What’s In Your Toolbox?
It’s going to be a long weekend…
With the help of my good friend Keith Crawford, I plan on reformatting my primary development machine today and doing a clean install of Windows 7. This project is long overdue, I can’t remember the last time I reformatted my drive, in fact this SATA drive that I am using now initially ran XP and then VISTA before I upgraded to WINDOWS 7 last year. Fortunately I am pretty diligent when it comes to backups, so the project isn’t as daunting as it could be.
Where to Start Reloading Software??
While preparing my plan of action last night I went through my list of installed software to see what I would need to reinstall once I got the OS reloaded. After going over the list I realized that I don’t use half of the programs that are installed on my machine. This got me to thinking, what else is out there that I might be missing out on? What tools / software do you use to develop client projects?
Here’s a list of the software and desktop applications that I use, please leave me a comment and let me know what you are using and if there is something on the market that I need to look at…
- Microsoft Outlook (Productivity) – Email, Calendars, Tasks, Notes, etc.
- Evernote Desktop (Productivity) – Notes.
- Microsoft Office Ultimate (Productivity) – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
- Microsoft Live Writer (Blogging) – WYSIWYG Blog Editor.
- Jasc Paintshop Pro (Graphics) – Lightweight compared to PS and faster for some jobs.
- Adobe Photoshop (Graphics) – All of the Bells & Whistles for Graphics.
- Adobe Illustrator (Vector) – I haven’t found anything else that compares for Illustrations.
- Adobe Dreamweaver (Code Editor / WYSIWYG) – My favorite WYSIWYG editor.
- Notepad++ (Code Editor) – Probably my favorite straight up code editor.
- Eclipse (Code Editor / IDE) – Rarely do I use this anymore.
- Xlinesoft PHPRunner (Code Editor / IDE / Generator) – Saves a ton of time
- Microsoft Expression Web (Code Editor / WYSIWYG) – Rarely do I use this anymore.
- Coda (Code Editor / WYSIWYG / CSS Editor) – Very nice but only works on my MacBook.
- TopStyle Pro (CSS Editor) – I haven’t found anything that compares
- IPSwitch WS-FTP Professional (FTP) – All of the Bells & Whistles for FTP
- Filezilla (FTP) – Fewer features than WS-FTP but a lot faster.
- Camtasia (Screen Capturing / Recording) – I haven’t found anything that compares.
- SwishMax (Flash / Vector Animation) – A lot faster than Flash to work with .SWF files.
- Audacity (Audio Editing / Recording) – I haven’t found anything that compares.
- Garage Band (Audio Editing / Recording) – Only works on my MacBook
- EZ Audio CD Ripper (Audio Editing / Ripping) – Fastest CD to MP3 Ripper I have found.
- Skype (Communications) – My favorite chat, voice, video conferencing app.
- RingCentral Call Controller (Communications) – Ties into our corporate phone system.
- SSH Explorer (SSH) – Rarely do I have to use this anymore because we have an admin.
- MySQL Administrator (Database) – I occasionally use this to connect to databases.
- TJPing (Ping) – I sometimes use this instead of command line.
- PuTTy (SSH, Telnet) – Rarely do I use this anymore because we have an admin.
Do You Use Project Management?
I had someone ask me on Facebook and another on Twitter this weekend, which project management software I recommended. I immediately said Basecamp. Although recently, we switched to ActiveCollab at Pleth for managing our open projects because it integrated w/ QuickBooks a lot easier than Basecamp. For a company like ours w/ offices in 3 cities and hundreds of clients out there, we need everything to connect and work well together…
I am interested in hearing what everyone else is using for project management. Also, if you have an interest in discussing any of the other project management solutions on the market today in an upcoming episode of The Cotton Club Podcast drop me a note below…
Current Projects: Streamlining Project Discovery
I have been developing websites for a long time now and over the years I have seen a lot of changes in the way that we, as developers, approach projects. I suppose a lot of this has to do with the fact that we not only approach projects differently but we also build them differently.
Personally, I wouldn’t have dreamed of using an open source content management system or framework about 7 or 8 years ago because a lot of these solutions weren’t mature enough to be trusted, especially from a security standpoint. Of course, this is polar opposite today, many popular content management solutions like Wordpress, MODx, Joomla, and Drupal have all matured and are viable options for building web projects in.
While a whole lot has changed in terms of how we develop projects, one aspect of what we do hasn’t. Project Discovery, or the initial conversation you have with a prospective client prior to quoting out their web project, is extremely important. During this process I like to try to get my head around everything the client is wanting to achieve with their website.
Phase One:
This initial conversation, or Phase 1, usually consists of the following determinations…
- Do they require content management?
- Do they plan to blog or publish news releases?
- Do they need graphic design / photography / or page layouts?
- Do they have a rough project outline?
- Do they have content writers, or will we be quoting this out?
- Do they plan to capture any user data?
- Do they need any custom applications or functionality?
- Do they need to plugin or interact with any third-party applications?
- What is their timeframe for testing / launch?
- Do the also need email?
- What is their budget?
Phase Two:
Once I have all of the answers to Phase One I can pretty much start on a proposal, but before delivering the final cost analysis to the client I usually will follow up with them regarding our initial conversation about the following…
- Has anything changes since we last spoke about the project?
- Can we nail down the project outline and go through it to make sure we haven’t left anything out?
- If the project requires capturing data or any custom programming, can we nail down the specifics and build a model of how they are envisioning the project to function.
