http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/ How to Create and Implement Successful Projects en http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/11/12/10-effective-presentation-tips-and-tricks.html The other day I was helping a friend improve their presentation as well as figured I would share a couple of my thoughts in general on behalf of making effective presentations. 1. Know your audience! Make sure the presentation style suits the audience. If they like money (and who doesn’t), discuss money, if they desire their employment opportunities to be easier discuss that. Target their interests, or utilize those interests to explain or improve your presentation/points. I remember one of the harder presentations I had to do was convincing a group of people at a conference that the technology I was representing was fun as well as interesting. I played a fun game based on the ever loved Price is Right. The audience was involved, shouted their ideas of what was the right answer to a number of trivia questions as well as I had fun prizes such as a new car!… freshner, as well as all inclusive trips to Tim Hortons (gift cert as well as gas card). The key reason this game was effective was because of the fact that it built right into the topics I was discussing as well as the audiences involvement was crucial to the presentations success. The entire presentation from that point on was a discussion of ideas as well as concepts. Try that with executives or people looking on behalf of heavy content/details as well as it would never have been as effective. 2. Know the goals of your presentation. Try as well as retain it to one primary goal, as well as two secondary goals. Any more than that as well as you shall struggle with trying to pass all that information on. Make your presentation represent these goals as well as endeavour as well as set it up so your audience has motivation to meet these goals, or are just as interested as you are in them. 3. Show interest as well as enthusiasm! Don’t act like you have done this talk, presentation, or dealt with this topic on behalf of years. Pretend this is the an estimated all exciting day of your life. People enjoy seeing energy as well as enthusiasm as well as YES it does rub off on the audience. Even if they never liked what you are discussing before they shall start to associate it with excitement. 4. Always have at max 3-4 points on a slide. Simplify the slides. Any more than this as well as the audience shall lose interest. Never throw huge data intensive graphs or metrics in your slides if you are doing so, or are thinking, but I require these think about what you are trying to show as well as I bet you can summarize it in a much simpler fashion. This isn’t a report, or a document, it’s a presentation. 5. The slides are just a tool, the presentation is how you talk, transfer your body as well as interpret the audiences responses. If they don’t seem to be understanding or listening to your presentation modification it up, raise your voice, lower it, whatever you do endeavour as well as retain it interesting as well as engadge their attention. I am a big fan of changing volume as well as tone on behalf of topics as well as interacting with the audience. One helpful thing to do is to talk quietly as well as pretend you are offering some secret or important advice, another is making a joke or stating something excitidely. Use the words, oh as well as I love this part, or This is really interesting etc to help garner the attention on behalf of what you are discussing. 6. The best presentations are those that are interactive. If you can't complete the entire presentation due to questions but are able to cover the key points that is one of the an estimated all successful presentations. The reason people request questions as well as provide feedback is because of the fact that they are interested in the topic. All good things. 7. Images are worth 1000 words. Using the odd image to retain the presenation looking fresh, clean, or to subtly imprint images of joy, success, or happyness is important, but the real power is when you utilize an image that summarizes lots of words. Try as well as utilize images on behalf of points on a page. This helps with memory association. 8. Demonstrations are at all times better than slides if possible. These modification the monotony of the slides, as well as an estimated all importantly manufacture what you are talking about seem tangible as well as easier to understand. Even if it’s a simple demonstration, these can really win more interest, as well as support from your audience. 9. Respond to questions, feedback as well as concerns. An effective presentation at all times brings up questions, feedback and/or concerns. Try as well as deal with these right away, as well as see if you can relate them to what you have been discussing/presenting. If you think it might be de-railing the presentation (especially in large presentations) praise them on behalf of their input as well as let them know you shall take their questions/comments at the end. 10. Follow up. This one is missed so often. Follow up on a presentation. Send an email to your audience if you can saying thanks on behalf of coming as well as provide them with links to the content or something related. This helps retain it fresh in peoples minds as well as often can open up new opportunities. Even if you don’t know who attended approach one or more of the people who attended if you see them again as well as just thank them on behalf of attending as well as being so attentive/receptive. Hope this helps someone else, Richard Harbridge        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/11/12/10-effective-presentation-tips-and-tricks.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:27:59 -0500 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/28/pdc-2008-windows-7-office-14-azure-and-so-much-more.html I have to admit I am kind of on information overload. I think I have about 300 pages of information I desire to still read through on Azure, the new Office 14 features as well as functionality, as well as play with Windows 7 more. I am extremely excited about EVERYTHING unvieled so far this year at the PDC conference. I wrote a short post about Azure (http://sharepointkb.