By daniel | Published:
2011-01-09
A Project Initiation Document, as described by Meri Williams in The Principles of Project Management, simply answers the questions:
- WHAT: What are the project’s objectives?
- WHY: What is the business need for this project?
- HOW: What are the deliverables of the project?
- WHEN: What is the estimated timeline for completion?
- WHO: Who are the stakeholders of the project?
A Project Charter is a more elaborate and extensive document intended for the needs of larger projects with larger budgets. To the “four Ws and an H” of the Project Initiation Document, it adds sections such as the following:
- Departmental Statements of Work
- Organizational Impacts
- Deliverables Out of Scope
- Project Issues
- Project Risks
Regardless of whether you choose a full-blown Project Charter to initiate your project or use a generic Project Initiation Document, it is important to secure “buy in” from all project stakeholders at the beginning of the project. Documenting the rationale, objectives, deliverables, timelines, and organizational structure of the project helps everyone stay “on the same page.”
References:
By daniel | Published:
2009-09-03
Note that in all of these statements, strings should be enclosed by single quote-marks. Numerical data should not be enclosed by quote-marks.
The INSERT INTO Statement
Basic Syntax: INSERT INTO table_name (column_names) VALUES (data_values)
Use this to add new data to a database.
The UPDATE Statement
Basic Syntax: UPDATE table_name SET column_name = value WHERE condition
Use this to update existing data in a database.
Note that both comparison operators (equal to, greater than, less than, etc.) and logical operators (AND, OR) can be used in WHERE clauses.
The DELETE Statement
Basic syntax: DELETE FROM table_name [WHERE condition]
Note that the WHERE clause is optional. Using the DELETE statement without a WHERE clause will delete all records in the table specified.
By daniel | Published:
2009-08-26
The final results of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems and the powerhouse open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) MySQL remain to be seen. In the meantime, I am thankful that MySQL is available in a free and open-source community edition. It was a no-brainer to use MySQL when I worked on the development of a searchable product catalog for the Smith and Sons Fine Minerals website. And of course, this blog is powered by WordPress, which in turn is powered by Apache web server, PHP, and MySQL.
By daniel | Published:
2009-08-20
I just returned from the August Internet Marketing Professionals Meetup hosted by Brian Duvall of Duvall Consulting. Zach Thompson of RYP Marketing gave an overview of search engine optimization strategies.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of fine-tuning your website for maximum visibility in free search engine listings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO is distinct from paid advertising campaigns.
First, it is important to avoid site designs which are based on Adobe Flash or images. Search engines index text, so sites which essentially Adobe Flash objects or collections of images do not show up well in search engines.
Zach made a helpful distinction between onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Onsite SEO involves fine tuning the title, content, and tags to achieve a high density of the keywords people are searching for. Offsite SEO is primarily a matter of “link building.” Zach stressed that link building — obtaining external links to your website — is essential for virtually all sites, unless they are for a small niche market. And adding fresh content to your website on a regular basis is a foundational strategy for influencing other people to link to your website.
One of the main things Zach helped me to understand more clearly is the importance of the “authoritativeness” of a website. A link to your website from a more authoritative website weights more heavily than a link from a less authoritative website when a search engine calculates the ranking of your web page. For example, a link from Time magazine would probably make my website more visible in the eyes of Google’s search algorithm than a link from the Roanoke Star-Sentinel.
Thanks again to Zach Thompson for a great presentation and to Brian Duvall for hosting this month’s Internet Marketing Professionals Meetup.
By daniel | Published:
2009-08-19
I recently had the pleasure of working with Kennard Creative on the website of Virginia golf simulator emporium Golf Around the World. I was asked to set up an online tee-time reservation system. After reviewing several third-party solutions, I ultimately decided to set up Golf Around the World with BookingCalendar.com. Although it could stand some usability improvements, it seemed to offer the greatest flexibility and range of features.
By daniel | Published:
2009-08-18
If you are learning HTML for the first time, or just trying to beef up your HTML chops, understanding the difference between block elements and inline elements is crucial. HTML 4.01 Strict and XHTML 1.0 Strict both enforce a strict distinction between block elements and inline elements, and I expect that HTML 5 is substantially the same.
Here are some tips to get you started:
- Only put block elements (e.g., p, h1-h6, div) directly within the body element. HTML 4.01 Strict is allergic to inline elements (such as img) being nested directly within the body element.
- Never nest block elements within inline elements.
- Note that commonly used inline elements include: a, em, img, q, span, and strong.
- Keep block elements out of p elements.
- Always put text and other inline elements inside block elements before nesting within a blockquote element.
By daniel | Published:
2009-06-21
“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10).
The pastor of our church preached about money today. Specifically, he spoke about cultivating a heart of generosity. The generous-hearted are those who:
- earn wealth rightly
- manage it carefully
- enjoy it fully
To earn wealth rightly, we must be other-focused rather than self-centered. Righteous people are those who understand that everything they have is connected to others, to their neighbors, to their community.
Managing wealth carefully begins with attitudes of the heart and expresses itself in spiritual disciplines and wise practices:
- Looking to the cross of Christ: “Though [our Lord Jesus Christ] was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
- Praying the prayer of Agur: “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
- Following a budget to free us from slavery to bank account balances: the point is to manage our money, not to be managed by it.
- Getting out of debt. All debt must be repaid, and most debt is unwise.
- Learning to be liberal with our wealth. When we give it away, it is hard to sustain an inordinate love for it!
Finally, enjoying wealth fully means that we can always be free from guilt when using our wealth to bless others — our churches, our families, our neighbors, and our communities.
Note: This post was inspired by today’s message by Rev. Ed Dunnington of Christ the King Presbyterian Church. He and Rev. Aaron Hofius are spending the summer examining what the Book of Proverbs says about knotty topics such as pride and humility, the power of the tongue, the rhythm of work and rest, and money. I invite you to follow along with the series at the CTKPC sermons page.
By daniel | Published:
2009-03-25
So you own a small business is a small town in your little slice of apple-pie Americana. You put up a website. You put it up … and not much happens. You don’t have a large advertising budget. You don’t have a large budget, period. But you like the web, you spend a lot of your leisure time on the web, and you turn to the web for information before you turn to the TV, the radio, or the newspaper. So you reckon that “if you build it [on the web], they will come.”
Problem is — and it’s no small problem for you if you are trying to promote your local small business using the web — is that the virtuality of the web works differently from the reality of bricks-and-mortar. Unlike stores in a shopping mall, websites have no neighbors. Each website is like its own universe. Links on a website are wormholes to other universes.
If you sell motorcycles in Milwaukee, digital cameras in Detroit, or real estate in Roanoke, and you want to take advantage of the web, what are your options? How can you connect with your local audience using the web? We all know there’s a world wide web, but is there a local web? What would it take for the little folks to flourish locally using the web as an advertising mechanism?
By daniel | Published:
2009-03-24
If you are a small business owner, you will like at least one of these links. If you are a web designer, you will like at least one of these links. If you are both a small business owner and a web designer, you will probably like both of these links.
- How to Set (and Get) the Right Prices – Posted on marketing.about.com. Learn about the relationship between promises and prices, three methods for determining a price for your product or service, and two deadly mistakes to avoid.
- 11 Absolutely Necessary Web-Based Tools for a Freelance Web Designer – Posted on www.chromaticsites.com. In the estimation of the author the 11 best are: Basecamp, Backpack, and Highrise for project management; Cashboard for time tracking and invoicing; Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Crazy Egg, and Feedburner for metric measurement; Campaign Monitor for newsletters; Survey Monkey for customer surveys; and MindMeister for brainstorming. Kudos to dad for this one.
