A project management perspective

I have developed and implemented test plans as a flight test engineer and project scenarios as an IT project manager. This included next generation aircraft performance management system implementation, a routine work management system and a state of the art work management system with real time vehicle tracking. During Naval tactical operations I was in command and control of destroyer ship borne tracking system (Aegis) as a staff watch officer. I served on 24 ships in a 2 year period as an air operations staff officer, where I personally trained ship personnel in naval tactics. My background has given me experience with military personnel, business personnel and project personnel. My technical acumen is easily understood at all levels of an organization. I served as a project manager on technology projects that integrated legacy relational databases such as lotus notes and M/S access in to a more collaborative web server portal application with OLAP, data mining technology and SQL web based reporting.

So you can see I have experience and successfully delivered many projects. But this can only be done with team collaboration! To accurately assess any risks associated with any project requires a risk management entity of one or more personnel assessing impact of decisions. Decision making is the cornerstone of any project. Paralysis will cause cost and time overruns not to mention frustration and disregard for the endeavor.

I am a hands on project manager (actual client/server and web server operating experience and programming). I utilize talented IT personnel such as database administrators to insure ongoing integration between databases and operating system services which insures a consistent operation of the computing machines. I utilize all the latest technology including smart phone and tablet applications, which includes wifi communications and social media.

I helped build a data warehouse from the "bottom up" project management style utilizing the best in class Business Intelligence (BI). I continually improve methodology and process with the ever changing IT environment. Database maintenance includes pro-active improvements to operation, functionality, reporting capability, and of course ease of use. My latest endeavor is the small business package solution for organizational management at zero out of pocket cost!

As a project manager with technology initiatives, I actively participate in and provide guidance for improving initiatives in order to advance an organization's mission.

Noted IT accomplishments;
I have optimized a data warehouse database utilizing the ERWIN application.
I personally trained new PM's and analyst in NIKU/Clarity as part of a PMO team. The NIKU/Clarity product included real time resource management and reporting utilizing web based technology and Actuate SQL reporting. Training in use of this application included orientation for all new staff and specialized training in response to changing roles, business processes and database functionality.

Working with a staff can provide advanced technical assistance to users and troubleshoot and resolve application and database related problems... a common occurring problem that cannot be done alone.

I have managed service level agreements with IBM and GE . I am comfortable with vendor relationships and demand written answers on escalating issues that require immediate resolution on vendor fixes/patches. As an IT project manager, I require full regression testing before fixes/patches are  implemented. This is an essential process! My background has shown that with implementation scenarios one should demand thorough regression testing to prevent frustration by end users and management alike.

Data cleanliness and integrity is built on either validation at the source of entry or organizational business rules. Both offer unique approaches to the understanding clean data - no bad data ... just dirty data.

Project management happens in our daily lives ... so assess the risk, get the team involved, assign tasks, then baseline the project and let her rip!

P.S. ... measure the project.

Contact me regarding your projects' problems ... I have resolved a great measure of scenarios while under fire .....

navpilot@BlueSkiesAgency.com

BSMA is in full swing!

BSMA has three new customers so visit their websites 

youcandietforless.com

sirensusa.com

 and for those Lady Golfers or Exec's

EWGA.com

10/22/2011
Our first year in business.. we are now fully operational, with a new web site, database and new partners! This next year will be exciting, our partners have been in business for over 10 years and we have already had a customer that liked what they saw in us.


5/12/2012
It's now seven months later and we have submitted four proposals, three interviews, and all had positive feedback for our presentations and discussions. The team still has energy and the technical tools are all working with interesting attributes for each. For example the Zoho CRM tool is cloud a based application and suffered a major outage 4 months ago.

Article excerpt below;

 "The cause of the outage was an abrupt power failure in our state-of-the-art collocated data center facility (owned and operated by Equinix) in the Silicon Valley area, California. Equinix provides us physically secure space, highly redundant power and cooling. We get our internet connectivity from separate service providers. We own, maintain and operate the servers and the network equipment and the software. The problem was not just that the power failure happened, the problem was that it happened abruptly, with no warning whatsoever, and all our equipment went down all at once. Data centers, certainly this one, have triple, and even quadruple, redundancy in their power systems just to prevent such an abrupt power outage. The intent is that any power failure would have sufficient warning so that equipment, databases most importantly, can be shut down gracefully. In fact, the main function such data centers perform is to provide extreme redundancy in power systems, provide cooling for the equipment and provide physical security. Absolutely no warning happened prior to this incident, which is what we have asked our vendor to explain, and we hope they would be transparent with us. I do want to say that Equinix has served us well, they are a leader in this field, we have never suffered an abrupt power outage like this in 5+ years. But they do owe us and other customers in that data center an explanation for what happened on Friday. They restored power quickly, but the damage was done because of the abruptness of the outage."

Another example is the multiple calendering among the different products and Outlook seems to be the solution, and there are a lot of options in social media now...Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and don't forget Google+ the tool that integrates with Blogger.

Things are all shipshape and we now have 2 new RFP's to respond to ... so back to work!
www.BlueSkiesAgency.com