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/windows-azure-services/) as well as hope that in the next few days I have a possibility to really summarize some of my high level observations as well as expectations. One thing that I can say on behalf of sure though is how friendly the future is as well as how the online, available anytime trend is just a wonderful thing that I am super excited about. Anyways back to reading as well as managing time so that somehow I not only catch up on all this wonderful news, but also get to play Fallout 3 sometime this week Richard Harbridge        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/28/pdc-2008-windows-7-office-14-azure-and-so-much-more.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:35:32 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/14/touchless-webcam-motion-sense-sdk-free.html The other day Michael Gannotti made a post about a very interesting SDK that popped up that helps enable developers create ‘touchless’ applications using webcameras. Check out this short video clip here: http://communityclips.officelabs.com/Video.aspx?videoId=a89a217b-fc38-4a6c-87f8-ab59a2028391 Or endeavour it out by downloading the demo here: http://www.codeplex.com/touchless/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx I remember a plethora of applications like this that used to exist, but it was really hard to find a good SDK to help you get started or give you an area in the community to share ideas, as well as now it looks like things are moving in a good way. Especially as the cost of touch screen technology as well as multi touch technology is still far more expensive than a simple camera It’s very cool stuff as well as I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.codeplex.com/touchless Looking forward to the future, Richard Harbridge        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/14/touchless-webcam-motion-sense-sdk-free.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:05:56 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/09/project-management-processes-phases-and-personal-notes.html One question I am requested often is how I manage my SharePoint projects, what stages I go through as well as how I perform/manage each phase of a project. This is probably something you already do, but perhaps it’s good to see some examples of how other people manage projects, so feel free to read along. Personal Note: This is a high level summary of what I do in a typical project as well as is not every individual item. SharePoint is also mentioned throughout this article because of the fact that it is the technology I an estimated all often utilize when working on projects as well as organizing information. Before the Project Starts Before I start a project I create areas to capture knowledge (KB, as well as lessons learned), following that I begin the process of the project itself. This is important to do right at the start because of the fact that even during the pre-project phases you can come up with some interesting notes, concepts, or lessons learned. Right now I at all times do this knowledge capture using SharePoint with a mixture of wiki’s as well as related concepts. So this area is already built as well as all I require to do is create a ‘project’ as well as ensure the ‘customer’, ‘client’, as well as ‘area of business’ represented is also within the knowledge area to ensure anyone who comes up with something new can create articles, upload documents as well as basically create content that shall be associated to that project, client, or business area. Personal Note: I ordinarily break a project down into the following phases. Every project, regardless of the size. The good thing is that I do NOT enforce specific templates on behalf of each phase. I love the idea of templates in that they can save you time as well as certainly have some that I can manufacture utilize of, but it’s important to not force yourself to fill out a document as well as certain content placeholders just because of the fact that ‘its part of the template’. This can often create confusing statements, is a waste of effort, as well as really can detract from the important parts of the document. Definition Phase Domain Analysis I at all times start off with some sort of domain analysis. That is analysis of the current environment, configuration, as well as system that is in place. How do things interact with one another? What applications already exist? What version are they? How are they used? The results of this analysis shall should contain an overview of the current servers, third party applications, shared service providers, configurations, as well as web applications, as well as existing site collections. I personally like to utilize excel documents on behalf of this (I know I could utilize SharePoint lists as well as may consider doing so in the future). Once these have been identified as well as cataloged the next phase of work can begin. Requirements Analysis Based on the objectives as well as target audience a series of business requirements must be retrieved. These requirements can come from business stakeholders, potential administration, as well as end users. It may be necessary to hold requirement gathering workshops with various involved parties in order to better understand how people would like to utilize the eventual system as well as how the system can provide them the an estimated all benefit. Important things to note from personal experience during the requirements gathering phase: Involve every stakeholder in this requirements gathering. Even if it’s just to briefly discuss the requirements you have gathered from a high level. This shall permit them to feel more involved in providing any input as well as requirements they might have as well as