Happy New Year 2014

Time to say Aloha to 2013 and Aloha to 2014.

Are you making New Years resolutions? I'm not making any resolutions. Most resolutions are broken within two weeks after they are made.

Keep chasing your dreams because you will catch them if they are really important to you.

Take one day at a time...

What Project Management means to me in a nut shell

The Project Manager is the person responsible for deliveing a project from inception to completion. The Project Charter is your foundation to run the project. A team of subject matter experts will be assigned to tasks to be executed at specific stages in the project with a deadline to allow subsequent tasks to execute on schedule. The Project Manger will have to keep on top of all activities by using delegation at times to ensure everything is being monitored properly.

Qualities of the Project Manager:

- People skills to lead your team.

- The go-to person that needs to know everything.

- Problem solving skills to keep the project moving. 

- Report writer of concise status reports.

- Meeting organizer.

- Sense of humor.

- Lifetime learner.

- Keep it simple.

- Good listener. 

- Confidence 

- Thick skin.

- Speaker

There is so much more to Project Management that I could go on and on about it. 

Project Management is an adventure.

Six year old boy accused of Sexual Harassment

The world is changing every day for the better or for the worst. The politically correct movements are so comical and pure stupid.

Children are basically innocent and learning every day how the world works and need a lot of guidance now that we made it so complicated for them to navigate through. Is a six year old capable of intentional sexual harrasment? Absolutely not! 

A six year old boy in Colorado was suspended for kissing a classmate on the hand. Oh my goodness we need to lock him up and throw away the key. Joking aside we need to wake up and get real already. That Colorado school should have used that incident as an opportunity to educate the children on sexual harrasment in a gentle way since our society expects so much from six year old children. Instead the poor boy gets suspend and is so confused now. Schools please educate and stop creating so much drama. 

This is a true HR policy created years ago in my former Banking days. We were told that you cannot tell a co-worker that you look good. That was deemed sexual harassment. Example if I told a female co-worker that I liked her outfit I would be written up.

Common sense let's bring it back please. Let's teach boys and girls manners. Have the boys open the doors for the young girls and the girls respond back with a nice thank you. Chivalry is what the world lacks. Start teaching manners in schools early to build a foundation for our children to become respectful adults one day.

The Minimum Wage Debate

Effective January 01.01.2014 Washington State will have the highest hourly minimum wage of $9.32.

Minimum wage is a debate with no winners. The intent of minimum wage is perceived as a bridge to get you to your higher paying job and not to make a permanent living out of it. Well in a perfect world minimum wage would be temporary, but sadly it's not.

Rising minimum wage payrolls will be passed on to consumers so we all lose on that aspect. The danger in rising minimum wages is small businesses could downsize to survive and layoff workers. Full time workers might be reduced to part time. Some business will just fold up.

I support minimum wage reviews to raise minimum wages to keep up with inflation within reason. Proceed with caution because short time gains could have some consequences down the road.

The War on Christmas

What color is Santa Claus? Well as far as I can rember he is white. There has been a lot of discussion on Santa's color lately. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but we cannot change tradition and history to please the politically correct people. Saying he is white is not racist it's just a fact. Let's not bring race into the Santa debate.

Leave Santa alone. Feel free to copy him without demanding we change his color. The politically correct movement is just hellbent on attacking Christmas. 

We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25 around the world and make it a holiday. The politically correct are offended by nativity displays and any reference to Jesus or Christmas and demand the removal of nativity displays and referencing Jesus or Christmas. I'm offended by the politically correct people who disrespect the meaning of Christmas. Leave Chrirtmas alone it's the holiday we celebrate. What holiday do those politically correct people think we are celebrating.

We have commercialized Christmas so much that everyone celebrates it now not knowing the true meaning. Shopping is now associated with Christmas stressing people out over shopping days to buy gifts. I feel disrespected when people get so hung up on the the shopping and not realize what we are truly celebrating.

The Risk Assessment

Holding a Risk Assessment meeting prior to implementing a modification to a process or system that could result in loss of productivity to a business unit. Invite business units with a stake in the implementation. Encourage feedback to tear up your plan and look for any holes in it. You need to really know your stuff when you hold a risk assessment meeting because they can get intense. The meeting is your time to shine and field questions. Show what you are made of. Be confident and never get defensive or offended by the reviewers. You should have a subject matter expert on your team to help you out when a discussion gets out of hand. Sometimes the risk assessment meeting has hecklers to distract from the productivity of the meeting and your job is to shut that person down diplomatically to keep the meeting on track.

The risk assessment document should include an implementation timeline giving a summary and anticipated duration of the activity that is being performed. Build your timeline with appropriate padding to allow you some extra time should you run into issues or take a little longer than anticipated. Break down your timeline into half hour increments to gauge your progress. The Go/No-go decision needs to be placed at a critical point in your timeline to evaluate your current progress to determine if the implementation is on track or not on track with numerous issues encountered warranting a back-out of the implementation. The plan should also include names and contact numbers of key people that you might need to reach out to at anytime during the implementation.

