weber's thoughts

Understanding your Job

weweber3 — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:51:47 +0000

Back in February I wrote a post about transitioning your job effectively to a new person. I have used the same concepts and approach when helping people be more effecient and effective at their jobs as well. What I find is that people don’t fully grasp all of the things they really do in a [...]

My Twitter account is unlocked

weweber3 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:23:53 +0000

My Twitter account billweber that is tied to my primary email has been unlocked/unfrozen/whatever and I can start to play around with it. Most of my readers are people I know anyway so feel free to follow me and I will do the same. Tagged: twitter

Back to the Grind

weweber3 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:50:56 +0000

The golf trip was great – weather between 65 and 75 and sunny everyday, very windy at times but I’ll take it. Overall I played pretty well shooting scores of 93, 84, 88, 86 and 97. We played 36 holes on the 19th and 20th and 18 holes on the 21st. My hands and forearms [...]

I am Going on Vacation

weweber3 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:24:36 +0000

I heading to Manning, South Carolina for a golf trip with a few buddies of mine Wednesday through Sunday – can’t wait. I purchased a new hybrid and putter but it is highly unlikely I will get to hit them before I leave – they arrive via UPS tomorrow. I should be able to get [...]

I Want to Twitter!

weweber3 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:25:02 +0000

Over a year ago I signed up for a twitter account with my gmail account and off I was – well not really. I knew nothing about it, what it was good for or what to do with it. Well lots of people seem to be twitting (tweeting? twittering? tweet-meeting?) or something like that and [...]

Dropbox – 2GB online storage, no gimmicks

weweber3 — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:55:42 +0000

Came across this earlier this weekend and wanted to share – Dropbox. Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for your files – you can upload/download via browser or you can install their software (no ads, or spyware) that will allow for drag and drop features on your PC or Mac. They offer a 50GB account [...]

Take Control of Your Schedule

weweber3 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:18:26 +0000

The entire time I was reading this article I was in awe – what an awesome way to take back control of your day at the office. It is a 5 to 10 minute read and worth every minute. Thinking through the feasibility of setting boundaries of when you are available, when you are not available, [...]

Watch it Grow

weweber3 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:55:06 +0000

I added a page to the main navigation to track the progress of my desk plant with pictures – “Watch it Grow“. Stupid – maybe. Interesting in 6 months – maybe. This is a lot like project 365 except I am not always at our Independence, OH location where my desk is. I float between [...]

Getting Things Done – Almost Done!

weweber3 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:47:54 +0000

I am near complete with the re-reading of David Allen’s Getting Things Done . I am at the beginning of chapter 9 “Doing: Making the Best Action Choices” and have about 65 pages remaining the book. While reading last night, I came across this sentence – “If you have a bunch of things to do [...]

Creating a Transition Plan – Effectively Moving On

weweber3 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:26:54 +0000

In a fast paced consulting environment it is very common for resources to change projects several times per year – especially for junior resources. Commonly, at Rosetta, we are asking junior level business analysts to assume more responsibility so more experienced business analysts can take on more value-add roles with our clients. This is the [...]

Where are Online Retailers Focusing their Dollars?

weweber3 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:30:56 +0000

The client I currently work with at Rosetta is a very large retailer and of course has been impacted by the economic downturn – hell, who hasn’t been? Dollars are scarce and projects of all sizes are being evaluated and re-evaluated to ensure they will impact the bottom-line. I have been spending more time over at [...]

221 Visits in January

weweber3 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:38:23 +0000

Just took a look at the stats for the month of January and was pleasantly surprised to see well over 200 visits for the month – surpassing the 206 visits in December. I am not really sure what is considered good for a blog that has been around for 2 months. But 7 visits a [...]

“Getting Things Done”… again

weweber3 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:47:13 +0000

If you are not familiar with “Getting Things Done” or “GTD” then click here for a little background. I first bought “Getting Things Done” by David Allen in early 2007. I read through about half of it and then skimmed the rest – got frustrated/overwhelmed and put it down. Really… a 43 folder system for organizing [...]

WordPress Widgets are Working!

weweber3 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:23:00 +0000

I was kicking around the idea of shelling out $100/yr for wordpress hosting – mostly because widgets weren’t working. Seems like a silly reason to spend $100 a year, but I was increasingly frustrated that I was unable to use most of the widgets provided by wordpress. I couldn’t customize the right hand column [...]

