Article  |  Project Management

Creating and Implementing D^5: A Saga Begins

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My name is Joshua, and my recent journey across the Oregon Trail landed me not in Oregon City—but at Planet Argon. I’m the second newest addition to the team, and I’ve been hard at work since day one searching, creating, and implementing a more effective design and development studio with the PA staff.

Recently we deployed our new work process called D^5. It’s a five step program. Like most five step programs, its initiation started by admitting we had a problem. We were already effective, but the PA staff had a hunch that things could be done with less fret and more calm.

The short version is they posted a hiring ad, I wrote a killer cover letter, I answered some questions, and they gave me a desk. My first assignment was to evaluate the process of taking an idea and turning it into a deployed web app, and then proceed to take the crazy out and replace it with sanity.

I said great, returned to my desk, and struggled through my first day on a Mac, asking questions that did little to instill confidence. (“How do you ‘copy and paste’… Where’s the ‘right-click’…”)

About a month later, we released version 1.0 of our new work process. So far things are great—and enough forethought went in that we’ve been able to build on what we created rather then go back to the drawing board. In the coming posts, I’ll walk you through the steps taken to create D^5 and why we think it’s pretty awesome.

Stay tuned….

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