Author: MarkGabbs

My Transition To No Cable TV

So I was tired of paying for cable.  Having a DVR from Comcast was great.  Until it started missing the shows that I wanted to watch, not following the schedule of the few shows that I actually want to watch.  Plus cable TV is expensive.  I get my Cable TV and Internet from Comcast at about $140/month.  Internet only is about $60/month, so I decided to cut cable TV from my monthly expense.  I have a Netflix subscription (I have a Wii, Xbox, and Apple TV capable of streaming Netflix) for $8/month to stream all the movies and TV Shows I want.  Still, I wanted to get SOME TV, so I started to look at antennas to get my Over The Air (OTA) broadcasted channels. Continue reading “My Transition To No Cable TV”

The 14 Most Common Mistakes IT Departments Make

Mistake No. 1: Projects lack the right resources with the right skills.

Mistake No. 2: Projects lack experienced project managers.

Mistake No. 3: IT doesn’t follow a standard, repeatable project management process.

Mistake No. 4: IT gets hamstrung by too much process.

Mistake No. 5: They don’t track changes to the scope of the project.

Mistake No. 6: They lack up-to-date data about the status of projects.

Mistake No. 7: They ignore problems.

Mistake No. 8: They don’t take the time to define the scope of a project.

Mistake No. 9: They fail to see the dependencies between projects.

Mistake No. 10: They don’t consider Murphy’s Law.

Mistake No. 11: They give short shrift to change management.

Mistake No. 12: Project schedules are incomplete.

Mistake No. 13: IT doesn’t push back on unreasonable deadlines.

Mistake No. 14: They don’t communicate well with project sponsors and stakeholders.

– Meridith Levinson, CIO

July 23, 2008

Continue reading “The 14 Most Common Mistakes IT Departments Make”