Reflections of 2013

Another year is coming to an end. Take some time to look back at 2013.

ObamaCare implementation upsetting the majority of americans that had a doctor and good insurance plan. A very poorly written law with deception and confusion. The roll out of ObamaCare is a joke.

The unemployed looking for a job. Dear hiring managers, stop asking applicants the question "Why do you think you have not found a job yet". Hiring managers need to to put themselves in the applicants shoes. I think hiring managers would not appreciate that question if they became unemployed and find it hard to land a decent job. 

Violence in the workplace, schools and public places is an issue that needs more attention. Not a simple fix.

Social Media has so much power now. You can lose your job or get suspended. You need to be careful what you say and post. We all need to speak and post responsibly, but do not take away anyone's right to "Freedom of Speech" and call them a prejudice person if you lack reading comprehension skills when you disagree with them. Respect everyone's right to view their options and if you don't like it tune it out. If the person is not causing physical harm you need to grow up because we can't always hear what we want to hear. 

We need to be thankful for what he have. Having a job and home should mean a lot when so many are struggling paycheck to paycheck to survive. Just take a look at all the homeless on the streets and camping in the parks.

Just wash your hands please

Let's all help to reduce spreading contagious germs and practice good hygiene. It's really simple just wash your hands frequently so you don't spread any germs and don't become a victim of someone else's germs.

This is disgusting on the side of personal hygiene. I have observed in public restrooms no hand washing after using the toilet or urinal. The person just dashes out of the restroom after they do their business. Yuck! I feel sorry for the person that shakes their hand and I hope they are not in the food service industry. I have to use a paper towel to exit the restroom. I'm not touching that door handle. Would you touch it?

What did you just tweet?

Twitter a very powerful social media platform. A tweet can be seen by millions in seconds. We have people monitoring twitter for keywords to start a firestorms over tweets that people of notoriety make.

We have technology at our finger tips and it's so easy now to express your feelings on the fly meaning no harm most of the time just poor judgement in words. If you select the wrong words you are going to create a firestorm on twitter by the twitter police. You can lose your job over a tweet.

Most people have a personal twitter account. If you tweet from a personal account add a disclaimer to your profile that this is your personal account. That won't save you, but it does differentiate your business and personal tweets. Personal tweets should be hands off. Don't take it so serious get a life. People at the spur of the moment have a lapse in judgement and say stupid things. Just think if the President could have fit his biggest lie of the year words on a tweet he might have been tempted to tweet it. The president is more into selfies, so I think he is safe on twitter.

Tales of Project Management

You are the Project Manager for two important projects that need your attention on a Saturday night what do you do? Have the right people on the project. 

I had a Radiology/Pharmacy system relocation go-live that involved moving the system across town to a new Data Center. The second project required some critical tasks to be performed for another project that cannot move forward until two critical tasks are completed.

The players that supported me was a Business Analyst, Data Center Operations Supervisor, and HP Field Engineer to shut down and pack up the hardware at 23:00 to let the moving company deliver the system to the new Data Center.

The system arrived in the new Data Center in good condition. The Data Center was already prepared for power, network connectivity,  and telephone lines. Everything went well except an issue with a legacy application that had issues with a modem. I had to leave the team and work on my second project that I was the only player that could do two critical tasks to keep the project on track.

I had to drive back to the old Data Center to perform the two critical tasks. It's 03:00 and I go to work and everything went according to my plan and I finish at 04:30. 

Time to drive back to the new Data Center to help the team get the legacy application working. We get the application to work at 11:00 Sunday morning. 

The key to a successful project go-live is teamwork, it's so important to support each other. Having a good Risk Assessment review meeting to make sure you cover everything in your go-live plan is so important to catch anything that you might have missed on the plan.

Tip for your project go-live plans. When you develop your plan break the timeline down in half hour increments when possible. By breaking down your tasks in half hour increments you can measure your progress better. You will see what areas are taking more time or less time to complete. You can determine if you need to back out the implementation or continue to move forward. In some cases you can't go back so it will help you give a status report to management.

No Aloha allowed for state workers in Hawaii for Macy's Believe Campaign

When I heard this story it pissed me off. The Hawaii State Ethics Commission has become the Grinch that stole Christmas from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

http://wish.org 

http://wish.org/content/macys-believe-campaign

Macy's has a campaign "Believe” that urges kids to write letters to Santa to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is a great cause and a good class project to practice writing skills. Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish for each letter that a student turns in to a Macy's store. 

The State of Hawaii commission issued an advisory saying that the state ethics code prohibits state of Hawaii workers to promote charities on work time. Mainland schools participate in this great campaign without harassment from their local government.

