First, make sure you define your project with the right people. In the beginning of this project, I was working based on a series of conversations with my client’s top executive. The top executive and I were on the same page, but the two directors were confused about what the project was doing. When I re-defined the project with the three of them together, we all started working towards the same goals.

Secondly, pick the smallest team that can be effective to meet your goals. This client has a very strong team based culture. While this leads to a high degree of staff empowerment, it also sometimes means that everyone expects to be involved in every decision. Knowing that previous projects had become bogged down in this bureaucracy, we comprised our core team of the strongest subject matter experts available. As we worked through various components of the system, we pulled in additional resources where necessary and made sure all the team members were communicating well to their colleagues. This allowed us to move rapidly through requirements definition, application testing, and finally projet approval.

Third, make sure you have clear expectations for your team. This may involve teaching your team how to do their work since they may not have participated in a similar project before. Even worse, they may have participated in a similar project that didn’t function well and have developed bad habits. On our team, we stressed that the team members were not expected to know everything. But they were expected to know who needed to be involved in each piece of the project and to pull those people in as appropriate. They were also expected to keep their supervisors and colleagues informed about project progress and to use their supervisors and colleagues to help resolve any issues.

Fourth, it is imperative to get the right technical skills on board. In Billings, there is a serious shortage of experienced programmers. So we used remote programmers through a service called oDesk. I managed the requirements definition, communication with the programmers, and primary quality assurance. This ensured that the client’s staff on the team were focused on their responsibilities…the functional aspects of the system. The approach allowed me to tap into the global talent pool to find the right skills, and helped my client keep development costs under control.

Finally, consistently confirm your understandings of your projects priorities (Cost vs. Time vs. Scope). In this case, the client strongly preferred a consistent monthly cost and a full set of application features to delivering on a specific date. As a result, we moved a little slower than was technically possible. When we had to adjust the schedule, I confirmed again with the client that their preferences had not changed. In the end, we delivered within a few weeks of our best estimate (on a 14 month project) and the client was very satisfied.

Most of these learnings weren’t necessarily new to me and they may not be new to you. But looking back, they were probably the key items that made the project successful. Hopefully, they’ll help you in your next project.

To start a remote support session, you simply login to your account on the Copilot website and enter the person’s email address. Then you click a button to install a little application and the other person clicks the link in their email. Within seconds you are viewing their desktop and able to work on their machine just like you were there.

I don’t generally do desktop support so I’ve signed up for the pay-as-you-go plan. This only costs me $0.25 per minute. There are also unlimited use plans starting at $19.95/month. Those plans allow you to setup computers you might regularly access with one-click access so you don’t have to get a new access code every time.If you ever need to access remote computer, I’d highly recommend giving Copilot a try.

This past week (actually late August 2008), I achieved the Project Management Institute’s highly respected certification – the Project Management Professional (PMP). Unlike many certifications, PMI places a priority on verifying that a candidate has sufficient real-world experience to justify the credential. Before candidates can even schedule the exam, they have to document over 4500 hours of project management activities and at least 35 hours of formal education in project management. There is also an ongoing commitment to learning which requires PMPs to complete at least 60 hours of professional development activities over a 3 year span. So I’m pretty proud of this achievement.

The PMI method for managing projects, outlined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is extremely rigorous. Only the largest of projects would implement the entire methodology as described in the PMBOK. However, there are some great takeaways for smaller businesses.

1. Project management is NOT status reporting. I recently ran across a posting for a Project Manager position for a local organization. They needed someone to manage a key system implementation. However, their view of what the PM should be doing was “making sure everyone was getting their work done”. A person who merely collects and distributes work status information is not doing project management. Make sure your project manager has the proper authority to make your project a success.
2. Managing change and communication for the project are the most important reponsibilities of a project manager. How these activities are performed should be carefully thought out and actively managed. It doesn’t have to a formally written document, but the approach needs to be understood and followed consistently on every project.
3. A project is “progressively elaborated”. This means you learn more about the project and adjust your plans accordingly as the project progresses. So don’t fall into the trap of believing that following a project management methodology prevents you from exploiting your advantages as a smaller business to move quickly and nimbly.

For many reasons, IT projects are infamous for having a low rate of success. Don’t let the lack of qualified project management be the cause of your project failure.

The easiest things to fix are those that I can control.  For example, forgetting to submit regular status updates to the right people or not getting enough information prior to the project to make an informed proposal.

But I’ve also found several things that businesses can do to ensure that everything works smoothly.  Regardless of what type of consultant you’re hiring, the following tips should help make your next consulting engagement more productive.

