Subject: Minutes, Group Meeting 2/14/96

1.  Milestones Planned Last Week
    a.  xxxxxx xxxxxxx - done
    b.  yyy yyyyyyyyyy - done, but took longer than expected
    c.  gggggg ggggggg - delayed due to garfield eating mouse; see new plan below
    d.  uuuuuuuuu uuuu - cancelled due to lack of interest

2.  Unplanned Accomplishments

3.  Milestones Planned for Next Week
    a.  asdfasdf asdfasdf
    b.  qwertqwerty
    c.  will get new trackball; may avoid garfield eating it?

4.  Dependencies, needed help, questions, problems

5.  Changes in Plans and Priorities

Some notes--

We agreed to email these on or before Midnight Tuesday to
moties@mit.edu (the mailing list consisting of Paul Hill, Bill Cattey,
and Mike Barker).  This timing should allow Paul, Bill, and Mike to
review them before group meetings, service-tl meetings, or sometimes
ILEAD meetings, but in any case, for important meetings.  It also lets
people recover from their weekend:-)

The Moties will read them and discuss issues or questions with
individuals as needed.

Some people (e.g. Bill Cattey) will be including planned effort and
expended effort as an individual means of getting better at time
estimation.  This is NOT MANDATORY.

The list of milestones should be short.  If there are more than ten, you
need to think about aggregating or changing the level of detail.  Too
few, you may want to think about getting more detailed.

There was considerable discussion about what the right kind of
"milestones" are.  If inchpebbles feels right, use that.  If tasks
feels right, use that.  Basically, you should be coming up with three
to nine pieces that represent what you are doing this week--including
meetings, papers, and other things.  They should be specific,
realistic, observable, and result in benefits for both you and the
groups you are working with.

If the format needs adjustment when reporting, please do so.  The idea
here is to have something that helps us work together.  If we need to
change it, we will.  This should not mean arbitrary changes just for the
fun of it, but rather intentional changes which are explained and
discussed.

Larger Scale:  I consider this part of an approach to planning work that
starts with setting goals (specific, realistic, observable, with payoffs
for the individual and the group).  A working plan is then made by
listing steps to accomplish the goal.  The time needed to do each
is estimated.  That plan (directly in simple cases, or laid out in Gantt
chart in more complex cases) feeds directly into status reports, since
the milestones called out in the plan are what get reported in the
status reports.  Status reports then feed quarterly reports or other
collective reports.

(some words from tim's status reporting format--you may want to
consider them in filling out our current format)

Accomplishments: what you accomplished during the last week: in as
tangible a form as possible, and ideally, tied to a project plan.

Open Items: briefly summarize any major issues, questions, comments,
concerns, etc. related to your project assignments, be they managerial
or technical issues.