Marty Floyd’s Weblog

Brooks Law (which paraphrased, says that adding additional people to a late software project only makes it later) does not just apply to adding people. Reorganization, changing contractors, or reassigning personnel in a late project will most likely not improve the situation. However, it will provide a convenient excuse for management when things start to fail! When the schedule starts to slip in a major way, there exist only two viable solutions. First, change the schedule. Second, reassess the requirements and provide less functionality. Of course, a poorly designed system that is into development or testing cannot easily have functionality removed without major recoding. Therefore, often the only viable solution is to change the schedule.

The project manager must be aware of what to say and do when management wants to throw more bodies at a project falling behind schedule, especially if the schedule delivery date was dictated by management.

See the full article at http://www.mmbandt.com/PM2000_Software_Development_Estimation.htm

Everyone has heard of the value of the B vitamins in general. Most people have heard or read about B-complex. B-complex is one of the main listed items in any multivitamin suppliment.

I became very interested in B-12 when my doctor told me mine was low and that I should start taking a multivitamin. The problem was that I already took a daily multivitamin.

The low B-12 started several visits to specialists trying to find out why.

I started taking subligual B-complex while I had tests run on digestion and absorption. Seems that I was in a fog for a while with memory problems, lethargic and uneasy.

The more I read the more I realized there were several B vitamins that could be causing my physical/mental situation. I even found that there were some B vitamins I had never heard of before like B-13 (orotic acid). Over time I learned a lot about the vitamins I had taken for granted that make up dietary requirements.

Finally it was determined that my digestive tract was working so fast I could not properly absorb B-12. Once it was slowed with medication I eventually was able to stop taking the sublingual booster. The oddest thing about B-12 was that it takes so little of it to do it’s work. 

Fat, salt and sugar are problematic for those of us that can’t stay away from fast-food restaurants. Most of their products are deep-fried. At the least we can do our homework and read the nutritional guides available at most of these restaurants.

You can order a salad with low-fat or nofat dressing. You can avoid sweetened drinks, especially those that are sweetened with fructose or high fructose corn syrup because research indicates they increase our appetite for fatty foods and total calories.

Oils and fats have about 9 calories per gram. Saturated and polyunsaturated fats are definitely worse on your heart and cardiovascular system. Monounsaturated fat such as in olive oil is better for you.

Meats such as lamb, beef and pork are very high in saturated fat. Chicken and turkey are better as they have less and fish is best as it has the least saturated fat.

Obviously cooking affects nutrition as the heat decreases the vitamin content. Boiling disolves vitamins and minerals in the water which is genreally discarded. I eat a lot of broiled foods as broiling or barbecuing reduces fat. I love to cook outside on my grill.

Fresh friuts and vegetables contain the most nutrition and frozen is next best as it preserves most of the nutrition.

Fiber is important in any diet and more fiber reduces your chances of eating fat by curbing your appetite. It also helps you lose weight by keeping you feeling fuller, longer. Fiber carries waste out of the body quickly and that helps “flush” unabsorbed fat and calories as well!

Being fired can often provide a jolt to start your own business. Entrepreneurs are becoming much more common as self-employment has climbed 10.6 percent this year alone according to a Chicago-based outplacement firm.

During the first quarter of this year some 139,269 layoffs have been reported by the Labor Department.

Sometimes it turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Some examples of people who were fired, or released, and found success are:

• J.K. Rowling (billionaire writer) was fired as a secretary for writing short stories at her computer. She used her severence to start the “Harry Potter” series.
• Walt Disney (DisneyLand) was fired from a newspaper for having a lack of ideas.
• Michael Bloomberg (20 billion dollar media mogal, New York mayor) was released from his wall street company when restructuring took place.

Being a sole-proprietor, or a one-person consultant business , I am one of the 78% of all US businesses that have no employees. I have also had the fortune of having been “released” from a contract. I used some contents and ideas in books I started to devour such as “Manifest Your Destiny”, “The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire”,  and “The Thinker’s Toolkit” to begin to make my own luck and become my version of success!

The Seven Deadly Sins

Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, it if becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self righteous. Ashley Cooper, writer

It is great to believe and feel these feelings without the “ifs” that turn them deadly.

