Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Don't try this at home

I'm deriving a sort of guilty pleasure from watching my neighhbour Dave remodel his bathroom, because I felt the same pain this time last year, except doubly so because I was dumb enough to remodel two bathrooms simultaneously.

I have a pretty good track record in running large IT projects to schedule and budget, but I made most of the classic project management mistakes when I embarked on this project: I didn't have a clear idea of what the finished product should look like, I didn't have a budget worked out in advance, as the project progressed is grew steadily larger (in my defence that happens with old houses - as you pull things apart you inevitably find other problems that you just know you should fix rather than cover up), and despite the complete lack of a fixed scope I had a fixed deadline. I only got through it in the end because my Mum, Dad and brother James are absolute gems.

Not an experience I plan to repeat any time soon!

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