December 2010
1 post
Own it, don’t groan it.
Recently I partook in a fireside chat with a bunch of seasoned project managers from around the country. OK it was a pub but there was a fireplace. Plus lots of beer.
Inevitably discussion gravitated to all the problems and heart aches that we have each been apart of over the years. War stories if you will. At first it was fun to talk about what went wrong on this project or who had the hardest...
November 2010
1 post
The Comfort Zone
Or: This must be purgatory.
It’s Friday. 5 O’clock. You have spent the week doing your job. You have your check and are ready for the weekend. You had a discussion with some of your co-workers about a game you played recently or a film you watched. You all had strong opinions and had talked about what you would have done instead. There was a moment where someone said, “let’s do something like...
October 2010
1 post
Agile, Scrum, Waterfall etc..
Actually, I’m Atheist.
Maybe it would be better to say that I am Agnostic.
While I consider myself to be somewhat of an evangelist when it comes to promoting project management techniques I have discovered over the years of hard toil and battles won and lost that there really is no single belief that will win you the day.
My early days of project management was in the role of disciple where I...
September 2010
3 posts
I made this! Well Garageband was a big...
The perfect wave
While I consider myself somewhat of a cynic I also like to think of myself as having an optimistic side. Otherwise why keep at it right?
It doesn’t seem like it happens all that often - the magic sweet spot of everything going exactly as it should – but when it does happen, for me at least, it is the closest thing I can think of to a religious experience.
One of my favorite movie quotes is from...
August 2010
1 post
Inception
A review…
I am not known to write my opinions on films. I am more known for stating them in a public place.
With the huge fanfare that has surrounded this particular film I thought it was necessary to explain why I didn’t enjoy it.
Spoilers follow….
To start, I am a fan of Chris Nolan’s and Lee Smith’s (editor) works. I enjoyed Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. All great stories made...
July 2010
7 posts
Casual Connect
A personal opinion
I spent last week in the wonderful city of Seattle for the Casual Connect conference.
It was my first time going. I tried to keep my wonder lust to a minimum and just experience the talks and people as best I could.
It was quite the mix of excited hope for the future of the social game space and the fear that the social game bubble has burst.
If you only listened to the big...
The art of staying sane
Or:
Even crappy McJobs can give you valuable experiences.
I was at a conference this week (Casual Connect) for the social online gaming space and had a fun discussion about the awful jobs people have had to do over their careers.
It struck me that even that worst job that you have had can be seen to have given you some form of valuable experience.
Take working at a fast food restaurant for...
Uncertainty is the principle
Or: Heisenberg would have made a great Producer.
A great quote from Ed Catmull:
“On managers self-destructive tendencies for creative work:
The notion that you’re trying to control the process and prevent error screws things up. We all know the saying it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And everyone knows that, but I Think there is a corollary: if everyone is trying to prevent...
Running the asylum
Or, who gave you the keys?
Are leaders born or made has been a debate for many years and is something that better minds than mine have weighed in on. Below are some of my thoughts on how to be a better leader of people:
Last year, as part of my slow attempt to get my PMP (Project Management Professional) certificate, I took a full day workshop on just that. It turned out to be a bit more like one...
Know your role →
Another write up for CAR. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don’t. This one was alright. :)
Finding the pressure points.
Original post found here:
http: //www.canadiananimationresources.ca/?p=1075
Or:
Critical chain management methodology for animation production.
I have mentioned before the data on the % of projects that are considered a failure or that go over budget for various reasons (32% success rate, 44% over budget and 24%failure, source) I feel that part of the issue is the way that we create schedules and budgets. That is not to say that these are inherently un-achievable. Nor are those that create these not doing a proper job. The true challenge is how to create a schedule and budget that can take into account the cost and time to do it versus all the things that can go wrong. Experience of course plays a big role in this but is not a guarantee of success. There is no real guarantee ,only an ability to quantify a higher or lower probability of success.
This should not be misconstrued as giving excuse for a project’s failure nor of abdication of an individual’s responsibility to get something done. Sometimes sh*t happens. Sometimes there are too many cooks or not enough of this or that, but I digress. That isn’t the point I am trying to make.
