Pizza and Saas : Easy way to remember

If you have trouble remembering the differences among OnPrem, IaaS, Paas, and SaaS, this analogy should help

 

Project Planning Best Practices

What best practices you Know and what you Do Not can make significant difference when it comes to Project Planning...

Given the competitive scenario these days, it is highly recommended to be better prepared for Project Planning.

You should be well versed with typical tasks like:-
● Determining how you will develop the project management plan
● Developing the project requirements in detail and agree the final scope
● Determining the required project activities and their sequencing
● Developing project schedule using estimated resources and costs
● Agreeing what quality standards will be met by the project and how
● Defining how project staffing will be done
● Establishing the communication requirements and how it will be fulfilled
● Identifying what can go wrong and the plans to deal with them
● Documenting what products or services will be acquired from outside the project
● Gaining formal approval and buy-in from everybody involved in the project

Equipped with these process knowledge, relevant tools & techniques, project staff is in a considerable better position to Plan the Projects.

For more details, please visit :- http://www.knowledgewoods.in/Plan_the_Project.html

Project Management and Good Managers

Project Management and Good Managers

 

CMMI myth

The maturity levels in CMMI are set based on extremely clear criteria spelled out in the SCAMPI method for determining a Maturity Level. The Maturity Level is determined by the Appraisal Team performing an objective evaluation of the organization. It is the Lead Appraiser's responsibility to ensure that the appraisal results are an accurate and true representation of the organization's maturity.

CMMI is NOT a set of standards. It is a set of guidelines for improving processes. The CMMI does not tell HOW to do something. It tells you WHAT things to consider to improve your processes. Best practices are highly subjective. What may be a best practice for company A may not be a best practice for company B. Business goals and objectives, core competencies, business domain, culture, etc. all affect the best practices for an organization.

Determining the best practices for a specific organization is a trial and error exercise. 

From the CMMI about Maturity Levels and Generic Goals and Practices - clearly defines what it means to operate at a specific Maturity Level. There is no way to "water down" these definitions. Granted there are unscrupulous organizations out there that are chasing a level just so they can compete for business, but they receive no benefit from the CMMI. Rapidly becomes clear that they are only interested in doing the bare minimum - but at whose cost? The organizations who hire.....

Social Net Gate App

Social Net Gate App is a new way to earn NetCoins using your social status and the regular friend network.

Try this cool website for sending SocialCards to your friends

You can now update your own mailing address (the "From" address) and earn 40 NetCoins. By doing this, your friends don't have to go thru the pain of entering your address for sending you SocialCards. It will be the easiest NetCoins every gained. Go to www.socialnetgateapp.com > NetCoins > Earn and do it now.

 

 

Sharepoint Project Management

Some of the key topics in Sharepoint 2007 & 2010 are discussed  here.

Inputs from Wiki and Microsoft portals on Sharepoint.

Sharepoint as a tool helps using power of Microsoft's web application platform, including document and content management

It is wise to have a have a .NET developer background.

Sharepoint is a tool to centralize an organizations digital resources for centralized collaboration or working together in a centralized way.

The best explanation of What Microsoft Sharepoint is and does from the WROX book "Beginning Sharepoint 2010 - Building Business Solutions"

"Because computers play such an integral part in any business, not surprisingly, more and more of the information that is created, consumed, and shared in an organization is digital. The more business that you conduct and the more successful your business becomes, the more information you have to manage. Usually, you have some form of document for just about every process and transaction that plays out during the day-to-day operations of your company. From proposals to legal documents, from sales receipts to human resources policies, the amount of information required for a company to function is staggering.
To manage your information overload, SharePoint offers tools with which you can build business applications to better store, share, and manage digital information. With it, you can create lists, libraries, and websites for your various company teams to help run your business processes more efficiently. By locating your organization’s important business data in a single location, it becomes much easier and intuitive for users to find the right information when they need it rather than searching through disparate locations such as email, computer hard drives, or file shares.

WHAT IS SHAREPOINT 2010? 

SharePoint 2010 is an extensible and scalable web-based platform consisting of tools and technologies that support the collaboration and sharing of information within teams, throughout the enterprise and on the web. The total package is a platform on which you can build business applications to help you better store, share, and manage digital information within your organization. Because you can build with or without code, the package empowers the average business user to create, deploy, and manage team websites, without depending on skilled resources, such as systems administrators or developers. Using lists, libraries, and web parts, you can transform team websites into business applications built specifically around making your organization’s business processes more efficient."

Creating a schema for an organizations Sharepoint deployment is not rocket science.
1. Determine the structure of the organization
2. Determine what Sharepoint can do as far as centralizing the organizations digital resources.
3. Create a Sharepoint construction plan.
4. Build it, test it, refine it.
5. Maintain it, test it, refine it, add onto it.

