53 Hours

Well, if you're wondering what happened to me - it's Thursday, I've worked 53 hours in 4 days.  Fun. Not. 

I ultimately caught the role of functional test lead for UAT because....no on planned UAT, no one appointed UAT personnel, and I have the skills and ability to bring order from chaos.  (No modesty here, that happens to be one of the things I am good at.) 

Now, I won't kid you, it is an uphill battle - I am going to try and roll the UAT out one step ahead of the testers. Prepare block one, roll out block one, and then while the testers are moving through block one, be working frantically on block two.  There are about six blocks, all told, of varying degrees of complexity and it is going to consume the next two weeks.

I haven't had much time for anything else. I wake up in the morning, I start working, I work through the day, I come home and have dinner and then go back to work. I have deliberately decided not to work tonight, just to give myself a bit of a rest.  I think 53 hours so far this week is enough, and I know I am going to wrack up a few more hours in the run of the next two weeks.

If there is a project management take-away it is this - it is all in the planning. Succeed in the planning and you will succeed in the project. Fail in the planning and you will fail in the project.