Blog: Michael Serna

Star Trek 2009

I was rather hesitant to watch another Sci-Fi thriller as I was already hooked to the Star Wars saga all along. Another attempt to stir my addictive ways to the realm of another galaxy would increase my geekiness by another 150 points. But I wasn't all that hooked into it. I think this is more of the fan based that touched the lives of those that loved the 1960's version of the television series. The action was great and I tried to adapt to the philosophy they had of commanding space ships and space wars. But the movie wasn't for me. But I'd give the movie 4 out of 5 stars. It's what I gave it in my iTunes playlist after purchasing the movie from it. Nice to see that iTunes is adapting to a menu-like system like DVDs do.

Giving Thanks With a Grateful Heart

Sometimes when you reach down deep in yourself and look what the good Lord has really done in our lives, it is with our sincere hearts that we must give thanks. May not only be this day to give thanks and give, but let this be something we experience everyday. Below is a song my church hasn't sang for a while but whenever I do hear it, I appreciate the melody and kindness of what this song brings to my heart. I thank God for all the great upcomings in my life, but I ESPECIALLY thank God for all the shortcomings, the failures, the trials, and a couple of hard times. "All things work for good."

"Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son"

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"

      "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
      Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
      For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
      In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
      The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
      O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker."

      Psalm 100 (KJV)

Scope Creep

The key factor on scope creep is how we manage changes in the scope. I for one have experienced both the good and bad experiences of scope creep. With creating websites I always allow a buffer in case other projects interferes with my workload. It pisses my boss off when I tell a client that their website can be done in 10 business days when it can really be done in 2. The reality is, I’m always anticipating scope changes even before and during a website is being built out. So be kind and confident that if you accept changes, anticipate their kindness and respect to you. Just like the roofing incident, anticipating these problems comes from experiencing these incidents in pervious jobs. According to Gurlen, “Scope creep more frequently occurs during the later stages of a project, such as programming and testing, than during the earlier stages, such as design.  Changes may happen in the later stages as the project team gains more knowledge of the problem and solution.  Scope changes can be numerous small changes or can be a fundamental design change.” What must be avoided are ongoing changes that are free of change, unless it was a task that was mistakenly made by you, then in that case, the client can make the request to have it fixed. My previous supervisor has always said, “It’s easy to get the 80% done, and the hard part is the last 20%.”

Ref: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/gurlen/

As defined from the PMBOK (4^th edition page, 125), uncontrolled changes are often referred to as project scope creep. The article provided on today’s discussion was excellent, and we can also find another example here: http://www.my-project-management-expert.com/scope-creep-example.html. The article explains that as project managers, we must try and avoid scope creep. Especially in the private sector. If we allow it to happen so much, we can lose our jobs, and potentially, our careers as project managers. Even if it is in the IT world, there is no UNDO feature like what we do on our computers.

Manny Pacquiao Win

The fight last Saturday may not be as hyped as Oscar de la Hoya's bout with Manny but it still generated a lot of excitement during and after the fight against Miguel Cotto. Congratulations Manny, the pride of the Philippines. After the fight, there was so much talk about Manny's next Opponent being Floyd Mayweather Jr. For now, we'll just celebrate and hope and expect a great fight between the 2. This was a definite fight-of-the-year caliber type fight! The fight turned around in rounds 3 and 4 and after round 6 Miguel started to just run away. So the fight was kind of decided after round 6, although I will give Cotto some credit giving Manny a good 1st round and powerful punches in some of the sequences during the fight. I liked the Rocky intro music during Pacquiao's entrance to the ring! Was very pumped!

Fight Analysis on ESPN

 

Congratz Manny!

FEL (Front-End Loading)

I stumbled upon a great article that goes into detail on Front End Loading (FEL). According to: http://www.halliburton.com/public/landmark/contents/Papers_and_Articles/web/OGFJ_July2008.pdf, “Front End Loading (FEL) is a methodology that takes a deliberate approach to capital project planning.” The FEL methodology is currently being applied by many operators to optimize asset production operations and well construction design and maintenance.” So we see a lot of planning or even brainstorming that takes place before the actual implementation process. The benefits to having FEL is that a lot of kinks can be worked out from a design phase standpoint. For example, when we see a website being built out unsuccessfully it usually leads clients to be unsatisfied. Many web companies in my time have no idea what customers want on their website. The designer goes ahead and builds a site without having any interaction with the customer. What is lacking here is a person or a team (specifically an implementation team) to discuss the scope of the project. With this, we find out exactly what our customers want and expect. The way things should be handled is that we find out absolutely everything we need to know from the customer the first time around, so that an easy and smooth transition can be made with building the websites out. And this can apply to many projects in general, not just in IT. The PDF mentions about identifying risks and opportunities that can lead to a successful project implementation. The cons about having FEL are that it does take some time and money before the project is actually being implemented. Also getting too involved may delay the project’s overall turnaround time for delivery. If a project has been routinely done and the persons involved knows what they’re doing, then the FEL process can be simplified or even eliminated. Many professionals do know or have some familiarty with FEL, but have not really implemented it. With new product development in Japan, their process goes so fast that there may not be any time to come up with a FEL plan as indicated from the article by CAPS research, http://www.capsresearch.org/publications/pdfs-public/capsjapan2009es.pdf (pg 7). This probably occurs in a lot of other companies as well. The document also points out what Japan focuses on FEL: 1. Customer focus centering on doing the right things 2. Cycle-time reduction focusing on doing them correctly So we can see that FEL can have its benefits but it also takes a lot of time and research (at least during it’s ititiating process) to get it going. With FEL, much of the heavy work is done in the beginning so that errors and issues can be minimized or even eliminated during the climax or towards the end of the project. Company exepectations is so high at times because new products and services are being released at a rapid rate; it's hard to imagine that FEL is being applied. But because industries move so quickly, so must project managers and how they initiate plans and execute them making projects succesful.

First Day: LiveOffice

I had a good first day at work today. As expected, slow at first, but it'll begin to pick up as the days go by. Was excited to meet the team today and look forward to a meeting with them again tomorrow. As my project management knowledge begin to grow, I have to gear up my knowledge of web design as well! What can I get started with. Tableless CSS or compatibility issues with Internet Explorer 6 comes into mind.

Strategic Planning for Excellence in Project Management

"Strategic planning will help you fully uncover your available options, set priorities for them, and define the methods to achieve them." - Robert J. McKain

Bose Headphones for Sale

I'm selling my Bose headphones for $70. Half off of its original price. What you see here is what you get. No product manual or plastic casing. It's working perfectly fine as you might hear in stores that demo the product like Target. Retail is $139.95. View product specs here.

New Job Opportunity

I'm really looking forward to bringing my skills and experience towards a company that has been established for some time and has been looking to grow from this ever-growing technological phenomenon that's call the "The Internet." LiveOffice is a service that offers services. We offer unlimited e-mail hosting storage and cloud solutions. I'm excited and committed to establishing myself as a person to provide solutions to our clients and my team as projects get heavy. I have to honestly say that I over-estimated the job market and how we are still "recovering" from a recession that has affected many people both losing and looking for jobs.

There is no question that if you're thinking about quitting your paying job right now, don't quit! Unless it's of a life or death situation. We're also approaching the holiday season, so unless you're applying for a job as a retailer or cashier, you may have to wait until January. Business is tough and direct hires are the way to go. Third-party recruiters are squandering their time and money for companies who need the right people. Paid recruiters are desperately seeking your availability whether you get hired or not because they are offering their services (which is you) to attend these interviews.

General Strategic Planning

Strategic planning for a business environment is the process of formulating and implementing decisions about an organization's future direction.