My Mission Today

What is your mission?

Today is January 11, 2023. I turned 76 this passed November and I remember when I tried to retire back when I was around 64 – 65. Retirement was brief (just days really), awful, boring, and drove me nuts – more nuts than my usual “nuts”.

My Mission has had many aspects over recent years. Here are some points I can still remember:

  • Continue to provide coaching to individuals who want to find new income sources. Check out my website for some details: http://www.thepathtoinkc.com
  • Expand my knowledge of new technology software, hardware and capabilities.
  • Write some more stuff: Blogs, Books, Articles, Video / Audio Training
    • Lately I have been writing some more on my RetroPublican blog about how I would really love to return the Republican party to its earlier platforms, beliefs, values, behaviors.
    • My second book is an autobiography titled: “A Cowboy’s Reflections” which was a result of a subscription that my son gave me to StoryWorth. I responded to about 48 of their 52 weekly emails with suggested topics so it is now available on Amazon. The first book is also available on Amazon: “IT’s Lost Art of Software Engineering”.
    • I write lots of Opinions some of which are getting responses from my readers. I truly love the dialog but I am NOT trying to change anyone’s personal choices or opinions. I just want to have some meaningful discussions.
    • Started a video training offering on “How To…” for spreadsheets, word processing but, for the moment, I need a new name for that business. Tried “Five Dollar Bill”, “Technically Retired”, and “TECHnical.E.Retired”, but neither of those worked well. If you have any ideas, please reach out (see my Contact Page). A friend suggested I deliver video on my Small Business Advice topics which I am considering once I have a NEW NAME!
  • Advise small businesses in the areas of: Data Collection (Mobile Apps, Spreadsheets, Pivot tables, Reports); Business Metrics (SOPs, Dashboards, KPIs, Mitigation / Revision Strategies); Delivery Practices (Process Maps, Decision Tables, Methods and Techniques {SDLC, PMLC, Agile / Kanban, Hybrid-s-}, etc.);
  • Make enough money for myself and family so that I can pay my bills with less stress and give enough money and myself when warranted / requested. AND, be able to recognize when my attention is “warranted” or needed.
  • When I think of some other “Mission” goals, I will try to remember to add them here.

bgbg – 610-662-5658 –
whendoyoustoplooking@gmail.com –
bgutches@thepathtoinkc.com

How Many P’s in Your PMO?

Many years ago, I decided that we should not limit ourselves to only three PMOs:

  • Portfolio Management Office
  • Program Management Office
  • Project Management Office

Even though these were very obvious and have immediate value to those who sought more management for these functions, I still thought there could be MORE.

I started writing notes about how to structure and operate these initial three PMOs and came up with two more that I thought could make sense for some organizations and/or institutions:

  • People Management Office
  • Process Management Office

Attached here is my latest presentation about my thoughts on:

The Five P’s Of PMO

How Many Ps WHGutches V0002 20220213Download

I hope that you will have some observations, opinions, suggestions, even criticisms of this piece and that you will send me your thoughts.

Thanks for reading and, please, stay in touch, bgbg

Bill Gutches, 610-662-5658, bgutches@thepathtoinkc.com

The Hybrid Work Model

I saw a survey for topics that a technical networking group might be interested in. This survey was taken on LinkedIn by a group that has approximately 2,000 members.

One of the interesting results of this survey was that the topic of “HYBRID WORK MODEL” got ZERO responses while the three other topics received the rest of the responses.

In my mind, I thought that this ZERO result could be indicative or might even be an opportunity. It might be possible that no one selected this topic because there was no interest OR because the audience wasn’t really sure what this HYBRID WORK MODEL was about.

So, I decided to prepare a checklist of what I thought made up this work model and, finally, came to the Powerpoint slides that are attached here for your review.

Please let me know what you think of the presentation AND the idea / definition of this HYBRID WORK MODEL.

Thank you, Bill Gutches

Hybrid Work Model V001 bg 20230108Download

Please feel free to download, review, and give me some feedback on how this could be improved for future use.

bgbg

Your Resume Summary

The summary section of your resume is the first opportunity, in writing, to delivery an effective “Elevator Speech”.

If you have information about a specific position you are applying for with each resume, then you can focus your Summary on those requirements of the job for which you are most qualified. This type of impactful, focused Summary will have a strong effect on the reader if your capabilities clearly fit what they are looking for.

Be strong in your quantifiable claims. Be positive in your attitude to succeed. Be ready to defend your claims.

Do you Have an Agenda

If you are scheduling or holding a meeting and you DON’T have an Agenda, then I suggest you cancel your meeting and prepare an agenda ASAP.

Usually, there are people who are interested in the outcome of a meeting who will contribute to the items that they would like to have ON the agenda so that you can preview your proposed agenda with them and get their feedback / changes.

Once you have an agreed upon agenda, you can then set up a meeting to invite the appropriate people and send then the agenda before hand so that they can prepare for the topics that will be covered.