ensures that later when the system is being developed or implemented there are no significant surprises or missed requirements. Ensure you document the motivational reasons on behalf of a requirement as well as the requirement itself. This can really help you or the individual drafting the technical specification determine the correct solution on behalf of that individual requirement. This sounds simple but you would be surprised at how numerous people just document Requirements 1A-200C as well as forget to explain why these requirements even exist. This also can help you if later down the road someone says why did we do this? Prioritize the Requirements. Its important to identify ‘must have’, ‘would like to have’, as well as ‘if there’s time’ categorizations on behalf of every requirement. Its also a good idea to have further priority information. This additional priority information combined with the motivational reasons should manufacture it clear where you require to spend an estimated all of your time, or manufacture sure that the solution absolutely covers these areas. Functional Specification These requirements as well as the knowledge you have gained from the client now allows you to create what is often referred to as a functional specification. This outlines how the users anticipate to interact with the system, outlines their requirements as well as ensures that unanswered questions are resolved. Some important points: Only one person should OWN (and write) the functional specification. This is very important. This ensures one person is responsible, one person can be referenced on behalf of information, as well as that the creative ideas as well as concepts represented (while based on numerous peoples input) is written as well as communicated by one individual. If the project is very large as well as this doesn’t seem feasible on behalf of one person break it into two smaller projects as well as have each person write their posses specification on behalf of a part of it. Always have a developer or someone who shall be writing the technical specification review your functional specification. This review should help point out gaps in the document, or knowledge so that you can interact with the client as well as retrieve answers without disrupting the technical specification process. (You don’t desire the technical specification to start until the functional requirements have been hammered out if at all possible, that way you won't potentially require to redo some technical specification work if requirements change.) There should never be a question mark in the functional specification. Everything written in here shall be signed off on as well as it should be complete. Ensure if you aren’t sure about something that it is classified as out of scope. The functional specification must not contain particulars on how it shall be technically implemented. This is the kind of information that should be contained in the technical specification which is developed from the functional specification. The functional specification should contain a ‘from the user’ perspective. If possible provide scenarios. Scenarios are one of the easiest ways on behalf of any reader to understand something. It gives a real world example on behalf of how something works as well as can provide addition insight into why, as well as how it could be done. Make it READABLE. This one is very simple. If possible manufacture it fun to read, or if that’s not possible ensure the language it is written in is to the point as well as easy to read. Never complicate it with business jargon or add additional adjectives to describe something just because of the fact that you desire to sound savvy or the document to seem ‘more professional’. Include a sort of ‘executive summary’ or overview that is short, to the point as well as describes high level what the functional specification outlines in more detail. This shall permit those who don’t require to read the entire thing to still understand the information it contains. Include as much detail as possible. If you outline that there's a requirement on behalf of notification to be sent to a user manufacture sure you write exactly what the notification shall say, as well as identify any options or actions that can result from this notification. Design as well as Architecture Technical Specification as well as Architecture Developer or Architect creates a technical specification or a ‘design doc’ as often I hear it being referred to as. Content contained in the technical specification can include how the solution shall be built, what technologies shall be used, what the server requirements as well as hardware requirements are, stuff like that. Provide specific instructions on behalf of how things shall work as well as if possible their dependencies. As an example if you know your end solution shall an estimated all likely utilize a notification service that shall require email provide this information in a clear manner so that upon sign off (or even before sign off) the analyst, consultant, or account manager assigned to interact with the client can begin getting you the things you eventually shall need. Graphic Specification, as well as Visual Design (or Screen Engineering) With the technical specification complete we can now document how the screens, components, messages, as well as features shall look to the end user. To be honest, I am not a graphic designer, or even really a designer. So my advice on this area is going to be limited in scope. What I would recommend here are these few things: Make a specific note that these are recommended screen designs but that the end result may differ slightly. The initial screen designs rarely capture every single aspect of the solution as well as do not get modified at some point. They are the guideline as well as really help clients, developers, as well as anyone else involved understand what to expect. Since this is setting their expectations manufacture certain they realize that minor adjustments may be necessary to manufacture