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Welcome to information technology (IT) project management. IT project management is different from managing any other project you may have worked on in the past. In the world of information technology, we've got attacks on all fronts: ever changing business needs, hardware compatibility, software glitches, security holes, and network bandwidth, not to mention careers, attitudes, and office politics.
Don't be scared off! This is also the most challenging and exciting place to be in a company. What you do here will affect entire organizations, and have an impact on profits, and can boost your career, confidence, and life to the next level.
IT project management can be as exciting as a white water rafting excursion or as painful as a root canal; the decision is yours. What makes the difference between excitement and a sore jaw? Many things: leadership, know-how, motivation, and, among other things, a clear vision of what each project will produce, what it will cost, and when it will end.
This first chapter will help you build a strong foundation for managing successful IT projects. Like anything else in the world, adequate planning, determination, and vision are required for success. Ready to start this journey? Let's go!Gathering Project Information
Everybody talks about project management, but what is it exactly? In some organizations, any task or duty is considered a project that requires someone to manage it. Puh-leeze! Project management is the ability to administer a series of chronological tasks resulting in a desired goal. Some tasks can't be completed until others are finished, while other tasks can be done in parallel. Some tasks require the skill of a single individual; other jobs in the project require that everyone chip in and lighten the load.
A project, technically, is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service. Projects are an undertaking outside of the normal operations of an entity. For example, you might roll out a new application, install new monitors, create a new portion of a web site, or establish a new call center for application support. In some organizations, such as ones comprised of application developers or consultants, or IT integration companies, everything they do is a project because they complete projects for other organizations. Consider a company that creates custom applications for other organizations. Their operation is an ongoing series of projects. The organization that completes the project work is called the performing organization.
IT project management is the ability to balance the love and implementation of technology while leading and inspiring your team members. Of course, the goal of project management is not technology for technology's sake, but rather a movement toward things like improved customer service, enhanced product quality, and increased profitability. As you can see in Figure 1-1, project management is a high-wire balancing act.Establishing the Project Requirements
Before the actual project work can begin, the project manager must establish the project requirements with the project stakeholders. Stakeholders are any individuals, groups, or communities that have a vested interest in the outcome of the project. On some projects, the stakeholders may be just one department. On others, when projects may affect every department, the stakeholders may be throughout the entire organization. Identifying stakeholders is important because their input to the project requirements early in the project initiation can ensure the project's success.
Of course, on most projects there will be key stakeholders who influence the project's outcome: department managers, customers, directors, end users, and other folks who have direct power over the project work. With the input of these key stakeholders, specifically their requirements for the project, constraints on the project, and time and cost objectives for the project, the project manager will be able to gather the project requirements to begin building a project plan to create the project deliverables.
Clarity is paramount. When the decision has been handed down that your company will be implementing some new technology, and you'll be leading the way, you need a clear, thorough understanding of the project's purpose. Ambiguous projects are a waste of time, talent, and money. Before the project begins, you need to know what exact results signal the project's end. A project truly begins when you know exactly what the project will produce.
Figure 1-1. A project manager must balance the team and the technology.
Once the project is defined, you need a clearly stated start and end date. The role of a project manager is not permanent but temporary. You, the project manager, are responsible for seeing the goal, developing the steps to get there, and then leading the way for your team to follow.
How will you know what the end result of the project is to be? Ask! Who do you ask? People like the project sponsor can answer these kinds of questions. More about that later! You must have a clear vision of the end result, or the project will drone on and on forever and you'll never finish. Too often IT projects can roll into project after project stemming from an original, indecisive, half-baked wish list. Whether you are a full-time employee within an organization or a contract-based project manager, you must have a clear understanding of what the end results of the project will be.
Imagine your favorite archeologist maneuvering through a labyrinth of pitfalls, poison darts, and teetering bridges to retrieve a golden statue. In the movies, there's always some fool who charges past the hero straight for the booty and gets promptly beheaded. Don't be that guy. Before you can rush off toward the goal of any given project, you've got to create a clear, concise path to get there.
To create this path, you'll have to interview the decision makers, the users the change will affect, and any principals involved in the development of the technology. These are the stakeholders—the people who will use the project deliverables on a daily basis or will manage the people who will use the project deliverables. You must have a clear vision of what the project takes to create it or you're doomed. Often projects start from a wish list and evolve into a catalog of complaints about the current technology. One of your jobs in the early stages of the project will be to discern valid input from useless gripes.
As you begin your project, consider these questions:Does the Project Have an Exact Result?
Projects that are as indecisive as a six-year-old at an ice cream stand rarely are successful. As a project manager, you must ensure the project has a definable, obtainable end result. At the creation of the project, every project manager, project sponsor (the initiator of the project), and team member should know and recognize the end result of the project. Beware of projects that begin without a clearly defined objective.
While you should be looking for exact requirements that a project is to include, you must also look for requirements that are excluded from a project (for example, a project that requires all mail servers to be upgraded in the operating system, but not the physical hardware). As the project takes form, the requirements to be excluded will become obvious based on management, the time allotted for the project's completion, and the given budget.Are There Industry or Government Sanctions to Consider?
Within your industry there may be governmental or self-regulating sanctions you will have to take into account for your project. For example, in a banking environment there are regulations dealing with the security of the technology, the backup and recovery procedures, and the fault tolerance for the hardware implemented. Government regulations vary by industry, and if your company is a government contractor, there are additional considerations for the project deliverables.
Within your industry there may be standards and regulations. Regulations are "must-haves" that are required by law. Of course, pharmaceuticals, utility companies, and food packaging companies have regulations that dictate their practices. If companies break regulations, fines and lawsuits may follow. Standards, however, are generally accepted guidelines and practices within an industry. Standards are heuristics, rules of thumb, which are not laws but are usually followed. The project manager must be aware of regulations and standards that affect the project's work and deliverables.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
Massive upgrades, software rollouts, application development, and system conversions take teamwork, dedication, and time. Projects that don't have a clearly stated, reasonable deadline need one. Projects should not last forever—they are temporary. Acknowledge the work. Do the work. Satisfy the user with deliverables of the project. Once you've accomplished this, the project is done.
We'll talk more about project scheduling in Chapter 7, but the project manager must be aware of the project calendar and the resource calendar. The project calendar defines the hours in which the project work can take place. For example, if your project is to rewire an entire building with new network cable, the project calendar may specify access to the building between the hours of 8:00 P.M. and
6:00 A.M. Resource calendars are specific to the project team members. They take into consideration the hours employees are available, their vacations, and company holidays.
In addition, the project manager must consider how many working hours their project team members will be able to devote to the project in a given day. Six hours of productivity is typical of an eight-hour day because of impromptu meetings, phone calls, and other interruptions. These factors directly influence the project schedule and if the project can meet the project deadline with the given resources.Is the Project Sponsor Someone Who Has the Authority to Christen the Project?
Most IT folks hate politics, but we all know politics, personal interests, and department leverage are a part of every company. Make certain the project sponsor is the person who should be initiating the project—without stepping out of bounds. Make certain this individual has the resources to commit to the implementation and has the support of the people up the flowchart. And do it with the full knowledge and support of management.
The project sponsor should be an individual within the organization who has the power to assign team members, allocate funds, and approve decisions on the project work. The project sponsor is typically above the functional managers of the project team members assigned to the project work.Does the Project Have a Financial Commitment?
If you do not have a clear sense of a financial commitment to the completion of the project, put on your hard hat and don't stand under any fans. Technology costs money because it makes money. The goal of a project, in the corporate world, is the same goal of any company: to make or save money. A tech-centric project requires a financial investment for quality hardware, software, and talent. If the project you are managing has a budget to be determined somewhere down the road, you've got a wish list, not a project at all.Is Someone Else Doing This Already?
In large companies, it's easy for two projects to be competing against each other for the same end result. This comes back to communication among departments, teams, and the chief information officer. In a perfect world, IT projects fall under one umbrella, information is openly shared among departments, and everyone works together for the common goal of a company (to make money). This process can be administered through a Project or Program Management Office where projects are tracked across the enterprise. Of course, that doesn't always happen. You should do some initial research to ensure this project isn't being accomplished elsewhere in the company before you invest time, finances, and your career in it.Possessing Multiple Personas
Are you an optimist? A pessimist? A realist? A project manager has to be all of these. You have to be an optimist so you may lead your people, manage the resources, and implement the technology according to plan. You have to be a pessimist, secretly of course, because you need to look at the worst-case scenario for each piece of the technology implementation. You have to be a realist because you need to look at the facts of the projects completely, unattached, unemotional, and unencumbered.
When your project is developing, you should play devil's advocate to each cornerstone of the project. You need to question the concepts, the technology, and the time it may take for each step of the implementation. As you can see in Figure 1-2, you should question everything before you begin.
Questions to consider:How Will This New Technology Affect Your Users?
Not all technology you implement has a direct effect on your users, but most of it does. Your life may be IT, but the accountant in the finance department doesn't like change. She likes everything the way it is now; that's everything from having to click OK on a redundant error message to installing her favorite screen saver. If your technology changes her world, you should let her know ahead of time; otherwise, she'll be certain to let you know after. Your primary objective must be to make her job easier.
