Project hijacking…
This normally happens when you have a dedicated resource, faithfully trusted and assigned to a project on behalf of the company or an enterprise. The resource decides to leave the company for one or the other reason, and instead of handing over the project back to the company / enterprise, works out a situation with the Client directly on how he / she can continue working and gaining from the project without the company’s / enterprises’s consent or willingness.
In such cases, as far as project management is concerned, my thoughts: Always have a backup resource working in parallel for all the projects, a backup resource does not have to work full time on the project but just has to know enough about the project, so that handover and client trust is not lost.
As a project manager, some quick signs, as for you to know its coming your way:
- The concerned resource will always try and put up that they are busy with their new role and would not be able to complete the required work as contractor (if required)
- Although having said that, they would be more than happy to take up the project from the client directly and they would have all the time to commit and work for on the project on their own
- The project handover not being done properly (purposefully)
- Documentation about outstanding work not being entertained
- Your queries would not be replied appropriately..
- Resource will try and convince the client that he /she can complete the project much faster and with better quality rather than the new resources at the existing company….and many more….
As far as company / enterprise is concerned:
- Should not worry much about such incidents as it is better not to have such resources and clients in the first place
- Management should try and take the client in the confidence and make sure the project is getting back on track as soon as possible
- Should try and cover up the full cost on all the efforts put up till the “Project hijacking” occurs
- Should try and compensate the Client for the delay in delivery (if the client is ready to continue on the project)
As far as Clients are concerned:
- They are digging a hole for themselves as they are trusting a resource who is not honest and does not have any ethics
- They might save some quick money, but in a longer term, they would end up spending more on the project
- They are loosing a company / enterprise support to back them up for future
Normally a professional client would not entertain such “Project hijacking” however important the resource or the project might be.
Also as a resource, he/she might be a “Guru”, long time experienced senior person, but as soon as this unethical path is approached, you loose all your goodwill, faith and sooner or later the industry and community recognition…”Project Hijacking” should be avoided..
Technorati Tags: Project Management, Rahul Desai
October 17, 2007
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Posted in: Project Management, Talman news
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – Top ten DBA mistakes (18)
Session-18
Topic: Top ten DBA mistakes
Kelvin Kline – SQL Server MVP
Mentioned about the free seminar hosted by Quest software on SQL server in Melbourne on 16th October 2007:
http://www.quest.com/events/listdetails.aspx?ContentID=6220&site=&prod=&technology=&prodfamily=&loc=
Some common mistakes: Unverified Backups, Insufficient error notification, Ignorance of internals, Unknown scalability requirements, No baselines or benchmarks, Query tuning ignorance.
Top 10 of the session:
10. Server and application ignorance
9. Fire-fighter and script pusher modes : DBA’s excel when they add value to business process and business performance, DBA’s frequently get stuck in the rut of solely fighting fires and/or pushing out scripts.
8. Wrong feature for the job
7. Multi Server Management
6. Too much GUI
5. No troubleshooting methodology
4. Inadequate automation
3. Untested change management
2.Unsupervised scheduled job
1. Inadequate preventive maintenance
Tools from Quest Software to prevent / help avoid the above mistakes:
Spotlight on SQL server enterprise
Change Director for SQL server
Performance analysis for SQL server
LiteSpeed for SQL server
Toad for SQL server
Capacity Manager for SQL server
October 16, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, Tools, Tips & Utilities, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 -Using SSCE from SQL management Studio (16)
Session-16
Topic: Using SSCE from SQL management Studio
Marc Ridey – Consultant – Readify
A quick session on installing and using SQL server compact edition from SQL server management studio.
Blog: http://blog.mridey.com
October 16, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – SSIS Best practices (15)
Session-15
Topic: SSIS: Best Practices – Patterns and Anti-Patterns
Darren Gosbell – Senior consultant – James & Monroe – SQL server MVP
19% of Posts in MSDN SQL server forums are related to Integration services (as of 1st September 2007).
Demonstrated the concept of FETCH : Flexible, Efficient, Transient, Composable and Honest. (Detailed information available on his presentation – SQL DownUnder).
Tool of the session Windows PowerShell.
“Packages are no good, if only the Authors can understand them” – Darren Gosbell
Some important links from the session:
October 15, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – Analysis services
Session-13
Topic: Analysis Services Best Practices – Design, Storage, Queries and Calculations
Grant Paisley – SQL MVP – Angry Koala
Based on session DAT305 at TechEd 2007 (sessions by T K Anand and Christian Petculescu – Microsoft Corporation).
Talked about Muvee and Armadillo Run…great tools.
Started with importance of PERFORMANCE, how to get it:
Focus on Cube Design, Storage and Queries & Calculations.
Outlined Attribute relationship as the key to Good cube design, attribute relationships are used for storage, processing, query performance. Also discussed the best practices for Cube design. Thanks Grant Paisley.
October 15, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, Tools, Tips & Utilities, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – SQL Server 2008 Merge and Table valued parameters (12)
Session-12
Topic: SQL Server 2008 Merge and TVPs
Rob Farley – Trainer / Mentor at Solid Quality Learning
Email: Rob Farley Email
A look at SQL server 2008 features (merge and table valued parameters). Demonstrated the merge command, Replacement for Update / Insert, capabilities to Synchronise two tables and table valued parameters. Worth getting the presentation material from Rob Farley. Overall, a good start to day two. Thanks Rob Farley.
October 15, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – Sand boxing and Testing Databases (11)
Session-11
Topic: Sand boxing and Testing Databases
Ron Dunn – Microsoft Technology Specialist
Demonstrated couple of partner products – products from Red Gate Software. All the tools as below:
SQL packager – Packages a database or a database update
SQL Data Compare – Compares and synchronizes SQL database contents
SQL Compare – Compares and synchronizes SQL database schemas
SQL Prompt – Provides intelligent code completion for SQL Server editors
SQL Refactor – Re-factors and formats SQL code
SQL Backup – Compresses, encrypts and monitors SQL Server backups
SQL toolkit – Automates comparison and synchronization tasks
SQL Dependency Tracker – Tracks database and cross-database object dependencies
SQL Doc – Documents SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 databases
SQL Log Rescue – Undo for SQL Server
All great time savers, productivity enhancers and DBA preferred tools.
Thanks Ron Dunn.
October 15, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, Tools, Tips & Utilities, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – SQL Server 2005 CE – A DBA’s primer (10)
Session-10
Topic: SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition: A DBA’s primer
Jeff Wharton – Chief solutions Architect – Wardy IT solutions
Good coverage on compatibility, features, limitation, technical requirements, where to find resources, verifying and repairing, compacting and shrinking, securing, Synchronization, locking, con-currency and Isolation, performance tuning, most of the categories followed by a demonstration.
Microsoft link: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/compact/default.mspx
A good session…thanks Jeff Wharton.
Blog: http://blog.wharton.com.au
October 15, 2007
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Posted in: SQL Server, UserGroups and conferences
SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – New features in SQL server 2008 BI (9)
Session-9
Topic: New Features in SQL Server 2008 BI
Peter Myers – Solid Quality Mentors
Agenda was , the marketing message, new BI-related features – Fact and Fiction, Change Data Capture.
Involved a pretty detailed demonstration, hope it is available on the SQL downunder web site.
Microsoft link: www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/solutions/bi.mspx
You can view the webcast for Change data capture on www.connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver.
Thanks Peter Myers.
October 15, 2007
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SQL DownUnder CodeCamp 2007 – Introduction to Performance point 2007 (8)
Session-8
Topic: Introduction to Performance point
Microsoft Office Performance point Server 2007, the goal of the product is to turn the corporate goals into Numbers.
3 building blocks of the product…Monitoring, Analytics and Planning (MAP). The product is built around Cubes, Reporting Services, Sharepoint Server, KPI’s, Dashboards and the competitors to the product are Business objects, Cognos……
Great overview of a new product, demonstration of new technology was fantastic, the power point slide is a must view, thanks Adam Cogan.
Performance point was released 3rd October 2007, MSDN subscribers can download now.
Some important links from the session:
www.performancepointinsider.com
Email: AdamCogan@ssw.com.au
October 14, 2007
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Posted in: Project Management, SharePoint, SQL Server, UserGroups and conferences