At the actual meeting, you will then be able to coordinate the discussions to follow the agenda, take any non-planned topics and put them in a Follow Up or Parking Lot list, capture all the decisions, open questions, and action items from the planned agenda items and, finally, publish the minutes with all the useful and on-topic discoveries.

Just remember that effective meetings start with careful planning. So, prepare an agenda and send it out with your invitations.

Good luck with your Meeting Facilitations.

More Agilist Questions

Based on my earliest interviews, I have added some new questions to my interview plans:

  • When were you introduced to the “Agile Manifesto”?
    • How much do you rely on this Manifesto for your daily work?
  • Do you and your organization run discreet Projects, or would you consider your work on a m ore continuous flow basis?
    • Are there budgets assigned to Projects or development efforts?
    • How are they tracked, reported, projected?
  • Are these roles on your team and can you provide a position onventory or job description for:
    • Integration Engineer
    • Software Engineer
    • Application / Infrastructure Architect
  • What do yo use in place of a SCRUM to update the progress on work items, expected next steps or features, expected releases of the current development work?
  • How is the KANBAN technique used / applied to managing your work schedule?
  • Describe how “technical debt” is used to determine priorities, work schedules, etc?

Thank you, in advance, if you decide to offer your responses to these questions.

bgbg

A Questionnaire for Agilists

I am working on another written piece where the “working title” is “The Agilist: A Series of Perspectives”.

So far I have interviewed several folks who call themselves “Agilists” and I am collecting their thoughts and forming an impression of how I want to write about this new Job Title / Skill set.

Here is the questionnaire for your review / reference. If you would like, please download a copy and fill it out as best you can so that we can schedule a discussion together. Send your responses to me and I will reach out to contact you for follow up.

  • How long have you been an Agilist?
  • How did you discover this title / role?
  • What is your relationship with other roles in your Agile projects?
    • Business Owner
    • Process Analyst
    • Story Boarder
    • Scrum Master
    • Scribe
  • In your role as Agilist, do you consider yourself a (Why or Why Not?)
    • Facilitator
    • Business Function Expert
    • Project / SCRUM Leader
    • Business / Scope Owner
    • Integration Designer
    • Project / Program Manager
    • Infrastructure Architect
    • Software Engineer
    • Resource / Performance Manager
    • Budget Manager
  • When engaged in the development of Story Boards, do you use any techniques for elaborating the details within and / or around each Story Board entry?
  • How do you determine when there is enough detail included in a set of Story Boards to release them to a SPRINT for development and roll out?
  • What factors are included in deciding that some feature of Story Board entry will be posted to a Back Log rather than in the current SPRINT development efforts?
  • How do you determine when “re-factoring” is required?
  • Where and when do you introduce the re-factoring needs to the Story Boarding and SPRINT processes?
  • How do you determine when your Story Boarding efforts should be concluded?
  • How do you reconcile the features included in the app with the Story Board items?

Thank you, bgbg

Free Website Grader

While searching for some other “stuff”, I found a link to a FREE Website Grader tool that does some evaluations on web sites SO I figured I would try it out on THIS website: http://www.thepathtoinkc.com

Here are the results: https://website.grader.com/tests/www.thepathtoinkc.com?utm_source=mktg-resources&utm_id=607212716856&utm_medium=paid&utm_term=marketing_hubspot_EN&utm_campaign=Marketing_MQLs_EN_NAM_NAM_Brand-HubSpot_e_m_campaignid804389993_agid43208773113_google&utm_content=&hsa_ver=3&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_acc=2734776884&hsa_kw=hubspot&hsa_grp=43208773113&hsa_mt=e&hsa_cam=804389993&hsa_ad=607212716856&hsa_tgt=kwd-298569398281&hsa_src=g&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmouZBhDSARIsALYcour_ECU-C5T75YGLPdZeNGm6Eic7TmDfYNEceOdUwbwMUEM51bC0cP0aAi3SEALw_wcB&__hstc=20629287.0f44ae21e2220b38596239973240a922.1663244896116.1663244896116.1663244896116.1&__hssc=20629287.1.1663244896117&__hsfp=3038205608

Please check it out.

bgbg

Recent Republican Rants

Student Loan Forgiveness

The price tag for Biden’s Student Forgiveness has hidden costs as well. The obvious cost is the face value of the forgiveness (either 10k or 20k). But other expenses need to be added to the price of the Loan Forgiveness.

Civil War Amendment used to Remove PRO-Trump County Commissioner

A New Mexico judge on Tuesday ordered the removal of a county commissioner convicted of participating in the January 6 riot at the Capitol under the 14th Amendment, making him the first public official in more than 100 years to be barred from serving under a constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding office.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was enacted during Reconstruction to punish Confederate members for fighting against their country during the Civil War. This section states that no person shall hold any civil or military office under the United States or any state who, having previously taken an oath to “support the Constitution,” had then engaged in rebellion or insurrection.

Are more Pro-Trump members of Congress about to be next?

%d bloggers like this: