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  • Consolidating separate Loan, Purchase & Sales tables into one transaction table.

    - by Frank Computer
    INFORMIX-SE with ISQL 7.3: I have separate tables for Loan, Purchase & Sales transactions. Each tables rows are joined to their respective customer rows by: customer.id [serial] = loan.foreign_id [integer]; = purchase.foreign_id [integer]; = sale.foreign_id [integer]; I would like to consolidate the three tables into one table called "transaction", where a column "transaction.trx_type" [char(1)] {L=Loan, P=Purchase, S=Sale} identifies the transaction type. Is this a good idea or is it better to keep them in separate tables? Storage space is not a concern, I think it would be easier programming & user=wise to have all types of transactions under one table.

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  • Security in Software

    The term security has many meanings based on the context and perspective in which it is used. Security from the perspective of software/system development is the continuous process of maintaining confidentiality, integrity, and availability of a system, sub-system, and system data. This definition at a very high level can be restated as the following: Computer security is a continuous process dealing with confidentiality, integrity, and availability on multiple layers of a system. Key Aspects of Software Security Integrity Confidentiality Availability Integrity within a system is the concept of ensuring only authorized users can only manipulate information through authorized methods and procedures. An example of this can be seen in a simple lead management application.  If the business decided to allow each sales member to only update their own leads in the system and sales managers can update all leads in the system then an integrity violation would occur if a sales member attempted to update someone else’s leads. An integrity violation occurs when a team member attempts to update someone else’s lead because it was not entered by the sales member.  This violates the business rule that leads can only be update by the originating sales member. Confidentiality within a system is the concept of preventing unauthorized access to specific information or tools.  In a perfect world the knowledge of the existence of confidential information/tools would be unknown to all those who do not have access. When this this concept is applied within the context of an application only the authorized information/tools will be available. If we look at the sales lead management system again, leads can only be updated by originating sales members. If we look at this rule then we can say that all sales leads are confidential between the system and the sales person who entered the lead in to the system. The other sales team members would not need to know about the leads let alone need to access it. Availability within a system is the concept of authorized users being able to access the system. A real world example can be seen again from the lead management system. If that system was hosted on a web server then IP restriction can be put in place to limit access to the system based on the requesting IP address. If in this example all of the sales members where accessing the system from the 192.168.1.23 IP address then removing access from all other IPs would be need to ensure that improper access to the system is prevented while approved users can access the system from an authorized location. In essence if the requesting user is not coming from an authorized IP address then the system will appear unavailable to them. This is one way of controlling where a system is accessed. Through the years several design principles have been identified as being beneficial when integrating security aspects into a system. These principles in various combinations allow for a system to achieve the previously defined aspects of security based on generic architectural models. Security Design Principles Least Privilege Fail-Safe Defaults Economy of Mechanism Complete Mediation Open Design Separation Privilege Least Common Mechanism Psychological Acceptability Defense in Depth Least Privilege Design PrincipleThe Least Privilege design principle requires a minimalistic approach to granting user access rights to specific information and tools. Additionally, access rights should be time based as to limit resources access bound to the time needed to complete necessary tasks. The implications of granting access beyond this scope will allow for unnecessary access and the potential for data to be updated out of the approved context. The assigning of access rights will limit system damaging attacks from users whether they are intentional or not. This principle attempts to limit data changes and prevents potential damage from occurring by accident or error by reducing the amount of potential interactions with a resource. Fail-Safe Defaults Design PrincipleThe Fail-Safe Defaults design principle pertains to allowing access to resources based on granted access over access exclusion. This principle is a methodology for allowing resources to be accessed only if explicit access is granted to a user. By default users do not have access to any resources until access has been granted. This approach prevents unauthorized users from gaining access to resource until access is given. Economy of Mechanism Design PrincipleThe Economy of mechanism design principle requires that systems should be designed as simple and small as possible. Design and implementation errors result in unauthorized access to resources that would not be noticed during normal use. Complete Mediation Design PrincipleThe Complete Mediation design principle states that every access to every resource must be validated for authorization. Open Design Design PrincipleThe Open Design Design Principle is a concept that the security of a system and its algorithms should not be dependent on secrecy of its design or implementation Separation Privilege Design PrincipleThe separation privilege design principle requires that all resource approved resource access attempts be granted based on more than a single condition. For example a user should be validated for active status and has access to the specific resource. Least Common Mechanism Design PrincipleThe Least Common Mechanism design principle declares that mechanisms used to access resources should not be shared. Psychological Acceptability Design PrincipleThe Psychological Acceptability design principle refers to security mechanisms not make resources more difficult to access than if the security mechanisms were not present Defense in Depth Design PrincipleThe Defense in Depth design principle is a concept of layering resource access authorization verification in a system reduces the chance of a successful attack. This layered approach to resource authorization requires unauthorized users to circumvent each authorization attempt to gain access to a resource. When designing a system that requires meeting a security quality attribute architects need consider the scope of security needs and the minimum required security qualities. Not every system will need to use all of the basic security design principles but will use one or more in combination based on a company’s and architect’s threshold for system security because the existence of security in an application adds an additional layer to the overall system and can affect performance. That is why the definition of minimum security acceptably is need when a system is design because this quality attributes needs to be factored in with the other system quality attributes so that the system in question adheres to all qualities based on the priorities of the qualities. Resources: Barnum, Sean. Gegick, Michael. (2005). Least Privilege. Retrieved on August 28, 2011 from https://buildsecurityin.us-cert.gov/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/351-BSI.html Saltzer, Jerry. (2011). BASIC PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION PROTECTION. Retrieved on August 28, 2011 from  http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/protection/Basic.html Barnum, Sean. Gegick, Michael. (2005). Defense in Depth. Retrieved on August 28, 2011 from  https://buildsecurityin.us-cert.gov/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/347-BSI.html Bertino, Elisa. (2005). Design Principles for Security. Retrieved on August 28, 2011 from  http://homes.cerias.purdue.edu/~bhargav/cs526/security-9.pdf

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  • SSMS Tools Pack 2.0 is out! With huge productivity booster features that will blow your mind and ease your job even more.

    - by Mladen Prajdic
    What better way to end the summer and start those productive autumn days ahead than with a fresh new version of the SSMS Tools Pack. This is a big release with two new features that are huge productivity boosters. First new feature are Tab Sessions. Every SQL tab you open is saved every N (default 2) minutes and is stored in a session. This works similar to internet browser sessions. Once you reopen SSMS you can restores your last session with a click of a button. You even get every window connected to the server it was previously connected to. The Tab History Window looks like this:   The second feature is Execution Plan Analyzer. It is designed to quickly help you find costliest operators by a number of properties. If that's not enough you can easily search through the whole execution plan for whatever you like. And to top it off you can auto analyze the execution plan. The analysis reports various problems the execution plan has and suggests a most common solution. The ultimate purpose of the Execution Plan Analyzer is to make your troubleshooting quicker and easier. It uses a simple user interface that is easy to navigate and is built directly into the execution plan itself. The execution plan analyzer looks like this:   Smaller fixes include a completely redesigned SQL History Search window and various other bug fixes. You can download the new version 2.0 at the Download page. For more detailed feature descriptions go to the main Features Page. Enjoy it!

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  • What determines which Javascript functions are blocking vs non-blocking?

    - by Sean
    I have been doing web-based Javascript (vanilla JS, jQuery, Backbone, etc.) for a few years now, and recently I've been doing some work with Node.js. It took me a while to get the hang of "non-blocking" programming, but I've now gotten used to using callbacks for IO operations and whatnot. I understand that Javascript is single-threaded by nature. I understand the concept of the Node "event queue". What I DON'T understand is what determines whether an individual javascript operation is "blocking" vs. "non-blocking". How do I know which operations I can depend on to produce an output synchronously for me to use in later code, and which ones I'll need to pass callbacks to so I can process the output after the initial operation has completed? Is there a list of Javascript functions somewhere that are asynchronous/non-blocking, and a list of ones that are synchronous/blocking? What is preventing my Javascript app from being one giant race condition? I know that operations that take a long time, like IO operations in Node and AJAX operations on the web, require them to be asynchronous and therefore use callbacks - but who is determining what qualifies as "a long time"? Is there some sort of trigger within these operations that removes them from the normal "event queue"? If not, what makes them different from simple operations like assigning values to variables or looping through arrays, which it seems we can depend on to finish in a synchronous manner? Perhaps I'm not even thinking of this correctly - hoping someone can set me straight. Thanks!

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  • How to proceed jpeg Image file size after read--rotate-write operations in Java?

