Cecilia E Talamantes

Introduction:

For the past several years I have become (dare I say) an expert at modeling the cost of IT projects. Recently, I was asked to teach “how to create an IT cost model”.

Here are some thoughts for how to begin to create a cost model.

(NOTE: the steps for creating a model could be easily written down but (I think) the more important part is the thinking behind the steps (being analytical)).

The following words (and I apologize now for any grammatical errors or for sentences that do not make sense) will make an attempt to spell out the steps and the thinking. At this point I will get down my thoughts and not worry too much about editing. Oh and by the way, my experience has been in large (+300) IT organizations in the Higher Ed industry.

Part 1: Getting Familiar with the Project, Organization, and the People involved

A. Learn your environment. This means learn about your organization or project. How is it structured? Do folks collaborate well? If collaboration is not great or even good, this will make decision making hard and the project will move slower thus taking more time and more money. This leads me to two important components of a cost model: time and people.

Let me elaborate a little more. Here are some important components to keep in mind while you are building your cost model.

1. How many people and a what level of expertise (Sr. vs. Jr.) will the project require?

2. How long will you need them (months and level of effort (full-time vs. part-time))?

3. Is the project changing the way business is conducted? (Does the project include business process change and will it require change management?) This question gets to complexity. The more complex your project is the more time it will take and thus the more money it will cost.

4. Is the project implementing NEW technology to the organization? (Ex. a JAVA based application and none of the current staff know JAVA) This question get to the amount of training that will be required either before or after the project.

5. Are the right people involved in the project? E.g. are there stakeholders, business owners, and an executive champion? I’ve seen a lot of software get built and not get used for the sole fact that the business owners were not involved.

B. Learn about the project. How well organized is the project? This is a good time to learn about Project Management. Here is a pretty simple explanation to view. A better managed project will help control costs. If your organization has a strong Project Management methodology it will be better able to help you construct a cost model.

If the project is not very well organized be sure to keep this in mind when you are adding in a contingency.

Contingency—every project will need some amount of money set aside for all the unknowns and the things that you thought would go one way but went completely different. In the past I’ve added either 10%, 15% or maybe even 20%. You will get management push back so be sure to document why you are adding 20% instead of 10. Keep in mind management will change what you have done but you can always say…”I told you so…” but only if you have documented your thinking.

Assumptions–your cost model will have them. You are building a model which means there are a lot of things you will not know but in order to build the model you will need to make an “educated” guess for how you think the things will be done. If you are a novice you will need to find someone who you can ask.

Have you had a chance to visit Qwiki? It’s in Alpha, which I guess means it is experimental… Anyhow, what will the “information experience” (as quoted by Doug Imbruce) be like for the current generation of children? Should we continue to teach content or should our schools work more on teaching context? What will happen to the world of text books? When you can create an entire history book by linking various Qwiki’s.

What is the science of teaching? What are the methodologies? How are these changing with the creation of sites like Qwiki? What is information sharing doing to the world of “original thought”?

I wrote the first part of this blog back on February 12, 2011. I left it in Draft because I couldn’t figure out how to end it. I thought I had too many questions.

Yesterday I came across Sir Ken Robinson. My sister-in-law sent me the following video Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson and illustrated by the RSA. I’ve just discovered Sir Ken and I love him already! He is an author from the UK (but he lives in LA) and listening to him is compelling not just because of his beautiful British accent but because of what he has to say. Visit his blog or read his book

Either way, I taking the journey from endurance to enjoyment so that I can be in my Element. Thank you Sir Ken for adding more clarity where it was missing.

Tufts University was recently awarded the number ONE spot for the 50 Social Media Innovators in Higher Education by CollegeSurfing.com. Although they won for having a twitter feed for dining hall food options, the addition of this web link on the TuftsNow site is a testament to their “Gold Medal”.

Congratulations! for leading Academia into the Web 2.0 world.

I just found this new bookmarklet, it’s super cool and helping me move around the different sites I frequently visit.

A fellow Social Media friend recommended Hootsuite and then I came across TweetDeck. Like any good researcher, I decided to see what others have found before I begin to analyze these two products on my own. I did a quick Google search on the “difference between hootsutie and tweetdeck” and got ~57K results. Great, I’ve got some reading to do.

Based on my preliminary scan, the decision will be based on personal preference (duh!). At first glance, Tweetdeck has a few different ways to use the product. Desktop and Chromo would be my only options given I’m not a iPhone/Pad user. I haven’t used Chromo much and I prefer Firefox as my browser, so my only preferred option is the Desktop app. Given that social media should be easy to use, not platform specific and as portable as possible, I fear I will be limiting myself if I go with the Tweetdeck desktop app. (e.g. What happens when I use the many other computers we have at home/work?)

I choose HootSuite. I’ve been adding social sites and so far I’m not a fan. It’s really slow and only allows WordPress.com, if you are a WordPress.org user (like me) you are S.O.L.

I’m going to let it go for today….getting too frustrated!

So I decided to go on-line and check out what new devices are at Lenovo.  [Let me give you a little back ground on my needs. Today I use a Lenovo T60, I've had this machine for about 4 years. It's a great machine, this past summer I accidentally dropped it from my bicycle. The hard drive was okay I just needed to get a new screen. So the Lenovo gets my vote for durability. I also have a Kindle that I absolutely love! I spend a lot of time running around and can't be without my laptop and Kindle...so the idea is to have these two functions in one machine and I think I've met my match.] check out this Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid and LePad Slate now with Windows 7  video Lenovo IdeaPad Hybrid

Unfortunately the item is only available in China

I sent a tweet and here is the comment I got back….

@cctala there will be a US version (we cannot comment on name, specs, etc) at some point

Here they are:

1. Express more vulnerability

2. Mix professional and personal lives

3. Provoke (in a productive way)

4. Promote others (thanks you John x 2 for your insight)

5. Actively seed, feed and weed

Read the full article  Five Tips for Smarter Social Networking

Joining a group that meets just once a month produces the same increase in happiness as doubling your income. According to research by Daniel Kahneman, Alan B. Krueger, and others, the daily activities most closely associated with happiness are social—having sex, socializing after work, and having dinner with friends. Many of the professions that correlate most closely with happiness are also social—a corporate manager, a hairdresser.

I was reading this article in the Psychology section of the New Yorker and it reminded me of how I approach a lot in my life. You collect information, you think it over (sometimes for a long time) and then you make a decision or come to a conclusion. The following quote is evidence to how an Analyst, in my mind, should operate.

“She stressed the importance of collecting conflicting information before making up one’s mind, of calibrating one’s certainty level to the strength of the evidence, of enduring uncertainty for long stretches as an answer became clear, of correcting for one’s biases. As Keith E. Stanovich, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, writes in his book “What Intelligence Tests Miss” (2009), these “thinking dispositions” correlate weakly or not at all with I.Q.” Read more at Social Animal: How the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life

Thank you for visiting. My site is currently under construction while I learn how to add some widgets and other cool stuff.

Stay Tuned!