Boot Camps Oo-RAH!

Cheryl Croce Sr. Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

One of our instructors, Cindy Scheetz, enthusiastically told me about her participation in a fitness boot camp, which is a militaristic approach to physical fitness and exercise. She's a three-time veteran, and has improved with each session. She absolutely loves it. I asked Cindy about the program, and she gave me the contact information. I was intrigued after speaking with the instructor and founder, Dr. Aaron Oberst. I joined the Dr. Drill Instructor Program (DDIP) in Lansdale, Pennsylvania this May, and started on the first day of June. It is an eight week program, three days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), from 5:30am to 6:30am, rain or shine.

I've got two weeks under my proverbial belt, and I now understand why Cindy likes the program so much. There is so much positive energy and encouragement from the instructors, squad leaders and participants. I feel like I accomplish something new in each session. I will also tell you it's the hardest I've ever physically worked. There are days where it hurts to blink. As the saying goes, "No pain, no gain!"

There are a few lessons I've learned from the fitness boot camp that are applicable to our five-day Project Management (PM) Boot Camp:


* Leave your perceptions at the door: People who have been managing projects for years will think they know project management. Similarly, I thought I was exercising at my maximum potential by getting on an elliptical machine for 20 minutes three times a week. Exercise is exercise; project management is project management. While it is true I exert myself on the elliptical, and it is a form of exercise, I am learning from DDIP getting in shape is more than just moving your legs and arms on a machine. You have to use every attribute you have: mind, body and spirit. Boot Camps are designed to deconstruct your perceptions and show you what you should be doing. It engages and challenges. In the end, you will work better and smarter than you did previously.

* Discipline is essential: If you cut corners, you will find you are doing more harm than good. Dr. Drill stresses the importance of always having a water source with you. The second week of DDIP, I learned if you don't have a water source, two things will happen: Dr. Drill will make you do your maximum set of push-ups while you are at attention with the rest of your squad, and you get muscle cramps because you lose about 10% of water when you work out. Both suck. No one likes to be called out on mistakes, especially if they are easily avoided by following basic rules. Follow the basics, and you won't experience pain and suffering on projects. Do you really want to explain why your project is over-budget and not finished on time? I'm thinking no. There are reasons there are lessons about work breakdown structures and identifying and documenting risks!

* Motivation is infectious: There are roughly 100 participants in the fitness boot camp program. We are all at different skill levels, and we are all there for one reason: to improve ourselves. What is especially wonderful is that the veterans will encourage new recruits, and in turn new recruits motivate the veterans to do their best and set examples. With the PM Boot Camp, everyone is there to learn and to be better project managers.

* Keep on movin'! Don't stop, no: During one of our runs, Dr. Drill broke out into song. "Keep on movin'! Don't stop, noooo." He asked us to repeat this, even the singing part. The final lesson I'd like to share is once you leave boot camp, you don't leave what you've learned behind. Keep pushing yourself, your teams, and your organization forward in applying solid project management techniques to your projects.


Ready to leave your perceptions about project management behind? To be motivated? To learn something new and to apply it to the way you work? If you are interested in project management and our PM Boot Camp five-day instructor-led training courses, please go to the event calendar on our website.

Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

H1N1 Visualization

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

With all the Pandemic warnings, I thought it would be nice to provide a visualization of the actual data being collected : Here & Here

Beyond the pure hysteria that has been associated with this infection, I find it amazing how we are utilizing new and different tools to educate ourselves.



So as I typically do, I ask you to pose the following question to your peers :

What have we done to gain visibility to "process pandemics?"

It important to understand the metrics that are key performance indicators, but more importantly is distilling those metrics into meaningful dashboards that are useful and user friendly. Because at the end of the day, we need to act on that information to help reduce risk and enhance performance of our troubleshooting teams.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Mom's Lessons on Customer Service

	Cheryl Croce Sr. Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10. It’s a particularly special one, as my younger sister will be celebrating her very first Mother’s Day. Both my sister and my mom have taught me what it is to be a strong and caring person.