Project Management

My training and background in software development has included the “cradle to grave” approach, the Spiral, RAD, Extreme, Agile, and other software development  styles. The main thing is that they all are implementations of a software development life cycle (SDLC). As such they all include the major pieces of a project charter to say what is to be done and what approach is to be followed. They all define the objectives for the project, the goals, how to accomplish the project, and know that the project did at least meet the stated objectives.

The major tool for accomplishing a project is called project management. Three examples follow that discuss  “Project Management” concepts. First is an excerpt from Brian Tracy, secondly an excerpt from Marty Floyd, and thirdly an excerpt from “Self-Help”.

Brian Tracy said –

Some skills are peripheral to success. It’s nice to have them, but they don’t make much of a difference one way or another. There are other skills, however, that are absolutely essential to your fulfilling your potential, and you must develop them to a fairly high degree if you are to achieve all of your goals.One of these absolutely essential skills is the ability to manage projects of various sizes. A project is defined as a multitask job, the kind that you engage in every day in the process of making a living and carrying on the business of your life.

Marty Floyd said –

As a starting point it is important to discuss what is called the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK). The PMBOK was developed to provide consistent definition to the phases of a project and to delineate what should be considered as important within the context of each part of project management guidance.  The knowledge areas and project management processes are contained in nine main focus areas.

• Project Integration Management - development of project plan, project plan execution and change control.
• Project Scope Management - initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and scope change control.
• Project Time Management - activity definition, activity sequencing, activity duration estimation, schedule development and schedule control.
• Project Cost Management - resource planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting and cost control.
• Project Quality Management - quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
• Project Human Resource Management - organizational planning, staff acquisition and team development.
• Project Communications Management - communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting and administrative closure.
• Project Risk Management - risk identification, risk qualification, risk response development and risk response control.
• Project Procurement Management - procurement planning, solicitation planning, solicitation, source selection, contract administration and contract close-out.

As you can see from these focus areas there is a strong emphasis on the use and meaning of the word “control”. A LOT of activity and paperwork can be developed in these management areas, but the main point is that there must be corrective action as required. The authority and responsibility resides with the project manager. There are many skills and attributes that a project manager needs to draw upon to be effective. The project manager has to be:

• Leader - as a manager the primary concern is consistently provide key results that are expected by the “stakeholders”. Leading is also required and involves establishing the vision, strategies needed to “realize” the vision, and, in fact, establishing the direction. The leader must motivate, inspire and communicate among the various people overcoming the political, bureaucratic and people barriers. It is important to remember that leadership must be demonstrated at all levels within the project such as by individuals responsible for technical issues and by team members.

• Communicating - exchanging information is the key. Make sure that clear, concise and complete information is given to the receiver. Make sure that the receiver has obtained the information in its entirety and that it is clearly understood. Communications is a broad subject area but suffice to say that, whether oral or written, communications is critical to the project. It does not matter whether the communications are formal, whether the communications are going up, down or vertical. What does matter is that the effort will be far exceeded by the results. One thing to remember is that if you tell everyone at once you have a better chance of getting information disseminated correctly, rather than reliance on word of mouth by members of the team telling others. Every time a different person relays information the slant, intent, body language, inflection all have a chance to infer something different.   

• Negotiating - conferring with people to come to consensus or agreement. Negotiating infers that there may be a need for a mediator, arbitrator or facilitator. It depends on the circumstance, the importance, the level, and, more likely, the issues. Issues like cost, scope, objectives, contract terms and conditions, resources can all require negotiating skills.

• Problem solving - defining (problem definition) and deciding (decision making based on analysis, solution viability or dictates from stakeholders).

• Influencing the organization - the ability to use power and politics to get things done. This requires the ability to understand the mechanics or the organization regarding how to constructively use political ability.     

Project management processes can be organized into five groupings of one or more processes each as follows:

• Initiating processes - this includes recognizing that a project or phase should begin and making a commitment to do it.
• Planning processes - this means developing and maintaining a “workable” plan to accomplish what the project was undertaken to accomplish.
• Executing processes - coordinating people and any other resources to “execute” or carry out the plan.
• Controlling processes - making sure that the project objectives are met by measuring and monitoring progress. Furthermore, it means taking appropriate corrective actions when necessary.
• Closing processes - bringing the project to an orderly conclusion with formal acceptance of the phase or the project.

Everyone connected with managing projects has had the additional core challenge of developing metrics that are “added value” in performance capability and delivery of completed projects that meet the expectations of stakeholders. Collecting metrics does not mean just tabulating figures. It means developing information that helps now and then helps even more in future efforts.There are many, many methods. The charge is to determine what works best for your organization. There are volumes of information on what to collect and how to use the measures effectively. The main point is to not just collect data. Collect information!      To see the reference web page go to http://www.mmbandt.com/Marty’s_PM_page.htm

An example of a project on self-help is at Psychological Self Help: see, download and read it at http://www.mentalhelp.net/psyhelp

An estimated 72 million adults in America have hypertension, or high blood pressure. The term “silent killer” seems to have been lost in current literature and has been replaced with the term “life-threatening conditions”.

The undiagnosed or untreated person with hypertension may have hardening of the arteries everywhere in the body, like the brain, heart, kidneys, eyes! With the result of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness and even death, it is amazing that many people still don’t bother having it checked because they feel OK.

A big warning sign is if you have immediate family history of high blood pressure. That should be a tickler to have yours checked and monitored.

You can make a difference yourself by maintaining a “right lifestyle” that can prevent or control high blood pressure. Keep salt intake below 6 grams a day, eat fewer calories, maintaining a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Exercise, or physical activity, has been shown to lower the risk of developing hypertension.

These are some of many simple things we can do to help ourselves before serious damage has occurred. One of the biggest problems is that we do not take the time to include prevention in our personal lives. We get caught up in the visible, economic, social requirements to the exclusion of our very health. We spend too much time scurrying around, eating fast food, not exercising, not getting physicals, and not paying attention to our own health until a problem stops us in our tracks.

Do yourself a big favor. Don’t think that because you were active in school or playground activities in your early life that it carries forward into your personal work and family life. I know because I did not take into account the family history of hypertension, the lack of exercise, smoking, working long hours to get ahead, and good eating habits. Simple things ignored until I became disoriented, suffered from undue tiredness, felt lousy and, finally, went to the doctor.

My wake up call was when tests revealed I had poor stamina, high blood pressure (185/120), high blood sugar, high fats. My doctor even called me at home and asked that I come back in to retake some of the tests. At the time I did not know that his lab could not get an accurate result on my triglycerides because the equipment could not register high enough. He wanted another blood sample to send out to a commercial lab.

A few weeks after I had been on medication I went back for a followup. He told me I was so unstable when I came in originally that he was concerned I would have a major heart attack or stroke. He said that he did not want to cause more stress by telling me originally but his equipment could not measure high enough to record my triglycerides (they were over ten times normal) and my “bad” cholesterol was pretty high as well.

Then he gave me the shock that my chances of survival were now probably a million times better with my medications but I needed to change my life now. He said I was a walking time bomb.

Today my blood pressure is 128/78, it was high systolic and high diastolic (185/120). My cholesterol is 145, it was 422!  My triglycerides are 199, it was 1922.   

Take it from me, the simple truth is that we forget to practice what we all know to be true, prevention is much easier if you actively participate!

The following are some of the most important things you can do to protect your kidneys:

• Keep your blood pressure lower than 130 over 80. Your doctor may give you medicine to help lower your blood pressure.
• Control your blood sugar level. Your doctor may give you medicine to help lower your blood sugar level.
• Stick to your diet. Ask your doctor how many calories and carbohydrates and how much protein you should eat.
• Be physically active every day.
• Take the medicines your doctor prescribes for you. Check with your doctor before taking any new medicines. This includes vitamins, herbal medicines and over-the-counter medicines.
• Keep all of your doctor appointments.
• Stop smoking.
• Drink water every day to help cleanse your system and your kidneys.

I was feeling pretty good but I felt a little tired during the day. The tiredness was much more noticable when I was not really busy. This is how my journey started to try to find out why I seemed to be a little off if I didn’t have coffee or some sugar jolt.

I started by limiting my coffee to a cup before work then no more than three during the day. If there was a prolonged day I would probably drink 2 regular drinks and another coffee later. I’m talking about days where I would work 12-14 hours that required the extra caffene.

I started walking around the building area at lunch which was about half a mile every day.

I walked the three flights of stairs every morning to get to my office.

I thought I was doing pretty good at curbing my smoking too as I tried to keep myself to one pack a day.

Little did I realize that things had gone amuck and I only had a “fuzzy” tireness that sent me to my doctor to start checking what was happening with me.

Check back as I take you on a journey through depression, high blood pressure, many tests, EKGs, MRIs, memory problems, spreading neuropathy and sundry issues.