01 A New Beginning

A New Beginning
After what seems like a very long Christmas break it’s back to work on Project 2013 in easy steps again. I’ve got five more chapters to work on and I need to get them done before I head off to Australia.

All projects begin with a basic idea about something that could be changed or done differently.  But at that time very little is known about the project, it is just the beginning.  From this beginning many things will unfold and happen, these things will make up the project.  We may call them stages or phases or tasks or activities but they are just the things that will happen along the way.  The path or way through the project will develop and change throughout its life in response to what actually happens.  

The Way  
The Way of the Project Manager is about how things happen on projects.  The way cannot be learnt, it can only be known, so this is a quest for that knowledge.  There will be darkness but, hopefully, out of that darkness we will begin to know how things happen for this is the way of the project manager.  

The Way that can be told is not the eternal Way.  
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.  
The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.  
With a name the mother of the ten thousand things.  

Extract from “The Way of the Project Manager” by John Carroll (ISBN 978-1481076111), published by CreateSpace and available from Amazon in hard copy and on Amazon Kindle.

The End of the World

Well it's my birthday and according to some folks the world is going to end. Well it has to end sometime so today's as good as any other!

The Project
Got through to chapter 8 in Project 2013 in easy steps but had some real problems with PaintShop Photo Pro X3 (which I use for capturing and editing the screen shots). It started corrupting the tiff images when I try and save them as CMYK so I've reverted to RGB and hope the publishers can convert them.

There are no obstacles on the Way,
The obstacles are the Way.

On Going

Just finished chapter four of Project 2013 in easy steps and looking for inspiration in the Tao.

The Tao seems wild and obscure.
So obscure, so wild,
but within it there is form.

Now it's Friday evening so I'm off to The Bridge Inn for a pint :o)

Project 2013

Microsoft have just released Project 2013 (a bit ahead of time) so it's back to that project. I've got to work right through the book taking new screen shots and checking that nothing significant has changed in the functionality since the preview version.

Project 2013 in easy steps is currently scheduled for publication in April but the holiday season is looming and I'm off for a visit to Australia in January and February so there isn't that much time.

The sage, travelling all day, remains centered.
Though there are beautiful things to be seen,
He remains unattached and calm.

(or at least tries to in my case :o)