Category: Project Management

10th annual Vermont Code Camp, My First Visit

On September 15, 2018, the 10th annual Vermont Code Camp was held at Champlain College in Burlington, VT.  For several years, this annual one-day conference has been on my radar screen.  For various reasons, I have not been able to attend.  But finally in 2018, I was able to make the trek up to Burlington.  It was a beautiful Saturday morning drive up Route 7 to the VT Code Camp.

As you can see from the schedule of sessions on the homepage, there were 28 sessions to choose from (7 time slots x 4 classrooms). I attended the following sessions:

  • Internet of Things with Scott Thibault (Bit Banging and Other Fun Programming on the Edge)
  • Single Page Webapps (SPA) with Bradley Holt (Enterprise Apps for the Web Platform)
  • SEO with John Waterman (Everything SEO: Strategy, Process, Technical Implementation, Tools, & the Real World)
  • UX / UI with Kyle Mitofsky (Practical UX and UI for Developers)
  • IT Careers with Kip Steele (How to get a great job and build a network in a rural market)
  • Project Management with Annmarie Curley (5 Key Skills & Tools to Instantly Improve Project Success)
  • WordPress with Josh Lee (Developer’s Guide to WordPress)

For some time slots it was a tough choice as to which session to attend.  Luckily, if you join the Meetup group for Vermont Coders Connection, in the comment section for the VT Code Camp post, you can get the links to some of the slide decks for other presentations.

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Using Trello for tracking and working Business Plan

A handy online tool that I have used for managing projects and To Do lists is Trello.  I first started using Trello on a software development team about four years ago.  Trello was integrated into the team’s usage of Scrum, which is an Agile approach to project management in the Information Technology field.  Our project team used 2-3 week “sprints” or time-blocks for managing short-term To Do lists and task assignments within a framework of long-term company goals and project priorities.

In that context, I was one of several users on a Trello team.  So Trello can be used for team collaboration, including teams where members may be working in different locations or remotely from main office.  I have also read that some couples have used Trello to plan their wedding.

In addition to team collaboration, I have also used Trello for tracking personal To Do lists, goals and tasks, including home remodeling projects.  When we remodeled our kitchen, Trello was a valuable tool for planning and keeping track of ideas, tasks, contractors, web links, documents and images.

I recently took a Business Planning course over the winter season.  A Business Plan and the writing and planning process itself suggests a variety of goals and To Do lists.  Now that I have written plan, I spent time reviewing my business plan again, this time making notes regarding goals, tasks and priorities.  From there, I was able to put that information into Trello to help track all these items.

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