Author: Rich Garling

A dedicated public servant, having served in elected office twice and as a lifelong Democratic Party Precinct Committee Person with a business background, all concentrated on organizing resources to work together towards a common goal. Served as an elected official, first on the Dekalb County Board (80-82) and later as a Trustee on the Village of Island Lake Board of Trustees (07-09). I have managed numerous election campaigns for local and State offices. Successful results-driven experience in IT program/project management, focusing on collaborating with multiple businesses work streams defining business process requirements into workable enterprise solutions.

Nothing ever seems to change, yet nothing remains the same

Article in Sunday NYT’s noted that even with the law and Obama’s rules saying they can’t take a lobbying job, they continue to do so…The Capitol’s Spinning Door Accelerates and Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door. And they wonder why no one believes them at the end of the day.

Then there is Al Qaeda trying to claim they no longer support jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Uh Uh, yeah right, I believe ya.

I see that the Democrats are raising more money from fund raising than the Republicans, bu the far right is increasing it’s grip on the GOP by out fundraising the establishment arm of their party…Fund-Raising by G.O.P. Rebels Outpaces Party Establishment…Democrats Outraise Republicans Eyeing Congress in 2014 U.S. Race

Some States say they have a budget surplus. And they want to give it back in the form of tax cuts…it’s a safe bet you and I won’t see it. Perhaps they should give it to the people who will most likely produce jobs with it…yeah the middle class. You probably thought I was going to say the wealthy or the poor didn’t ya? Nope, the middle class will spend it on things they need like wash machines or cars, you know, things that produce demand which produces jobs and so on.

I see that California and the western part of the country is running out of water. Watch out Great Lakes…

And what a blow out by Seattle…now if only the other team had bothered to show up it may have been a close game.

There is more snow predicted for Tuesday/Wednesday. Just what we need. Looking at 3″-6″ of the white stuff. I guess that one good thing from all this snow is that it extends our winter freeze which kills all the bad bugs and viruses that affect our plants and vegetables we try to grow every year.

I bought a compost barrel last fall hoping to be able to provide some high quality compost for the raised garden. From what I read this thing was supposed to be able to cook all winter long. Apparently I did something wrong…it’s frozen solid right now. Oh well, I will wait till spring and learn how to do it correctly.

Happy Trails everyone.

Inequality for all

I was watching Robert Reich’s Inequality for All with some friends the other day. One of my friends kept commenting on how Reich was doing a great job of describing the problem but he wasn’t providing a solution. As I thought about it I realized that Reich was providing the answer. We, meaning you and I, have to collectively decide that our labor is worth something. We have to make business understand that without us they will go out of business. We are their customers and if we cannot buy their products then they will go out of business. Raise wages or lower prices to make it affordable to live. Quit giving exorbitant pay increases to executives while claiming that high labor costs is keeping them from being competitive in a world market. Emulate the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s when all shared and prospered.

Problems with ACA site

To my friends Hal and Mike, as someone who has worked the industry for many years, I understand the difference in site scalability and know that in software development anything can and will go wrong. That doesn’t explain why they didn’t consider the risk of millions visiting the site nor of the possibility of a dos attack. Also, why the requirement to create an account before you could shop? Ecommerce sites in general don’t require setting up an account before shopping. And also, why so many vendors involved with the development of the site. It seems as if there was not one main project manager in charge. It just seems that an administration so tech savvy would not have allowed for such a site to have been built knowing the ramifications politically and managerially.

Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration can be defined as continuously improving and detailing a plan as more detail and specific information and more accurate estimates become available as the project progresses, and thereby producing more accurate and complete plans that result from successive iterations of the planning process.

So, what does that really mean. In practice it basically means that we don’t have enough information when we first start to plan a project to be able to reliably plan it out in detail. There are too many unknowns. There are too many unanswered questions. And we won’t be able to answer them until we get to that point in the project.

Every project is progressively elaborated. Think about it. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. It is a unique enterprise created to solve a problem or fulfill a need. By it’s very nature of having never been done before within the organization there will be many unknowns and unanswered questions.

Because of the uniqueness in every project, iteration becomes the rule. In my experience in software development projects, we knew from the get go that there would be lots of changes as we moved forward. Things change. In a nutshell: we had to be ready to accept change. What we initially thought would work one way turned out to be impractical. Something new would be created by an outside party that did a better job than what we had originally designed. In software or web development, change is the rule, not the exception.