As technology has become integrated in practically all areas of an organization, users are becoming more tech-sophisticated. They will want to know why the change is happening, why the change is needed, and how it will help them. This brings us back to requirements gathering and communication. Ninety percent of the project manager's job is communication. If the project manager wants buy-in from the stakeholders, particularly the users, he must communicate the benefits and rationale behind the technical project.
Figure 1-2. Project managers must question all aspects of a project
Will This Technology Have an Impact on Any Other Software?
How many times have you installed software without testing it, only to discover it disrupts something as unrelated as printing? I hope never, but it happens. You must question and test the ability of the new technology to work with your current systems. Of course, if you're considering a 100 percent change in technology, then there really isn't a software compatibility issue.Will This Technology Work with Any Operating System?
How many operating systems are in your organization? While the goal may be just one, I'd wager you've got two or three different OSs floating around. Think about those graphic designers and their Macintoshes. Remember those salespeople and their Windows XP laptops? And what about those mainframe and server-based Linux users? If your company has multiple operating systems, you've got to question the compatibility of the technology for each.What Other Companies Are Using This Technology?
The assumption is you are buying this solution rather than building it. Therefore, is it a bleeding edge solution? Are you first in line? No one likes to be first, but someone has to be. When embracing and implementing a new technology, ask that question of the vendor's salesperson. Hopefully, the salesperson will be happy to report about all the large companies that have successfully installed, tested, and implemented the vendor's product. That's a good sign. If someone else has done it, you can too.Does the Vendor of This Technology Have a Good Track Record in the Industry?
From whom are you buying this technology? Has the vendor been around for a while and implemented its product many times over? Does the vendor have a history of taking care of problems when they arise? This is not to say you should not buy from a startup—every major IT player was a startup at some time in its history. You should feel fairly confident that the vendor selling the product today will be around to support it tomorrow.What Is the Status of Your Network Now?
You may not always have to ask this question, but with so many network-intensive applications and new technologies today, it doesn't hurt. You don't want to install the latest bandwidth hog on a network that's already riding the crest of 90 percent utilization. You and your company won't be happy. By asking this question, you may uncover a snake pit that needs to be dealt with before your project can begin.What If…?
Finally, you need to dream up worst-case scenarios and see if there are ways to address each. You need to find out how the technology will react when your servers are bounced, lines go down, and processor utilization peaks. You want to ask these questions and have answers for them now rather than when the crisis hits during your four-week vacation to Alaska.No Other Choices?
At the start of a project, in its very genesis, ensure that the proposed technology is the correct technology. Of course, sometimes you have no control over the technology that is to be implemented because some vice president decision maker heard about the product from his golf buddy who is CIO at another large firm and is now having you install it everywhere. It happens.
Other times, hopefully most of the time, you have some input to the technology implemented to solve a problem. You are the professional, the IT guru, so you should have a definite say regarding the technology that you'll be in charge of delivering. You'll need to create a list of questions and then find the appropriate technology that offers the needed solution, works with your current systems, and fits within your budget. Having the right technology to begin with ensures success at project's end.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
To have a successful project, you need a clear vision of the delivered result. You need to know why the project is being implemented. You need a strong commitment of management to the project. You need to share management's vision of how the end results will benefit the company. How will you discover these facts? Ask!
When your boss comes to you, for instance, and reports that you are to manage a project to upgrade the mail servers, you need to find out why. It may not be that the manager really wants the mail servers upgraded; he could just be having trouble
Well-informed decisions result in success for everyone, not just the project.
opening a cartoon his frat brother from Utah sent him and blaming it all on the company's e-mail system.
When you approach management to find out why the project needs to happen, you aren't questioning their decision-making ability. You are, however, questioning what their vision is for the project. In your company, your immediate manager may be the most technically savvy genius in the world and her decisions are always right on target. In others, if not most, managers know that a technology exists and can be implemented. However, they don't know exactly which technology they're after. Figures 1-3 and 1-4 show the difference between effective decision-making abilities and poor decision-making abilities.
As the project manager, your job is to ensure the success of your project and your career, and a successful impact on the bottom line. When you speak with management about the proposed project, you are on a fact-finding mission. Ask questions that can result in specific answers. For example:
- What do you want technology so-and-so to do?
- Why is this technology needed?
- How did you discover this technology?
- What led you to the decision this was the way for our company to go?
Sometimes a manager may come to you with a specific problem for you to solve. In these instances, the project is wider, more open-ended, and you'll have to drill deeper into the problem presented. Let's say for example that a vice president is complaining about the length of time it takes her to retrieve information on customers through your database. She just wants it faster.
Figure 1-3. Well-informed decisions result in success for everyone, not just the project.
Figure 1-4. Decisions based on complaints, wishes and sales spiels miss the mark.
Your questions may be something like this:
- Can you show me how the process is slow?
- Is it slow all the time or just some of the time?
- How long have you experienced this lag?
- Have others reported this problem?
There are several things we can do to increase the speed of the process. Each may require a financial commitment initially, but would result in faster responses for all of the database users. Do you want to investigate this route?
Notice how you're thinking like an executive. It's not technology for technology's sake. A new multiprocessor database server, gigabytes of memory, and faster switches are all cool stuff, but if they don't earn their keep, they are just toys. When you are inventing a project, think like an executive of a company and show how the investment in software, hardware, and talent can create more dollars by increasing productivity, safeguarding data, or streamlining business processes and ultimately making customers happy.Interviewing the Stakeholders
As you know, stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations that have a direct interest in the outcome of the project. Your project's success or failure will directly affect the way they complete their work, use their existing technology, or continue to buy from your company. Stakeholders can include
- Management
- The project manager
- The project team
- Project sponsors
- Customers
- End users
- The community
In a technical project, the largest group of stakeholders is typically the users. Any project that has an impact on users needs to be discussed with them. This can be done several different ways. The most popular, and sometimes most disruptive, is a focus group. Fair warning: focus groups have a tendency to engage in gripe sessions about the problem rather than the solution. If you choose this route, take control of the discussion and keep the participants focused on the solution.
A focus group allows you to take a sampling from users from each affected department, present the project to them, and then listen to their input. You need to explain how the proposed technology will be better than the current, how it will solve problems, and, if necessary, why the decision is being made to change. Input from focus groups can alter your entire project for the good or the bad.
Another way to interview users is through an intranet site. This method can be an effective form of communication because users have the opportunity to share their opinions and have some say on your project. Of course, with this route, it's best to have your intranet site request responses to a survey so the results can be tallied quickly. See Figure 1-5 for an example of an online survey.
Some project managers rely on the Delphi Technique. This approach is often used in risk management, but can be applied to any consensus-gathering activity. The participants and their comments are anonymous. The participants are allowed to freely comment on the technology, their concerns, and desires for the requirements. All of the comments are then shared with all of the participants, and they can agree or discount them based on their opinions and experience. Because the process is anonymous, there is no fear of retribution or backlash, or offending other
Figure 1-5. An online survey can quickly tally users' input to a new technology.
participants. After several rounds of discussion, a consensus is formed on what is needed. An intranet site can automate the method and keep users anonymous.
Finally, learn how the users do their work now. This is especially important for situations like new software development, application upgrades, and new hardware technologies. This can be accomplished in a usability laboratory where mock screens, resembling the technology being implemented, are made available. Feedback from users helps design the solution to be implemented. By working with a user one-on-one, you can experience how the user is using the current technology, how the new technology will affect the user, and what the ultimate goal of a technical change should be: increased productivity and increased profits. Don't lose sight of that fact.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
Thanks to Intel's Gordon Moore, it is a common belief that the processor chip speed of technology doubles every 18 months. This law has spread to practically all areas of technology, which, in turn, means the role of an IT project manager can be expected to change just as rapidly. IT project managers everywhere struggle with keeping teams, budgets, and goals focused. IT project management becomes even more tedious when you consider the economy, the instantaneous expectations of stockholders and management, the constant turmoil in the IT industry, and the flux of each team member's commitment to their own career.
According to the Standish Group, a respected IT industry analysis and research firm, IT project management is getting better, but still out of control. Consider these statistics from their 2004 version of the CHAOS report:
|Project Attribute
|1994 Statistics
|2004 Statistics
|Cancelled before completion
31 percent
23 percent
|Missed deadline, over budget,
88 percent
51 percent
|or both
|Average cost overrun
189 percent
45 percent
|Schedule overrun
222 percent
63 percent
While this news is encouraging, it's still far from success. Some would argue that these tighter values put more requirements on the project manager because they have less "wiggle room" on their projects than just a few years ago. You could also make the argument, however, that the education, expertise, and granular approach to project management provides more successful projects than ever before.
Still, there's that 23 percent of project cancellations and the 51 percent of projects that are late, over budget, or both. How can this be? Why do so many projects fail from the start? Projects fail for many different reasons: other projects take precedence, team members lose sight of the purpose of the project, and project managers try to do the work rather than lead the team, among others. At the root is a fundamental problem: vision. Vision, in project management terms, is the ability to clearly see the intangible and recognize the actions required to get there. One of your jobs is to develop, nurse, and transfer the vision to everyone on your team. The project manager, however, cannot have a clear vision of the project if the project needs are never clearly established.Creating Reasonable Expectations
Once you've discovered your vision, create a goal. A goal should be a clearly stated fact, for example, "The new database will be installed and functional by December 6 of next year." A goal sums up the project plan in a positive, direct style. Every member of your team should know and pursue the goal. It's not all up to you. The goal establishes the direct need and purpose for undertaking the project.