State of Hawaii write better laws and make some exceptions on stupid laws that you write.

Generation gap on social media?

Is there a generation gap on social media? No

People of all ages use social media so what are some of the excuses not to use it. I'm to busy, I'm a private person. Not good excuses. We have many types of users. Some live on it and others jump on a few times a day. Just find a balance to not interfere with your real life interactions.

Twitter is more important than Facebook it has evolved to be a complement to your email account. Don't get caught off guard when someone ask's you for your twitter name and you say what?

Facebook is a good way to stay in touch with family and friends keeping some posts private and some public.

LinkedIn is a must for everyone it's your e-business card. Don't just open an account with minimal info to just be a stalker to look at other profiles. A must for job seekers.

Google+ my is my favorite. It's Twitter and Facebook combined. Google+ allows you to make some great connections all over the world.

Just get on social media and have fun. Keep in touch with the important people in your life.

Obamacare what was he thinking?

The Hawaii Prepaid Health Care (PHC) Act (PHCA) is a state law in Hawaii passed in 1974 requiring employers to offer health insurance to employees working more than 20 hours per week. You can read more about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Prepaid_Health_Care_Act

It's strange how the President grew up in Hawaii and he did not think about modeling his Obamacare after Hawaii to lay the foundation for the Affordable Care Act. Instead he creates the master plan that will take care of America in one sweep.

The implementation of Obamacare is an example of poor planning, misleading deliverables and not realizing the scope of such a huge project. Obamacare did not employ the right subject matter experts to create a law that could have been modeled after Hawaii to start with. Lay a realistic foundation first then build on it filling in the gaps in phases.

Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays

What do we say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"?  Both greetings are fine using your judgement on the audience or person you are extending the greeting too.

The issue I have is if you want to say "Merry Christmas" close to 12/24 and 12/25 and someone get's offended. I'm sorry that is the Holiday we are celebrating Christmas. The birth of Jesus Christ. What did you think we were celebrating Santa Claus. 

Saying "Merry Christmas" to someone is not disrespectful. It's disrespectful to get offended when someone says "Merry Christmas" to you.

A general rule is to be gracious when someone extends you any type of greeting it means no disrespect.

Stop picking on the usage of Christmas because that is the Holiday we celebrate on December 25th.

Leave schools alone and let children celebrate Christmas.

Cheating Death

It was Summer on the South Shore in Hawaii on the Island of Oahu. The surf was BIG. On this day I was going to surf to twilight. The surf was intense that day at my favorite spot Rockpiles Rights surfed mostly by regular foot (right foot) surfers that's me, but goofy foot (left foot) surfers like it to.

The sun is making it's descent for another spectacular sunset show. The air is cool with salt mist from the relentless surf pounding on the reef. It's just a feeling of awe being out there in the ocean hearing the waves explode on the reef you are natures guest to a spectacular show of force and beauty and you have a front row seat.   

It's calm for awhile as you wait for the sets to roll in (waves). I spot the wave I want. I'm going for it. I take off on it and it's big and powerful, but it starts to close out on me and I wipe out. What luck, I wipe out in the worst area, I'm still close to the area where the waves start to break so the intensity in that area is like a washing machine. The wipe out is an experience you don't forget it's like drowning but you are prepared before you get sucked underwater tossed around spinning around under water in bubbling dark water as you get pushed down hoping you don't slam into the reef and leave some flesh behind by getting slashed up by the razor sharp reef. It was high tide that day so the reef was not the problem. I was held down so long it felt like an eternity I could feel my surfboard that was attached to my ankle by a surf leash pulling with great force to reach the surface it was partially underwater too. I was underwater as more waves broke over me pounding me. I experienced natures washing machine.

I began to get a feeling that this is the last day of my life. I'm thinking as I try to climb my surf leash back to the surface to grab my surfboard. I realized I should conserve my air. I took a chance with that strategy since I'm also a skin diver and can hold my breath.  

I'm now at death's door step. A feeling of clarity and serenity as you see your life flashing by you and you think of your family and things you haven't done and say I'm not going to die today. With my last remaining breath in me I attempt one more time to make it to the surface. I finally make it to the surface. I paddle away from the break zone to safety to catch my breath.  

The experience that I will never forget. I was a teen when this happened. Life flashing by you and you get to live.

HealthCare.Gov a text book Project Management nightmare

It's in the news daily the debacle of the the implementation of one of the biggest projects the Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare.

I'm scratching my head. How was the project team selected? 

We now realize that the team in charge of implementing ObamaCare did not have the technical experience to build a complex website. The most important person the Project Manager lacked insight and tenacity to realize that something did not feel right. Let's give him a break. He was not told or unaware of issues. What!!! A Project Manager needs to be in everyone's business always by asking questions to uncover any deficiencies.