saumitri's shared items in Google Reader

market leadership

2007-09-27T14:42:14Z

Market leadership is when an individual or company owns the largest market share or highest profitability margin in a given market for goods and services. Market share may be measured either the volume of goods sold or the value of those goods. (Continued...)

Keys to a Successful PMO (Project Management Office)

2007-03-27T22:00:00Z

Over the past ten years the number and rate of implementations of PMOs (Project Management Offices) has been consistently increasing as organizations have begun to regard themselves as project-oriented entities. Possibly the most important business driver behind this trend is the globalized fast-paced marketplace which forces firms that want to keep up with customer expectations, competition, and shifting economic conditions to perform more and more efficiently using fewer resources. This article describes the essentials of PMO and provides readers with some guidelines to successfully establish a PMO.

Risk Analysis

2007-03-27T22:00:00Z

A good planning phase for a project includes many things like time analysis, assignments of the tasks, quality plan... and among them it also includes a risk analysis which consists primarily of a collective brain storming involving all project team. It is recommended to be done after the plan has been elaborated. You can also conduct a technical feasibility analysis which is an easy-job for experienced people. They can detect most risks.

The benefits of a kick-off meeting

2007-04-03T22:00:00Z

Once a project team is built, an excellent way to make sure milestones and goals are efficiently accomplished is by fostering good communication among project team members on a continuous basis. Team meetings are, indeed, a crucial communication method when working with teams. The first project team meeting, also known as the project ‘kick-off meeting’, is of extreme importance because it is the time when the project goals and expectations are clarified, roles are defined, and team members can meet one another. A vital part of any project, this first meeting is normally held right after the project has been awarded, and often even before base lining the project plan.

Top ten time management skills

2007-09-27T22:00:00Z

The secret to managing time successfully is being able to manage yourself, although we often think we don't waste a minute of our time in reality this is far from true and there are many ways which we can manage ourselves more efficiently which ultimately leads to more successful time management.

Service Desk System Tracks Performance

2007-09-27T00:30:00Z

Ryanair uses service desk software to manage its processes, and sees performance soar. ...

... "We run weekly reports and measure satisfaction levels which are amazing considering we have 22 staff to run the IT department of a GBP 2bn-revenue company with 135 locations, he said. " ...

Via VNUnet: Ryanair IT

Business simulation (war games) with EVM

2007-09-29T12:33:00Z

Check this out:
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/9/emw557112.htm
This business simulation tool, from PriSim Business War Games, Inc. includes Earned Value Management (EVM) capabilities. I like the learning-by-doing approach.

Vendor Perspective on RFPs

2007-09-30T14:56:00Z

Vendors have to jump through hoops to respond to requests-for-proposal. See it from their perspective. ...

... "We've treated RFPs like they are some rare opportunity for us to get our proposal in the door at an organization and hopefully win the project based on the merit of the project ... " ...

Via CIO: RFP ROI

PMO: Center of Project Excellence ?

2007-10-01T23:48:00Z

Is a project management office a center of excellence?

Subject matter experts = project managers; Central repository for materials = project portfolio, schedules, business case forms, scope documents, etc.; Clearinghouse of standards = project methodology; Source of educational opportunities = project training, mentoring; Development and monitoring of metrics = project dashboard, roi and

Enabling Growth: Interesting Insights into China Market

2007-10-02T23:58:00Z

Interesting insights on China market from Bain and Co. Consumers are moving up-market, while local and multinational players adjust and adapt to capture the higher growth market segments, through operational efficiency and quality improvement. ...

... "The result: China's middle market is growing faster than the premium and low-end segments combined, and accounts for nearly half of all

EVM in the Project Manager's Toolbox: Use It

2007-10-04T23:14:00Z

Let's use project tools, such as earned value management, to assess our status, make immediate changes to adapt to the current conditions, and forecast our ability to deliver. ...

... "The outcome can then not only help identify at an early stage any issues and allow small changes to be made so that a project can be brought rapidly back on track, but will also give the capability to play the

Projects in Innovation, Innovation in Project - Latest PM Research ideas from Brighton, UK

2007-10-01T05:32:00Z

Reported by Miles Shepherd in the UK

IRNOP, the International Research Network on Organizing by Projects, held its latest conference at the Freeman Centre on the University of Sussex Campus outside Brighton, in the South of England on the theme of Projects in Innovation, Innovation in Projects. Supported by IPMA and PMI, the conference brought together many of the major names in European

Making Meetings More Effective

2007-10-01T21:30:00Z

Some time ago I wrote about frequency of team meetings. That’s one thing to know how often you waste the time of the team but another thing is to limit negative impact meetings have on everyday work.

Rules to remember when you organize a meeting.

