Books 24×7: The New Google??
April 9, 2008
So the other day as I was working in my new luxurious cubicle out at my client site (this is no joke, I really got the hook up here), I came across a coding “problem” that I had to fix fairly quickly in order to meet my deadline of EOD. Now as a seasoned developer in need of the type of solution I was seeking, I quickly jumped into my FireFox browser and navigated to Google; your friend and mine for these quickies…
Now after about ten minutes and 5+ different search strings later on Google, I decided that this was no longer a “quickie” as it should have been. All I was looking for was a small code snippet to help me with my task at hand. Most of my searches returned results where I needed to purchase a book or subscribe to sort of a service to “view the solution”. Now if you’re like me, I don’t like to sign up for random pages where I will NEVER remember the username and/or password; So I kept on keepin on, figuring up different search queries to find the solution to my issue here. I still got results where I needed to purchase BOOKS! Then it hit me… (LIGHTBULBS!) I just purchased a license to Books24x7… Hmmm…. I quickly retrieved my username and password for the Books24x7 service, typed in the EXACT queries I sent to Google, and in LESS time I found the nice, little code snippet I was looking for! SWEET! Back to work finally…
After I finished what needed to be completed for the day, I decided to check out this Books24x7 service in more detail. I wanted to put it to the test to see if this is going to be a great service for me. After spending about an hour logged in, I found many great things about the service that I feel like I’m going to really get some use out of. First off, you can search for almost any technical book out there and read the entire thing. Second, if you’re looking to gain yourself a certification, you can read the books to help you get prepared and then search for an online course (which are all included I believe…) to help prepare you for the exam. Also, there are Exam Preps which are pre-tests you can take before the actual exam. There are also Job Aids, simliar to what you find on an end cap at a book store with all the “need to knows” information about a certain subject.
Okay, so I really don’t think that Books24x7 is going to take over Google… However, I do believe that this service is a great side kick for all of us to have as an additional resource. I highly recommend it and if you get the chance, you should definitely check it out.
My two cents have been spent, enjoy your day!
- Josh Davis
Ehem…Standardizing Every Aspect of Delivery
April 9, 2008
LUCRUM works hard to standardize every aspect of our delivery processes. Mary wrote earlier about LUCRUM’s efforts in Quality Management. In order to focus on business problems, LUCRUM has implemented a standard dress code so that consultants don’t need to think about what they need to wear on a given day. Here Josh and Jeff show off for Tan and Teal Thursday.
- Andy
Our Commitment to Quality
April 9, 2008
On March 21, Doug Dockery provided his perspective of the recent Business Courier article written about LÛCRUM. Doug reviewed some of the changes we’ve made to address the shortcomings in 2007. I’d like to expand on one of the focus areas for LÛCRUM – Quality.
In the 2nd quarter of 2007, LÛCRUM had already identified that we needed additional disciple and focus in the area of Project Management. It was decided to invest in a Quality Management program with the goal to bring additional standards and methodology to our projects. The program was kicked off on June 1st with the hiring of a Quality Manager. The objectives we have been following since the first weeks of the QM Office have been to ensure:
o Predictable Budgetary Outcome
o Build Quality in from the beginning
o Project Quality Assessment
o Follow the KISS Method
Since the inception of Quality Management at LÛCRUM, a number of things have changed. We’ve implemented an engagement dashboard which tracks the health of each of our engagements. This dashboard is part of a weekly review by the Delivery Leadership Team. In addition, a dynamic Utilization tracking system was implemented last summer which provides our managers with detailed information about their consultants and how time is being utilized with a client. Custom reports can be generated by a manager through excel pivot tables. And new functionality is being implemented this month with which will improve the system backend and provide additional reporting.
We’ve developed our LÛCRUM “Best Practices” standards and processes which include standard templates, training material, and the implementation of a proposal review process. A Project Management marketing handbook has been deployed to our Business Development team to share with our clients how we manage projects. And most recently we’ve completed the deployment of our iStream Project Management Methodology. iStream is a engagement program which was deployed by LÛCRUM in 1999 and has been evolving over the years. The deployment of the PM methodology brings even more disciple to the management of our client projects.
Stay tuned over the coming weeks as I will be sharing with you more details about LÛCRUM’s Quality Management program.
Run IT as a Business: Part 2, How?
April 8, 2008
In “Run IT as a Business: Part 1, Why…?”, I stated that we need to run IT as a business because our very existence is at stake. For IT to remain a factor alive it needs to compete. I talked about IT acting as a monopoly within the average company and how monopolies are bad for everyone; high prices, long wait and bad service. I also noted how competition is like the sandpaper that makes that rough wood beautiful and safe to handle. Well, today’s post is about the How.
