Agile Methodologies

Web systems are deployed not in the nine to eighteen month cycles of the Mainframe era, nor in the three to nine month cycles of the Client/Server era, but now take place in a mere 30 to 90 days!
Many of the characteristics of both the Waterfall method and the Iterative methods are not possible in […]

Pairing a HS820 Bluetooth Headset to a Blackberry 8700

This was not intuitive unless you consulted the documentation. Here’s how you do it…
Activate Bluetooth®:
1. Starting with the phone, click with the trackwheel to bring up the menu.
2. Scroll to and select “Options.”
3. Select “Bluetooth.”
4. Look in the top left hand corner of the screen and if it reads, “Bluetooth: Enabled,” skip to step 6. […]

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

Google recently added new shortcuts to Gmail:
m - Mute
Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc’d directly to you. Learn more.
u - Return to conversation list
Refreshes your page and returns you to the inbox, or list of conversations.
y then o - Archive and next
Archive your conversation and move to […]

Pasta, Meatballs and Credit Card Theft

People are always asking me if it is safe to use your credit card on the Internet. Finally a stat that shows where the REAL security threat resides:
The most common place for credit card information to be stolen is at a restaurant, according to Visa.
The credit card company, which constantly monitors cardholder transactions and data […]

GMail Delete Keyboard ShortCut — # Key

Apparently, Gmail has a hidden shortkey key to delete messages — the pound key.
Do you know that GMail has a simple keyboard shortcut to delete email messages ? The same key combination works across all web browsers but for some reason, Google decided not to share it with GMail users.
If you are reading a message […]

Agility to Adapt

Technology evolves quickly. Within six or nine months of a project delivery, the market may produce entirely new platforms radically altering your build-vs.-buy decisions. Delivering solutions in 30 to 90 day cycles enables regular reassessment of business assumptions.

Projects spanning nine months or more tend to be inflexible. Most project managers are not interested in reworking […]

Legacy Methodologies

In the late 1980s the advent of Client/Server technology as a new technology platform caused new methods of software delivery to be created. Host-based systems relied on mainframe technologies and centralized systems centered around ‘waterfall’ methodologies. Project implementation often took nine to eighteen months or more.
Client/Server Methodologies
Client/Server technologies focused on creating decentralized PC-centric systems. Client/Server […]

Web Marketing using Agile Methodologies

Business changes quickly. Today’s business cycles are compressed—companies demand solutions requiring delivery in record time.
In order to meet changing business needs, project management must be be flexible, adaptable, and above all quick! Break web projects into a series of iterations delivered in less than three month cycles. This enables you (at reduced cost and risk!) […]

Friends Don’t Let Friends Mismanage Projects

Project plans lay out a defined series of steps to accomplish a goal. Most software development methodologies produce an undesirable goal—failure. The 60% failure rate is not just dumb luck, it is the natural consequence of the methodology. To change the outcome, we must change our methodology!
I’ve witnessed failed projects which did not achieve business […]

Technical Successes; Business Failures

Consider a less-than-successful project in which you’ve participated. Did the project run aground because the developers didn’t know how to program?
Projects can be technical successes but business disasters. Ask any end user who patently rejects the software IT has labored to produce for them, and they’ll quickly say—”This software isn’t what we needed!”
Thus the problem. […]