When creating a goal for your project, be reasonable. Just like it would be foolish for a fat man to say, "I'm going to lose sixty pounds this month," it would be as unreasonable for you to create an impossible goal.
A logical goal is not just an idea, a guesstimate, or some dreamy date to be determined. A goal is actually the end result of a lot of hard work. Each IT project will, of course, have different attributes that determine each goal. Let's say, for example, that your company is going to be migrating your servers and desktops to the latest and greatest operating system.
With this scenario, certain questions would have to be answered to determine the ultimate goal: Is the hardware adequate for the new OS? Will the applications work with the new OS? Will the team have adequate time to be trained and experiment with the new OS? These questions will help you create the end date for the goal.Creating the Project Charter
Once you've determined the business needs for the project, it's time to create a project charter. A project charter is similar to the goal, but more official, more detailed, and in line with your company's vision and goals. Obviously, a project can stem from a broad, general description of an IT implementation. A goal narrows the description and sets a deadline. A project charter formalizes the goal and serves as a map to the destination. Above all, however, a project charter formally authorizes the project.
Not only does a charter clearly define the project, its attributes, and its end results, it also identifies the project authorities. The project authorities are usually the project sponsor, the project manager, and the team leaders (if necessary), and the charter specifies the role and contact information for each. See Figure 1-6 for the evolution of a project charter.
Why do you need a project charter? Why not just hop right in and get to work? In a small company, plowing right into the project may turn out just fine. However, in most companies, including smaller ones, a project charter is the foundation for success. Consider what the charter accomplishes:
- Authorizes the project
- Defines the business need in full
- Identifies the sponsor of the project
Figure 1-6. The project manager must lead the process to create a project charter.
- Identifies the project manager
- Makes the project manager accountable for the project
- Assigns authority to the project manager on behalf of the project sponsor
When you create the project charter, you can include just about any information on the project that you'd like. Generally though, consider these elements:
- Official project name
- Project sponsor and contact information
- Project manager and contact information
- Purpose of the project
- Business case for the project (reasons why the project needs to happen)
- High-level results and deliverables of the project
- General statement about how the team will approach the work
- Basic timeline of when the work will be implemented (A more detailed timeline will exist in the project plan.)
- Project resources, budget, staff, and vendors
Every project needs a charter. It authorizes the project, creates a sense of responsibility for the project manager, a sense of ownership for the sponsor, and a sense of teamwork for the project team. The project charter will save you headaches, establish who's in charge, and move you to your goal more quickly and with more confidence.
Following is an example charter, based on a fictional company called Best Enterprises. The company's network currently consists of 380 computers running Windows NT, 11 Windows NT 4.0 servers, and 5 Novell NetWare servers. It has made a decision to move all the workstations to Windows XP and all the servers, including the NetWare servers, to Windows 2003 Server.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
{mospagebreak title=The Project Charter}
Project: Operating system upgrade: XP and 2003 servers
Project Sponsor: Sharon Brenley, Chief Information Officer (x. 233)
Project Manager: Michael Sheron, Network Administrator (x. 234)
Project Team: Edward Bass, Ann Beringer, Brad Bobich, Carol Fox, Charlotte Harving, Don Khunle, Casey Murray, Mick Suskovich, Mark Turner, Stephen Utmeyer
Project Purpose All desktops will be upgraded to Windows XP by December 3, 2005. All servers will be upgraded and moved to five Windows 2003 Servers by December 20 of the following year.
Business Case Windows NT has served our company for the past five years. We've learned to love it, embrace it, and grow with it. However, it's time to let it go. We'll be embracing a new technology from Microsoft, similar to Windows NT, but far superior: Windows XP. Windows XP will allow us all to be more productive, more mobile, more secure, and more at ease.
In addition, there are new technologies that work excellently with XP, such as infrared networking for our manufacturing shop floors and new accounting software that will be implemented later this year.
Of course, our company will continue to embrace our web presence and the business we've earned there. XP will allow us to follow that mindset and create greater opportunities for us all.
As our company has experienced over the past year, our servers are growing old, slow, and outdated. We'll be replacing the servers with six new multiprocessor servers loaded with RAM, redundant drives, and faster, reliable tape arrays—which means faster, reliable, more productive work for us all. The operating system we'll be implementing for all of our servers will be Windows 2003.
Windows 2003 will allow our users to find resources faster, keep our network up longer, and provide ever-increasing security.Project Results
- September Test deployment methods, capture user and application status, finalize deployment image, and create scripts.
- October Initial deployment of 100-user pilot group. Test, document, and resolve issues. Redeploy 100-user pilot group with updated images and scripts. Begin Windows 2003 Server testing and design.
- November Begin month-long four-hour training sessions. While participants are in class, XP will be deployed to their desktops. Troubleshoot and floor support in coordination with Jamie Bryer, Help Desk Manager. Continue to test Windows 2003 Servers. Three Windows 2003 Servers will go live on November 15.
- December Finish deployment of XP. Install new 2003 servers and create infrastructure. Convert each existing server to Windows 2003. Project completed December 20 of the following year.
- Budget: $275,000 (includes XP, 2003 server, client access licenses, consultants, training)
- Test lab reserved for four-month duration
- On-site consultant from Donaldson Education
Your project charter can include as much or as little information as you deem necessary. Project charters are often shared with the entire company (with the exception of the budget) so you may have a few revisions before the charter is complete. Sharing a project charter with the entire organization, especially one that will affect all users as in the sample charter, can get everyone involved, excited, and aware of coming changes. A project charter also creates a sense of responsibility for all involved.
Your project team members will get distracted, pulled in different directions, and lose interest. Vacations pop up, kids get sick, people quit. Realize at the onset that not everyone will be as dedicated to your project as you are. Do your best to inspire, motivate, and lead. Set aside politics, egos, and aspirations and work toward the goal.
Finally, keep in mind that a charter can be called different things in different organizations and that the level of detail can vary depending on the company or the project being created. Most charters, however, accomplish two primary things: authorizing the project work and defining the project work.Finding the Completion Date
There's a cartoon that's probably posted in every auto mechanic's garage. In the cartoon, there's a bunch of people rolling around laughing uncontrollably. Above all this mayhem is the caption, "You want it when?" Of course, as an IT project manager, you can't take that same approach, but a reasonable deadline has to be enforced.
A firm end date accomplishes a few things:
- Creates a sense of responsibility toward the project
- Gives the team something to work toward
- Signifies a commitment from sponsors, team members, and the project manager
- Confirms that this project will end
How do you find the completion date for a project and how do you know if it's reasonable? The magic end date is based on facts, research, and planning. In upcoming chapters, you'll get a more detailed look at project end dates and how you establish them. For now, know that projects are a sequence of steps, and each step will take time. The completion of each step will predict when a project should end.
Figure 1-7. If a project stays on schedule, so will the budget and the morale.
Some project managers create a flexible deadline. Don't do it. If you allow yourself a deadline that is not firm, you'll take advantage of it. And so will your team, your sponsor, and your management. Set a deadline based on an informed opinion, and then stick with it. The charts in Figure 1-7 demonstrate how a missed completion date is bad for the project, the company, and morale.
A rule of economics that affects scheduling is "Parkinson's Law." Parkinson's Law states that work will expand to fill the time allotted to it. In other words, if you give yourself extra time to complete a project, the project will magically fill the extra time. A firm deadline gives the project manager and the project team a definite date to work toward.
Some projects have a self-contained deadline. Remember the Y2K scare? With the year 2000 rolling in like a summer storm, every programmer and company found a way to make the deadline because it wasn't moveable.
Other factors can have impact on your projected deadline:
- Business cycles Does your project deadline coincide with busy times of the year? Think of a retail giant. How willing do you think it would be to overhaul the database that handles shipping and store management around December?
- Financial situations A company may be more (or less) willing to invest in new hardware or software at a particular time of the year due to taxes, fiscal year ending, or the advent of a new budget. You've got to consider these factors when you request finances for your project.
- Times of the year When will your team members take vacation? How will their vacation plans coincide with your deadline? What other internal time commitments do they have? Will they be traveling to other sites? These factors can delay a project for weeks and months—ultimately resulting in a missed deadline. Work with your team members to ensure their availability coincides with their responsibilities within the project plan.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
{mospagebreak title=From the Field}
Interview with Kevin Kocis
Name: Kevin Kocis
Title: Manager of Information Technology
Years in the IT field: 10
Kevin Kocis has been working in the information technology field for over 10 years. He is currently the Manager of Information Technology for a division of a Fortune 100 company, where he develops strategies for network and server infrastructure, Oracle implementation, and platform interoperability issues (Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh).
Q: What is the best part about IT project management?
A: The best part about IT project management is leading an initiative that resolves a business need and/or contributes to business success. Another great part about IT project management is the challenge of leading new cross- functional teams.