it more functional or user friendly down the road. Notify the client of any graphical changes. If you do manufacture a graphical modification or desire to manufacture one at the end of the client has signed off as well as the project has started in earnest, manufacture certain you notify them. Get them involved even if it’s not an active role to manufacture sure that it reduces potential trouble down the road. Do not add additional functionality to manufacture things look nicer. Keep in mind you have a limited amount of time on behalf of this project. The designs should mirror what is outlined in the functional as well as technical specifications. Often (by accident) a graphic designer may adjust something to manufacture it look nicer but not realize the implications that adjustment can have. It’s important to think about everything that might be effected by visual adjustments. Have technical personnel review the design. Don’t just have the analyst, or consultant review the design manufacture sure the developers also review it. They may point out inconsistencies or potentially better ways of presenting information or taking user input. They know the tools available to them, as well as in SharePoint as an example shall know the effort required to style as well as adjust certain items, over others. (Example changing the way a list presents information as opposed to adjusting a master page.) Development Plan as well as Project Plan Based on estimates on behalf of how long tasks should take as well as a logical rational breakdown of responsibilities create a project plan. I ordinarily utilize Microsoft Project because of the fact that it makes it easier to modify later, tell what’s on the critical path, manage resources across projects, as well as so on as well as so forth. Important Note:Don’t forget your communication, training as well as support plans! These should be all elaborated on as well as clearly identified at this stage in conjunction with their time as well as associated cost. SLA agreements might be created here, or communication plans. So retain in mind that while I am only describing briefly the project plan as well as development plan that there are a great numerous other potentially required plans as well as agreements necessary before you should transfer beyond the planning stage. Create a development plan based off of the technical specification as well as the design specification. Ensure all estimates, times as well as tasks have been delegated under this plan. Depending on the environment I like to utilize a RACI model on behalf of both plans. RACI in this case stands on behalf of Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, as well as Informed. Basically on behalf of each developer/team member I manufacture sure that it is clear whether they are responsible, accountable, require to be consulted, or require to be informed of each as well as every task. This is ordinarily pretty easy to do, but it makes sure that everyone at all times knows who needs to be consulted with, informed of changes, or who is accountable on behalf of a task being complete etc. Personal Note: This doesn’t at all times manufacture sense. There are some teams that may take offense to the concept, as well as it isn’t at all times the easiest thing to retain track of. However in important projects I trust this is an integral piece because of the fact that without a RACI model implemented you can't at all times determine what might have gone wrong, or how it can be resolved in the future. Personally I at all times utilize one as well as fill it out regardless, but it is best if each member has input as well as agrees to the RACI on behalf of each task. One thing I also do is often utilize Project Server to really expand my capabilities in regards to being able to show the project plan, baselines, etc without actually requiring a user to download project. This is especially important because of the fact that project can really be a scary big thing on behalf of an estimated all users upon first beginning to utilize it. It also saves lots of cost as well as some space on all of the developer as well as related project personnel. Specification as well as Project Plan Sign Offs All stakeholders sign off on the functional, technical, as well as design specifications as well as the project plans. Everyone must be in agreement from the customers to the teams that shall be implementing it. This saves time down the road, as it’s more costly to manufacture changes to projects further into the project as well as ensures that all involved parties have been included as well as have taken responsibility on behalf of the solution. Personal Note: If there's trouble making the technical specification an estimated all of the time it is because of the fact that the functional specification as well as requirements have not been fully identified. If the design specification has lots of trouble then it’s probably the functional or technical specification that might be at the root of these issues. Development The development phase is fairly straight forward. The technical specification has broken down the technical details. The design specification has broken down the look as well as feel. The development plan has broken down the tasks as well as responsibilities. With all of those in place this is a smooth as well as easily managed phase of the project. It also has HIGH visibility of where things stand because of the fact that you can at all times compare against the development plan, technical spec as well as visual designs. Personal Note: Standards are a wonderful thing but continue to evaluate them to ensure that they remain current, relevant, as well as useful. Keep things structured if possible as this helps you retain estimates more accurate. However do not crush your teams with not possible to meet standards. These provide no benefit as well as detract from the important of standards. Make sure all goals as well as standards are attainable as well as have clear indication of why they assist