In particular, there are many things I have learned from my mom that apply to how I approach managing projects. Whether she realized it or not, she gave me my first lesson in customer service.




One year, when I was younger, my mom prepared a holiday dinner. She made home-made manicotti, lasagna, meatballs, all the side dishes you can imagine, and a full turkey. It was a feast you might see in a Norman Rockwell painting (well, if Norman Rockwell had been Italian). My family gathered at the table, eager to dig in and enjoy the food.

My grandfather – her father – sat down, tucked a napkin into his shirt, picked up his utensils and surveyed the food in front of him.

My mom took great pride in her feast. That changed when my grandfather furrowed his brow and said,

“What? No ham?”

While my mom was less than thrilled about what he said, my grandfather practically licked his plate clean. To this day, she’ll bring up this story whenever we sit down for a holiday dinner.

The following are customer service nuggets of knowledge I garnered from that incident:

* Low hanging fruits – those projects we view as seemingly non-essential - are sometimes the sweetest to our customers.
* Understanding what is important to the customer takes active listening, observation and, on occasion, patience.
* As much as we strive for perfection, there’s always one person who isn’t going to be happy. If there’s something missing, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not personal. You learn from the feedback, and deliver the unexpected at the next opportunity.


For all the moms and moms-to-be out there, have a wonderful Mother’s Day!


Interested in learning more about Customer Service? Attend one of our Customer Service Stars classes. These one-day classes will be held on May 20, 2009 and June 4, 2009. Click here for more details.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Hiring Process

Karl Christianson
President and CEO
Veris Marshwinds Partners


The turbulent economic conditions of the past few months have resulted, in many cases, in the reduction of staff. As conditions begin to improve, many of these open positions will be filled through the hiring of new employees.

The hiring process generally begins with the review of a resume supplied by either an agency or your own internal recruiting process. When reviewing a resume, there are many factors to consider. Your primary goal is to interview and hire the right employee, one that satisfies the needs of the open position. A simple method, which we employ when analyzing a resume, is to rate the candidate based on the following factors

Some of the selection criteria we utilize when reviewing a resume are listed below:

1. Does the candidate's resume reflect exceptional performance at prior jobs? This includes awards, recognition, etc. Are those achievements measurable?

2. Does the candidate display a history of job stability, little job hopping?

3. Why is the candidate seeking a new job? Is the reason justifiable?

4. How long has the candidate been on the job market, and where else has he/she interviewed?

5. How sophisticated are their presentation skills, which can be judged by their past positions and duties?

6. What types of companies have provided them with employment in the past? If your company is a large, sophisticated organization, and the applicant has always worked at smaller organizations, will that applicant have the experience and depth to successfully function in your firm?

The answers to the above questions should be positive and provide you with a feeling that the resume you are reviewing indicates a possible hire. The next step, and possibly the most important, is your initial interview, whether on the telephone or in-person. You should be able to conclude at the end of the initial meeting whether this applicant is the type of individual who is knowledgeable, affable, speaks well, has a pleasant appearance and, in summary, would be a great addition to your organization.

If all of the above factors are positive, you may consider that you have found a low risk applicant, and should move forward with your normal in depth screening procedure, which should include the checking of references. If all subsequent interviews and reference checks are positive, you have probably found a winner whom you should hire.
Good luck in filling your next open position.

New Security

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

With any grand event, comes those who will do what they must to survive.

In today's economical climate, that means there are more and more highly skilled workers being laid off, and in turn are using their skills for ill-will.

In this case, it was a laid off engineer who was cutting communication cables and trying to extort money from Comcast and Verizon.

Well the FBI has a trojan virus for that:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Security&articleId=9131778&taxonomyId=17&pageNumber=1

It's been mentioned elsewhere that with the ongoing lay-offs, there will be an onslaught of cyber-crimes.

