Category: Task Management

Testing Agile PM in Data Science

jpindi
Line graph that shows that data exploration is less of a fit to agile project management

For a number of years, I have been managing a small team of data analysts and engineers with a mandate to inform on innovation economy activity in Canada. Data that we work with involves surveys, data vendors and publicly available data sources, all within a ‘data partnership’ model. While our team was generally doing good work and providing critical analysis, a few years ago we ran into some issues. Challenges that would come up regularly: Missed deadlines due to difficulty estimating how long tasks would take. After publication, occasionally going…

Faking a Graph Structure with Google Sheets

jpindi

I was asked recently to help our Social Committee with a problem: They arrange coffee meetups between employees at MaRS Discovery District, which is manageable with a short list where they know pretty much everyone. They are looking at expanding these meetups to (possibly) include an order of magnitude more participants. But this becomes a list management problem, as they need to figure out a way for these participants to be paired in a way that the list manager doesn’t tear her hair out every month going crazy with a…

How I Manage oDesk Jobs

jpindi

I’ve been introduced to a world of freelance developers in a whole new way via a website called oDesk. In it, you can either be a freelancer and search out contract jobs which match your skills, or post a job, big or small, for developers and freelancers to bid on. Because it is not tied down to a geographic location, it is a great opportunity to expand your pool of potential candidates (or jobs) worldwide. I’ve been actively using it for a few months and some days at work, it…