Q: How do you start a new project?
A: The project is usually started in response to a broad objective or a business request. Once a performance analysis and feasibility study are completed, it can be determined whether the objective or request can be deemed a project. A project can also be initiated to optimize internal processes and to leverage return on investment.
Q: When you start a new project, what is the first thing you do?
A: The first thing to consider when starting an official project (assuming performance and feasibility tests are complete) is to gather requirements and document flowcharts to develop the project plan. Of course, requirements often change throughout the project, but the initial requirements will be based on current knowledge. Make it a priority to update the business champions and sponsors in regular project meetings.
Q: When starting a project, what's the most important thing a project manager
should do?
A: When starting a project, the most important thing a project manager should do is to identify the business goal and determine the business champion or sponsor. The business sponsor needs to understand the project scope and help convey this process to the senior management team.
Q: How do you manage the relationship between upper management, your team,
and the project?
A: The IT team manager manages the relationship between the upper management team and project by acting as interpreter. One of the challenges is that senior management may not understand the IT role for the project and vice versa. The project manager should debrief both groups to ensure a synchronous understanding.
Q: How important is a project goal?
A: The goal is always significant as it is essentially the initial reason for pursuing the project. However, the goal cannot be achieved without certain conditions. Factors such as scope creep, team relations, and communications will become important as the project progresses. These factors will contribute to the success of the project, so while a project manager must maintain a focus on the goal, she cannot ignore the factors contributing to the project's success.
Q: How necessary is it for project managers to create a project
A: A project charter is very important for the project manager as it serves as a roadmap for the project. As its name suggests, the roadmap should define the key steps of the project, as well as the high-level deliverables. The roadmap should also include the relationship of the project to the business' operational or strategic goals. Project charters should be well publicized (such as through an intranet web site) in addition to the project's progress.
Q: Can you share an example of how you started a project and the steps it
took for you to complete it?
A: One of my projects (that saw plenty of challenges) was an internal domain migration in preparation for Windows 2000. My company was one of the first to install Windows 2000 in its production environment, and with several hundred internal Windows NT domains, there was a strong need to consolidate to a handful of key domains. To simplify the process for the scope of this chapter, we communicated heavily with our business group management. I met with senior staff to inform them the migration was a corporate initiative that would simplify a later transition to Windows 2000. I also informed them that to mitigate potential risks, we would test the migration in our test lab.
Since the timeline for this project was short (weekend transition with one week scheduled for follow-up issues), no project charter was created. We tested the feasibility to perform the migration in our lab, working with an outside vendor for our domain migration software. We communicated the transition to the user community on a weekly basis, and on the Friday of the conversion.
Unfortunately, we did not plan for the unexpected power outage, nor the virus infection that occurred that weekend. As a result of these unforeseen events, our team had to branch out to maintain progress on the project. The only issues that resulted from the project were vagabond machines or users, and this essentially helped us prepare for our internal audit, so I considered this project quite successful.
Q: How do you work vendors into your timeline?
A: I always notify vendors during the project proposal phase as a courtesy when a project need is identified. This enables me to arrange project-planning windows around their turnaround times. Many hardware vendors do not build or prepare hardware until they are issued a purchase order, but advance notice can help expedite the process. Vendors (depending on the project) often work in parallel paths with the project team. For example, if we are looking to upgrade our servers by replacing them, the project team can plan communications and documentation while waiting for the hardware to be built and shipped.
Q: What do you do if vendors are late on delivery, which may disrupt your
project completion date?
A: To avoid vendor delivery issues, the project managers should address contingency plans for any vendor-related critical path that exists in the project plan. By discussing the critical nature of the delivery, vendors can assist with providing an alternative solution before the schedule is critically impacted. These issues should be discussed prior to committing to the vendor.
Q: How do you balance the time between projects and your regular work
A: Unfortunately, when it comes to balancing time, there is seldom a right or defined answer. Individuals balance time responsibilities differently. In my case, I prioritize the projects and weigh them against my daily duties. Some project meetings I may not attend, and assign a team member to represent me. For the team, I prioritize their project tasks and communicate with management to ensure there is understanding that daily tasks will not maintain their priority.
For example, if a desktop support person is involved in a critical stage of the project, daily support will not be able to maintain the same expectation level. This can be leveraged with additional resources if the business wishes to maintain its support expectancy.
Q: What's a common trap IT project managers fall into and how can they avoid
A: IT project managers often fall victim to making reactionary decisions based on a hardship or challenging situation. Often, the response time in light of a complication is limited, and if no contingency plan was developed or an unpredictable event occurred, the project managers may be forced to make a reactionary and critical decision without business support. To avoid this, make sure contingency and rollback plans exist for all projects. Listen to the project team, and form a consensus on the issue. The project managers may also have a tendency to become too hands-on or hands-off in the process if the plan is behind or ahead, respectively.
Q: What are characteristics of a successful project launch?
A: The characteristics for a successful launch include high publicity and management involvement. Start with a kickoff meeting (with goodies), and make sure all business management can participate, as well as the entire project team. Ensure that all communication standards are agreed to, and that management understands the goal of the project and its participants. Review the plan and its impacts in great detail. Listen to concerns and modify the project plan only if critically necessary.
Q: If a project has many steps to the final implementation, how do you keep
the project moving and heading toward each milestone?
A: For long-term projects, accountability and strict deadlines are mandatory. A key to ensuring that the team does not burn out or fade is to acknowledge their successes at milestones, regardless of the size or magnitude of their contribution. Teamwork is critical for a successful project.
Q: What advice can you offer fellow IT project managers in regard to
implementing new technologies?
A: My personal advice to fellow IT project managers regarding new technologies is to thoroughly understand the enhancements and changes. Make sure external resources exist (such as vendor training and demos). Test and document the technologies thoroughly.
Never underestimate how people (your users) are affected by change, even good change. Overcommunicate and focus on the positive results.
Q: What advice can you offer for aspiring IT project managers?
A: My advice to aspiring IT project managers is to remember that we grew from a certain "track." Some of us are (or were) developers, DBAs, systems engineers, and network engineers. We may not have led people from other tracks. Learn to listen and be fair. Don't be influenced by where you've been. Focus on teamwork.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
{mospagebreak title=Chapter Summary}
Did you ever see one of those movies with the ace reporter scrambling into the newsroom with just minutes to go before his deadline? He writes a fantastic article on the mayor, the mob boss, or the sports team with just seconds to spare. Meanwhile, his cigar-chomping boss is ranting about this reporter's usual skin-of-the-nose behavior.
That's how IT project management can be. The really awful part? Sometimes it's not even that close. Projects are consistently late, over budget, and half- cooked. IT project management is not about implementing a technology. It's about leadership, integrity, decision-making ability, planning, and time management.
To be a successful project manager, you have to start each project with a clear, concise vision of what the project will yield, when it will end, and how you can lead your team to that destination.
Project management is governed by business cycles, dedication, time, and sometimes weekends. Successful project management takes more than implementing the latest whiz-bang technology. To succeed in project management is to succeed in leadership.CHAPTER QUIZ
1. What is project management?
A. The ability to complete a task within a given amount of time
B. The ability to complete a task with a given budget
C. The ability to manage a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service— on time and within budget
D. The ability to administer a series of chronological tasks within a given amount of time and under budget
2. Which of the following determine the start of a project?
A. Knowing the project sponsor
B. Knowing the project budget
C. Knowing the project completion date
D. Knowing the project results
3. Which of the following is the most important element of a project genesis?
A. Sponsor
B. Team members
C. Vision
D. Project manager
4. Why must you interview the project decision makers before starting the project?
A. To detail the budget of the project
B. To determine the project results
C. To gain their support and trust
D. To determine the project completion date
5. What is the purpose of the project charter?
A. To launch the project team
B. To identify the project manager
C. To assign a budget to the project
D. To authorize a project
6. Why must a project manager question every facet of a new project? Choose two:
A. To determine the project results
B. To determine the validity of the project
C. To determine the project budget
D. To determine the project resources
7. Why are new technologies implemented within a company?
A. To increase the speed of internal processes
B. To be more competitive
C. To be more profitable
D. To be more technically savvy
8. When considering the type of technology to implement in any given situation, what are things a decision maker must consider? Choose all that apply:
A. The steps required to implement the technology
B. The users the change will affect
C. The vendor's ability to provide support
D. The business cycles the change may interrupt
9. What is a focus group?
A. An interview process for elective team members
B. An interview process by the team members to determine the success of a project manager
C. A sampling of users affected by the proposed technology
D. A sampling of management affected by the proposed technology
10. Why can a focus group be counterproductive?
A. The participants may not understand the technology.
B. The management involved may not like the technology being implemented.
C. The participants may focus on the problems of the old technology rather than the goals of the project.
D. Team members may have political agendas against the project manager.
11. A project manager would like to use an anonymous tool to gain a consensus on the needs of the project. Which tool is the project manager likely to use?
