okgb said:
Hey J.R. , certainly with the manufacturing background , you must have good experience
in organizing a flow chart and managing delays ? Do you have a common check list or
flow chart ?
;D ;D ;D
DIY projects are not supposed to resemble work, while the lines can blur.
I've read books on the subject of project management and been tasked with high level responsibility inside a decent sized company.
For very complex tasks where it gets broken up into sub tasks performed by different groups, there is software that allows you to manage the dependencies between multiple tasks. I.E. the schematic must be finished before the PCB layout, parts purchased before assembly, etc. For a one man DIY project a lot of this is self organizing since you always have some work to do and it isn't that difficult to see the order they should follow. This project software is most helpful for managing numerous projects simultaneously, so workers in the bottom of the ship, can know what to work on first so everything comes together at the output end on time. These charts get managed say once a week so outliers can be identified and adjustments made.
I friend of mine does this for a living on construction projects. lots of sub-contractors that need to have their feet held to the fire to do what they say, when they promised, etc. Or else the building or highway is not finished on time. That said workers have been working on two interstate overpasses near me, for the last few years. Somehow I think the government is involved in that project. Maybe they are growing their own cement and rebar on location.
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FWIW, the biggest source of delay when I was trying to manage real new product development inside a real organization was lack of firm design end-targets, or more specifically how the man with his name on all the buildings would love to change features or some other key elements in mid-stream, then expect all the original time-lines to still be met, even though it required start over for numerous mid level design functions.
Some amount of change is unavoidable, when say the competition or market changes, but discipline is required to commit to a design direction and stick with that. I would schedule meetings with representatives for all these sub-functions so we could get commitments from the top decision maker on these end targets for all projects in the flow at the same time. As is the luxury when you own the compnay, this top decision maker declined to attend these meetings after the first one or two. Then he didn't understand (or care) why I stopped scheduling them when he was never there. :'(
For DIY projects after you finish even one you should learn what was your personal source of delay.
I still have notebooks full of ideas for projects that I will never seriously address, and my current pending DIY project is a smart local heater based around my old simple fixed 850W heater. I need to order at least one more unique part (an opto-triac) to interface between a low voltage micro controller and high current mains switch (I already purchased weeks ago). Being cheap, I hate that I have to pay so much postage/shipping for a $1-$2 part. So I drag my feet hoping I can combine the order with other parts.
Since DIY projects are entertainment and satisfying your desire to express some creativity (or perhaps different things for different people), why want them to end sooner? Then you would be even worse off with nothing to do.
If your problem is finishing stuff there are several strategies. One from that old Covey book was about how to manage tasks in finite time. Imagine you have a pile of different sized stones (tasks), you need to fit into a bottle (the limited time). You will fit the most stones inside the bottle if you put the biggest one in first. So for time management tackle the largest first. Another is identify if there is one task you hate to do, so you procrastinate around that. In that case you must grow the self discipline to make yourself do it.
I have more stories, but that's enough for now.
JR