In the past, we've always said that the biggest security threat to an organization is their own employees. It's only a matter of time before someone is disgruntled by a promotion, or lack there-of; or maybe it's not something at work.... it may be skyrocketing debt that is forcing them to consider unseemly means of income.

So a few points:

- If you're currently unemployed, or feel that you may be soon; now is the perfect time to re-train and find some new skills, focus that fear and look at training.

- If you are a hiring manager, about to make the decision for a round of lay-offs; be aware that it may require some special planning beyond doing it on a Friday afternoon.

- If you are a security manager, now is the time to be proactive; if you don't have a continual improvement plan in place, seek consulting and/or training to get a concrete plan in place to manage your risk


Of course above all else, never forget the gifts we've been given. It is up to us to ensure they are used for good will.


...then again, I'm sure the FBI won't have any problems finding you....



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Focused Fear

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

I've written on our other blogs in the past about some of our more momentous airline incidents, well this story stuck me as very compelling :

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/14/plane.emergency/

A gentlemen who had some flight experience with single engine propeller planes was on a flight, and by sheer luck, noticed the pilot become unresponsive behind the wheel of a 10,000lb turbo propeller airplane :

"The only thing I knew how to do up there was talk on the radio," White told WINK. "I've only been up there (in the cockpit) one other time. I made it a point to ask the pilot -- not Joe, but another one -- 'How do I talk on the radio?' and they showed me what button to push."

While he spoke to the air controllers, they actually called someone who knew how to operate the airplane and were able to walk him through landing safely.


So why do I mention this article? I think a few points are very important.

1 - Being aware and curious of our surroundings, even though it may not be "your job" ; never stop asking those around you questions. Someday those little tid-bits of information will come in handy

2 - Trusting those with knowledge to guide you safely in an emergency; it's sometimes quite apparent when we are out of our realm, know that moment and embrace the fact that by trusting those around us, we can make it back to solid ground in one piece

3 - In those moments of peril, be personally or with a project, focus that fear. Sometimes it's the fear of failure, the fear of budget overuns, or the fear of personal impact; Focused Fear is an asset. Embrace it.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Living All In

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

I hope everyone enjoyed the wonderful weather we had this weekend in Philly.

This time of year always makes me optimistic!

It just feels like we were meant to be here, doing what we love to do.

A great friend and mentor runs a Construction Knowledge website and blog, he posted a 'vonderful-good' article on one of the gentlemen from "Band of Brothers" ; you should check it out:

http://constructionknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/are-you-living-all-in/

My favorite quote is how :
"When Forrest was injured on his jump into Holland, he was waiting in a make-shift field hospitals for a doctor to move up to the front. When the doctor finally came to treat him, Forrest realized his family doctor from the little town of Fogelsville, PA was also going to be his doctor in Holland. He loved that wild coincidence."

I challenge everyone to approach this year with renewed vigor, it is time to put our defensive strategies aside, and go "All In."



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Post Implementation Review

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

We've talked about metrics, and the way they drive continual improvement plans, another crucial component of the improvement process is the Post Implementation Review.

This is where all the players assemble, and review, for better or worse; what went well and what went wrong.

In the world of ITSM this is triggered by the Change Manager, after a change has been documented and completed, the Change Manager ensures that a Post Implementation Review is completed.

Enclosed is a "mashup" of the US Airlines Hudson Crash, if you thought the accounts were harrowing, wait until you see what happened in realtime.

Crash Simulator

Credit to Gizmodo


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Butterflies

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

As we begin looking ahead to Springtime and the changes ahead, it's important that we plan for the future.

In previous posts I've mentioned that I enjoy Gardening, and it is the planning phase that will largely account for whether my garden is a success or a failure.

Although it's nice to sit outside and watch the butterflies, due diligence and proper planning are a neccessity.

Below is a clip from AIG that I feel points out the irony quite well.



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Shuttle Launch Perspective

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

In Project Management, perspective is everything.


When an event occurs, on the surface it may appear to be a "deal breaker" or something that will drastically change the quality of the product to be delivered.