A. A survey on an intranet site
B. The Delphi Technique
C. An e-mail message to all users within the organization
D. A Monte Carlo simulation
12. Fill in the blank: Increased _______________ results in increased profits.
A. Technology
B. Speed
C. Productivity
D. Bandwidth
13. What is a project goal?
A. The end result of the project
B. A statement of the project and its end date
C. A statement of the project, its results, and its end date
D. The mission statement
14. What does a firm completion date accomplish? Choose two:
A. Creates a sense of urgency
B. Signifies a commitment to the project from the sponsor(s)
C. Signals a financial commitment to the project
D. Confirms the project will end
15. Why is a flexible completion date bad?
A. Allows the project to be delayed
B. Signals the project will end eventually
C. Increases time and cost, decreases morale
D. Allows other projects to overlap this project
Exercise 1
You are the project manager for Ogden Underwriters Insurance Company. This company has offices in Chicago, Des Moines, Seattle, Lincoln, and Atlanta.
You have been tasked with managing the rollout of a new web-based training program. You are to interview several members of your company to find out what their goals for the project are and work those into your plan as much as possible. As this is a simulated exercise, you'll find quotes from several key personnel in the following table.
To complete this exercise, analyze persons being interviewed, list their concerns about the project, and then record the objective of each.
|Nancy Gordon
|Chief Executive
|I am very excited about this project. All employees
|should have access to the web site, no matter where
|they are located in the country. The training should supplement our existing classroom training and
|provide new information as needed. I would also
|like to see videos of common tasks for quick review. Finally, the web-based training must be searchable,
|user friendly, and easy for learners to stop and
|resume lessons with ease. Have fun!
|Cory Owens
|Will this thing really work? Our network seems pretty slow already. I don't have time to be waiting
|on images to load, downloads, and other stuff like
|that. My computer is so old, and so is everyone else's in this department, that we can't take another
|software upgrade if we have to. By the way, when
|are we going to get new computers? Mine at home is faster than the one here at work. Sigh.
|Sarah Sullivan
|Claims Adjuster
|This is a great idea; I just hope I have time to
|use it. I get interrupted a lot so I'd need to be
|able to pause and restart if necessary. Will this web-based training work with my computer?
|I'm using Linux here and Windows NT at home.
|I will be able to access it from home, won't I?
|Michael Bogner
|Chief Information
|Web-based training will allow for training on demand in modular pieces. The thing to remember
|though is that all users will need computers with at
|least an 800 MHz, 128MB RAM, and the latest
|version of Internet Explorer or Netscape to take
|advantage of this. In fact, there are 240 PCs that
|need to be replaced in six months. Go ahead and work that into your budget and your plan. They'll
|need to use Windows XP. I guess that'll mean these
|folks will need training on XP, too.
|Jill Vaughn
|Web Design Manager
|I've wanted to do WBT (web-based training) forever. My team will be using Macromedia's ColdFusion, Flash, Authorware, and Fireworks for
|everything. Make certain all the users have the correct plug-ins for their browsers.
|Jackson Dahl
|Web Integrations
|We can do it—if a few things come true. We'll need
|Team Leader
|a fatter pipe to our ISP if we're going to host the
|pages here. Of course, if users are coming from all over the country to this thing, we're going to need to
|talk about security, authentication, and types of
|access. We'll probably need another server for Jill's ColdFusion database.
Now that you've gleaned the key pieces of information from each of the key staff members, you need to write a charter for the project. Your sponsor for this project is Nancy Gordon. Here are some facts that must be included in your project charter:
- Official project name (use your imagination)
- Project goal
- Business case for the project
- High-level results of the project
- A basic timeline of how your team will implement the plan
- Required resources for the project (If you would like to find the prices of the new computers, software, and operating systems, you may, but they are not required for this exercise.)
- C. Project management is the ability to manage a temporary endeavor
to create a unique product or service on time, within budget. Answer D is
incorrect because completing a project under budget is nice, but reflects
inaccurate planning of what the budget should have been at the project outset.
In addition, the project goal must be met.
- D. When you begin a project, you must know what's expected
at the end of the project. You wouldn't begin building a house without a plan;
the same is true for project management. While knowing the project sponsor and
the project budget is necessary, it still doesn't determine what the goal of the
project is.
- C. Before any effort is applied to the implementation of a project,
the project manager and the team must have a vision of what the project will
produce, how it will come about, and when it will be finished. Vision supercedes
all other elements.
- B. Again, you must have a clear understanding of what the decision
makers' vision of the project results are before any other factor of the project
implementation. After you have a clear understanding of the project vision,
address issues such as budget and the completion date. Answer C is incorrect
because you will gain the support and trust of the decision makers once you have
obtained their vision of the project, not through an interview.
- D. The purpose of the project charter is to authorize the project.
Answer A is incorrect because the project team may not be selected until later
in the project. Answer B, identifying the project manager, is also incorrect.
The project manager is named and identified in the project charter, but the
purpose of the charter is to authorize the project. Answer C is also incorrect;
the project charter's purpose is not to assign a budget to the project.
- A, C. A project manager must first determine the project results
before beginning a new project. You must know the end results of a project
before beginning a project; to do otherwise is asinine. Technology costs money
because it makes money. You must know what is required to obtain the desired
results. From this information you can form a required budget. Answer B, the
validity of the project, is incorrect because answer A will determine that.
Answer D is also incorrect because answer A will lead to D.
- C. As information technology specialists, it is easy to lose sight of
the link between technology and why it exists. The goal of a technological
implementation is, generally, to lead to more productivity, which in turn leads
to higher profits. If technology does not earn its keep, it should be considered
an unwelcome houseguest.
- B, C, D. Answer A is not a correct choice because that's why the
decision maker has put you in charge of the project. The decision maker has
made the decision and then delegated the implementation to you.
- C. A focus group is a collection of users your project will affect.
It should consist of a sampling from management and staff, not just management.
- C. The participants may focus on the problems of the old technology
rather than the goals of the project. An improperly organized focus group can
result in a gripe session about the old technology and its flaws rather than the
benefits and goals of the new project. A focus group requires a strong leader to
help the participants focus on the future implementation rather than their
complaints with the current technology.
- B. The Delphi Technique allows for anonymous input from participants
and provides rounds of discussion for consensus building. Answer A is incorrect
because a survey on an intranet site may or may not provide anonymous input.
Answer C, e-mail, is incorrect because it does not provide anonymous input from
users. Answer D is incorrect. Monte Carlo simulation is a simulation tool
testing variables, not a consensus building approach.
- C. Technology can be counterproductive. Technology should increase
productivity, allow for a quick learning cycle, and ultimately result in higher
- C. A goal is a clear, concise statement of the project. It should
include the project end results and be positive in nature.
- B, D. A firm completion date shows a commitment to the project from
sponsors and it confirms that the project will end. A completion date does not,
however, signal a financial commitment to the project. A completion date should
create a sense of responsibility, but not a sense of urgency or panic.
- C. A flexible completion date can result in the delay of the project. The delay of the project will result in higher costs and lower morale.
Exercise 1: Possible Solution
|Nancy Gordon
|Chief Executive Office
|All employees should have access to the web site.
|Training should supplement existing training.
|Offer videos of common tasks.
|Site should be searchable.
|Users must be able to stop and resume lessons.
|Cory Owens
|Speed issues need to be addressed.
|Computer needs to be brought current.
|Sarah Sullivan
|Claims Adjuster
|Users should be able to pause and resume lessons. Need to take multiple operating systems into
|Include access from home.
|Chief Information Officer
|Upgrade computers to at least 800 MHz,
|Upgrade browsers. Replace 240 PCs as part of project.
|Systems require XP operating system.
|XP training required.
|Jill Vaughn
|Web Designer
|Include plug-ins for browsers.
|Jackson Dahl
|Web Integrations Team Leader
|Need faster bandwidth.
|Keep in mind security issues.
|Need new web server for ColdFusion database.
Exercise 2: Possible Solution
Project Charter
Project Name: Click and Learn: Web-Based Training Initiative
Project Sponsor: Nancy Gordon, CEO
Project Manager: Your name here
Project Goal: A new web-based training program will be created and implemented company-wide by January 2003.
Business Case: There's something new and exciting happening at Ogden Underwriters Insurance Company, and it's not a new life insurance policy. It's web-based training (WBT). WBT will allow us to replace and supplement traditional classroom training on all topics.
No longer will you have to enroll in the same four-hour class because you've forgotten how to do one ten-minute task. No longer will you get hours and even days behind schedule because you needed to attend a class on the latest procedure for your department. No longer will you need to pester help desk staff, your neighbor, or your favorite computer nerd about how to write a macro.
Instead you'll just click and learn.
Our WBT service will allow employees from around the world to access the information it contains. That means each office and mobile user, and even those who work at home will be able to log in to our site and access the information they need anytime, day or night.
We'll provide forms, printable directions, and videos of various tasks for each department. Because this technology is web based, it doesn't matter what operating system your computer is running. It's going to be great.
You'll be able to search for a specific topic or take an entire structured course. And thanks to our modular approach, you'll be able to pause your training should you get interrupted and then resume it minutes or even days later.
Required Resources: Of course, with this technology there are fundamental changes that will affect all of us. For a start, all users will receive the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer and the additional software required to view the videos and complete the WBT classes. 240 computers will be replaced with new, speedy PCs running Windows XP.
