Workflow model in action

[Gideon]

Still feeling my way through GTD. I've been told to decommission one of our server rooms and I began to put it through the workflow model.

I got to creating the project and outcomes and got a little bit confused with my action lists. The more I looked at them the more I felt better if I divided the project into groups so that i could bookmark where i was at and what I would do next.

The plan is below. My action lists are not sequential order cause I kept asking myself what needs to happen before that and writing it down.

My question is this, does that mean decommission server room is a goal and things like, review contracts, inventory server room etc, projects?

Any other ideas are welcome.
Thanks
Gideon

Project
Decomissioning Server Room

Oucome
Server room cleared of all physical Items
Operational hardware housed elsewhere
Decomissioned Hardware disposed within guidelines

Review contracts
Collect every Document on active contracts
Ring service providers to update contracts in document files
Document and update contract in a service portfolio
Read about service portfolio
Get agreement to shut down server2
Research decommisioning servers-ITIL ver3 decomission pg194

Inventory server room
Email inventory of hardware to ICT and ask if they can take all
Finalize harware inventory, mindsweep
Type out inventory
Run plan by operations manager
Update electronic copy

Contact ICT to enquire about hosting
Brainstorm questions to ask ICT
Run questions against finance
Run webserver and copy files
Organise move; boxes, transportation

The format above is less confusing for me than...

Project
Decomissioning Server Room

Oucome
Server room cleared of all physical Items
Operational hardware housed elsewhere
Decomissioned Hardware disposed within guidelines

Action List
Collect every Document on active contracts
Ring service providers to update contracts in document files
Document and update contract in a service portfolio
Read about service portfolio
Get agreement to shut down server2
Research decommisioning servers-ITIL ver3 decomission pg194
Email inventory of hardware to ICT and ask if they can take all
Finalize harware inventory, mindsweep
Type out inventory
Run plan by operations manager
Update electronic copy
Brainstorm questions to ask ICT
Run questions against finance
Run webserver and copy files
Organise move; boxes, transportation

 

[tpassist]

Extend the GTD concept of ‘next action’ to ‘next project’

Hi Gideon,

I’d apply the natural planning model to the entire thing? i.e you extend the GTD concept of ‘next action’ to ‘next project’. To get the entire project finished, all you need to know is the ‘next project’ and the ‘next action’ with-in this project. Keep a list of ‘Outcomes’ and get to it. That is what I do.

i.e. When I get a new sizeable project like this, I immediately create a master project, I call them ‘Dashboards’. The first sub project (if you like) will be “Export Outcomes”. The purpose of this project is to document the desired outcomes of the ‘master’ project. After that it should be immediately obvious what I should do next. I just create a project for the next outcome or outcomes I need to address and then work on each as you would any GTD project, i.e. decide what the next physical action is. I usually end up with two or three parallel sub projects and eventually when each sub project finishes, I review my original outcomes list and if I’m happy, I go to the pub. It works really well for me.

Regards,
Brad

 

[mcogilvie]

It's up to you how you choose to label these things. I would probably keep Decomissioning Server Room as a project. If things got hot and heavy on one or more sub-projects, I would list them as projects too for the time they are very active. The point is to keep the stuff that needs to be reviewed weekly where you can review it weekly, not to conform to some inflexible standard. A big project that needs weekly review needs to be on the project list, that's all.

A big project also needs to be broken down into sub-projects and "tasks" and then next actions. Note that your tasks are not yet at the level of next physical actions:

Collect every Document on active contracts
Ring service providers to update contracts in document files

are not things you may be able to do at once. For example, you may need to make a list of all service providers, or email staff re copies of all active contracts in order to move forward.

 

[jerendeb]

Somewhere David suggests that if we are getting bogged down or overwhelmed we haven't gotten granular enough. We may be looking at our project from too high an altitude. Outcomes must be reduced to the lowest most next action possible. I am not a master at this but at the same time I fully understand this concept. I too have a Network Room that's Outcome is Network Work is Cleaned and Organized. I don' want to deal with this project yet. I have no next action yet. But I think that when I do, it will be, Go to network room and physically remove items that can be trashed for one hour. That's as far as I dare go. Now I'll either do this by impulse due to my context (being there) and time (I can now devote an hour). The resources are always available, a cart and a dumpster. While doing this I am sure I'll have a vision of the next action which will become a goal for the project of Network Room Cleaned...all horizons are virtually being seen and implemented because my Purpose is appreciating decency and order in my life. While this is most often pen & paper first, it is sometimes visionary for me and intuitive. Now if all of a sudden my boss goes to the network and says, clean it today, I'll have to place the next actions on my calendar and block out everything else that previously mattered. If I had to delegate this project, I'd then be able take my vision and transcribe it into multiple next actions that others would charged with that's I'd be writing down on my Waiting for list.

 

[Kunle]

@Brad
That makes sense. Have a master project with 'sub projects' and pick out the 'moving parts'.

@mcogilvie
that too makes sense.

with 'collect every document on active contracts' that would go in my @desk list, and most of the active contracts are in the cabinet next to me. However your right about call service providers. That isn't the very next action

@jerendeb
Me too, I understand the concepts but translating them in practice takes a little while. What you spoke about David has mentioned in having Predefined work (processed work that's in ur tickler/calendar/@list) Unplanned work (reactive approach to work as in you boss wants u to do task x immediately) and Defining work (the proactive approach when u have time on ur hands to processing inboxes).

Outcomes in this case, for me, tells me what done looks like. It allowed me to draw up my project plan above.

I like your example about using context, time and resources in a practical way

Thanks guys you given me food for thought