Find the right consultant

Sometimes you need someone who can provide highly specialized skills and can get a project done quickly and expertly; sometimes you need someone who can help support a business process over a longer period of time.    Sometimes you need a high level strategic thinker; sometimes you need a hands on "doer".

To be sure, a highly specialized expert is capable of providing long term support, and many strategy-focused consultants still have hands-on skills.  But these people have developed their specialized skills because that’s what they enjoy doing the most.  Which means you’ll get the most value from them when they can use their finely tuned skills to the fullest. 

Similarly, people who enjoy supporting processes over time are generally very detail oriented and take great pride in their service levels.  They can certainly do well on shorter term projects.  But doing something quickly and handing it off to someone else can leave them feeling incomplete.

By understanding what your true needs are, you can hire the consultant with the right focus for your project.

Have someone internally be accountable for their results

One client of mine is very exciting to work with.  They are very energetic, growing, fun, and open to new ideas.  But there is nobody at the company who is accountable for anything I do. 

Now, I know that sounds counter-intuitive.  "I" am the consultant, and "I" should be accountable for what I do. 

Well I am accountable.  I provide them high quality services in a very timely manner.  And I oftentimes do extra work "off the clock" for them.  It’s a price I’m willing to pay because I like working with them so much.

But when I deliver something to them or ask for feedback I get no response.  Or I get a "thank you, we’ll look at this" and then no follow up.

If you pay an invoice for "X" and "X" didn’t meet your needs or you’re not using "X", then you had no internal accountability.  When you have somebody internally who is accountable for the results of the money you are spending on a consultant, then you will get more value from your consultants.

Set clear expectations and review them regularly

This is really pretty basic.  Make sure your consultant knows exactly what is expected of them.  Remember, you as the customer must explain your needs to the provider.  They can’t read your mind and guess at the relative priorities of 3 competing requests.

Also, you have to review your goals with the consultant on a regular basis.  Especially on longer term engagements, projects can stray off track if not tended to carefully.  Ancillary things tend to pop up over the course of a project and your consultant may have the skills to help with them.  But if you’d rather have them focus exclusively on the project, then it’s your responsibility to shield them from such demands.

Demand excellence and then share in your success

If you are paying a premium price for a consultant’s skills, then you should demand excellence from them.  That’s a no-brainer.  But many companies don’t understand how to go about doing this.

Think about what resources you are providing the consultant.  If they are developing an application for you, are you making the right people available to define the requirements?  Are you making your employees devote the proper time to test the application? 

Think about the constraints you place on the consultant.  Are you requiring them to do things in a specific way that may impact their ability to deliver the best solution?  Are you placing any hurdles or roadblocks in their path?  Are delivery timelines challenging yet realistic?

Think about how you are compensating the consultant.  Are you willing to reward the consultant based on actual realized returns from their efforts?  Have you made the right commitments internally to make this an attractive option to the consultant?  If you’re paying an hourly or fixed rate, do you require the consultant to provide free support for 30-60 days after the project?

A consultant who is properly supported, has the right amount of flexibility to use their skills fully, and is financially motivated to provide the best solution will be much more valuable to your organization.

Provide feedback directly and make appropriate referrals

Finally, take the time to let your consultants know how you’re feeling about their services.  Most consultants take great pride in their ability to exceed their client’s expectations.  If they’re not doing that, then they prefer to know it right away so they can make adjustments.

Make sure your consultant knows up front that you make referrals for them based on their performance.  Most consultants work through word-of-mouth, so a recommendation from a satisfied customer is extremely valuable.  When the project wraps up, if you are happy with your experience, do you best to make those qualified referrals in a timely manner.  If you do this, you can be certain that your consultants will go the extra mile to make sure they exceed your expectations.

First and foremost, you may be struggling with the expense and value of training classes.  One of the big questions is always "Is certification worth it?"  This is a question at hiring ("This person has a ton of certifications, they must be good."), it’s a question when your employees want training ("Are they going to get this training and then leave?"), and it’s a question after the training when some employees may ask for a salary increase to recognize their new skills.

I’ve never put much stock in certifications myself.  But a couple weeks ago, I had an experience that may be altering my opinions on the subject.

Earlier this month, I attended a week long class on SQL Server 2005.  I’ve been using SQL Server for a while now and have gotten fairly proficient.  But there were many gaps in my knowledge and some things just weren’t fitting together completely.  So I decided to invest the time and money in the course. 