So what do you do? Well here are some suggestions:

Be sure to communicate with all the team leaders and stakeholders if change becomes inevitable. Make them a part of process of determining what, how, where, and when that change will occur. Make sure they understand why it’s occurring.

Make sure you gather reactions to any change that needs to occur. Not gathering all feedback can be disastrous because that one piece of information you neglected to get could have been the deciding factor on whether change took affect.

Remember that change will not be readily accepted. Especially in companies where many of the employees have been doing the same thing for many years. They live by “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude. They’re comfortable with the way things are. But most likely they’re really just afraid of the unknown, which is what your proposed change will bring, at least in their minds. Prepare for continual reporting of progress and delays so everyone knows how the change is advancing and what successes have been made. Be prepared to enforce these changes though, especially when some try to revert to old habits.

Be sure to create the means for people to express their thoughts and feelings. Be supportive, show empathy. By hearing people out and allowing them to participate in the development of the needed change you are allowing them ownership. You create buy in by the very people who are affected and need to accept this change. People who feel they have ownership in the process are more apt to want to see it succeed then those who don’t.

Most importantly, be sure to create a plan to handle this change using project management techniques, such as risk assessments, stakeholder analysis and progress measurements. But don’t be afraid of change, just be prepared for it.

Antares Rocket Liftoff

I will always be amazed at how we are able to to cause such a huge device to lift off from the surface of the earth and make it fly. This is the epitome of project management…

Watch it here. This rocket is set to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Starting a Blog

Friends and family members often ask me how to start a blog, and I always enjoy explaining the advantages of a blog over a traditional website, but it is a lot of information to take in over dinner. I thought I would document the process to make it easier to understand.

Decide What You Want To Blog About

There are a lot of bloggers on the web already. If you want to attract readers, you are going to need to establish your credibility. Don’t just blog about anything. Pick a topic you are passionate about. Something that you have lots of experience with.

Decide: To Host or Not To Host

When it comes to starting a blog, your biggest decision will be whether you want to host the blog yourself, or use a free blogging service that is hosted for you.

Free Blogging Services

Yes, it’s free, but nothing is really free. When you start a blog with a free blogging service, you don’t get your own domain. You get something like mygreatblog.blogspot.com (where there are a million other blogs at blogspot.com) and you don’t actually own the blog. If you ever do decide to move to your own domain, you have no way to take your readers with you, because you have no control over the site.

Cheap – Host your own blog using WordPress free Blog software

This is the method I suggest, because it offers much more flexibility and freedom to do what you want. You will have your own domain name, like mygreatblog.com. You can get this for as little as $30 per year. In my experience, WordPress is excellent free blog software that allows you flexibility and room to grow.

If you want to go the free blogging service route, check out links to free blogging services.

Free Blogging Services

WordPress.com

WordPress is one of the best, and most flexible blogging platforms. As well as distributing their blogging software, they also offer free hosting at wordpress.com. There are books galore that can teach you how to setup full blogging, website and even an eCommerce site using WordPress.
Start a blog at WordPress.com

Blogger.com by Google

Blogger.com is probably the most popular free blogging platform. It’s easy to set up, and easy to start blogging.

http://www.blogger.com/

If you want to host the blog yourself, read on.

Start by finding a Domain Name

For me this part is fun. You know what your theme is already, so now you have to find a good domain name. Choose one that is easy to remember and self explanatory.

Find a Web Host for Your Blog

By far, the easiest way to get a website is to go with a hosting company that offers single-click installing, or instant installations for Blogging and Forum software. Blogs and Forums make it possible for someone with no experience to get good started fast.

GoDaddy Blog Hosting

Another great blog host I recently learned about is GoDaddy. They have a ‘one click install’ Economy WordPress hosting plan that is really a great deal (as low as $3 to $5/ month (that’s $36 to $60/ year) depending on how long you sign up for). Go to GoDaddy to check it out.

Standard Hosting

Prices start at free and go up from there. Usually a monthly charge.

Install WordPress

Most hosting companies do this for you.

Choose a WordPress theme

This is the fun part, picking a WordPress theme and telling it to install

There should already be 2 theme folders in the themes folder, “classic” and “default”.
Just drop your new theme folder in with them. (remember, it must be unzipped first)

But do realize that today there are literally thousands of free themes and even more that will cost you from minimal to large $$$. You are bound to find one that will fit your theme and your budget.

