Technology As Promised (TAP)

The New Rules of Online Job Hunting – ABC News

David Kohrell — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:44:41 +0000

The power and transformation of LinkedIn on the market place for job seekers and recruiters.

The New Rules of Online Job Hunting – ABC News.

Risk Types from Auditing (via TAPUniversity’s Blog)

tapuniversity — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:36:44 +0000

Don't start from scratch. Reuse and recycle. Learn from others. Those three quick statements for learning apply to risk management. Identifying potential risks, good and bad, can be a cumbersome process. To hasten the process, discover what risk are common for your industry, whether that's construction, information technology, product development or public power. Use those as assumed inherent risks and build from there. A good source of … Read More

via TAPUniversity's Blog

Software Risk List (via TAPUniversity’s Blog)

tapuniversity — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:36:31 +0000

Steve McConnell, famous Borland and Microsoft developer and author of the renowned "Code Complete (1993)" and "Rapid System Development (1996)", captured the following risks for software development in "Rapid System Development", page 86. Though this list is 15 years old, I still use it as a starting point (not much has changed, has it?). Feature Creep (some say "sprint") Requirement of developer gold plating Short changed quality Overly optimis … Read More

via TAPUniversity's Blog

Welcome to the new Technology As Promised, LLC (TAP) home page

David Kohrell — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:02:59 +0000

Five years of hit and miss Frontpage updates had their appeal and disdain for us. The appeal was the Web 1.0 updating tool of choice – Frontpage. The disdain was its static nature. We’ve rehosted to bring the blog ‘vibe’ of our TAPUniversity blog here – to TAP. The focus of TAP is consulting services. While TAPUniversity delivers exceptional training at value price points, our goal here is to test the waters of what works in a challenging economic environment and what doesn’t.

We’re rolling in some of our historic content – so don’t worry. You’ll see the links to the RUP articles, connection to our event calendar and virtual team content very soon.

RFP’s – Vendor Selection – Scoring

David Kohrell — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:37:35 +0000

In a Request For Proposal selection process or project a flexibility, well defined rubric is critical. That rubric is more commonly known as score sheets, scales and weights. The best practice is to define that rubric prior to issuing the RFP – the selection committee needs to know 1) what they are selected and 2) how they will evaluate before a RFP is published.

The rubric can include a combination of technical fit, organizational fit, cost and other factors. Low price does not mean lowest cost (or often referred to as Total Cost of Ownership – TCO).

This leads to scores, scales and weights. A score is what a vendor is awarded. There are two uses of score – one is typically as a “raw” score the other is an aggregate score after applying all weights, scales and subtotals. The scale may help organize that score (think of a scale as a 1 to 5 with 5 serving as the highest or best score). A weight is added to elements that are important or Critical To Quality (CTQ). The idea is a feature or attribute of the vendor may be “extra” important.

Request For Quotation (RFQ)

tapuniversity — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:52:21 +0000

A Request For Quotation is a seller selection process where the buyer knows what they need and specifies quantity, terms, even target price. It is a companion, complimentary seller/vendor selection tool to the Request For Proposal. You might use a RFQ at your work place and not even realize it. For example purchasing 100 copies of Microsoft Windows, 25 chairs, 200 notebooks or, dare to dream, 25 Apple IPads are examples of a RFQ. You know what you want and even the quantity, but you desire to do some comparison shopping. Some organizations develop a meta-RFQ list, such as the United States General Services Accounting (GSA) list or Wal-Mart’s preferred vendor list.

Request For Proposal

David Kohrell — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:46:13 +0000

A Request For Proposal (RFP) is a common way to select for a vendor based solution or product. They are used when what is needed can be identified and described, but a detailed step by step method may not be known. RFP’s may result in a fixed bid or cost plus performance contract awarded to upon RFP submission and selection of a vendor (seller) or upon submission, selection and negotiation.

Best Practices – two keys:

For RFP creation and vendor selection, it is best practice to focus on the “what” and not jump into the “how”. If how a solution should be delivered is known, than a Request For Quotation is the better tool.
Predetermine criteria and ranking for vendor selection prior to scoring prospective vendors. Never change the scoring mid-stream. Changing up scoring can lead to bias “well Red Hot Tomato had a good proposal but wow, did you see what Mild Chilly Peppers did?” often leads to a bad selection.

Acculturation in Organizations

tapuniversity — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:00:14 +0000

“Welcome to the company, Kaite!” says Kenneth. “Thanks, I just finished the 3-day orientation session” says Kaite. “Did they talk about the Kentucky Derby taboo?” whispered Kenneth. “Uhh…no.” said Kaite confused. “Don’t ever mention it! The CEO lost all his savings betting on Trippi ten years ago. Actually, it’s best never to mention the names of ten horses that beat Trippi either. HR messes up by using the word ‘aptitude’ sometimes. Aptitude came in second that derby. With all our international business, it’s fortunate that Trippi beat Exchange Rate.” said Kenneth with a sigh. “Thanks for tip! What else should I know about working here?” asked Kaite.

Although the term “acculturation” is often used in a grand scale of a smaller group of people adapting the customs of a larger, dominant culture, it can also be used in reference to an individual adopting their organization’s culture. Organizations differ in their level of formality, dress, customs, and in many other ways that make up their unique culture. Learning and adopting the organization’s culture can occur through training as well as through casual observations and conversations with other members of the organization.

Constructive Dismissal

tapuniversity — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:00:34 +0000

Barney always smelled bad, nobody could read his writing, and his team members found it creepy how he stared at their cell phones. Peter is the project manager whose team includes Barney and ten other people. Peter wants to get rid of Barney, but doesn’t want to fire him. Instead, Peter decides to enlist the help of the rest of his team to make Barney’s life so horrible that he just quits on his own accord. One team member pops the letter keys out of Barney’s computer keyboard and re-arranges them. This has the effect of making Barney quite unproductive, for which Peter takes the opportunity to tell him that he is about as good as a hibernating bear. A young woman on the team walks by Barney’s desk every day waving her cell phone in his face, saying “you’ll never have a cool phone like mine!” Peter then informs Barney that his work hours are changing to 1:00am to 6:00am, seven days a week. Also, everyone on the team gets a raise except for Barney, who gets a severe pay cut. Barney is miserable. Barney quits.

Barney sues the company. He claims this case of Constructive Dismissal, and due to being treated unfairly, Barney is decides to take legal action. Depending on the State of incorporation, success of such legal action is very unlikely. The moral of the story is while it appears to be a open and shut case for Barney – he should have engaged the team to learn what he could do differently. It will involve time to fight the frivolous lawsuit and that is the lesson for Peter.

Q1 + Q2 = H1

tapuniversity — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:00:52 +0000

Project managers that work with cost management and budgeting are probably already very familiar with their organization’s fiscal year (FY). The fiscal year is broken into quarters (which are time periods of three months each since there are twelve months in a year). The first quarter is abbreviated Q1, the second Q2, and so on. Rather than looking at financials in terms of four time periods a year, they can also be examined by splitting the fiscal year in half. The first half of the fiscal year is equivalent to the time period spanning across both Q1 and Q2 and is abbreviated H1. The second half of the fiscal year is abbreviated H2. So if Ingrid’s Ice Cream Shop’s FY begins September 1, than Q1 includes September, October, and November. H1 would include September through February.