There! Not so tough.

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Which SharePoint development tool works best to create custom workflows?

Directly using SharePoint Designer may not be well-suited for building complex workflows.

Using Visual Studio, which allows the workflow to be installed at multiple locations and can include more than 20 steps in the workflow process. Additionally, only Visual Studio allows for workflow to move back and forth between status changes. Using SharePoint Designer, work only moves forward through states, never backward. This can be problematic when you need to send something backward in the process.

How to handle Databases?

It is not wise to upload directly to SharePoint databases, however - the use of libraries and lists for data management. Uploading directly to SharePoint databases is very much like doing your own oil changes on a brand new car. It might be faster and more convenient in the short-term, but in the long-term it voids your warranty. Microsoft gives no support when you directly modify a SharePoint database.

Main differences between SharePoint 2007 and 2010?

Any of the new tools introduced in 2010. For example:

• Service Applications
• Business Connectivity Services
• Claims Based Authentication
• Sandboxed Solutions
• Developer Dashboard
• Throttling and List Controls

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Here are more areas that a SharePoint architect can help with:

• Capacity planning - running multiple servers in a farm. Scalability and other magic words.
• Knowing the capabilities and business scenarios of using SharePoint - this is a very common one.
  The manager asks: what can SharePoint do for me? The developer asks: well, what do you want it to do. The manager then asks: well, I don't know what it can do for me so how do I know what do I want it to do?
• Closely related to SharePoint capabilities are the various licensing costs related to each component.
• As well as familiarity with development and customization costs. Take the same project time that would have taken in ASP.NET, then multiply it by a large coefficient, and then add an additional constant.
• And closely related to what-can-it-do, and how-much-does-it-cost, is the all important question of Return-Of-Investment.
• SharePoint deployment can be a massive issue and a lot of pain.
• SharePoint upgrade from v2 (MOSS 2003) to v3 (MOSS 2007). We should be seeing a new version of SharePoint in 2010(?). Well soon after the next version of Office goes out the door. So past upgrade experiences may be useful.
• Knowledge of 3rd party webparts. I believe a SharePoint architect should be able to give you at least 5 webparts that they've tried from CodePlex and tell you what they think about them. These are free and easy to grab and play at your own leisure.
• Some knowledge of commercial webparts. Because they are still cheaper than writing your own.
• Experiences with SharePoint Integration - this comes in two equally important flavours - both from SharePoint accessing existing systems (business catalogs, webparts, etc), as well as other systems accessing SharePoint content via webservice or API.
• In addition, SharePoint works with (or works well) with Office, OCS, reporting services, performance point, project server.
• SharePoint hosting arrangements - Microsoft SharePoint online services can be a popular and cheaper option to start using SharePoint. It can be hosted inhouse, or with a 3rd party company. Knowing the options is always useful.

Leadership and fitting in

Nice article today I saw via Linkedin on Leadership and fitting in ....

http://leadingwithtrust.com/2013/07/07/five-ways-leaders-help-others-belong-not-just-fit-in/

some excerpt

Leaders create belonging when they…

1. Give power away and allow people to take ownership of their work. People who feel they belong in an organization have a sense of ownership; it’s their organization. That ownership mentality comes from being given responsibility and authority for doing their jobs and being given the freedom to achieve results. Equip and coach your people, delegate wisely, and then get out of their way.

2. Listen and respond to feedback. Most leaders say they are open to hearing feedback; fewer leaders actually listen and do something with it. Leaders create an environment of belonging and safety when they actually take the time to sit down and listen, acknowledge a person’s concerns, and discuss how they will respond to the feedback. People don’t feel they belong when leaders don’t listen, dismiss, or disregard their input.

3. Help people understand how their work connects to the broader goals or purpose of the organization. People have an innate desire to belong to something bigger than themselves. Leaders tap into this reservoir of power when they help their people understand how their daily work helps the organization achieve its goals and makes the world a better place.

4. Appreciate and celebrate the diversity of their team. Each person is created with unique gifts and abilities and it’s a leader’s responsibility to leverage the individual strengths of their people. Treating your team members as individuals rather than nameless and faceless workers creates a sense of belonging that’s extremely powerful. One of my team members, Ed, has a jovial personality and great dance moves. Who do you think we go to when we need to make a fun team video? Another team member, Kim, is a champion snowmobile racer. Who do we brag about when we have team gatherings? How much do you know about the personal lives of your people? Get to know them and watch their sense of belonging increase.

5. Accept people where they are but refuse to let them stay there. Good leaders accept their team members for who they are, yet also have a desire and commitment to help them learn, grow, and become the best versions of themselves possible. When leaders show commitment to their people’s growth, it fosters a sense of commitment and belonging that can’t be underestimated.

(c) Brené Brown.