4 Steps to building a Web Presence

Notes from a presentation we gave on why a web presence is so important to small businesses. Pretty basic, but very important information on the basics for setting up your web properties

1. Goals of a web presence

To create an on-line presence
To differentiate your business
To capture leads
To grow your business

2. Basic Website Elements

The homepage will generally be the initial point of contact with your consumers. Make it interesting and engaging as you have about 5-10 seconds to grab a visitors attention.

An “About” page can further reinforce why the visitor should do business with you.

Finally, create a “Contact” page that includes address, phone number and e-mail address. Make it easy for the visitor to contact you

3. The Blog

So why is a blog important?

A blog is an on-line journal about your company.

It shows that you know what you’re talking about.

A blog can be easily updated.

A blog can be a part of your website or is commercially available from sites like Blogger, and WordPress

4. The Newsletter

A newsletter provides interesting information to your customers about your company.
Getting consumers to sign up for your email list means you no longer have to wait for them to come to you, you can go to them.
It’s a low-cost method to advertise specials and/or sales to an already interested group.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate sales ($43.52 ROI for $1.00 spent (DMA 2009)).

5. Social Media Accounts

Great for capturing leads.

Facebook and Twitter help you connect with and contact your core community.

Facebook is more Business to Consumer.

Twitter is more Business to Business and more group oriented.

LinkedIn connects you with business clients.

Controlling Scope

Controlling scope is a process that lives up to it’s title. It’s all about maintaining control by preventing scope change requests from overwhelming the project.

I can remember numerous times where because we didn’t maintain control of the change request process we ended up doing work that was outside of the scope of the project and we didn’t get paid for our efforts. Shame on us for allowing that to happen.

The primary reason for controlling scope is to ensure that all change requests are processed. It is to make sure you understand the underlying causes for the change and just exactly how it will effect the project.

Will the requested change increase costs? Will it increase the amount of time it takes to complete the project? Will it require extra resources? Where will the money or the resources or the time come from? Making a change to the scope is not as simple as one would like it to be.

Controlling scope is an ongoing process that begins once the scope baseline is created. From that point on all change requests are approved or denied through the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

Here is how it works:

1) Inputs

a) Project Management Plan – It contains the scope baseline and the management plan which consists of the WBS, WBS Dictionary, and the Project Scope Statement. The Project Management Plan is the documented source for what the project team is supposed to produce. The scope baseline describes what the Project Manager is supposed to control.

b) Work Performance Information (WPI) – These are similar to the performance reports the Project Manager receives on a regular basis as to the status of the project. These WPI’s provide information on all aspects of the work completed and how it relates to the project.

c) Requirements Documentation – These are the documents you should consult to understand and evaluate the change compared to the original scope.

d) Requirements Traceability Matrix – This document connects the dots from the requirement to either the reason for the requirement or to whom requires the requirement.

e) Organizational Process Assets (OPA) – These are forms or report requirements, paperwork that are unique to the company that you will need to use in order to process these change requests.

2) Tools – The only tool used here is Variance Analysis. We’re using two types of variance measuremnt here:

a) Schedule Variance (SV) = Earned Value (EV) – Planned Value (PV)

b) Cost Variance (CV) = Earned Value (EV) – Actual Cost (AC)

Both are used to measure the differences between what was defined in the scope baseline and what was created. Variance Analysis can be used to as a way to investigate the root causes behind those differences.

3) Outputs

a) Work Performance Measurements – An important part of monitoring and controlling processes is collecting and understanding work performance data and whether it differs from the baseline. If it differs, then corrective action will need to be taken. These measurements are collected and used as part of the Communications process with stakeholders, and as part of the Report Performance process.

b) OPA updates – Any corrective actions requires that organizational process assets be updated. The reason behind this is that you may have discivered that a standard company practice proved to be inadequate for what your project needed. As a result of this discovery you now need to change company documents to reflect this new reality.

c) Change Requests – What a surprise that change requests are part of the output for scope control. As these changes are made to the scope baseline you will need to reflect these changes in other documentation as well: The WBS, WBS Dictionary; scope management plan; project management plan.

d) Project Management Plan updates – As mentioned above, changes have to be recorded and documents need to be changed to reflect the new reality.

e) Project Document Updates – See c & d above.