Our web server farm will grow to add an additional database server. Additionally, our fractional T1 line will be replaced with a full T1 line starting next spring.Timeline:
- First 30 days Replace 240 older PCs with new computers. Begin offering classes on Windows XP as part of rollout. Work with web developers to create a schedule of course listings for each department .
- Second 30 days Continue development of web courses. Order T1 installation. Install and work with Jill Vaughn and Jackson Dahl on integration for ColdFusion server and current web servers.
- Third 30 days Begin creation of videos, streaming software, and bandwidth utilization issues. Work with Jill and Jackson on links for Microsoft Explorer upgrade scripts.
- Final 30 days Go live with initial classes and test usage. Throttle servers and document results. As month progresses, continue to go live with additional offerings. Create form to request additional courses, troubleshooting, and support.
|This article is excerpted from IT Project Management by Joseph Philips (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004; ISBN 0072232021). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.


text:
Snow Crystals
"Snow is water solidified in stellate crystals, variously modified, and floating in the atmosphere. These crystals arise from the congelation of the minute vesicles which constitute the clouds, when the temperature of the latter is below zero. They are more regular when formed in a calm atmosphere. Their form may be investigated by collecting them on a black surface, and viewing them through a strong lens. The regularity, and at the same time variety, of their forms, are truly beautiful."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)
meteorology, snow, snow crystals, snow flakes, snowflakes, stellate crystals, water solidified
Everybody's Cyclopedia (New York, NY: Syndicate Publishing Company, 1912)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- UFC news
'Embarrassed' MacDonald wants Condit revenge
Rory MacDonald has told ESPN of the "embarrassment" he felt when losing to Carlos Condit in June 2010, and says the fire for revenge against the Natural Born Killer still burns from within.
MacDonald is heading for a December showdown with BJ Penn, after which he predicts he may be set for a showdown with Nick Diaz. However, the youngster's No. 1 choice of opponent would be Condit.
Condit failed at UFC 154 in his attempt to take the welterweight title from Georges St-Pierre, who is a team-mate of MacDonald at Tristar Gym. Nevertheless, Condit's performance was good enough to keep him among the top talent at 170lbs.
MacDonald's one and only loss came against Condit when, after dominating for two rounds, he was stopped seven seconds from the end of the fight. It earned Fight of the Night honours, but MacDonald wants a rematch.
"I respect him (Condit) completely, he's one of the guys I respect most in the sport," MacDonald told ESPN. "His outlook and his attitude is great.
"But I feel like I was embarrassed in that fight. I want to prove to myself and the world that I am the better fighter and I want revenge for the embarrassment I felt that night.
"Everyone has their own opinion of the fight, but at the end of the day I lost and was embarrassed. It is what it is. I plan to be the world champ."
MacDonald had previously stated twice during a Q&A session in Montreal that he wanted to rematch Condit. The 23-year-old even named him as the man he would like to face in a TUF coaching rivalry.
First up, though, is that showdown with Penn, which features on a stacked December 8 card headlined by Ben Henderson v Nate Diaz.


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Prison Fellowship to Screen 'Unconditional' at Fla. Correctional Facilities Easter Weekend
Prison Fellowship, the world's largest Christian outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, is partnering with the producers of "Unconditional," and plans to show screenings of the inspirational movie inside two Florida correctional facilities during Easter weekend.
The events also feature Prison Fellowship CEO Jim Liske and "Papa Joe" Bradford, a former maximum security inmate now working to improve the lives of Nashville's at-risk kids. His life is the inspiration behind the film.
"To help 'Papa Joe' share his message of God's life-changing, unconditional love is an honor," Liske said. "And this Easter weekend screening is just the beginning, as Prison Fellowship programs have the potential to connect or reconnect inmates in 1,200 prisons across the country to God's love and their purpose in life through this inspiring film."
As a young African American with unlimited potential, according to the producers of the movie, Bradford landed in prison among violent offenders after putting his considerable computer skills to work hacking into a bank and robbing it of about $200 (which he paid back).
"I know what it means to be the man in prison," Bradford said. "And I'm so excited that my story in the film 'Unconditional' can be used to bring hope to these men and their families. There are more than 2 million children of incarcerated parents in the U.S., and they need our love and encouragement."
Presently, Bradford and his wife lead Elijah's Heart Ministry, which shows love to underprivileged children and their families, assisting them with practical needs and inspiring others to act by raising awareness of these often-desperate situations.
The special screenings of "Unconditional" will be shown at Orlando's Central Florida Reception Center on Saturday and the Desoto Correctional Institution in Arcadia, Fla., on Easter Sunday.
The Christian Post interviewed Bradford via email on Thursday.
CP: What was the turning point in your life where you decided to help others by telling your story?
Bradford: There's really a two-part answer to that question. When my wife, Denise, and I first moved into the income-based community in Nashville, this little deaf girl lived right next door to me. She came up to my door, and at the time I didn't know she was deaf. I looked at her, and I said, 'Hey, what do you want?' And she just looked at me. Well, Denise gave her some candy. And there were 50 children living in our neighborhood. And what happens when you give one child a piece of candy? Whether they're deaf or not, your house is full of children. So we decided to make a choir out of these children. And that's how we started working with kids. Then you come forward many years, and our activity has grown into a much larger ministry to under-resourced children, and the opportunity came for a film to be made. I knew the skeletons in my closet were going to be revealed to the whole world about a time from my past I'm not proud of. But I hoped that things in my life, let's just say what I overcame, could be an inspiration. So one of the main reasons I agreed to do this movie is that I believed it was going to be a call to action, and it is. A call to action to help at-risk children throughout the country and the world.
CP: Can you give a short testimony about your faith?
Bradford: In "Unconditional" there is a re-enactment of a terrible fight from when I was in prison. At that time, anger in me had skyrocketed. I spent my life trying to prove I was worth something. I was making good grades in college, I had completed a cooperative program with a wonderful company, I was going to be graduating, and here I am with what I thought were crazy men. And so I became an animal. In prison you had to either be a wolf or a sheep, and I was determined to be a wolf, and anger just grew and grew. And so it was almost an excuse to just take the anger out. I was trying to rescue this guy, and I fought Big Mack; I just wanted to unleash everything in me that had destroyed my life, and I almost killed this guy. And at that point, when I was placed in solitary confinement for 40 days, I realized that was not what God meant for my life. I had a dream while I was in solitary, and in the dream, I saw a red rose floating on a river. And I felt like the red rose was the love of God to me, that would be forever flowing in my life. And I came in contact with Jesus, I believe, right there, in the most unusual spot."
CP: What do you look forward to most about this showing of "Unconditional" at the prisons you will be at this Easter weekend?
Bradford: It just makes me so grateful because I know what those who'll see "Unconditional" are going through, how they think and feel. Being able to bring a message of hope to them is a wonderful opportunity, and the fact that it's on Easter weekend, where we remember Jesus' sacrifice that gave us all hope, makes this truly special.
CP: What do you hope those in prison come away with after this Easter event, including the movie?
Bradford: It's the Easter message itself; you don't have to be who you are now. There's love and acceptance in Christ, and there is a life ahead of you where you can live with purpose and dignity.
CP: Anything else you would like to add?
Bradford: I do try to encourage everyone to remember those in need throughout our country. People can't believe it, but more than 46 million Americas, including 16 million children, will go to bed hungry tonight or unsure where their next meal comes from. As Christians, we need to bring hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless. And everyone is in position to do something. It's my heart to share practical ways to serve at-risk children in your community and serve your local nonprofits through our National Walk of Love Program.


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SKINS Pure Sport
Following the London Olympics and the ongoing Lance Armstrong saga, sport hit an all time low. Sporting headlines were riddled with news highlighting the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs in sports while legends like Tyson Gay, and Asafa Powell were being exposed as drug cheats. So we started a movement to mobilise those who believe in our purpose to 'fuel the true spirit of competition'. We launched #ChooseTheRightTrack, a campaign against doping in sports, or more specifically, to lobby the IOC to support athletes 'make the right choice' when faced doping and to increase funding for anti-doping. Since then we've tackled the discrimination and corruption of the IOC and FIFA. After this we voiced our support for the Polynesian countries competing in the Rugby World Cup 2015 and provided compression wear to Samoa and Tonga, with the aim to increase inclusion and support of the Polynesian countries in competitive international Rugby.
To learn more about our campaigns, please visit our campaigns page.
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text:
2,721 mccain obama vogue photos 68.0%(I know. Who the hell is Clint Wolbert? Please don't get distracted!)
1,099 Not referred from a search engine 27.5%
18 althouse 0.5%
4 ann althouse 0.1%
2 tim russert's last interview
This traffic was coming from many different locations, including foreign countries. Look at the Site Meter world map and you'll see these visitors appear to be coming from all over.
Here is Site Meter's chart showing what search engines people are supposedly coming from. 67.5% of current traffic comes from Yahoo. Since 28.2% of the traffic is not coming from search engines, it looks fishy. Does this merely demonstrate the sheer power of being #1 on a particular search? I only come up 6th in a Google search for those words.