- If the project requires interacting with a third-party application or service, do we have a method for me to test this functionality? Is there support documentation or point of contact for this service?
- Who is going to be my point of contact during the project?
Once I have all of this information in my head, and I have already gone over our policies and procedures for dealing with scope creep and additional development costs down the road, I am usually ready to build them a proposal based on the information I have.
Since most of the discovery information I get from clients comes through either web conferencing or telephone calls, I simply jot down these notes in my notebook and pull from that while making the proposal. A few years ago I would send the prospective client my discovery notes along with my proposal just so that there wouldn’t ever be any confusion once the project got started. Over the years I have stopped doing this but I got to thinking today that it might not be a bad idea to start doing this again.
What Got Me to Thinking About This?
Today my business partners and I were on the phone w/ a potential new account and were asking him the usual discovery questions regarding his project. My partner Stephen had already spoken with this person briefly so he took the lead on the call, my partner Greg and I listened in and chimed in with any questions we might have. While this was going on, I jotted down a few notes in my notebook about the project, even though I had already more or less made the determination, as did my partners, that I was more than likely not going to be the one developing this project. Internally we are able to discern which one of us is best suited to manage a project, sometimes even from the initial conversation we are able to make this call…
When we got on the phone after the conference call with one another we all agreed that it would more than likely be a project that Greg would oversee. But, let’s say that Greg get’s bogged down and needs for me to pickup and help him out on a project, it would be nice for me to have access to the discovery notes that Greg has put together regarding the project. We currently use Basecamp for project management but it doesn’t do a detailed job of capturing discovery data in my opinion so I got to thinking what we could do to build onto this…
Idea for Custom Application
I am going to build a custom application that we can enter in discovery notes for projects into a form online during our conversation. I am also going to have this form be accessible by our blackberries and iphones as well. Of course, once all of the project discovery information is input we will be able to generate a PDF or Word Document from the data entered. I haven’t got the entire schematic worked out in my head as to what this is going to look like yet and I haven’t started on it, but once I have something rough, I will be sure to post an update here.
Just out of curiosity, what do you use for your project discovery process? Be sure to leave me your comments below…
Week One with the iPhone
The other day I reluctantly went into the local AT&T store to find a replacement for my Palm Treo that I had been hoping would hold out for me until January when AT&T was supposed to get in the new Palm Pre but it just wasn’t meant to be. I went in w/ the intention of checking out the BlackBerry Bold but the more I looked at the iPhone the more I realized that the touchscreen keyboard wasn’t too bad (that was my holdout from day one w/ the iPhone).
Another holdout that I had w/ the iPhone was that I had heard that it wouldn’t synchronize with Outlook. For me that is a huge deal because the past 15+ years of my life are archived in Outlook as well as my notes, tasks, and client data going back as long as I have been in business. Leaving that kind of business intelligence behind was not an option. I asked around and a few people told me that it was possible to sync up w/ Outlook but person after person at the AT&T store told me that the iPhone would not synchronize with Outlook, but I knew that I trusted my friends who had said that it would do it so I went ahead and brought a 3gs home w/ me to test it out.
Sure enough, on the first attempt it synchronized right up with my Outlook Contacts and Calendar. Someone should tell AT&T to send out a memo to all of their sales people and let them know this because apparently it’s not common knowledge to them. Long story short, I was able to sync up my contacts and my calendar but not able to hook up w/ my tasks. And a few months ago the tasks thing would have been a deal killer for me but my partners and I recently moved over to Basecamp to do our project management so I was able to just load an app to handle my tasking and I was all setup. Even better than I had hoped for…
Keep Your Day Super Productive
I somehow bounced onto this guys blog this evening and thought that this was a pretty good post. I recently introduced Energy Drinks into my daily routine so that I could squeeze out a little bit more creativity on client projects. I have to admit that it has helped, I have two favorite Energy Drinks that I endorse exclusively, these are Monster Low-Carb Energy Drink, and the 5-hour Energy Shots. Both have helped me squeeze a little bit more productivity out, If you aren’t into downing an Energy Drink everyday about 2pm here are a few good suggestions from the Dumb Little Men Blog:
Schedule Time for Social Networking: Forum marketing, social networking sites, and casual relationship building are all crucial in the business world. However, they can quickly take over and monopolize your time. Schedule time each day or week to socialize, and stick to the schedule. Doing so will allow you to form necessary connections, without hurting your business in the process. Limit Email: Far too many people attempt to respond to each email in real time, seriously damaging their productivity. Limit email checking to certain times daily, and you’ll be amazed as you watch your productivity soar. You may need to add an autoresponder message or note in your email signature file noting your new hours, until clients catch on. Utilize Your Energy: Humans naturally experience energy highs and lows throughout the day. Take the time to pay attention to your highs hit and learn to schedule activities accordingly. If you know, for example, that you find it difficult to focus in the afternoon, plan to use this time for socializing, networking, and responding to email. Use your more focused energy times for detailed work that requires deep concentration. Master Organization Tools: Without the right tools to organize your day and your life, you’ll struggle to compete with large companies. To give yourself the best edge, learn to use some nifty organization tools and hold your own. Plan Your Day: Be your own executive assistant and plan your day out the night before, you’ll get twice as much done. First make a list of all the tasks you have for tomorrow, then go the extra mile and actually schedule it into a calendar with specific times. It may take you a while to estimate a task’s time, but you’ll get better at it as you go along.
If you like these suggestions and want to take a look at the rest of the site, or the article itself, here’s a link to: Keep Your Day Super Productive – Dumb Little Man
