In the second part of my column I’d like to talk about important things before you actually start coding and designing. This things are necessary for planning and for a good start.

Firstly, I think it’s good to have a deadline when you should handout your project. If this deadline exists I’d prefer to make a little timetable with the major TODO’s. On this first list I think of possible small goals and this list is growing iteratively during the whole process. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t have to much TODO’s at the start, just KISS (keep it short, stupid!)

To go on with it’s very important to share this timetable with all your group members if it’s a groupproject (which is often the case^^). You and your groupmembers should compare and share all lists. I personally like Google Wave and therefore I’d like to create a Wave which contains the merged timetable. The big pro of a wave is that all members can edit the table and add new TODO’s/goals. As a result you are up to date all the time.
I think Google Wave could really help improving project management and design and therefore I recommend it to anyone! see www.wave.google.com and sign in!

Secondly like I already wrote it is very important to have small goals since this type of goals really help keeping the motivation up! Personally I make my goals as small as possible but this could lead to a bunch of small goals. I’m always trying to avoid too much goals, remember coding is a iteratively process, the goals too. Due to the fact that my goal are so small and therefore reachable, every time I reach such a goal my motivation rises and I keep up my good work! Another thing I do is increasing the size of my goals every time I fullfill one, as a result the goals aren’t too big at the start and motivation could rise. As time goes on the goals are getting bigger and bigger which will increase motivation also if such a goal is reached!

Finally all planning is worth nothing if your group members and you doesn’t try to be in plan as much as possible. This may bring a little pressure to the project but it may also help to deliver the finished product at the right time! And a lot of people are working way better with pressure, like me^^

That’s it for this month and I hope you like this article. I’m looking forward to read a lot of comments^^
My blog domain is moving but I don’t know how much time it takes but if I know some thing new it I’ll tweet it!
And I’m looking for a new Word-Press theme too, I’ll hope you will like it^^
The next topic for this little column is about “UML-Diagram” and this will be one of my favourites!

Cheers d3orn