Friday, December 30, 2005

Outsourcing Requirements Facilitation

Understanding and gathering requirements is a discipline and a process. An external professional requirement facilitator is a power resource for driving out complete requirements and building consensus in a relatively short period of time without running the risk of political backlash.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

A series of publications giving guidance on the best practices for provision of quality IT services

IT Service Support Processes:
Service Desk
Configuration Management
Incident Management
Problem Management
Change Management
Release Management

IT Service Delivery Processes:
Service Level Management
Availability Management
Capacity Management
IT Financial Management
IT Service Continuity Management
IT Security Management

Other online resources:
http://www.itlibrary.org/
http://www.itilcommunity.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ITIL-Service/

Certificaiton:
Foundation (26/40 questions in 1 hour)
Practitioner
Manager

buzz words:
order
predicatable quality
optimization
define -> control & stabilize -> measure -> improve
(similar to plan-do-check-act)

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Attackers Shift Exploits to Applications

Applications at special risk are backup, recovery, anitvirus, and a variety of other security tools which are supposed to keep users safe from attacks and from loss of data.
- SANS

Thursday, December 01, 2005

News: CA sold Ingres open-source database business

lessons learned
- don't spread yourself too thin in the areas outside your core business.

Microsoft encourages the use of agile development methodologies

Scrum
- teams meet once a day for half an hour to figure out what they're going to do, then go off and do their work very quickly

Extream Programming
- two people working on a given piece of code

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Professional Profile

Summary
. PMI certified PMP
. Master certificate in Project Management
. Post-graduate degree in engineering from Columbia University in New York City
. Over 12 years of combined experience in project management, systems analysis/design/development, IT service, consulting and research, with strong focus on quality and customer satisfaction
. A proven track record in delivering over 20 small to large scale software development projects on budget and on time in the past 7 years
. In-depth domain knowledge in Banking industry with 5 years of working experience
. Solid understanding and experience of SDLC and CMMI processes
. Strong skills in communication, critical thinking, conceptual thinking, problem solving and decision making
. Willingness to travel and work globally

Training
. Project Management Scheduling Skills
. Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Solution, Polar Bear
. Facilitating a Gathering Requirements Discovery Session, The Information Architecture Group, Inc.
. Application Security Principles, Symantec
. Communication Skills for IT Professionals, Information Balance
. Developing ASP.NET Web Application using Visual Studio.NET, Polar Bear
. Getting Things Done: Mastering Workflow, The Institute for Management Studies
. Computer Forensics, Investigation and Response, e-fense, Inc.
. Introduction to C# Language, Polar Bear
. Critical Thinking: A Paradigm for Peak Performance, Canadian Management Centre
. Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET, Polar Bear
. The Managers Role as Coach: Improving and Sustaining Performance, The Institute for Management Studies
. PKI and Encryption Technologies, Polar Bear
. XML: Document Object Model, DTD Design and Schema Design, Polar Bear Corporate Education Solutions
. Gathering & Analysing Business Requirements, Microsoft
. A Technical Introduction to MQSeries, IBM
. Systems Analysis & Design: Strategies & Techniques, Richard Ball & Associates Inc.

Organization
14 million clients in North America and some 30 countries around the world
over 60,000 employees (18,000 in technology and operations)

Monday, November 28, 2005

Tricky Interview Questions

1. Why shoud we hire you?
==> specific strengths, unique qualifications and what you can bring to the table

2. Why do you want to work here?
==> something about the company, its direction and the industry
==> how experience and qualifications match the company's needs

3. What are your greatest weakness?
==> be honest and show the steps how you HAVE turned it into a strength

4. Why did you leave your last job?
==> be diplomatic and positive

5. What accomplishment are you most proud of?
==> be specific and related to the position

6. What are your salary expectation?
==> try not to discuss salary specifics befor receiving a job offer
==> let the interviewer know that you will be open to discussing fair compensation when the time comes
==> always give range

7. Tell me about yourself.
==> professional experience, career goal, and desire to be a part of the company
==> lead your conversation in a direction that allows you to elaborate on your qualifications