It's at times like that, an overall perspective can turn that issue into an advantage.



Speaking of perspective, these folks decided they weren't content watching the space shuttle launch from the ground, so what does one do in this situation?



Jump out of an airplane and video tape it.

Never forget to look for other people's perspective too, sometimes it takes a truly radical independent consultant to help develop a fresh perspective!



Like Veris.





Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Quest to Learn

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

I found an interesting article on new teaching techniques at the "Institute of Play" in New York

LINK

New York's Institute of Play has officially announced the foundation of Quest to Learn, a new school for "digital kids" that will be accepting its first 6th grade class this fall, which "uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences for students."

It's fascinating to watch the principles of "Play Learning" maturing with technology.

They're also hiring teachers : LINK

Many moons ago, I recall a space invaders game at my school for learning multiplication, addition, and subtraction. I remember how profound the idea was at the time.

Tell us, how do you learn best?

Is it in a classroom, or a virtual classroom with avatars?
Do you prefer flashcards, or a game that incorporates those facts/figures into a learning exercise?


Comment below or visit us on LinkedIn
you can also find me directly for feedback at : http://www.linkedin.com/in/neall



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Metrics

Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

You may have seen the posting last week about Google taking on Electricity monitoring: LINK

Personally I think it's a great idea, it takes away the ambiguity of how the utility companies are charging for services at a granular level, and enables transparency for the consumer.

It also spurs the discussion around metrics, without metrics how do you know any given service is performing as advertised, under-performing, or over-performing?

Granted, overcapacity is rarely an issue in the world of IT Service Management, but in practice it can be a goal for success.

There's the old adage of "If you don't measure it, it won't be done."

What are your thoughts around metrics? What are the Key Performance Indicators for your organization? How where they determined? How have they changed your day-to-day tasks?


Comment below or visit us on LinkedIn
you can also find me directly for feedback at : http://www.linkedin.com/in/neall



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

New Obama Pick

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

Hard to believe we are almost through February already!

Today it was announced that Obama picked Google Vet Katie Jacobs to head up the "Citizens Participation" post.

LINK

I think we have the opportunity to do a lot of things right with this situation.

It also reminds me how important requirements gathering is for any project, how else will we know we've achieved the desired outcome?

Along that same line, there were several articles on how Google kills projects, also a topic from previous Blog posts found HERE

The article talks a little about the projects that Google is working on, but also how previous incarnations were killed due to lack of interest, or not living up to expectations. LINK

My favorite quote was : “Perfection closes off the process,” Mr. Jarvis said. “It makes you deaf. Google purposefully puts out imperfect and unfinished products and says: ‘Help us finish them. What do you think of them?’ ”

Like it or not, that's Project Management in a nut-shell, sure we talk about the triple constraint of "Time, Cost, Quality" ; but we all know in the real world it's about getting the product or project out the door so we can find the flaws and fix them, some flaws will never be discovered "in the lab."

Comment below or visit us on LinkedIn
you can also find me directly for feedback at : http://www.linkedin.com/in/neall



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Tactical Failure, Strategic Success

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

It has been written on numerous sites, the challenges of implementing ITIL, the "true" cost, and the "true" return on investment.

In our newsletter a few weeks ago, I mentioned how technology has shaped everyday events, like the "Miracle on the Hudson" of Flight 1549 with Captain Sullenberger at the helm. Not only was it the outcome that was amazing, but so were the "Lessons Learned" of what went right.

This is an example of how planning and paying the costs are not only a short term improvement, but in the long term, the cost of NOT DOING IT are far greater.

Without decades of safety engineering, and black box engineering, not only would they have lost many lives, but they wouldn't have known what went well or failed.

So it goes in IT, without proper processes and procedures, when disaster strikes, it may well still be a disaster, but through the toil and hardship of prior improvements, you will have the tools and wherewithall to recover and hopefully show the steady hand that Captain Sullenberger exhibited.

So in closing, never forget the price of not improving your craft, be it Flying a Jet, or Flying an IT Department.