Now, this was a boot camp style course.  What this means is that the entire class is geared towards making sure you can pass an exam at the end of the week.  To do this, they work through the material of two 5 day courses in just 5 days.  I knew from prior experience that the typical 5 day course is just too slow paced for me.  So a boot camp seemed like a much more productive use of my time.

At the end of the course, I did end up passing the exam.  I now possess a MCTS – SQL Server 2005 certification.  Like I said, I’ve never placed much emphasis on certification.  But through the experience, I learned a number of things that have me thinking differently.

1. The value of the certification depends entirely on the person holding it.  There were 4 people in my class.  Besides myself, there was a programmer and 2 system administrators.  One of the two SAs had absolutely no prior database experience.  All 4 of us passed the exam.  But guess whose certification is absolutely worthless?
2. When looking at a person’s credentials, look for focus and depth rather than an endless list of certifications.  It would be very easy to go out and pass a bunch of tests unrelated to my focus areas.  But to do so would only paint me as a jack of all trades with no true expertise in any specific area. 
3. Training for IT employees is truly a form of compensation.  If your employees get certified and bring new skills to the job, that’s great.  But you don’t have to increase their compensation just because of their increased potential.  When they successfully apply their new learning to solve your business problems, then reward them for that.  Alternatively, if the employee has been using the technology for a long time and the certification recognizes their expertise in that area, then an adjustment may be merited.
4. You need to tailor your training plan to the individual’s learning style.  Some people do really well using self-paced learning at home.  Others do best in a classroom environment.  I shy away from eLearning because I have a hard time staying focused on the content when so many other things are going on.  I also know that the incremental cost of the boot camp style course is well worth it to me because I can handle the faster paced class.
5. If a person has a high level certification, make sure they have the experience to back it up.  Entry level certifications simply prove your familiarity with the subject.  In many ways, it’s acceptable to have a basic certification without experience (i.e., you can’t get experience if you’re not certified, but you can’t get certified without experience).  But the higher level certifications should be looked at closely to make sure their experience matches their training.

I really enjoyed my training and I’ve already found ways to benefit my clients because of it.  I still don’t care about the certification.  But it’s a marketing tool and I’ll use it as such.  Hopefully, my experience will help you know how certification fits into the training and evaluation plan for your IT employees.

But she’s moving forward in a manner that I see all too often. She’s going to spend money, time and effort doing things that are not going to help her run her business very much better.

How do I know this? Let’s look and what she told me her problems are and what’s she’s doing to fix them…

Problem #1: “My point of sale (POS) system crashed, we had to do transactions by hand for 3 days, and the vendor said we can’t recover a bunch of data. The vendor said it was related to a server crash and we don’t know if that’s true and even if our PCs and servers are networked correctly.”

Problem #2: “Our POS can’t handle the number of SKUs we have. The vendor (a remote vendor who couldn’t support us adequately under the old system) is selling us a new POS will fit our needs better.”

Problem #3: “Our processes for managing inventory, receiving, and customer relationships are so overwhelming that we can’t keep up. We have to close down the store for 2 days so we can take inventory. We never know what’s in stock because our current POS doesn’t keep a perpetual inventory.”

Problem #4: “We absolutely have to be profitable this year. I don’t really know if we were profitable last year. I think so, but the information is so scattered that I can’t be sure.”

Given my experience in the area, I see a clear set of activities that can help alleviate these pressures.

• Get a good networking person to analyze your network setup and get any issues straightened out. They’ll make sure PCs and servers are installed and configured correctly, updates are applied, backups are setup, the network is secure, etc.
• The new POS will undoubtedly have capabilities that the old one didn’t. Now is the time to look at all your processes and make sure you are taking full advantage of the new system’s features.
• Integrate the information you need across your disparate systems. QuickBooks, POS, customer relationship software. Stop spending time performing manual data entry to keep these various systems in synch. Use the built in interfaces to integrate the information that needs to be shared, and build the appropriate reporting tools to easily get the information out in a timely manner.

What is she actually doing?

• She has contracted with someone to rebuild their web site.
• She used the remote vendor to put in the new POS.
• She hired a networking and support firm to provide tech support.

So she got a tech support person to help them with the networking component. That’s good.

And she got the new system in place which will provide her with opportunities to support streamlined operations. But she has nobody helping update her processes in order to actually use the system more effectively.

And as far as the web site goes, that activity has nothing to do with improving her operations or ensuring profitability in the coming year. To be fair, the existing web site is really bad. But until she gets her back office processes in place, she won’t even be able to support increased sales from a nicer web site.

So overall, her plan gets a 1.5 out of 3. She’ll probably get to the end of 2008 in the same place where she started. Her PCs may be a bit more reliable, and she’ll probably have a decent new web site. But she’ll still be struggling to keep up. I really hope I’m wrong here. But she will probably end up regretting her IT spending because all the money she spends in 2008 won’t end up resolving the big problems she knows she has today.

Wireless network operators have historically offered phones on the cheap with the stipulation that you sign a 1-2 year contract for their service. In addition to that lock-in period, the operator typically cripples the phone in areas that may compete with their own offerings. For example, Verizon cripples the Bluetooth features on their phones so that you can’t move pictures back and forth between your phone and your PC without going over their data network. And their Wi-Fi enabled phones certainly wouldn’t support calls over a VOIP service such as Skype.

So how will this affect the typical business owner?

• You will pick your phone based on the features that you need (not that the operator wants you to have).
• You will pick your wireless operator based on the best service available in your area.
• Phones may cost more since they’re not being subsidized by a service plan. But if other carriers follow suit, you will see manufacturers producing various editions of the same phone for different types of users.
• Service plans should cost less since they’re not being used to subsidize handsets (yeah, right!). But you may see operators trying to lock you into longer contract periods, exploring plans with differing service levels, or even completely divesting themselves of certain lines (e.g., VCAST won’t survive that long).

I’m ecstatic about this change. I think the wireless network operators have impeded progress for too long. It’s about to change.

As you know, I’m a fan of Microsoft products. There are tons of Vista detractors out there, and the “horror stories” of incompatible printers and other devices are well publicized. These complaints usually come from Apple and Linux fans that like to think their preferred platforms are the best. But while Microsoft has to build software that everyone can use and for which any vendor can provide hardware, the reality is that Apple and Linux can’t (or choose not to) live up to that mission.

So since last Monday, I’ve been using Microsoft’s Windows Vista Business. And I have to say that I honestly don’t know what people are so up in arms about. My machine operates much faster under Vista, and I like most parts of the new interface. The sidebar is nice, but not really a game changer. I do like how it’s there on the main screen instead of hiding like Apple’s version does. The one piece of software I had that was designed pre-Vista (QuickBooks) runs just fine in compatibility mode.

I have had a few problems:

• The backup and restore wizard is poor. Vista only allows you to select types of files to backup, not specific locations. So I’m using the software that comes with my external hard drive to backup only those files that I don’t have redirected to my server.
• My remote desktop connection to one client was REALLY slow. Here’s a great explanation of the problem and the fix.
• Symantec’s pcAnywhere 12.0 wouldn’t install on Vista. Kudos to Symantec for not only getting me the version 12.1 with no hassle at all, but following up a few days later to make sure it was running ok.

And there are a few annoyances:

• User account control was distracting. Prompting me two times every time I do some type of file operation is a little retarded. I’ve turned that off.
• There is now a Contacts folder as part of the user profile. It’s meant to be used with the new Windows Mail client (previously Outlook Express). But there’s no integration with Outlook so it’s just an extra empty folder.
• The new Windows Explorer doesn’t have an “up folder” navigation button.

Overall, nothing to really be alarmed about. Given the improved performance I get while working all day, I’m actually happy I did the upgrade.

Keep a LiveCD around and know how to use it. A LiveCD will allow you to boot up an OS (usually Linux) directly from the CD without needing to access the files on your hard drive. This means you can get access to your documents and save them off to a USB flash drive before reinstalling Windows.

The highlights from the rest of my disaster plan:

• Most of my files were re-directed to save on my server. I never worried about losing anything critical.
• I knew exactly which files I needed off the hard drive because they couldn’t be re-directed (mostly my Outlook pst, Access databases, and QuickBooks files).
• I had a relatively recent list of all the software I needed along with all the license info.
• I wish I had an automated PC setup process, but I work by myself so it’s hardly cost effective.
• I had a “Do a backup” task on my Outlook calendar for every week, but I missed a couple recently. Now I’ve setup an external hard drive and scheduled those files to backup weekly.

If I had already had a LiveCD created prior to Saturday night, I could have been back up and running in a few hours. As it was, I spent more time getting a few files off my hard drive than I spent reloading everything.

Here’s the real kicker…not only did I reload my laptop, but I tempted fate and upgraded to Vista at the same time. How’d that go? Surprisingly well so far. I’ll give it a week and then post my thoughts.