    - by zamska
    Im trying to read a JPEG image as BufferedImage, rotate and save it as another jpeg image from file system. But there is a problem : after these operations I cannot proceed same file size. Here the code //read Image BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(new File(path)); //rotate Image BufferedImage rotatedImage = new BufferedImage(image.getHeight(), image.getWidth(), BufferedImage.TYPE_3BYTE_BGR); Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) rotatedImage.getGraphics(); g2d.rotate(Math.toRadians(PhotoConstants.ROTATE_LEFT)); int height=-rotatedImage.getHeight(null); g2d.drawImage(image, height, 0, null); g2d.dispose(); //Write Image Iterator iter = ImageIO.getImageWritersByFormatName("jpeg"); ImageWriter writer = (ImageWriter)iter.next(); // instantiate an ImageWriteParam object with default compression options ImageWriteParam iwp = writer.getDefaultWriteParam(); try { FileImageOutputStream output = null; iwp.setCompressionMode(ImageWriteParam.MODE_EXPLICIT); iwp.setCompressionQuality(0.98f); // an integer between 0 and 1 // 1 specifies minimum compression and maximum quality File file = new File(path); output = new FileImageOutputStream(file); writer.setOutput(output); IIOImage iioImage = new IIOImage(image, null, null); writer.write(null, iioImage, iwp); output.flush(); output.close(); writer.dispose(); Is it possible to access compressionQuality parameter of original jpeg image in the beginning. when I set 1 to compression quality, the image gets bigger size. Otherwise I set 0.9 or less the image gets smaller size. How can i proceed the image size after these operations? Thank you,

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  • When to define SDD(System Sequence Diagram) operations System->Actor?

    - by devoured elysium
    I am having some trouble understanding how to make System Sequence Diagrams, as I don't fully grasp why in some cases one should define operations for System - Actor and in others don't. Here is an example: Let's assume the System is a Cinema Ticket Store and the Actor is a client that wants to buy a ticket. 1) The User tells the System that wants to buy some tickets, stating his client number. 2) The System confirms that the given client number is valid. 3) The User tells the System the movie that wants to see. 4) The System shows the set of available sessions and seats for that movie. 5) The System asks the user which session/seat he wants. 6) The User tells the System the chosen session/seat. This would be converted to: a) -----> tellClientNumber(clientNumber) b) <----- validClientNumber c) -----> tellMovieToSee(movie) d) <----- showsAvailableSeatsHours e) -----> tellSystemChosenSessionSeat(session, seat) I know that when we are dealing with SDD's we are still far away from coding. But I can't help trying to imagine how it how it would have been had I to convert it right away to code: I can understand 1) and 2). It's like if it was a C#/Java method with the following signature: boolean tellClientNumber(clientNumber) so I put both on the SDD. Then, we have the pair 3) 4). I can imagine that as something as: SomeDataStructureThatHoldsAvailableSessionsSeats tellSystemMovieToSee(movie) Now, the problem: From what I've come to understand, my lecturer says that we shouldn't make an operation on the SDD for 5) as we should only show operations from the Actor to the System and when the System is either presenting us data (as in c)) or validating sent data (such as in b)). I find this odd, as if I try to imagine this like a DOS app where you have to put your input sequencially, it makes sense to make an arrow even for 5). Why is this wrong? How should I try to visualize this? Thanks

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  • Security benefits from a second opinion, are there flaws in my plan to hash & salt user passwords vi

    - by Tchalvak
    Here is my plan, and goals: Overall Goals: Security with a certain amount of simplicity & database-to-database transferrability, 'cause I'm no expert and could mess it up and I don't want to have to ask a lot of users to reset their passwords. Easy to wipe the passwords for publishing a "wiped" databased of test data. (e.g. I'd like to be able to use a postgresql statement to simply reset all passwords to something simple so that testers can use that testing data for themselves). Plan: Hashing the passwords Account creation records the original email that an account is created with, forever. A global salt is used, e.g. "90fb16b6901dfceb73781ba4d8585f0503ac9391". An account specific salt, the original email the account was created with, is used, e.g. "[email protected]". The users's password is used, e.g. "password123" (I'll be warning against weak passwords in the signup form) The combination of the global salt, account specific salt, and password is hashed via some hashing method in postgresql (haven't been able to find documentation for hashing functions in postgresql, but being able to use sha-2 or something like that would be nice if I could find it). The hash gets stored in the database. Recovering an account To change their password, they have to go through standard password reset (and that reset email gets sent to the original email as well as the most recent account email that they have set). Flaws? Are there any flaws with this that I need to address? And are there best practices to doing hashing fully within postgresql?

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  • objectClass in openldap.

