A day in my life…
In response to an interesting article I read at J Strande’s site via Slacker Manager, here’s my version. Add a trackback to the original mail at http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1860651 to get yourself noticed!
What do you do?
8 words: Project Manager for Entertainment Software projects (games).
Long version: I’m the Technical Director for Kuju Interactive in Sheffield, UK. Despite my title, I’m primarily responsible for the project management of game development projects in addition to many other roles in our studio such as IT, HR, tea-boy. I do my best to ensure that the people I’m in charge of enjoy their work and can do it as effectively as possible.
What are the challenges?
The major challenge is trying to ensure that the dynamic nature of game development stays within the confines of the contract, while trying to keep my employer, employees and clients happy. This is currently leaning to words Agile software development methods and the most applicable seems to be ‘Scrum’.
A parallel challenge is trying to keep the studio moving in the right direction for the future in terms of projects, technology and ensuring we have the right staff in place to make that happen.
Well, biggest challenge is that there’s only 24hrs in a day!
How do you overcome them?
Typical project management really. Removing blocking issues, controlling change, controlling risks and issues, man-management, etc.
I’ve not overcome the ‘not enough time in a day’ issue.
What is a typical day like?
Full of a random collection of at desk requests, walks around office, e-mails, instant messages, writing documents, meetings, research (read: surfing Internet).
How do you manage information? (Email, Blogs, etc)
GTD, Outlook, Pocket PC, bloglines and del.icio.us.
Just started with ‘Getting Things Done’ for general information management and just bought myself a Pocket PC to try and keep this up to date and this does seem to be working quite nicely. For keeping up-to-date and RSS feeds I use http://bloglines.com and store anything I find on the net in http://del.icio.us
What are your 3 or 5 favourite books?
- Agile Software Development With Scrum {management}
- Rapid Development {development}
- Vurt {fiction}
What are your favourite web sites/blogs?
Far too many to list here, best to visit my http://bloglines.com to see what I read and http://del.icio.us for a list of sites I think are valuable.
What tools/technology do you use?
|
Dell Inspiron 9100 at work – mostly in MS Outlook, RX3715 & Orange E200 Smartphone on the move, iRiver H-140 for music (beats iPods easily!) Currently trying GTD using a variation on the Pig-Pog method and it appears to be working just fine. |
What’s your favourite quote?
“sleep is for the dead” – unknown
What is your “secret to success”?
That would imply ‘success’! TBH It’s probably constantly updating my skill set through reading and work and also learning to say “no” when it’s appropriate.
What are your greatest accomplishments?
Personal: Having a good home life with 2 daughters, a loving wife and a matching set of financial debts.
Professional: Staying employed through all the years in the volatile games industry. It seems that most either get made redundant or move to Canada to work for EA.
What are your hobbies? Or, how do you break the monotony and stay energised?
Internet mainly, reading (Internet & books), writing software, music and family. I prefer quiet time to think about things.