Is something funny going on at Yahoo? Is this real traffic that I can feel good about or phony traffic?
ADDED: The question is whether I've stumbled upon evidence of some sort of scheme to create the appearance of traffic on various websites. I don't suspect that this has anything to do with my blog in particular.
PROBABLE SOLUTION: First, I'm sure I know why I had some visitors looking for Clint Wolbert. My blog comes up second in a search for his name (because he wrote in my comments a couple times), and he was quoted in a NYT article today, which would have set off a few searches:
Gay Couples Find Marriage Is a Mixed BagSecond, all that "mccain obama vogue photos" traffic most likely occurred because some high-traffic website included a link to that Yahoo search. People clicked on that link and then were motivated to click again to my post, which was the first link on that search. I haven't located that other post, but it must exist. I sometimes link to a search page to prove a point, such as the fact that there's a lot of talk about something. It seems so obvious now. Now, you've seen my little tendency to think bad people are up to no good.
... To Clint Wolbert, 28, marriage is too "assimilative." Being gay is like belonging to an "exclusive club," Mr. Wolbert said. "I just worry that the drive to marry will end up kind of chipping away at the culture."
IN THE COMMENT: Clint stops by and expands on the quote!


text:
As you know we are big fans of Group B Rally, it's what we grew up with. In the mid 1980's when we were in high school, ESPN would show WRC and U.S. Rally Racing, as hard as that seems to believe in this day and age.
The Group B cars were turly monsters in their days, 5-800 horsepower was not unheard of, and much of the technology from the turbo Formula 1 cars made their way in to rally racing. It came to an end at the end of the 80's though as the cars became to fast, there were a few to many fatalities of drivers and spectators, so this shining moment of racing came to an end.
We found this series on YouTube and thought we would share it with you, it's a documentry, broken up into seven sections to show you this history of this great series.


text: Well another small issues here:: First I follow all that tutorial says, step-by-step http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-save-traffic-with-nginxs-httpgzipmodule-debian-squeeze Gzip was working perfect and I have a small decrease of load time data, after that I had try to follow this tutorial:: http://www.howtoforge.com/why-you-should-always-use-nginx-with-microcaching I get no errors, just 3 warnings when I reload nginx 1. duplicate MIME type "text/html" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:65 2. conflicting server name "_" on 0.0.0.0:8080, ignored 3. conflicting server name "_" on 0.0.0.0:8081, ignored when I try to reach the website I get Access denied not by file permissions, seems that this kind of error came out from the security.limit_extensions directive that has been added to php-fpm and limits the extensions that can be parsed by PHP.. So I have add them to security.limit_extensions in your php-fpm configuration but still nothing I get the blank white Access denied message.. Any ideas?? Thank you !!


text:
They Met at Gettysburg
Stackpole, Edward J.
AbeBooks Seller Since August 1, 2012Quantity Available: 1
Bookseller Image
AbeBooks Seller Since August 1, 2012Quantity Available: 1
About this Item
Bibliographic Details
Title: They Met at Gettysburg
Publisher: Eagle Books
Publication Date: 1956
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Edition: 1st Edition
Store Description
We offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you are unhappy with your purchase for
any reason or if you decided you no longer need the purchased book.
Bookseller Information
Gregory Harris
Restaurant of the Mind Books
P.O. Box 516
Sag Harobr, NY 11963
(631) 721-6406
NY Tax ID #: 271385687
Orders always ship the next business day after a sale. All books are packed in multiple layers of bubble wrap and in sturdy boxes. The only time a book will ship in an envelope is that if you request Priority Mail Padded Envelope shipping, but rest assured the book will be wrapped securely in multiple layers and the corners will be protected.
Payment Methods
accepted by seller


text:
I recently ran across a really great store that is close to my home. I had frequented the site many many months ago and had considered ordering some diapers but we used mainly BumGenius at the time and always found it was cheaper to buy them used. Recently my daughter became super sensitive to suede cloth so we were on a hunt for a new diaper. So I started looking some more at this site. They had some natural fiber diapers but I had never used any of these kind before and was a little hesitant.
I was happy when I found out that For Your Bug-a-Boo wanted to send me a diaper to review. Guess which one?? One of the ones I wanted to try but did not know if it was worth the cost. Cheri ( a very wonderful person) sent me an Imse Vimse to review. These are not your more popular diapers. I had only seen these diapers on a few site and they never really caught my eye. They run typically at around $23.50 a diaper and are sized. Realistically for my family sized diapers are not what we look for. We tend to look for one sized diapers. However due to my current situation this was a perfect change to see about sized diapers.
When I got the diaper in I was a little worried it wouldn't fit. I am so use to one size diapers that this diaper looked very large to me. My daughter is only 24 pounds at 20 months and Larges usually are really big on her. But the fit was amazing! And it is not on it's smallest setting either.
The diaper is an All-in-One but designed differently then most AIO I have seen. There is the outer portion of and on the inside it is made of little flap like inserts that are only top sewed into it. One problem I have found with AIOs is that they are all sewn together and drying time for them is horrible. However, the drying time with these are just the same as most of my other diapers.
Information on the diaper:
All in One Organic Diaper by Imse Vimse• All-in-One diapers with a modern design
• soft and stretchy fabric provides a comfortable fit for baby
• signature ImseVimse soft leg-gussets keep everything contained
• soft and adjustable hook and loop closure for quick and easy diaper changes
• fold-back laundry tabs prevent snags when washing
• waterproof, yet breathable outer fabric (PUL) is both soft and durable
• diaper soaker layers are made with 100% certified organic cotton terry
• designed with internal flaps to allow thorough washing and quick drying
• flap-style soaker design allows the versatility of either stay-dry micro fleece or certified organic cotton next to babies skin
• wash on warm or hot 140-195°F/60-90°C, tumble dry low
• available in sizes from newborn to toddler
Made in Sweden
Now for the great news! Cheri, from For Your Bug-a-Boo has generously decided to give one lucky reader their very own Imse Vimse in their choice of size. WOW! Which means you can put this fabulous diaper on your little one's little tushy! All you have to do is go through the Rafflercopter entry below and just click on the instructions and do what it says. :) Easy Peasy!


text:
Tech Awarded Third Multi-Million Dollar Education Grant
SOCORRO, N.M. September 27, 2011 – New Mexico Tech has landed a multi-million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the third straight year. President Dr. Daniel H. Lopez announced at the September 23 meeting of the Board of Regents that Tech was awarded a $4.3 million, five-year grant to implement initiatives aimed at improving graduation rates and student retention – or persistence.
All three grants are from the Title V program, which the Department of Education issues to universities that serve minorities. Each grant has a different purpose Tech has been classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution since 2008. The latest grant is an HSI-STEM grant, designed for Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM.
Tech will use the $4.3 million to add summer math programs, develop articulation agreements with three New Mexico two-year colleges and install more Smart Classrooms. Tech already has converted three teaching areas to serve as high-tech, interactive, multimedia classrooms. In all, the three grants will allow the university to create 22 such instructional areas.
The main focus of the new grant is to create new opportunities for New Mexico students – particularly minorities and low-income students – to enter STEM fields, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Peter Gerity said.
The partner institutions are New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs and New Mexico State University's branch campus in Grants.
"For many students, it's advantageous for them to start on their home turf – their home institution – then move to Tech to finish," Gerity said. "Especially for low-income students, this will facilitate their achievement of a degree."
Gerity credited interdepartmental campus teams that have put together three successive grant proposals. The combination of all three grants are creating new synergy on campus, allowing programs to piggyback each other and creating new opportunities for students at every level, faculty programs and technological advancements.
"For us, these resources are vital when other sources of funding are drying up," Gerity said.
In other news from the Regents meeting:
- Lopez and Dr. Van Romero, vice president of research, updated the Board about funding activity in Washington, D.C. Lopez said that Tech changed its approach several years ago, devoting efforts toward developing relationships with agency personnel and diminishing dependence on earmarks. For instance, the First Responder Training programs at EMRTC are now included in the budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Magdalena Ridge Observatory, on the other hand, was largely dependent on federal earmarks – which have dried up. Romero said he and his staff are looking for other funding avenues to finish construction of the MRO-Interferometer. The MRO-I has ordered its first telescope and needs additional funding to order subsequent telescopes.
"While agency people are willing to fund these programs, they're waiting to see their budget," Romero said.
- Lopez presented an update on the New Mexico Legislature's special session. He said higher education was not a main topic of discussion during the short session, but that Tech would be seeking state funds from severance tax revenues and/or General Obligation Bonds to construct a new building for the N.M. Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources during the regular session that begins in January.
- Lopez also recapped the President's Golf Tournament, which raises scholarship money. He said the two-day event raised about $200,000, which includes in-kind contributions. He said about a dozen students are awarded scholarships each year from the fund.
- The Board approved two construction contracts. White Sands Construction submitted the low bid for installation of new refrigerated air conditioning system in Macey Center. Tech received eight bids. White Sands bid $1,058,230, about $10,000 lower than the next lowest bid. The Board also approved spending $894,554 to replace the roof of Workman Center, which was damaged in the 2004 hail storm. Insurance did not cover that roof, so Tech patched the damaged areas. Now, repairs are proving more costly than replacement, Lopez said.