Disaster will strike, and there will be tactical failures. Help your IT Service Management organization ensure a Strategic Success.

Below is an excerpt of the CBS Special with Katie Couric




Can you say "Mayday" with a calm voice to your CEO?




Comment below or visit us on LinkedIn
you can also find me directly for feedback at : http://www.linkedin.com/in/neall




Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

IT Governance: Bridging the gap between Gatekeeper & Innovator

Maryanne Pilson

Consultant

Veris Associates, Inc.

Today the race for Sarbanes Oxley compliance has all but reached the final lap. So does your organization continue to sponsor IT governance initiatives or has sponsorship hit the proverbial “wall” in the final lap?

One way to ensure funding for your next IT governance initiative is simply leveraging all IT governance components as intended. In doing so, IT governance becomes more than an operational expense; it becomes an asset. Over time your IT governance program is strategic to the future of your organization.

There are two distinct IT governance roles, both equally important, but not always apparent during the early phases of implementation.

For the sake of this article, I will give each role an assumed alias (Table 1) and will refer to each by alias through the remainder of the article.

Table 1

	Alias	IT Governance Role
1.	Gatekeeper (a.k.a. IT expense)	Objective:	“IT governance practices aim at ensuring that expectations for IT are met, IT's performance is measured, its resources are managed and its risks are mitigated.”
2.	Innovator (a.k.a. IT asset)	Purpose:	“To enable the enterprise by exploiting opportunities and maximizing benefits.”

In the early stages of implementation, it is easy to limit yourself as the Gatekeeper, focusing on identifying and mitigating risks. However, if you want to drive IT governance to new levels and continue making contributions - you must evolve!

As business needs are constantly changing, IT governance can lead the way as Innovator. IT governance controls and procedures need to be periodically reviewed to ensure they are still fit for purpose. You should have no problem obtaining IT governance sponsorship if you (the Innovator) take advantage of everyday opportunities to maximize benefits. An Innovator understands the benefit of being first in bringing new ideas and technologies into the organization and the Gatekeeper knows the consequences of implementing poor processes. By recognizing and promoting opportunities for improvement, the “Gatekeeper” transition to “Innovator” becomes effortless.

Listed below are common IT governance activities. We have traditional on the left and forward-looking on the right.

On the other hand, as we bridge the gap from Gatekeeper to Innovator, defining procedures is very much the same as developing solutions.

Gatekeeper		Innovator
Define procedures	vs.	Develop solutions

Let’s look at an example figure ¹, to help make the connection. This example is a proposed proof of concept (POC) for developing a new solution for recently defined procedures. The solution uses the concept of “reuse” by customizing an off-the-shelf web application. The objective is to improve productivity after it was decreased by Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) implementation. SOX resulted in too much time being spent on administrative tasks to create new user accounts, which took time away from core responsibilities.

Figure 1

In the example above, the current process objective was to ensure compliance with Sarbanes Oxley regulatory requirements for requesting new financial user accounts. The current process (defined and implemented by the Gatekeeper) met all requirements; however, it had a negative impact to productivity. Obviously, productivity was overlooked during the requirement phase. Manual processes are time consuming and without additional staff, your service levels will likely take a hit.

In this case, the pain was short lived. It was quickly recognized we had an opportunity to implement a process improvement/solution. In the example above, the new process would automate the user account request with minimal development effort, thus improving productivity by eliminating Helpdesk tickets and manual processing. Finally, the new process would be accomplished without compromising SOX compliance status and accessible via the web 24X7.

Later the following additional benefits were identified as result of the new process.

· Reduce end to end turn-around time by 30%

· Reduce the number of errors caused by missing or incorrect data given to the Helpdesk by 10%

· Reduce amount of manual effort spent on SOX quarterly reviews by 40%

As Gatekeeper and Innovator, you also motivate others to exploit opportunities and maximize benefits. If not, perhaps it is the next “gap” worthy of remediation!

Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.