developers as well as team members. Security Testing One thing that I have seen over the past few years is a new more specific form of testing on behalf of security. In today’s world security is becoming more as well as more specialized as well as more as well as more important. To this end it might manufacture sense to have a security team perform security tests, provide input on potential vulnerabilities, as well as often elaborate on ways to improve security on behalf of the code, application or system. Unit Testing as well as QA Testing There is unit testing as well as there's Quality Assurance testing. These are totally different things. In unit testing you shall test individual components, as well as then STILL in unit testing you shall test things integrated with one another often in a SIT environment. When all of this testing is completed as well as everything looks perfectly solid you transfer it to QA on behalf of testing. But only once you have fully tested the components. QA shall evaluate whether it matches the visual designs, as well as the functional specification. In some cases also the technical specification. Their job is more to just assure that the quality is there as well as come up with tests that the development team would not have thought of. Unexpected user inputs, or ways in which the user can utilize the system (still using the functional specification as a guideline) that maybe the development team missed. Personal Note: It is important to have a SIT (integrated testing area on behalf of all of the individual modules as well as components) environment on behalf of development as well as a seperate QA environment. Keep in mind that all these environments should match as best as possible the client’s environment to avoid environmental issues as well as troubleshooting that might be needed down the road. Deployment Documentation Before you deploy anything anywhere it should be clearly documented what you shall do, what performance as well as outage’s it could result in, as well as how the changes you manufacture can be undone. Along with all of this you should also have any help documentation, user manuals, administrator manuals, as well as other documentation that is produced in your project complete or very clearly defined before implementing any solution on a client’s environment. Lastly, document exactly what you do in that environment so that you can diagnose issues, or protect yourself from being blamed on behalf of unrelated issues. UAT Testing User Acceptance Testing is very important. This is where users review the solution in their posses environment as well as ensure that their expectations have been met as well as that it is a usable beneficial system. Earlier in the plan it was important to note that any communication as well as training should be clearly identified. It is also important to note that if at all possible preliminary training at least should be done before UAT. This shall ensure that your resources at UAT are not teaching people how to utilize the system as much as ensuring it meets or exceeds all of their expectations. Personal Note: For projects where the client doesn’t have the money or interest in training I ordinarily expand the UAT cycle to account on behalf of the fact I (or my team) shall also be training while performing the user testing. UAT Fix as well as Testing Cycles Taking any exceptions from UAT as well as ensuring that they are fixed as well as fully tested as well as then if needed ensure that the user has accepted the changes as well before moving on to the ultimate deployment. These cycles can often go back as well as forth more than once subject to how good communication with the client has been, how well client expectations have been managed, as well as how accurate the initial specifications as well as plans were. Final Deployment Your last deployment (aside from updates as well as new releases). This follows the same documentation rules as before. Communication as well as Training This is the full training, as well as communication phase. Often this could be workshops, webcasts, training sessions, assisting the organization with posters as well as improving internal user acceptance or user adoption etc etc. Support as well as Feedback SLA’s might contain what your support particulars are. Often this could be fixes, warrantees, upgrades, or even reside support. It really depends on what you identified with the client. I also like to ensure that feedback is gained from the client. This provides a wonderful opportunity to create business references, case studies or other great marketing tools because of the fact that the solution is new, exciting, as well as in (hopefully) an estimated all cases the client is very happy as well as satisfied. Hope this helps someone or stirs some ideas on behalf of how to better manage your project through it’s phases, Richard Harbridge        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/09/project-management-processes-phases-and-personal-notes.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:30:31 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/01/exciting-for-netvs-developers-net-4-and-vs-2010.html Just wanted to point out that a few days ago Microsoft unvieled some information on the new .Net as well as Visual Studio enhancements they are preparing on behalf of 2010. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-29VS10PR.mspx That’s right I am super excited to play with the new stuff before I have even gone through every new feature released in the 2008 packages. (Personally one of the things I have been loving recently is the CSS as well as styling UI enhancements see Daniel Moth’s good screen cast of these here (if interested): mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/uk/msdn/nuggets/v2_CSSinVisualStudio2008_Moth.wmv) I really like numerous of the new focuses that Microsoft is putting forward as well as the way Team Foundation Server is improving the rate of process adoption in numerous development groups. The further they get with the enhancements the easier it is to develop as well as really focus on developing (if you are a developer) without being as distracted by the troubles of communication as well as tracking. Even if you aren’t a developer this is still good news, because of the fact that the more they work towards that UML approach as well as enhance the ways Business Analysts as well as Consultants can communicate their requirements as well as expectations to developers the more powerful the developed solutions shall be. Excited on behalf of the future, Richard Harbridge        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/01/exciting-for-netvs-developers-net-4-and-vs-2010.