … Overslept, had a meeting with Mr. Bradfield (Jeff) at noon, but I didn’t even drag my but out of bed until 12:30… (but look its 8 full hours of sleep!!!!) Sent him a text to let him know we were still ‘on’ and that I was just behind, and drove down to Scarborough. I was going to nab Mr. Lodin (Kal) along the way, but he was already downtown so it was just Jeff and I.

We had a good time, did some work on his site (http://www.jeffbradfield.ca) and discussed a project we are collaboratively working on that moving really slow on account of us not getting together and keeping on top of things… I’m going to try again for the monday morning meetings (mastermind group). Jeff and I reviewed some layouts for the site we want for the new project and I’ll spend a few cycles this week (during my morning commute) seeing what I can get hammered out in terms of a loose ‘spec’.

We want to keep really agile on this and because it’s a collaborative thing between some great colleagues that I’m proud to call friends… its pretty relaxed.

Hopefully this will be one of those projects that turns into a revenue stream for us and will send us cheques in the mail … I really like those projects … the ones you do once but keep getting paid on. (You can thank Timothy Ferriss for my new found love of the 4 hour work week ideals).

I set Jeff up with some GTD love too … I’m sure that if has a peek he will get hooked.

Oh, and YES! .. I did get it done, and I feel great because of it

Trying to get a project that stalled in the final steps cleaned up and tied off is kinda like managing software developers or herding cats … The client wants to get the project done, but takes forever for the feedback loop, then because I have other things going on and this project is way outside of timelines so I have to sacrifice something else to get it done, or let it continue to eat my brain because it’s not done and the next actionable item is for me to get it done!!!

Gah!!!! Ok, so I will get this done today (no matter what) … It doesn’t matter if I have to work at it constantly until 3am … I will get my part done, and move this over to waiting for approval. But naturally, I have other things coming at me as soon as I think this, so I toss it into my list and set a due date on it (today) … That should motovate me (I don;t like going to bed until my list for the day is clear) …

Who knew that GTD would appeal to my strange sense of time like this? Will it stay this way, (I’m hoping it gets easier once I get more of the ‘stuff’ out of my head and into my system) … Right now tho, I’m finding all the things that have to get done because they have been spinning for so long. (Normal for the GTD (so I’m told)) … but when you start to see all the things you need to get done, and have been spinning …

It’s a little overwhelming, on the one hand you feel good because you know that your making steps for a bunch of things that you have kept trapped in your head, on the other hand some of the things you have been puttin goff for so long you feel like your going to have things to do forever … and you have to hold yourself accountable and that makes you a little miserable so your feeling good and rotten at the same time.

Ok, back to working …

Well it looks like that new project is a go, Kal, Geoff, and Myself met last night for a dinner meeting and went over some details, I’m not at liberty to say what the project is or is about, but it’s a pretty good idea, if I do say so myself, and considering all the ‘good ideas’ I hear, thats actually saying something.

We will be aiming for government grant cash, but have set aside a percentage of the company that we are willing to part with for VC … (Why I’m even considering the VC route again is a little beyond me, I guess I believe in the project that much) … But Geoff is confidant that raising funds won’t be an issue, and isn’t sure we will need to do the VC thing … But time will tell the tail.

I’m excited, but need to get some sleep (even though this goes live tomorrow AM … I’m writing it now, and I should get to bed before I end up in trouble)

So as I was ranting about changes yesterday, what do you think came out of my meeting? (aside from feelings of absolute hunger and/or starvation because the meeting went through lunch and stretched out to four and a half hours)… Thats right, changes … 12 new feature requests and a slew of changes actually. Some of the changes are simple enough and fall just outside of the 2 minute rule to make, so they will be tasked. The application has been built to manage at least some degree of change that way, but some of the change requests will require a fair bit of thought to design and implement. This is definitely a great example of a ‘typical’ client and contract.

So, being all GTD stoked now … Craig and I get to exercise some of what we have been learning, so this isn’t really a rant parsee, its more of an observation of what to be grateful for … yea … yea … thats what i’ll call it But seriously, I am grateful for such a ‘typical’ opportunity to exercise the GTD principals I have been learning, and I’m sure that as long as Craig gets some sleep he will feel the same way too.

