Taarradhin

Projects 

This reorganization caused a lot of upheaval, six months or so on and I’m still getting a handle on what we’re doing and where we need to be. To add to that, I’ve also started managing a QA team, which has added a considerable number of meetings and competing priorities to my plate. This month is really a mixed bag with my development team focusing on: 

SharePoint 2007 to 2013 (Cloud) 
We’re down to the final large handful of sites; one which has an extensive amount of customization and the other we’ve been pretty hands off on. I’m sure we’ll run into a number of surprises along the way.  

Data Conversions 

With our last warehouse conversion process is in parallel testing now. I’m looking forward to handing these all off and moving entirely into product development, something I never thought I’d say. This month we’ll be migrating off of all of the warehouse servers entirely and handing off all support and future development to the new team.   

Websites 

We have two major releases happening this month, one for a large enterprise wide reporting site that has been a few years in development now, and the other is a major enhancement to an existing site. Both projects are highly regarded, have great developers working on them and are well organized – I can’t take credit for either but I’m excited to see them both go live.  

Management – Development 

I’ve been slowly framing out a strategic action plan for this new combined team. It’s a heady thing to tackle right away (I think the last one I didn’t even start until I’d been in the position for about a year) but I think it’s well worth getting accomplished as quickly as possible to not only give the team broader direction but also to help others understand your vision and purpose. I’ve gotten workflows, tools, and the SWOT analysis completed and now need to focus on pulling it all together.  

Management – QA 

I’ve spent the last month, since gaining responsibility for the team, just concentrating on getting to know the projects, the people and the vast array of stakeholders. Now that I have a feel for the workload and pacing, I’m starting to clearly see the issues and have started pondering solutions. October will be spent doing some realignment, likely having to justify financially doing so and also adjusting some expectations.  

Personal 

I have made zero progress on my bios, profiles or personal sites in the last six months. I have done some work on it but it really needs to get wrapped up this month so I can stop spinning cycles on the procrastination wheel.  

I’ve started a new volunteer project that I’m very excited about. I get to work with an organization that I really admire and regularly use their services so it feels great to be able to directly give back. This month, I need to quickly sort out what tools we’ll be using, figure out what’s needed, get a project plan, get the meetings in order and scheduled.