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:49:02 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/01/identity-management-and-federated-ilm.html I had of course heard the term Identity Lifecycle Management, as well as understood that it had something to do with centralizing as well as helping users manage identities across systems as well as all that jazz. Any IT jock or person involved in Technology should understand (and hopefully does) that Identity Management is probably the an estimated all integral part of any system. Hell, even with anonymous systems it still uses a form of identity management because of the fact that these systems must be ‘administered’ by someone as well as that someone has an identity on behalf of utilize with that system. So I decided to look a little more into it, as well as to say I am impressed by the solutions as well as ideas that people have come up with in relation to Identity Lifecycle Management solutions would be definitive understatement. I trust the best term on behalf of how impressed I am by this would be at the ‘totally freaking wicked awesome’ level. I know.. I am excitable, but seriously if you haven’t ever really read about or looked into Identity Management or Identity Lifecycle Management (which shall be referred to as ILM from this point onward in this post) follow in conjunction with me here. The concept of Identity Management is pretty simple. You have an identity. Everyone using any system of any sort uses an identity when they interact with that system. This could be an anonymous user (which uses an anonymous identity) or an identity that has information about who you are. The an estimated all common systems on behalf of this would be forms authentication operational of a user store (let’s say… sql database on behalf of an example) or Active Directory if you are working with Windows, or whatever Linux as well as those other systems utilize on behalf of Identity Management. So what’s the big deal? The fact that everything nowadays requires you to submit your identity. Think of the internet (big I know) as well as how you visit different sites as well as register or login (facebook, myspace are pretty popular so lets utilize them as an example). When you login it uses your profile information in a number of ways, presenting the information you desire to see, who you are, who you might be associated with as well as other things. All of this of course comes down to being associated with your ‘identity’. In a nutshell Identity Management provides you with more cability to manage identities. This can be in the form of policies, provisioning, workflows, or reducing ’sign in’ needs. So what’s cool? The whole federated identity management stuff as well as how far some groups have come with these systems. So what is federated identity management? Exactly what the term sounds like unionizing, or bringing combined these identity management. Let’s take a simple example. Your organization has AD as well as maybe an intranet. You login to the intranet as well as navigate to your benefits area. When you click on a link in the intranet to the benefits area it actually uses federated identity management to communicate who you are as well as (since your already authenticated) does not prompt you. The information it presents you with is based on your identity which has been passed onto as well as associated with the benefits system’s identity store. This isn’t a new concept or anything, but what fascinated me was when I actually played with one of these systems (in my case Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager (the new beta)), it was how the interface was set up, as well as how it honestly was like something out of my dreams. I have seen a great numerous different AD’s in my day as well as have wrote applications that integrated with PeopleSoft or other systems on behalf of identity management. Many of them had difficulties as well as issues, weren’t well maintained, or were structured poorly. This causes all sorts of issues when you are trying to implement systems like SharePoint 2007 because of the fact that now you can't rely on having organizational hiearchy (as an example) being available to you on behalf of audience targeting. Take that one step further as well as numerous of the clients I have worked with utilize numerous different user stores, or work directly with groups that have their posses user stores. It’s the way the world works, I evangelize as well as advocate SharePoint, another person sells their custom app as well as so on until there are a plethora of different systems that all utilize different identity stores. With a tool like Microsoft’s Identity Lifecycle Manager it removes so numerous of the issues I would jog into on a regular basis trying to either replace, or integrate the existing systems. That’s not to say you don’t have plenty of alternatives (single sign on is a good one), but seeing numerous systems so well integrated as well as being so easy to manage as well as synchronize made me fully understand the power (and obvious effort) these ISV’s as well as organizations solution’s provide. Looking forward to learning more about the whole ILM marketplace, Richard Harbridge P.S - Here’s some examples of solutions which drop under Identity Management as well as ILM… Management of identities Provisioning/De-provisioning of