• Keep it fairly short. You waste not only your time, but all of people who are invited. 20 people on 1-hour meeting? It equals half of a workweek of one of your developers. No, throwing a joke or two isn’t banned but don’t let the meeting pupate into a party or a lunch break.

• Information flow is the king. There’s only one reason to make meeting – exchanging information. Information is the most valuable resource in any company. It must be. Other way, information flow would just work and we wouldn’t be surprised every day: “Have we just promised that thing to the customer? How come? Anyone wanted to tell me that?” When you run a meeting and waste time of several people make sure everyone who can be interested is invited. When information concerns whole team, everyone is invited. When it is a project status meeting, take all people who are involved. When you’re going to play office wars, keep it exclusive for board of directors.

• Be on time. Maybe it is a surprise but being a manger you shouldn’t be 5 minute late. That’s not in good form. If you expect others to be on time, keep the rule yourself too. When you’re on time you can expect everyone else will follow. And they will as soon as they see you care to give an example.

• Know when to stop the conversation. It just happens – people start talking about technology and they suddenly discuss their holidays or new secretary’s haircut, or go down do deep details where heads of most of attendees just blow off. Someone should have stopped that a couple of minutes before. Someone should have been aware the meeting has been going in that direction. Is that possible you are that someone?

• Know when to end the meeting. If you were on meetings when either the silence rules the room when no one else has anything more to add or on those where people all over the place start chatting about different things rather loosely connected with the subject you know someone wasn’t able to end the meeting when it was time. And it really has nothing to do with meeting room reservation time. Meetings, you know, they sometimes die before they were planned to do so.

• Reserve resources. Oh, when we’re on the meeting rooms... Very often reserving the room for needed time isn’t so easy, but cutting agenda by a half just because there was only half-hour slot in the room schedule doesn’t really help with running the whole thing smoothly. Sometimes you just have to make some concessions for, well, things like rooms.

Security consultant sees open source software taking over in every niche

2007-09-20T16:01:00Z

Jonathan Ham is a computer security expert with 13 years of open source experience under his belt. He has seen open source become an "emminently more workable business model," and says that there has been a gradual shift over the years of "people starting to realize that all products have security flaws, whether open or closed." He believes that realization has led to greater adoption of open source, because "sometimes the devil you can know is better than the devil you can't know."

China IT Outsourcing: A Two-Minute Guide to Finding Your Partner

2007-09-25T21:00:00Z

For companies that are considering offshoring their IT development projects to China, the benefits extend well beyond pure cost savings to include a better educated workforce, world-class IT infrastructure, lower employee turnover, and a proactive commitment towards protecting intellectual property. In fact, China is transforming the IT development/outsourcing landscape from the low cost talent strategy that made countries such as India, Thailand and the Philippines hot markets, to one driven by better value, talent, and alignment with key organizational initiatives.

Computer Take Back Campaign places recycling responsibility on manufacturers

2007-09-26T12:01:02Z

What would happen if manufacturers were responsible for the disposal of their used-up products? The Computer Take Back Campaign (CTBC), a coalition of environmental groups across the United States, hopes that the result would be both a national recycling network and the removal of hazardous materials like lead, mercury, and brominated flame retardants from products so that companies would not have to worry about them later. The CTBC has been promoting this idea with limited success since 2002, but this year it finally seems on the brink of acceptance.

Consultant uses open source to offer more choices to clients

2007-09-27T21:00:02Z

Neutrino Consulting provides IT services for small companies that don't want or need an in-house technology departments. Michael Wacht, Neutrino's founder and principal, says because he offers open source software alternatives to his clients, they get to choose the "best of the best," avoiding big license fees and vendor lock in. That, he says, makes Neutrino more competitive.

Everything I need to know about SOA I learned from Linux

2007-10-01T17:00:00Z

While there are volumes of online magazines, blogs, trade magazines, and books written about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), everything I need to know about SOA, I already learned from Linux and the Open Source Software movement.

Clarify IT projects now to avoid salvage efforts later

2007-10-02T21:00:00Z

When Lori's "mission critical" software development project faltered after considerable time and budget investment by her IT team, Lori moved on and another manager was brought in to try and salvage the process. A post-project review revealed that Lori and her team had not done very well in their up-front understanding of crucial project timing, specifications, and vendor capabilities.

Shark Tank: Users and their mysteries

2007-10-01T13:43:07Z

Right Again!
Production controller e-mails IT pilot fish with a problem: Controller is trying to enter orders into the manufacturing system, but he keeps getting an error that tells him to "check shop calendar." "I investigate, and the user is correct," fish says. "There is an error about checking the shop calendar, specifically that one exists for the date entered.