The collection process went well, Craig was on top of making sure that nothing got overlooked, I was sure to make relevant notes to the way the underlying system needs to be changed to support some of the new-ish functionality and although I will be coding a bit over the weekend, the majority of the notes can wait until Monday to get processed … I had to leave and get to another meeting immediately, so processing will have to wait (unless of coarse Craig updates the project site over the weekend). There is more then enough to get cleaned up before Monday that was already in the queue.

The sprint for this next iteration has been set to twice the length (two week sprint this time), that should provide more then enough time to get things back on track and done. I’m hoping that the organization strategies of the GTD principals will be the solution I’m looking for, time will tell the tale, and i’ll be sure to update as I go through it.

As always, comments, thoughts, feedback and flames are always welcome in the comments.

I’ve been listening to David Allen a lot this past week, that guy has it totally figured out. Truly inspiring. The inspiration naturally translates into working until midnight on a project that keeps lagging, but the end is in sight which is good because I have to meet with the client today (who undoubtedly has more changes). It’s a well known fact in software development that in order to make a product ship on schedule you have to nail down the features and functionality. Sadly, thats not what happens 90% of the time because people change their minds (all the time).

It never ceases to amaze and astound me how clients can fail to understand that if you change the scope, the timeline is also going to change (even when you look the client in the eye and tell them, this is going to add time). But thats how the cookie crumbles, and the developers inevitably end up burning the midnight oil to get something functional for a client who somehow has managed to miss that things take time, and time is worth money.

In the Freelance world, how much you let a project change is ultimately up to you, I think that one of the bigger things I have to take away from this project is that once the requirements start to change from the initial requirements, you need to nail it down (fast). In a development shop, you have less control over this but there has to be a way to manage it (fast). Otherwise you end up dealing with ‘add feature x please’ one day, and ‘oh I don’t want that anymore’ two days later which just totally zaps the energy out of a project.

If you can sense the slight irritation in my post today, its because I’m slightly irritated. Not with the client though, with myself. This is the second project this year that I’ve ended up, essentially working for free, (read outside of alloted hours for no additional pay). I’m not totally sure what the solution is, but I know I’m looking for one, and I also know that this is one of those problems that can work itself into just about any environment.

I wonder what I’m trying to tell myself?

Please post suggestions in the comments.

Looks like I spoke too soon … I had to manually publish yesterdays post, Word Press just tossed up a message beside the post that said ‘Missed Schedule“… how helpful (*cough * retarded * cough *) … An answer will come, I’m sure of it

So what’s with the universe as of late? One client say go, then no go after I went. Another client says hurry up, but then doesn’t show up for a scheduled meeting, QuickBooks insists on making integration with Rails so complex that I wish I didn’t have to go anywhere near QuickBooks (but I still do). My oldest hasn’t called me in over a week now . The people that I have been forced to to deal with against my will for the sake of my children haven’t returned a phone call (thats a whole other story). I had to deal with a flat tire last night… what gives?

I’m being my normal optimistic self, why all the obstacles and challenges? The universe must know by now that I’m just gonna shine no matter what… If last year didn’t kill me, it’s unlikely that anything except old age will… So when do the uber hot, half naked women start throwing themselves at me, where is the mountain of unexpected money and fortune, and why hasn’t it fallen on me yet ….

Puzzling, thats for sure Oh well … I’ll be grateful that the go no go client will be super happy with everything once it’s done and a real go, relaxed that the hurry up client is allowing me to make it a leisurely stroll vs. a sprint, proud that I will have mastered Rails and QuickBooks by the time the integration is done, extra excited to hear from my beautiful little girl, happy that the people I’m forced to deal with are only hanging themselves more by not getting back to me in a timely manner, and glad that I finally got that portable air compressor I needed to get.

Attitude of Gratitude Universe… Thanks for all the great stuff your sending …
Can I put in a request for those super hot half naked women to hurry up with my mountain of money?

Awesome!!!