It's been a while since I've posted some code, but I did a nice little SQL hack today that I've been puzzling over for a while. I freely admit that I may have made this more difficult with the original data model, but the die has been cast. Consider a single SQL table that captures project updates as comments note that this table also allows me to change the "phase" (ex. Design, Development, Test, Production) and/or Status (ex. Proposed, Red,…
Lots of conversation at work these days about PMO, resource prioritization, and reducing cycle time for IT projects. I feel a series of posts coming on ... IAPL, we launched a project to bring test discipline to our technology efforts. The team was writing standards and guidelines for test scripts, implementing integrated testing tools supplied by the ERP vendor, and adding steps to our project methodology requiring test scripts for all system changes. As the project dragged into a fourth…
via Slashdot a few weeks ago, and Ars Technica; at the University of Washington-Bothell, Martha Groom recently assigned her students to work on Wikipedia entries, and add to the knowledge base. An interesting approach; I found the reaction of the Wikipedia community most interesting, in that the entries were aggressively edited and commented upon - sometimes "rudely". It's a common theme in many KM discussions, as early adopters enter their first Trough of Disillusionment, and see these wonderful tools languish…
I met Lora Cecere this evening, well-known AMR analyst for Supply Chain - a good conversation about the deeper potential for supply chain integration technology. The topic: are there bigger benefits here? Is it really only limited to optimization of your own supply chain? Don't get trapped into thinking that the business benefit of supply chain integration is limited to increased visibility - look at the different scenarios. A simplistic view of an integrated supply chain shows all the elements,…
Illud iterum dicere potes! I've had a number of discussions, with some of the best project managers I know, as we discuss ways to simplify methodologies and streamline our delivery process. Many organizations are trying to train their next generation of project managers, and all seem to run into the same basic problem. You can hand someone the PMBOK, teach them how to use MS Project, and send them off to PMI certification classes - but that doesn't guarantee an…
Back in January, I added the Meebo client to my blog page, and over the past few months I've learned a lot about web chat in general ... There are other clients out there, and I've tried a few - most recently the AIM Wimzi, which came close to unseating Meebo as my web chat client of choice. Wimzi and Google Talk will allow me to use Trillian as a client, solving two problems I have with Meebo - logging…
Corporate Knowledge Management (KM) is hard. Hard to introduce, hard to teach/coach, hard to require, hard to create. Which, added all up together, often make it hard to use. It may sound like unfounded pessimism, as the Internet is loaded with examples of successful collaborative sites that aggregate and repackage knowledge - it's been doing that for years, ever since there were Compuserve forums and bulletin boards. Unfortunately (for the corporate environment), the Law of Large Numbers takes care of…
I got a call a few weeks ago that put me in a slightly cranky, slightly bemused mood. This is not a recent phenomenon - it has happened at every company in my career. A few of the big-name vendors (including IBM, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, HP, and others) have no problem peppering different people in a company with requests for basic information (What systems are your running? Do you have a general ledger system? Do you use computers? Do you…
It's much easier to install the software than it is to get participation ... you need to put some thought into the why? and the who? ... Why are we doing this? Jack Vinson posted this list from C.G Lynch (CIO.com): Seven Reasons for Your Company to Start an Internal Blog Your enterprise e-mail applications are not easy to search - access to "buried in a colleague’s inbox" Your e-mail is lost in the eye of the "cc storm" -…
After my last post ... more experiences at work, and observations in the trades and other blogs, regarding Web 2.0 tools for use in business ... Improving Knowledge Capture is Half the Battle In last week's Information Week magazine, the story of Procter & Gamble's push towards collaboration - the tools can meet some resistance. A critical quote: We consistently hear that information posted to the intranet is incremental work. Similarly, in my organization, I have folks continuing to send…