Running under the radar...

We have a project at work that started life as a "lunch" project. Simply put, it is a request tracking system. We like it - we like it a lot.

However, it has never been a sanctioned project. That is actually one of its strengths. We were a group of self-organizing employees who had a need and addressed it - succefully. All without any sort of management approval or direction - up to the point of a real installation. Fortunately for us, we got approval to move our product into the production environment.

That was 2001 (or so). We started with 2 developers who also were the users, designers, requirement analysts, architects, and managers. We surveyed existing products, saw what was available, and knew they didn't address our business needs. We had done request tracking umpteen times in the past and had a good handle on what worked and what didn't work.

Our passion for the project drove it until early 2003.

Last year, we didn't deploy the project at all.

Tonight, we did our first deployment (which was needed badly and is still needed) in about 18 months. The team has grown - we now have 5 or 6 people who pitch-in "as time permits".

I see this as more than a useful product/project. I see this as a philosophy change - and one that has potential on changing how some projects are organized. In general, the company runs projects from the top-down. Business has a need, gets the money, defines the things to be done. Then, IT management makes a chart of tasks, assigns out tasks, and work commences.

The change is on the IT side and is significant. We, the developers and business, need to self-organize. This pushes the responsibility and the drive onto the shoulders that count. This gives us, the community, the werewithal to accomplish goals and to take ownership in a product. This doesn't remove management. I would expect that this would help management - as long as we remain a functional team (instead of dysfunctional).

This is not a new concept, but its one I need to figure out to drive the project forward and how to spark the drive we had early on.

It's similar to open-source, except it's still directed toward a business goal. My thoughts on how to drive this project have leaned towards terminology very close to Agile methodologies... which reminds me -

I did hear a presentation last year by Dave Thomas (of Pragmatic Programmers). He was talking about running internal projects in an open-source manner. I remember being intensely interested in what he was saying, but I need to dig out my notes and see where it goes.

We'll see where it goes! For this to be successful, it needs to also remain under the radar; otherwise, it is just another dreary project for people to work on.