- The Board also learned about two large purchases made with restricted funds (which do not require Board approval). The Petroleum Recovery Research Center paid $191,000 to Harvard Petroleum in Roswell for a test project to test new methods of recovering petroleum from mature oil fields. Also, EMRTC paid $1.27 million to Physical Security Inc. to build a "curtain wall." The U.S. State Department is funding explosives tests of protective walls used in U.S. embassies around the world.
- Meeting as the Board of the Employee Benefit Trust, the Regents heard that the Trust, which administers the university's health insurance plan, continues to lose money. Vice President of Finance Lonnie Marquez said he's working with a faculty committee to gather input and determine how to address the financial imbalance of the benefit program. The university will solicit proposals in coming months for new benefit plans, Marquez said.
- The Board was notified of August degree conferrals; one master's degree was awarded.
- Marquez presented the Board with the financial analysis for August, showing Tech is within budget and fiscally sound. The Board approved one budget adjustment request. The Board also approved the annual list of research and public service projects.
- The Board changed the dates for the next two meetings. The Board will meet Monday, Oct. 17, in Socorro and Monday, Nov. 21, in Albuquerque.
By Thomas Guengerich/New Mexico Tech


text:
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
We are all racists....
5 comments:
- Anita Jeyan Sandeep said...
Nina Davuluri would have never made it if she was in India. Well, dusky Indians do not even deserve to be in spotlight! She would have grown up not knowing her worth and would have faced sympathy and racial mockery from family and friends. She would have built a shell around her to hide herself from hurtful comments that always come searching for her. Because Indians are worse in terms of racial discrimination as compared to the white skinned. So as you said we have no right to point fingers at those american whites who accused Nina for being dark. We would have done worse.
- October 2, 2013 at 11:27 AM
- Desi Babu said...
Human beings like to organize in clans -- racism is an expression of exclusivity, made by those clans.
It is just that we like to associate the word with the outward looks of a person. You are right, it exists in all societies and transcends all classes. We humans don't necessarily try to better ourselves, but we make use of every opportunity to try and prove that we are better than others. And that, is racism.
In the end, what matters is not how racist the people are, but what their civilization does to protect those, whom they like to exclude. A case in point is when president Kennedy sent federal mashals to protect the constitutional rights of a black man called James Meredith, against the wishes of the local powers that were. In India, you cannot dream of the state sending its security forces to protect the liberties (and rights) of an individual. And therein, lies the difference of civilizations.
The United States has a framework in place to protect the victims of racism. In India, we need to diligently work towards creating one.
Desi Babu
The Peanut Express
- October 2, 2013 at 12:46 PM
- Hafza Majeed said...
Very nicely written. Its a pity that dark skinned girls are shunned in both India and Pakistan and it's even more sad to see such racism in the west, the countries we idealize the most. Love from Pakistan
- October 6, 2013 at 10:43 PM
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- June 7, 2014 at 6:39 PM
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- July 2, 2014 at 12:12 PM


text:
Emmet County residents now have a new wellness alternative.
Jackie Mart, holistic nutritionist and lifestyle coach, has opened Optimum Wellness LLC at 1119 Central Ave. in the Center For Chiropractic Wellness building.
Mart, a Terril High School graduate, received her bachelor of arts degree in elementary education from the University of Northern Iowa. She later completed an online program through the Global College of Natural Medicine. She now finds herself more of an educator than ever.
"I'm still educating people," said Mart.
For Mart, it all started when she picked up the book, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau. She was so fascinated by what she learned that she went online to learn more.
What she discovered was a key to an entirely different holistic lifestyle. That motivated her to volunteer as a member services director at a food co-op in Carroll where she was living at the time.
Fact Box
Mart offers variety of nutrition and health services
By Michael Tidemann
Staff Writer
Services Mart offers include:
n Holistic nutrition consulting. These services include an initial consultation and follow-up, kitchen cabinet clean-up, one-on-one grocery store tour, pH testing and Skype or phone consultations.
n ALCAT Allergy testing.
n Burst exercise training.
n Ion detox foot bath.
n Herbal detox body wraps.
n Toxic home raid.
Mart also offers a number of seminar presentations and corporate wellness programs, including:
n Holistic healthy eating and weight loss.
n Grocery store tours.
n Creating an alkaline body to prevent cancer and disease.
n Food intolerances that could be making you fat.
n Snacking smarter.
n Healthy eating on a budget.
n Importance of protein.
n How to talk to children about 'real food'.
n Detoxifying foods for your body.
n Burst training for fitness and weight loss.
n Sleep - the food/brain connection.
n Detoxification - minimizing toxins.
n Control your hormones naturally.
n Inspiration/dream board creating workshop.
For more information, contact: (712) 790-5883 or email: email@example.com.
"My outlook on life and health after that was different than it ever was before," Mart said.
Mart found jobs in Minneapolis teaching exercise classes and working in a health food store. The opportunity came to start up in business for herself as Optimum Wellness LLC, now located in Estherville.
"I feel like people here want to be healthy. They just don't know how," said Mart. She said people seeking weight loss need an accountability partner and Mart stresses "count chemicals, not calories."
"I teach people how to live a holistic lifestyle," Mart said.
Mart is offering a nutritionist-led grocery store tour at Hy-Vee at 1221 Central Ave. in Estherville 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31. The cost of the tour is $25 each or two for $40. Participants will learn about heart-healthy foods and recipes and hidden sources of sugar in their diet that lead to inflammation, bloating, disease, cancer and weight gain. They'll also learn how to read food labels and what toxic foods and hidden ingredients to avoid. There will be complimentary gift bags with organic produce from Hy-Vee for every attendee.
Mart said there are eight food additives commonly found in food in the US that are banned in other countries. For weight loss, she encourages "foods by God, not by man" and encourages shoppers to focus on the perimeter of the grocery store.
In the tour, she will show participants how to pick out foods that are healthy with the ultimate goal to help people be in charge of their own health.
The tour is limited to 10 participants. To make a reservation, call Mart at (712) 790-5883 or e-mail her at email@example.com.


text:
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — If and when this season officially goes over the basketball cliff, the Los Angeles Lakers will have their pick of scapegoats.
From the entire Buss family to David Stern, Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Mike D'Antoni, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Metta World Peace, the Hollywood elite and just about anyone else who has set foot in Staples Center this season, you will not be safe if things come completely undone and the Lakers miss the playoffs.
The real culprit, however, might be the numbers. They don't lie and the Lakers are stalling at a time when they simply cannot afford to, given the obstacle course they have left to navigate.
As of this morning, they need to go 24-18 over the next 42 games just to break even this season, which we all know probably won't be good enough to get them into the playoffs. That means they'll need to play lights out over that same stretch to get back into the playoff picture.
While we're not saying it's impossible, it seems highly improbable for a team that's managed a mighty 17-23 record heading into tonight's game against Chicago (9:30 ET, TNT). Then again, the way things are going, impossible might need to be the rallying cry the Lakers use the rest of the way. Because no one thought this result was possible when Nash and Howard joined the party over the summer.
Fast forward to the third Monday of this New Year and Howard and the Lakers are still trying to get out of their own way, experiencing the sort of growing pains few people expected them to still be dealing with this late in the season.
Give the Lakers this much, they are giving it the old equal-opportunity try in assessing their issues. Everything is being scrutinized. Even Kobe has admitted his struggles and failings. Their defense has been atrocious, validating the fears of many (the HT crew included) that D'Antoni's penchant for focusing so much on the offense might obscure the fact that this crew's biggest deficiencies are on the other side.
Despite despicable defensive numbers, they all seemed to be more concerned about offense, as Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register reports:
"The ball sticks," D'Antoni lamented Sunday.
Said Nash: "Sometimes we don't do what we talk about and we break away. And maybe that's because we need more time, but to me, mentally you've got to stick with the script. Right now I think we're defecting from the script too many times."
Bryant's thought process? Very different.
He said he was "very, very happy" about Pau Gasol getting consistent post-ups Sunday: "We got a lot of easy things from him down there, so we'll start seeing that more often." As for his poor shooting, Bryant said he was tired and needed to get more massages, ice baths and rest. He has been asked to defend the best perimeter player on the opposing team in recent games and last game requested more set plays for him to shoot.
"This team needs me at both ends of the floor," adding a vague reference to "unless they're going to do something roster-wise."
The time for vague references are over. The Lakers have a definitive bottom line they are working. They have 42 games to work with and the legacy of this team, this group, and, specifically D'Antoni, Kobe, Nash, Howard and Gasol, will be defined in that time and space.
Time is running out!


text:
A quick note from Thomas:
Hi everybody and welcome to the first Book of Rubbish Ideas Q&A day. Anybody out there who wants to leave Tracey a rubbish and sustainable living related questions may do so by leaving a comment under this post and Tracey will then get busy finding an answer for you. So keep this post up, pop back and refresh often to have a look at the questions and answers as they come rolling in throughout the day.
But first, many of you submitted questions last week so Tracey has got a head start and has answered many of them already. Thanks to everybody who submitted questions and here they are with Tracey's responses: