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SXSW 2011 PanelPicker – Project Management for Humans (No Robots Allowed)

Posted by Rob Borley on Aug 18, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Whether itâs on the front lines or behind the scenes, Project Management is critical to every discipline in web development projects. Keeping your internal project team and your clients happy while making sure that the project runs smoothly are not easy tasks, but you donât have to be a robot to run a project! Simple humans can make sure a project is delivered on time and on budget. This session will cover the basics on how to manage your project like a pro and keep your clients happy. A group of seasoned project managers will share their experiences (and horror stories) on projects theyâve worked on, and point to specific, useful methodologies that have helped them to gracefully manage large and small projects alike.

What is the most effective way to gather project requirements?
What’s better for my project, Agile or Waterfall process?
How can I manage the process as it transitions from UX to Design, to Development?
How can I effectively communicate with and educate my clients on web development
process?
How do I deal with all of these personalities and keep my focus on the project itself?

Vote here: panelpicker.sxsw.com

I want to go and speak at SXSW in 2011. Vote here!

Posted via email from bobscape | posterous

BBC News – School ICT lessons a ‘turn-off’, says Royal Society

Posted by Rob Borley on Aug 6, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

via bbc.co.uk

Completely agree with this. in my time as an ICT teacher the course was terrible and there was a real resistance to changing it.

Students love using a computer. The systems ability to make it dull is real achievement.

Posted via email from bobscape | posterous

iTakeout – Blog

Posted by Rob Borley on May 20, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Today we launched a competition over on our Facebook page. You have the chance to win a Â£10 iTakeout voucher. Thatâs essentially a free meal!

All you have to do it get yourself over to our Facebook page, become a fan (or âlikeâ as they like to call it now) and then tell all of your friends about it. Simple.

So click âsuggest to friendsâ at the top of our page and invite your friends to âlikeâ itakeout.co.uk For every friend you invite you will get an entry into our prize draw for the Â£10 voucher. So, if you invite 50 friends you get 50 entries, but if you invite 500 friends you get 500 entries!

Full details can be found on the page itself.

The draw will be made 1 week from today at 1700 on Thursday 27th May. Just in time for the bank holiday.

So why not enter today and look forward to enjoying your next Curry, Chinese, or Pizza take away on us.

Good luck!

via blog.itakeout.co.uk

mmm free food. Maybe…..

Posted via web from bobscape | posterous

Leaving SXSW 2010

Posted by Rob Borley on Mar 17, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Now SXSW is over it’s worth looking back at what it was and how it has impacted me and, indeed, Headscape as a whole. I will be following up with thoughts on some of the individual sessions but I thought it worth offering a brief overview of what’s gone on.

Personally for me I have found it really useful to dip in and out of the various different streams at SXSW. Last time I was in Austin for the conference I was Tech Lead and really only involved in the sessions related to that role. This time around, coming here as a Project Manager, I have tried to attend as broader range of sessions as possible. Taking in talks with a bias on Sales and Marketing, Design, as well as the Psychology of it all, while dipping into the technical development side of things, has open my eyes a little more in how pivotal the role of a project manager is in holding it all together. I do feel quite inspired and I have learnt a lot.

Looking at Headscape as a whole I feel like we are starting to really find our place in the world. Early in Paul’s talk (@boagworld); Pain free design sign off, he uttered an almost throw-away line; “Headscape specialise in sh*t projects!”. Obviously he didn’t mean the quality of the work, or our clients, but simply refereed to the fact that we do normal work, for normal clients. We are involved in complex projects which often require us to manage multiple stakeholders to reach a successful conclusion. And we do it well. We do it creatively, inventively and are taking a lead, in these normal, everyday projects, in setting expectations and standards of how things should be done.

When Paul said this there was an audible expression of understanding; almost relief in the audience. Because, of course, most freelancers and agencies don’t do the cool, whizz bang projects that you often hear about from the front. They do everyday client work; just like us. It was great to hear a session which was grounded in the everyday, real world life of an ordinary agency.

For me, this understanding is significant and will have an impact on company as a whole.

All in all, SXSW has been a blast. I’ve had a great time. It’s been a party, there is no denying that. But I think I head home with new inspiration and I am looking forward to seeing that worked out in the coming months.

Posted via web from bobscape | posterous