The question then becomes how do we compete? There are strategic and tactical answers to this question. First, the strategic. Very easy…one word… “VALUE”. To compete in an economy one must provide more value than another. Its as easy as a man buying cloths but can be as complex as a women buying cloths J. I say this tongue-in-cheek, but the value equation is not straight-lined. Rather it has an infinite number of arrangements that are different to everyone and changes over time. Lets take a closer look.
Given: Value is relative worth, merit, or importance (www.dictionary.com).
Expanded, value can be represented as follows:
When we put this definition on the table, we cannot pretend that we don’t see the impact that image and relationship has with value. Nor can we escape that iron triangle (Time, Cost, Functionality)…and this value equation adds a fourth dimension; quality. I suppose that adding quality as a fourth dimension would make for a nice pyramid representation of that Iron Triangle (if someone creates one, I’ll post it here and give you a nice reference).
Take the example of my car buying value equation over time.
|
When |
Drivers |
Outcome |
|
Teenaged boy |
Car had to be fast, cheap and wanted it now. |
Picked up a 72 cutlass from some guy living in a trailer down by the river. Got it now, but it lasted 2 years. |
|
Married, first car together (how romantic) |
Cheap, cheap and good on gas. |
Bought a new 1985 Ford Escort for $6250. Financed it but wife wrecked – we drove it rebuilt until…see next box. |
|
Wife pregnant with first baby and I was working a lot. |
Price had to be decent, but wanted to reclaim some of my coolness. Wanted it black and sporty. |
Purchased a used Camaro from an Acura dealership. They took my wrecked Escort sight unseen and let me just finance the gap (what a sucker I was). |
|
Wife pregnant with third baby and we had no money. |
Needed it now and needed a miracle. |
Father in law gives us his Dodge Omni as it comes off of lease. I wasn’t choosy! |
|
Kids are growing older. |
Wanted a good quality van with leather and all the options so I can honor my wife. Wanted an extended warranty from a good place. |
Purchased a Chevy van with all the bells and whistles. Still have it, fantastic service department. 140k miles and running great! |
|
I turned 44. Two of the three girls are now driving. |
Wanted a sports car (convertible), black with manual transmission (so no one else in my family can drive it). Price still important as is image and relationship of dealer. |
Entered in to a partnership with the local dealership and picked up a new Crossfire with lifetime warranty. They know me by name and that’s important to me. |
Value is value, but it changed for me over time. Notice how even my term for buying a car changes…(picked up, bought, purchased, then partnership). At each stage of my life, I still made my decisions based on the value that I perceived, but my needs and current situation dictated which of the value elements were important to me.
It’s the same way with your customers – whether internal or external customers, they each have their own unique value equation and their current circumstances dictate even their own perceptions of their value equation. Often, it is a moving target that even changes between project stages. It is up to the IT leader to engage the customer and build a relationship – this means that during this partnering, we need to be learning how to calibrate our solutions into their value expectations.
But this is only an overview of the first part; strategy. The next part is where the work begins, tactical. How do we demonstrate to the organization that we have delivered this value? Tune in next time for Part Three: Run IT as a Business – Demonstrating the value of IT.
Drive safely,
~ Scott Felten
What’s Cooking?
April 4, 2008
One of the things many people don’t know about John Bostick is that he has a great love of the culinary arts. I was fortunate enough to attend a cooking class at Jungle Jims in which John was the guest chef.
The class, entitled “Get the Winter Cold Out with Hot Thai Food and Beer,” was held at the Jungle Jim Cooking School on April 2nd. Within a 2 hour timeframe, John and his team of helpers created a multitude of Thai dishes including an appetizer, soup, a side dish, two entrées, and a dessert. Students were provided a recipe syllabus to follow along with, as each dish was prepared. The menu for the evening included the following:
- Shrimp Sticks with Savory Dipping Sauce
- Kaeng Jud Thao Hu (Bean Curd Soup with Meat Balls)
- Gai Yang (Marinated Barbecued Chicken)
- Taeng Kwa Brio Wan (Sweet and Sour Fresh Cucumber)
- Jasmine Rice
- Beef Panang Curry
- Sticky Rice with Fresh Mango
Students not only learned how to prepare the dishes, but were also provided ethnic background on how food was prepared and served. An example of this would be that restaurants in Thailand do not have knives at the table because they have a belief that food should be prepared in bite sized portions for the guest. As each dish was prepared, John also provided interesting information and helpful hints about the ingredients. He talked about how to buy garlic – “it should be tight with no sprouts.” He prefers to use “the purple kind from Mexico.” “When using garlic, it’s better to chop or slice than to use a garlic press.” “Using a garlic press can change the flavor of garlic in dishes as the oils are extracted.” If students had questions about a particular ingredient, John is excellent on providing informative answers. He is extremely knowledgeable on the composition of the food item and provides suggestions on different ways to include the ingredient in other dishes.