The big point? How does one anticipate all of the possible things that can go wrong in a project? You can’t. And I have yet to see any proof to the contrary. But there are ways to significantly increase your chances of success. Ignoring, for the moment, some of the other points I have made as far as the pitfalls to look out for, let’s look at the theory of constraints or more specifically Critical Chain Project Management.
The theory proposes that there are a limited number of constraints that always exist within a given structure or process and that there is always at least one constraint. A constraint is anything that prevents the system from achieving more of its goal. This can be in the form of, but not limited to, equipment, people or policy. Examples could be not enough computers or not fast enough machines, lack of skilled staff or company/government policies that limit the structure from achieving its goal such as you must hire only residents from a certain province. It is likely that some constraints cannot be removed but recognizing that fact is important to furthering your process.
Any series of processes can only move as fast as its biggest constraint. Once identified you can build around it. Here are some steps to use in discovering constraints for a project:
Identify the constraint (the resource or policy the limits your ability to achieve your goal)
Decide how to exploit the constraint. Buy more machines, add more people, decrease expectations.
Subordinate all other processes to the above decision. In other words find ways to support or organize your system to deal with the decision made.
Elevate the constraint.
If as a result the constraint is removed or reduced, return to step one. Don’t become complacent. There will always be some constraint in the way!
Fairly heavy I know.
Another key aspect to this process is the creation of buffers during steps 2 and 3. Buffers can be in the form of time or budget and should not be confused with inventory or what is in the queue from one process to the next. Buffers allow for the variation in processing time within a given process. For instance you decide that you have enough staff to output 2 minutes of animation a week but one of your constraints is a high % of inexperienced animators. The 2 minutes is based on your fastest animator or your slowest? Taking the time to assess the differences between these two extremes will help you come up with your 2-best/worse case timelines. Based on that plus the constraint of the number of inexperienced artists you then find the mean value or “good enough” value. Not the best but also not the worst. Maybe the number you come up with is 1.3 minutes per week. Is this an acceptable constraint? If not then the constraint becomes elevated and you need to get rid of it. Is the constraint now too much cost? Then the whole process starts again. In this way you are trying to find ways to pull material through the system not push it through. Pushing material through a system means that you are always going to be reacting to a problem instead of identifying the problem and finding ways to overcome it before you get there.
Essentially do not get caught in making a schedule that adheres to your optimum expectations but to your acceptable expectations. The acceptable being the least possible throughput that you can live with, keeping in mind the other aspects that will connect to this. Using the above methodology to constantly try to increase your throughput. In this way you stand a better chance of actually achieving or even surpassing your established goals.
In many cases the “good enough” approach will win over. This usually happens when it becomes apparent that there is no way of finding the “optimum” approach to a system or the uncertainty between your optimum and near optimum solutions becomes too great. Something will have to give be it quality, quantity, time or money.
What is imperative with this system is to never stop. If you stop doing this on a daily or weekly basis then Parkinson’s Law and Inertia will set in. Just because you have 2 weeks to do something doesn’t mean it should take the 2 weeks to do it if you think you can do it faster. This is where rewards come in and should be thought of when building your process. If you stop you will become stuck in reaction mode as opposed to proactive mode. Always be vigilant. Never assume, as you know what that can lead to!
You don’t know what you don’t know.
I am reposting some articles that I did for Canadian Animation Resources.
Or, Zen and the art of staying interested.
I started working in Animation in 1986 and worked on several series for the next 4 years until the industry had a small collapse in the Ottawa area. At the time I decided to go back to school to try and increase my skill set and make myself more employable within the entertainment...
June 2010
2 posts
Just do it!
Or: the world of rapid prototyping.
I am in the process of recovering from what is known as a game jam. Game jams are an event that you can organize with friends where you try and create a playable game within a set time limit usually 24 or 48-hours. Very similar to the 24-hour comic jam that folks are doing across the country. Of course it helps to have a team that consists of all the skills you...