accounts Workflow automation Delegated administration Password synchronization Self-service password reset Access control Policy-based access control Enterprise/Legacy single sign-on (SSO) Web single sign-on (SeoS) Reduced sign-on Directory services Identity repository (directory services on behalf of the administration of user account attributes) Metadata replication/Synchronization Directory virtualization (Virtual directory) e-Business scale directory systems Next-generation systems - Composite Adaptive Directory Services (CADS) as well as CADS SDP Other categories Role-based access control (RBAC) Federation of user access rights on web applications across otherwise untrusted networks Directory-enabled networking as well as 802.1X EAP Standards initiatives Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Liberty Alliance — A consortium promoting federated identity management Shibboleth (Internet2) — Identity standards targeted towards educational environments Abriva — Free mobile identity management framwork References: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms996532.aspx, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_management, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/ilm2/default.mspx        http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/10/01/identity-management-and-federated-ilm.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:57:59 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/10/googles-new-browser-what-it-really-means.html Yes Google has a new browser. Yes it is as fast as Firefox, as well as yes IE 8 is coming out soon as well as is also looking pretty enticing. But the real thing here that is interesting isn’t the functionality that has been released on behalf of Google as well as IE 8’s browsers yet. The real interesting things are what shall happen next. Microsoft has been at this on behalf of a long time, as well as they have gotten very smart about it. The newer products like SharePoint 2007 as well as numerous of their online services work best with IE. That is: They have features that ONLY work in IE. This forces numerous users (especially in business) to utilize IE in order to get the full power out of their everyday applications. Google’s new browser isn’t really about the features it has, it’s about the fact that now there's nothing stopping google from releasing features on google’s search engine, youtube, google ‘office’, as well as other google owned sites/applications that we utilize everyday that ONLY Google Chrome works with. Let’s face it if Google did manufacture a transfer like this, then you would see a real upset in the browser wars. Because this means that Google now has some of the an estimated all popular as well as widely used internet resources (youtube as well as google search) advocating google chrome. Microsoft has been keeping their work in this regard (works best in IE) limited to the business world on behalf of the an estimated all part. Google would be dropping that kind of concept right into the public domain. To me, that is far more interesting than anything else about Google’s new browser, Richard Harbridge http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/10/googles-new-browser-what-it-really-means.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:25:40 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/04/schedule-and-keep-track-of-everything.html The only way you can estimate, consider, as well as implicate cost is if scheduling is maintained as well as accomplished correctly. You can't decide whether one feature is more cost effective than another except when you can know how long each shall take. So why doesn’t everyone do project scheduling? There is this general idea that it shall take longer on behalf of numerous small projects to whip up a schedule than it would to just do it. This is never true. In fact I would argue that even the smallest of projects estimated from a high level of a few hours should still be scheduled. That way you can retain TRACK as well as see the actual cost of whatever projects you do. If you don’t you shall have no way of proving or bringing visibility to the work you did. If you do not record the time spent on a project as well as outline what the project represented it gets hard to tell your boss, co-workers, relatives, interviewer on behalf of that snazzy new job, or nagging wife what you have been doing all week, all month, or even on behalf of the past year. Even when I do small tasks I write them down, as well as categorize them. So at any point in time I can tell anyone who is interested exactly what I have been working on, as well as (since I put these into SharePoint lists, outlook, excel documents, or ms project) I am able to generate reports on how much time I spend on IT tasks, QA support, analysis, or other important areas. Don’t forget to highlight interesting, or important things you did. This does more than just permit you to report how much work you do, why you might not have been able to hit a deadline, why you are working so much overtime, or why the amount of hair on your desk is greater than that on your head; It also provides you with a real way to measure your posses progress. This way you can tell if you are actually doing the things you like, see where your strengths lie, as well as provide real proof to management that your doing work either out of your job description (which means you deserve a raise) or that you would be better suited to a specific type of work. The best part is that you shall have a listing of tons of things you have done on behalf of the company you work for. When performance reviews come up, or that better job posting appears wouldn’t you like to be able to just take a report as well as give it to your boss or interviewer as well as say these are the ways I have improved the company I work(ed) for. Think about it, Richard http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/04/schedule-and-keep-track-of-everything.