This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Udi Dahan. Original Post: Udi Dahan's Projects Feed Title: Udi Dahan - The Software Simplist Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/UdiDahan-TheSoftwareSimplist Feed Description: I am a software simplist. I make this beast of architecting, analysing, designing, developing, testing, managing, deploying software systems simple. This blog is about how I do it. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Udi Dahan Latest Posts From Udi Dahan - The Software Simplist

Recently I've started thinking about other potential uses for blogging and rss in general. One thought that came to my mind is the use of a blog for managing projects.

Before I get into the managing projects thing, I guess that I should give a little background about myself. I am a standalone programmer / consultant. This really means that I am a team of one. I meet with clients, market my services, sign the contracts, meet with the users, dig for requirements, decide on architecture, design the UI, code the system ( test first ), deploy, manage user expectations, etc... Not only that, but I do this on several projects at the same time. This is what I mean by managing projects.

I need a way to be most effective at doing all of these things. Just think of the possibilities if all of the stakeholders on a project had an rss aggregator. Communicating status on an ongoing basis would be simple. Mocking up a UI and getting the users comments would be simple. If you could get wiki technology integrated, you could work on all sorts of requirements docs/xp stories/whatever simply. To make a long story short, its all about effective asynchronous communication.

Anyway, after all of these thoughts I came to a decision. Just do it. Try it. What's the worst thing that could happen ? It'll flop, and I'll stop it pretty quick. On the other hand, maybe it really could be good for something, even a subset of the things listed above. Maybe other things that I didn't think of. Maybe the project stakeholders will come up with other ways to use this technology. So...

I am officially anouncing the opening of Udi Dahan's Projects, the blog that will change the way we work - well, the way I work. The first experiment of its kind - that I know of.

Tell me what you think !

How can blogging be used to manage projects, or, more generally, to improve the way projects are run ?
Any ideas, crazy ones are exactly what I'm looking for, on other uses for this technology ?

Am I totally wrong and going on the path to destruction ?