There comes a point in many IT technician’s lives where they wonder if they’d like to go beyond putting out fires. Hopefully, they’re not thinking about setting fires, but that’s another topic.  What I’m alluding to is that one of the skills that you will likely need in your progressing technology career is project management.  Back in October 2016, I gave a webinar for the cool folks of the Dynamics SL User Group on “Technical Project Management.”  

First off, if you’re a DSLUG member and have about an hour to spare – this is a link to the recording .  If you’re a Dynamics SL user but not a DSLUG member – here’s a link to why you should join .

Back to Technical Project Management. It’s really a two-stage skill, being able to manage a single project well and being able to manage several projects at a time.  Granted, you’ll have a much easier time managing multiple projects if they’re not all shit shows.  So we’ll start with being able to manage a single project.

The presentation I gave for DLSUG focused on applying Agile development principles in a small business environment (ahem, Dynamics SL) to successfully manage a single project.  The 3-slide preview:

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What I wanted viewers to get out of the presentation was a reasonable comfort level with how they are managing projects throughout the year.  Many IT admins in small businesses handle both helpdesk tickets and full-scale implementations and other projects, they’re not the Six Sigma folks you run into with their karate belts.

There were obviously some really smart audience members because they asked how I balance multiple projects at a time.   Some days it’s caffeine and headphones, but usually, it’s a combination of tools such as Atlassian Jira and Confluence as well as a great team that puts out consistently strong results.