Pictofigo Archive

Free Drawings + Agile = Good

– February 4, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

While I’ve been working with Pictofigo, they’ve developed over 800 free drawings (and a few premium drawings). It’s really exciting to discover blogs that are using Pictofigo drawings. I see new drawings almost daily and more people will benefit from this free freehand drawing search engine.

Recently, I was asked to write a guest post about an Introduction of Agile for Waterfall PMs. Now, I certainly believe if you’re going to write a blog post, you have to have a drawing or graphic included.
Where else should I turn to get my drawing or graphic to capture Agile for non-agile people? For several years, I’ve seen people go over to Mountain Goat Software and use their illustrations and figures. These are awesome and free! Sometimes the users give credit to Mountain Goat, sometimes they don’t (though they should). So, to start fresh, I did a quick v1.0 mockup using free Pictofigo drawings. It only took me about 20 minutes to do this. What do you think?

For my first iteration, I captured the following:

Product Backlog
Sprint Backlog
2-4 week iterations (Sprints)
Daily (Scrum or Stand-up) meeting every 24 hours
Potentially deployable/shippable product increment

Though this is just a rough mockup, you get the idea. Get out there an build something! Hopefully, by the time I complete my guest post, I’ll have a refined drawing for everyone to download. Until then, iterate, iterate, iterate!

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, Pictofigo, Scrum

Process Groups Poster

Derek Huether

– January 26, 2011Posted in: Project Management

After we published our first Scrum Posters, I was asked if we were going to create Non-Scrum Posters. The answer is YES!

Today we completed our (first) one-of-a-kind Pictofigo Project Management poster. The Project Management Process Groups poster is now available to purchase from Cafepress. There are links below and a new link in the header of this site. If you wish to apply this image to your own products, just go to Premium Pictofigo and purchase the high resolution file.

Are you studying for, or have recently passed, a popular project management exam? PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS GROUPS captures five process groups and playfully details several of the activities of each. Includes Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitor & Controlling, and Closing.

Mini Poster (Size: 17″ x 11″) just $14.99

Small Poster (Size: 20″ x 13″) just $19.99

Large Poster (Size:34.5″ x 23″) just $24.99

Popularity: 2%

Tags: Pictofigo, PMP, Process Groups

Pictofigo Premium & Agile Scrum

Derek Huether

– January 5, 2011Posted in: Agile

Posters (Up to size:34.5″ x 23″)

A few months ago, I partnered with Pictofigo, which provides high quality free hand drawings for Agile and Scrum proponents, tradition project managers, professionals, presenters, developers, web designers… The list of people and groups which can benefit from these free drawings goes on and on. Why use a Pictofigo drawing?Basically, if you need a drawing and the usual clip art just isn’t going to cut it, Pictofigo could be a nice solution for you. The count of free drawings is currently over 700 and growing.

So, what is new? It’s called Pictofigo Premium. Pictofigo Premium, a brand new service, offers high resolution drawings for download and use. These are print-ready graphics. At launch, there are four premium drawings ready for download with more on the way.

If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s to offer visual aids to help communicate information. That and they cover unsightly holes in the wall. As a result, I’ve partnered with Pictofigo to create one-of-a-kind Agile Scrum posters. Our first poster titled THE SPRINT will be offered in both male and female ScrumMaster versions.

The Sprint

Perfect for dressing up any shared workspace. THE SPRINT (Male ScrumMaster) captures each of the Scrum Roles, Meetings, and Artifacts in an easy to follow workflow format. It doesn’t matter if you’re a chicken or a pig, you and your team will love this. This version depicts a male ScrumMaster with his team.

Large Poster (Size:34.5″ x 23″) Get it now for just $24.99

Small Poster (Size: 20″ x 13″) Get it now for just $19.99

Mini Poster (Size: 17″ x 11″) Get it now for just $14.99

But what if you want to make more posters for yourself and your team and don’t want buy one poster at a time? What if you want to make this your desktop wallpaper or put it in your next PowerPoint presentation? Well, you can get the same high resolution file used to create the poster directly from Premium Pictofigo!

Get The Sprint (Male ScrumMaster) in 300DPI

Get The Sprint (Female ScrumMaster) in 300DPI

Don’t forget to check back really soon! We’ll be linking to the The Sprint (Female ScrumMaster) poster and also Scrum Roles (Male and Female ScrumMaster) posters

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, Pictofigo, Scrum, scrummaster

The Story of Monte Carlo

Derek Huether

– September 12, 2010Posted in: Project Management

Once upon a weekday meeting, I had a story to tell. It was the tale of a project manager, who’s name really rings a bell.

He quantified the total project cost, he didn’t miss a dime. He also computed the schedule, he was always aware of the time.

He used all these input values, with random amounts being his friend. He ran these simulations. I thought they would never end.

The outcome was a distribution, a bell curve if you like. On the edges we saw some low points, in the middle there was a spike.

Monte Carlo was this fellow’s name, he was a heck of a numbers guy. We asked him if he ever made things up. He said he would merely quantify.

Now don’t think Monte worked alone, he had a counterpart. Her name was Jane Stake-Holder, he worked with her from the start.

Jane could be quite demanding, sometimes ignoring project scope. But Monte managed the situation well, knowing creep was a slippery slope.

His technique was well documented, a change would make everything slip. He told this to Jane Stake-Holder who you’d think would do a back-flip.

But numbers don’t lie and neither did he, Jane knew Monte would put up a fight. She backed down and submitted a change request, the schedule would extend to the right.

Graphic: Pictofigo

A Critical Path Facelift

Derek Huether

– September 10, 2010Posted in: Project Management

After having the same look on my website for over 2 years, I think it’s time for a facelift. So, if you come to the site within the next week and notice things looking a little different, don’t fret! In addition to the frontend changes, I plan to move the site over to PowerVPS (Virtacore Systems), who hosts my other sites. So, grab yourself a fresh cup of coffee (or tea) and continue enjoying my rants and insights.

If you think the graphic above looks a little like me drawing a Critical Path, you should go to Pictofigo and check out their other offerings. Thank you again to Pictofigo for doing such an awesome job!

Regards,

Derek

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Critical Path, Huether, Pictofigo, PowerVPS