After each dish was completed, a generous sample was provided to each student for sampling. Each one was flavorful and delicious. At the end of the evening, students were anxious to sign up for another class as it was truly an enjoyable experience.
Those interested in attending one of John’s classes should check out the Jungle Jim website (www.junglejims.com) under Cooking School. The Spring Quarter Class Brochure will be posted in the near future.
BI Momentum – Anticipate the Direction!
April 3, 2008
Our family went south for spring break and I was ready for the journey! Along the way we saw trucks stopped by the side of the road and one of my kids asked what they were doing. I let them know that those truckers were getting some shut-eye and that by law, they were required to rest. She asked my why their engines were running. I told her that they leave them running because it takes too long to start them up – Diesel engines were made to run and you just could not start them like a car and take off. That got me thinking…
Imagine a very large ocean liner sitting in the ocean waiting for the proper direction with engines off…they receive their direction. First, they have to muster the crew, communicate the plan and assign roles (hopefully they have coverage and don’t have to hire anyone – especially those hard-to-find skill sets). Next, they have to take the time to start the engines (there’s a risk here that they might have some problems with their technology or engines, since they were off, their working according to spec is an unknown). Now that their engines are on, it’s not like they can just make that turn towards their new direction. They have to spend time to reach momentum before they can make a turn towards the destination. That’s a lot of risk and wasted time. Additionally, when that shipped was stopped, you know it was being pushed along by currents and winds – it in fact did not have control over its destination and it was vulnerable to storms. There was even the threat of being boarded and taken over by pirates!
If that ship had been moving, they would have been able to make the changes necessary right away. Risks would have been minimized because everything was already up and running. The crew would have been fully staffed since there were all engaged. Compared to the ship, the rudder is very small, but it’s this very effective design that controls the direction of the ship. This represents leadership, but this is the topic of a future blog.
One negative aspect of having the ship moving and maintaining momentum is the risk of it moving away from the destination – going the wrong way. That’s where the skills of a good captain come in to play. The captain controls this risk by anticipating the direction of the destination. Keeping momentum is mandatory; leadership and experience control risks.
How is your BI momentum? Is your BI effort like that ocean liner with engines off?
Are you waiting for tool and database selection or architecture decisions? Don’t, because its not about technology, its about a relationship with the business. Yes, standards are good, but you must engage the business and keep that momentum.
Are you waiting for the business to have a vision? Guess what, chances are that they will not. They need help getting to the next level. They are focused on keeping the place running. We (IT) must partner with the business and lead them to a place where they can lead themselves.
Are you waiting for the business to speak your language? Shame on you. J It’s our job to speak their language. They are the client, we need to engage them on their level – and I don’t mean stepping down. More accurately, we need to step up…step up to their level of understanding of the business at the most intimate of levels. When we engage them we not only need to keep up with them, we need to lead them – and this takes skill.
Are you afraid of starting something that you are not ready for? ROI is the mediator here and strategy is the context. Either it’s good or its not good. Either it supports the strategy or it doesn’t. If ROI says that we should move forward and it fits within our strategy, then we have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. We are bound by ethics to act in the best interest of the company, its stockholders and its customers. Admittedly, ROI is fuzzy at best – but somewhere, at some time we need to be able to reduce opportunities to value and filter that value proposition through our strategic grid.
Activity breeds productivity!
Keep your ship moving, gauge the wind
and reduce risk by anticipating the direction.
Happy Sailing,
~ Scott Felten
Why Cats Don’t Make Good Developers
April 2, 2008
Here at LUCRUM we are always looking for ways to provide the best value to our clients. Outsourcing development to India and China can be difficult and is becoming more expensive. We have been conducting research into a new development model to provide our clients greater value for their IT dollar. Our research unfortunately has not returned the results we hoped for, but I thought the results of this extensive research should be shared. Here is why cats do not make good IT developers.
-
Regular flea dips required to squash bugs
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Excessive requests for nap time cause productivity problems
-
Each one thinks they write purrrrrrrfect code
-
Keep chewing on the mice
-
Tuna breath
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Delays due to periods of hyper-activity (note to self: catnip *AFTER* work)
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Equipment gummed up with hairballs
-
Design meetings often result in a lot of hissing and caterwauling
-
Sharpening claws on office furniture
-
Don’t get along with the new dog application testing department also being researched. Research to be published later.
-
Team management forbid from bringing tuna for lunch. There was an incident. Wasn’t pretty.
 |
Bringing the lighter side of LUCRUM- Jeff |
| Lily is expert in .NET, SQL Server and is learning SharePoint 2007 | |