Infolific » Technology

Types of Managers

Guest Author — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:59:37 +0000

Managers can be classified two ways: according to their level within the organization and according to their area of management. In this section we use both perspectives to explore the various types of managers. Levels of Management For the moment, think of an organization as a three-storey structure. Each storey [...]

Consulting Process Model

Stuart Ridder — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:17:05 +0000

There's certainly no end to the number of models you can use to approach consulting engagements. At the heart of all of them is a shared core that has been shown to be successful time and time again. As a starting point, I'm going to describe a model put forth [...]

AdSense Isn't for Everyone

Jeffrey Stroup — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:54:16 +0000

There's a short article in eWeek about an AdSense customer suing Google. It's articles like this that inspire things like the Darwin Awards (although no one actually died this time). In summary, this person, Theresa Bradley, has filed a $250,000 lawsuit against Google for having spent 100 hours implementing Google [...]

Should I Give FTP Access to My Web Designer?

Jeffrey Stroup — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:43:59 +0000

I am buying a template for my web designer to edit and complete for me but she asked me if I will give her access to my FTP server. I thought she could just do it and publish it. What else do I need and is it safe for her [...]

Project Management Politics

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:40:26 +0000

An article in the June 2006 issue of PM Network discusses the political waters that a project manager must navigate regardless of company, project, or location. A sidebar in the article makes for a good summary. Follow-Up After informal and verbal communications, send a friendly note summarizing what was discussed [...]

Five Characteristics Common to All Organizations

Guest Author — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:23:31 +0000

When a firm is started, management must decide how to organize the firm. These decisions are all part of five major steps that sum up the organizing process. The five steps are as follows. Divide the work that is to be done by the entire organization into separate parts, and [...]

Feature Driven Development (FDD) Methodology

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:08:05 +0000

Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad were both greatly involved in developing the Feature Driven Development methodology. Peter describes FDD as having "just enough process to ensure scalability and repeatability while encouraging creativity and innovation. More specifically, Feature Driven Development asserts that: A system for building systems is necessary in [...]

The Handiest WordPress Plugin You've Never Heard Of

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:41:49 +0000

There are some WordPress plugins out that are incredibly helpful, but because they don't solve a specific, well-defined problem they don't get noticed. Take for example the Search RegEx plugin which is indispensable if you're moving or updating a site. But this plugin has been downloaded just 20,000 times and [...]

Project Manager Salaries

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:41:55 +0000

CertMag released the results of their 2005 salary survey. The survey covers a wide-range of IT-related careers. They report that, "As was the case last year, information storage and security bring the largest salaries, along with Cisco networking." And of particular interest to me, "Project managers and Java developers also [...]

Blogging Myth - Don't Annoy Your Users

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:34:33 +0000

A lot of bloggers have opinions about what will annoy readers. And while I think it's important to consider changes to a blog carefully, I think it's misguided to think that readers are so easily annoyed that they'll unsubscribe and never come back. Instead, I think your blog can support [...]

Next Up... Blogging CIOs

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:08:58 +0000

Blogging has finally reach the top of the IT food chain. I say this because CIO magazine dedicated several pages to the topic of blogging and even included commentary from blogging CIOs who make no attempt to hide their identities. This is great news assuming CIOs, like other newcomers to [...]

Evaluating and Choosing Solutions

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:04:47 +0000

For many years, decision making was studied mainly by economists who made several assumptions about how people choose among alternatives. They assumed that decision makers have well-articulated and agreed-on organizational goals. They also assumed that decision makers are rational thinking machines who efficiently and simultaneously process facts about all alternatives [...]

The Problems Of Top-Down Leadership

Guest Author — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:13:30 +0000

Given the diversity of beliefs and the passionate intensity of opinions, is there any right answer for how organizational change is accomplished? Is it dictated, or facilitated? Mandated or guided? Driven or led? And is there a single meaningful answer? Some of the greatest innovations - not just of our [...]

Customer Motivations

Stuart Ridder — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:17:06 +0000

Yesterday, I wrote about customer influencer roles and described the various roles that people involved with your project may play. Today, I'm offering up a discussion about the personal motivations that each of these roles might have. Understanding a persons' underlying motivations can help direct your efforts when constructing a [...]

The Best Project Management Methodology

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:35:54 +0000

I received an e-mail from a visitor to my site who described the following situation: Hope you're fine. I was wondering if you could possibly help me. I'm a final year project management student currently undertaking a university research project as my final year assignment. I was shocked to see [...]

Improving Your Team Skills

Guest Author — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:06:31 +0000

North American Corporations love teams — groups of employees with all the technical skills and authority needed to manage themselves. There are many kinds of self-directed teams — quality circles, management teams, work teams, and problem-solving teams are just a few examples. Teams plan, organize, staff, lead, control, and measure. [...]

The 5 Habits Of Highly Dysfunctional Companies

Guest Author — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:12:55 +0000

The concept of management by projects is a non-starter. The average company is not a project-driven company, and likely never will be. So why is this an idea that continues to be so prevalent? What problems -- real or perceived -- do it's proponents hope to address? And if the [...]

How to Turn $10 Million into $100 Million

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:11:06 +0000

Not sure you can wait until 65 to retire? Here are 4 steps to making a fortune in just a few years. Step 1: Start a niche service. For example, manage everyone's RSS feed and add a little value on top with some creative services. Step 2: Convince venture capitalists [...]

10 Steps to a Successful Project

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:22:57 +0000

The state of Maine spent $25 million on a web-based Medicaid claims system. In exchange for all that money, they got a $300 million backlog in unprocessed claims. Doesn't seem like a particularly good deal, does it? The details of this web services project were unique, but the problems were [...]

Moving Beyond Recruiters Tip #1

Stuart Ridder — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:14:39 +0000

Enlisting the help of a recruiter to find contracts for you can be quite helpful. However, if you want to get an instant raise, find your own contracts. You can then bill the company at the same rate that a recruiter would bill, but you get to keep the 25% [...]