This day was our first step into creating our project roadmap. Although we are both looking forward to starting to code, at the same time we know that this planning is an essential part of the masterpiece. To our surprise, pairing even for tasks, like writing a document, made us way more efficient that we had imagined. And this has already reduced a lot of personal stress.

I cannot say that project management is my strength or something I really enjoy, but I am convinced that giving some more time and thought into my next steps never hurts.
Today we finished the first draft of our press release. I have followed this method before in other setups and what I have learned is, if you consider this a task without value, you shouldn’t do it. Do one if you have a vision; if you want to see your idea having impact. Visualizing our results in a form of a press release, helped us reshape the idea and avoid overpromises in the future. The stakeholder’s map followed, but I cannot say that we have identified all of them yet. In general, the roadmap in my head looks like this:

  • Define goals of the project and the team (checked)
  • Create estimates. Write down important dates and timeframes, and you will possibly end up to deadlines.
  • Define solid milestones to break up the workflow into more manageable pieces.
  • What are possible risks or obstacles? Be aware of them up front.

We are about to gather our requirements and create milestones. Now that I am writing it all down, I see that I forgot the time estimation part. Well, I didn’t… It is 8 weeks, that’s all we have! By the end of this week our empty project must have been set up, so that we are able to deliver smoothly at the end of every sprint. A lot is yet to be done, but there is great support here and a motivating atmosphere.

Have a look at:
- A very good infographic explaining key elements of good project planning: https://www.wrike.com/blog/essential-elements-perfect-project-plan-infographic/
- What is a project roadmap? https://blog.teamweek.com/2018/08/what-is-a-project-roadmap/
- A detailed presentation on the stakeholders’ map: https://www.slideshare.net/JEMILOD/stakeholder-management-by-drew-jemilo-agile2012/5

Song of the day