• Sundial, the privacy-first project manager

    Sundial is a privacy-focused project management tool designed to help software teams navigate uncertainties in project delivery. It integrates task management, dependencies, team capacity, and delivery simulations to provide insights into timelines, potential delays, and the impact of staffing changes. Users can analyze historical data, manage sensitive information locally, and…

  • From API dependencies to portfolios of Suppliers

    The article discusses the strategic selection of API suppliers, comparing it to database choices. It emphasizes the value of employing multiple suppliers through adapters to enhance flexibility, cost-efficiency, and performance, rather than relying on a single provider. By measuring outcomes and dynamically routing requests, businesses can optimize their API integrations,…

  • Day-by-day: forecasting project completion through work flow simulation

    Introduction Project scheduling presents a fundamental challenge: given a set of tasks with varying durations, dependencies, and resource requirements, how can we predict when each task will complete? Traditional approaches often rely on static calculations that assume perfect conditions. The scheduler described in this article takes a different approach by…

  • Skills, or do we have the right developers?

    In this third installment, we’ll analyze how the simulation estimates completion dates by tracking both the skills developers bring to the table and the skills required to execute groups of tasks. This matching process pinpoints which developers will be overburdened with work, and which ones will starve because not enough…

  • Changes, or what did we do last month?

    This second installment explores how to effectively represent changes in projects, highlighting what has changed in a given period of time. To do so, we will use differential approaches to two fundamental project management tools: Work Breakdown Structures and GANTT charts. You can create these charts in the Sundial project…

  • Visualizing project health at a glance with Sunburst diagrams

    Every Project Manager knows the frustration of trying to answer a simple question: “How is the project really doing?” The answer usually involves opening multiple tools, cross-referencing spreadsheets, and mentally stitching together information scattered across GANTT charts, status reports, and backlog trackers. By the time you’ve assembled the picture, the…