Memories From Last 3 Weeks

Got some photos up.

Sydney was only a week ago, but it already feels far away. Great to see family and friends, and the best thing was to see that everyone was healthy, happy and enjoying life. And the kids are unbelievable! I just glad that our M&M shirts all fit :)

Toronto was great to see my Dad's side of the family. Mama looked like last time, but was even less responsive to our presence. It's sad for me to see her in this state, I'm sure it's even harder for her children to. However, I'm glad I got up there, I realise that I really should see my family here more often. My cousin is going to be studying in Chicago which makes it only a hop, skip and jump away.

A New Beginning

It's been great to come back to NY. Resting in the apartment, feeling the summer heat, smelling those random odours, there's a feel to NY that can't be replicated elsewhere.

I think I'm also coming back to the city with a purpose to get out there and do more stuff. It was a semi-shocked feeling to think that I have already been here for almost 10 months, which means I'm nearly halfway through our secondment here. Work-wise the trip to Sydney was great in renewing old contacts and getting some global work. I should have charged the airfare!

Of course there is an option to extend, and I think we will probably take that option (if it's given to us). Even then I still have more of a realisation that the time here is not long at all.

Things on the immediate list:

• US Open (tickets booked in baby!)
• Trapeze class (thanks for the gift babes)
• Bryant Park movies
• Jones Beach out in Long Island
• Caribbean trip

Enjoy this fleeting summer while it lasts!

Sydney Work Review

As sad as this is, given I'm back in Sydney with family and friends, I'm writing a post about work.
Coming back to Oz I've been reminded how difficult it is to properly manage a project, especially a large enterprise one.

The amount of people to manager, issues to fix, risks to watch over and general grief counseling that is involved could make any PM insane. The problem is exacerbated by poor requirements, leading to one of the biggest scope creep issues I have ever seen. I'm coming here as a viewer of the storm, as opposed to being in the middle of it, so it makes for quite a learning experience. Time is a factor, and as crunch time nears for project delivery, communication really doesn't get the loving it deserves.

Thinking of the up and coming project on my radar, where I'll be trying to herd two quite different business units in all three regions of the globe will be quite a challenge. I need to make sure that I keep everyone engaged, or else there will almost a guarantee that things will be coming out of left field.

Of course, it's not like I was the best PM when I was here in Oz. Having talked to the guys that are now supporting the project I ran, I would have to say that there was a real lack of quality analysis on the work that was produced, and whether that is due to poor developers or poor BAs, the ultimate responsibility comes back to me. I'm just lucky that I have a PM friend in Sydney whom I handed over to, who is very good at working through these knotty issues. For someone who doesn't swear much, even he says that the solution I produced was "fucked", to use a technical term :)

In other news, it was wonderful to catch up with family and friends. I miss everyone here! Looking forward to XBox night on Wednesday hehe. Some things never change!