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:45:51 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/10/business-objective-mapping.html One of the things I am at all times amazed by is that numerous people when requested why they are creating a solution don’t actually know how it shall benefit the organization as a whole. Sure this solution makes performing action A easier, but if performing action A easier doesn’t benefit the business as well as isn’t in line with business objectives there are probably much more important solutions that individual can be working on. I at all times discuss how important tracking is, well another aspect of project management as well as analysis is understanding how a solution benefits the organization as well as what business objectives does it help meet. Stating that a solution solves a problem isn’t enough, you have to understand what solving that problem means to the business, this is the only way you can properly identify priority on whether to do solution 1, or solution 2 first (unless you have limitless resources as well as money, as well as if so please give me a call). In the table below we can see ? as a direct relationship, as well as ? as an indirect relationship. With a glance we can see exactly how Solution 1 maps to the business objectives as well as if we are really interested in objective 2 as well as 3, we would implement solution 3 first (probably). Business Objective 1 Business Objective 2 Business Objective 3 Solution 1 ? ?   Solution 2 ? ? Solution 3 ? ? Where do business objectives come from? Typically to get business objectives you identify the vision statement on behalf of what the organization is striving towards, take that vision as well as break down what it really means into several major business objectives. Often numerous people in the business shall be able to identify what the business objectives are on behalf of you, or it should be easy to come up with some of your posses that ring true on behalf of the business as a whole. An example of one of these business objective matrices can be found below. Lets give an example: I am an organization that sells cars as well as fixes cars. Vision Statement: To provide our customers with the an estimated all affordable, best valued cars while providing them with a complete car maintenance solution as well as unrivaled customer service. Business Objectives: Improve Customer Service Improve Sale of Cars Improve Sale of Maintenance Services Those are some very generalized objectives. Well now Johnny in the Technology Department comes up with a couple wonderful solutions on behalf of our Car company. Johnny’s solutions are: Implement a File Sharing Solution that shall enable sales people, customer service people, as well as maintenance people to share information. Implement a Mobile Workforce Solution that shall enable employees to communicate via wireless devices anywhere in the company building. Implement a Sales Tracking Solution that shall help track all sales. Implement a Maintenance Inventory System that shall help track tools as well as maintenance supplies. That is fantastic Johnny, as well as now how do these solutions MAP to the objectives of the business? Well that’s easy, Johnny uses the business objective matrix I mentioned above to show his bosses as well as they can see easily as well as graphically exactly how these solutions benefit the organization. This shall permit them to easily prioritize the solutions by what their immediate business needs are. Improve Customer Service Improve Sale of Cars Improve Sale of Maintenance Services File Sharing Solution ? ? ? Mobile Workforce Solution ? ? ? Sales Tracking Solution ? ? Maintenance Inventory Solution     ? Hope this helps you win more success, Richard http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/10/business-objective-mapping.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:18:06 -0400 gircrazyp http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/13/the-importance-of-communication-planning.html Anytime you implement new technology, improve upon existing technology or simply intend to implement a project that impacts departments, or groups of people in any direct way you should at all times have a communication plan. One of the biggest things I see often is a project reaching implementation (or sometimes at the end of implementation, if your lucky a bit before) not having a sufficient communication plan (or any at all in some cases). What is a communication plan? To me it is the planned method as well as pattern to which you shall notify your target audience, as well as improve user response as well as acceptance. It has a target audience (or several) as well as the key messages or benefits that the target audience(s) are recieving from your new system. It lets users know how they shall be effected, when as well as how they can receive training, when the new system shall impact them and/or be available, what tools they shall have available to them, related resources to decrease load on trainers as well as administrators while providing users with the tools to evangelise as well as get excited about it on their own. Letting the effected users know how it shall effect their day to day employment opportunities or their business processes in a planned manner shall permit you to improve overall acceptance, understanding as well as decrease the resistance at all times encountered when a modification is implemented. So next time you write a project plan, or are working in a project find out if there's a communication plan, as well as if not, find out why, because of the fact that odds are in an estimated every situation your project induces change, as well as without a plan on behalf of how to handle that modification as well as communicate it to the effected audience the modification won't be as well received. Communicating my message to you, Richard http://gircrazyp.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/13/the-importance-of-communication-planning.html Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:31:10 -0400 gircrazyp