Micromanagement

weweber3 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:42:18 +0000

A few days ago I read this article from the blog, Coding Horror. I read it fairly frequently even though it has a very technical slant to it. It claims that if you answer yes or kinda yes to any of these questions – you are probably micromanaging. I shared my answers below – in [...]

Randomness

weweber3 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:43:14 +0000

Windows Downloads – Here is the most comprehensive list of Windows related downloads, tools, etc that I have ever seen. From Microsoft MSDN, blogs, etc. Doom – Who could forget the FPS that led us to Duke Nukem, Quake and Halo? No need to fire up the 486, you can play Doom in your browser. Say [...]

Get a Client to Say Yes

weweber3 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:30:32 +0000

I found this article on “getting a client to say yes” to be fascinating. It really made me stop and consider how I conduct conversations with my clients. Not just in a situations where creative design or direction is being discussed (not my strength) but in all conversations. The article starts with a 35 minute [...]

15 Project Management Tools

weweber3 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:16 +0000

I don’t use many sophisticated tools to manage my work or team. While it may take me some time to create what I need in Excel – I find that the end result is custom fitted to what I need. Luckily at Rosetta we have a Sharepoint implementation that allows us to version control [...]

Brulant is now Rosetta

weweber3 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:37:29 +0000

I went on vacation working for Brulant and came back working for Rosetta (I knew it was happening). A new brand rolled in with the new year and I am excited about it. This is the 2nd acquisition that I have been through (Brulant acquired Xteric, Rosetta acquired Brulant) and the past experience has been [...]

Motivational Speeches

weweber3 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:35:49 +0000

Nothing like a little motivation once in awhile, right? The video is a cool (and funny) montage of clips from a bunch of Hollywood flicks. My personal favorite is from Any Given Sunday and is given by Al Pacino – just awesome. If you are unnerved by some R-rated language, you should pass this clip [...]

Scrum – a Project Management Approach

weweber3 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:15:50 +0000

Scrum – noun 1: a rugby play in which the forwards of each side come together in a tight formation and struggle to gain possession of the ball using their feet when it is tossed in among them; also: the arrangement of players in a scrum b: a usually brief and disorderly struggle or fight. 2a: [...]

Work/Life Balance

weweber3 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:27:33 +0000

This is something I rememeber my Dad always telling me when I was (still am?) growing up – Balance. You can break work and life into more granular pieces. Life – immediate family, extended family, friends and self for example. Work – subordinates, superiors and clients. The simple concept is not to let any one of [...]

Are newspapers just a thing of the past?

weweber3 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:30:27 +0000

On the way into work the other day there was a story featured on NPR about The Tribune Company filing for bankruptcy – this includes most notably the Chicago Tribune and LA Times (it does not include the Chicago Cubs). The story primarily focused on how the Wall Street journal is changing since Rupert Murdoch [...]

eCommerce Scams

weweber3 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:58:22 +0000

I am still shocked that after all the resources that people can reach on the internet that they still fall victim to scams. I frequently read theconsumerist.org and once or twice a week they have an article about someone getting ripped off. My first reaction is a “aw man, that’s stinks” but then you read [...]

WordPress Widgets are Goofed-up

weweber3 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:53:44 +0000

You will notice the sidebar is really lacking in content – look over to the right side of the screen. Apparently there is a bug in the WordPress code – slightly annoying. Ok, really annoying considering I spent about 30 minutes thinking I was doing something wrong and finally googled it. I assume it has [...]

Context Switching

weweber3 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:55:51 +0000

There are lots of issues to be concerned with when leading a team – who is dependable, who is not? who is your go-to problem solver? how do you raise the overall “level of the water” on your team? All valid concerns. However, what I struggle with the most is the having a team that [...]

Consulting Basics – Dos and Don’ts

weweber3 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:16:13 +0000

Here is a presentation that I gave to a couple internal areas a week or so ago. The presentation is a compilation of positive and negative practices that I consistently see happening with regard to meetings, email, presentations and documentation. While some of this may seem like common sense – I see these same [...]

BA/PM Resources – Methods and Tools and Productive Magazine

weweber3 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:34:45 +0000

I have been subscribed to Methods and Tools for some time now and find many of the topics informative and helpful. In the Fall 2008 issue they talk about Risk Management as well Scrum Meetings – both topics of these topics are relevant on my current project. In the Summer of 2008 one of the [...]