    - by garden air
    I am working on openldap in my linux box (centos) as testing.I create a base file to discuss with you about objectClass functionality & its impact if we not write.I write objectClass two times i.e top and domain .What does it mean ? The 2nd one is drived from the firect objectClass like parents child relation ? [root@srv1 openldap]# vim base.ldif base.ldif dn: dc=test,dc=local dc: test objectClass: top objectClass: domain Now I create add two OUs and does not add objectClass:top in both sales and marketing. To add two OUs i.e Sales and Marketing dn: ou=Sales,dc=test,dc=local ou: Sales objectClass:organizationalUnit dn: ou=Marketing,dc=test,dc=local ou: Marketing objectClass: organizationalUnit The confusion is should use all the parent objectClass and chield objectClass ? If we not add what impact will be on the structure ? In the following I use objectClass top and organizationalunit dn: ou=Sales,dc=test,dc=local ou: Sales objectClass: top objectClass:organizationalUnit dn: ou=Marketing,dc=test,dc=local ou: Marketing objectClass: top objectClass: organizationalUnit Please guide me which one is correct ? thanks garden

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  • SQL SERVER – Solution – Challenge – Puzzle – Usage of FAST Hint

    - by pinaldave
    Earlier I had posted quick puzzle and I had received wonderful response to the same from Brad Schulz. Today we will go over the solution. The puzzle was posted here: SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Usage of FAST Hint The question was in what condition the hint FAST will be useful. In the response to this puzzle blog post here is what SQL Server Expert Brad Schulz has pointed me to his blog post where he explain how FAST hint can be useful. I strongly recommend to read his blog post over here. With the permission of the Brad, I am reproducing following queries here. He has come up with example where FAST hint improves the performance. USE AdventureWorks GO DECLARE @DesiredDateAtMidnight DATETIME = '20010709' DECLARE @NextDateAtMidnight DATETIME = DATEADD(DAY,1,@DesiredDateAtMidnight) -- Query without FAST SELECT OrderID=h.SalesOrderID ,h.OrderDate ,h.TerritoryID ,TerritoryName=t.Name ,c.CardType ,c.CardNumber ,CardExpire=RIGHT(STR(100+ExpMonth),2)+'/'+STR(ExpYear,4) ,h.TotalDue FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader h LEFT JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory t ON h.TerritoryID=t.TerritoryID LEFT JOIN Sales.CreditCard c ON h.CreditCardID=c.CreditCardID WHERE OrderDate>=@DesiredDateAtMidnight AND OrderDate<@NextDateAtMidnight ORDER BY h.SalesOrderID; -- Query with FAST(10) SELECT OrderID=h.SalesOrderID ,h.OrderDate ,h.TerritoryID ,TerritoryName=t.Name ,c.CardType ,c.CardNumber ,CardExpire=RIGHT(STR(100+ExpMonth),2)+'/'+STR(ExpYear,4) ,h.TotalDue FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader h LEFT JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory t ON h.TerritoryID=t.TerritoryID LEFT JOIN Sales.CreditCard c ON h.CreditCardID=c.CreditCardID WHERE OrderDate>=@DesiredDateAtMidnight AND OrderDate<@NextDateAtMidnight ORDER BY h.SalesOrderID OPTION(FAST 10) Now when you check the execution plan for the same, you will find following visible difference. You will find query with FAST returns results with much lower cost. Thank you Brad for excellent post and teaching us something. I request all of you to read original blog post written by Brad for much more information. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • SOA &amp; Application Grid Specialization &ndash; 6 steps to success &ndash; part 1 OMM

    - by Jürgen Kress
    SOA Specialization – Oracle Open Market Model (OMM) Dear Application Grid SOA Partners, Or goal is to SOA Specialize you, in the next weeks we will inform you in a series how you can achieve SOA Specialization. Specialization is key the be recognized by Oracle and to be preferred by our Customers. The first step to become SOA Specialized is to proof 2 transactions. You can either resell, co-sell or referral – as a proof point we do use our Open Market Model (OMM). To create your account go to our new Partner Portal: go to login of your OPN-Homepage: http://oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com click on: "Sales" "Create a PRM User Account" Enter your User ID: Enter Company Identifier: ((please ask your OPN IC)) Finish Wait for a Confirmation Email If you need OMM support please contact out dedicated team: Nordics  please ask: [email protected] Portugal, Spain please ask: [email protected] Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom please ask: [email protected] For more information about OMM watch our on-demand webcast “Recognising the Value of Partners: Register Oracle Deals through the Open Market Model (OMM)”. Become SOA Specialized today SOA Specialized & Application Grid Specialized Create your references, create your OMM Entry, take the SOA Sales assessment, take the SOA Pre-Sales assessment, take the Support assessment and register for the SOA Implementation assessment. For more information on Specialization please visit our OPN Specialized Webcast Series To get support on Specialization please contact the Partner Business Centers.   SOA Specialized Application Grid Specialized Proof 2 transactions with OMM Proof 2 transactions with OMM Create your 2 references Create your 2 references SOA Sales assessment 3, Oracle Application Grid Sales Specialist  SOA Pre-Sales assessment 3 Oracle Application Grid PreSales Specialist Support assessment 1 Support assessment 2 SOA Implementation assessment 4 Application Grid Implementation assessment 4

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  • Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Solutions Make Retailers Merry

    - by Tuula Fai
    Tis the season to be jolly. If you’re a retailer, your level of jolliness depends on sales. So you watch trends like U.S. store traffic increasing 3.5% to 308 million on Black Friday but sales actually falling 1.8% to $11.2 billion. Fortunately, by the end of November, retail sales were up 3.7% over the previous year, thanks to life recovering after Hurricane Sandy. And online sales topped $1 billion for the first time ever! Who are the companies improving their sales online? They are big names like Walgreen’s Drugstore.com, Nordstrom’s HauteLook, and Intuit. More importantly, how are they doing it? They use cutting-edge business practices enabled by Oracle’s CX Cloud Service & Support solutions to: Increase conversions rates and order sizes (Customer Acquisition) Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty (Customer Retention) Reduce contact center costs and improve agent productivity (Operational Efficiency). Acquisition + Retention + Operational Efficiency = Sustainable Growth and Profits. That’s the magic formula for retail customer service success. Don’t take our word for it. Look at the results of these Oracle customers: Walgreen’s Drugstore—30% sales conversion rate on chat sessions with 20% increase in shopping cart size Nordstrom’s HauteLook—40,000+ interactions per month—20% growth over last year— efficiently managed by 40 agents, with no increase in IT costs Intuit—50% increase in customer satisfaction and 70% decrease in cost per interaction Using Oracle’s CX Cloud & Service solutions, these retailers deliver consistent, relevant, and personalized experiences across all touchpoints, including social, mobile, and web. Their ability to connect with customers anytime, anywhere—providing the right answer at the right time—helps them create a defensible advantage in the marketplace. Want to learn more? Please visit http://www.oracle.com/goto/cloudlaunchpad for free resources on delivering exceptional customer service in the Cloud. Also, watch our YouTube channel to learn more about seamless multichannel retail and Winston Furnishings’ exceptional customer experience.

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  • how to move a postgres schema via file operations ?

    - by Jerome WAGNER
    Hello, I have a schema schema1 in a postgres database A. I want to have a duplicate of this schema (model + data) in database B under the name schema2. What are my options ? I currently : * dump schema1 from database A * sed my way through schema renaming in the dump : schema1 becomes schema2 * restore schema2 in database B but I am looking for a more efficient procedure. For instance, via direct file operations on postgres binary files. Thanks for your help Jerome Wagner

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  • How could I make geometry advanced operations on bezier paths?

    - by yizzreel
    I have a library that draws regular bezier path figures (complex paths formed of a lot of bezier points), using midpoint approximation. I can draw them without problem, but I need to add support for advanced geometry operations: Nearest point of a curve, intersection, figure contains point, and more importantly, path combinations: difference, intersection, exclusive-or, union, ... Is there any good source to get all this? Thanks

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  • Is jdbc or ldap faster for basic read operations?

    - by Brandon
    I have a set of user data which I am try to access. Due to the way our company's employee data is set up, the information is available both through LDAP and through a table in our DB. I was curious, for standard read operations which would generally be a higher performance query?

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  • can i perform xml operations in XMLLITE with the same features of MSXML?

    - by Rajakumar
    Hi , I know something about MSXML parser ,to create an xml with native code ..Msxml depends COM..So I want to create xml without com and dom ,so i wish to choose XMLLITE..but i dont know full details about xmllite ,when i was read the xmllite documentation in msdn ,i gathered some points ,they will provide only 2 things (IXMLReader & IxmlWriter).Here in msxml ,i had many functions to do xml operations ,such as selectsinglenode,appendchild ..Now can i perform the same things with XMLLITE?..please give me the right choice towards this ...

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  • Execution plan issue requires reset on SQL Server 2005, how to determine cause?

    - by Tony Brandner
    We have a web application that delivers training to thousands of corporate students running on top of SQL Server 2005. Recently, we started seeing that a single specific query in the application went from 1 second to about 30 seconds in terms of execution time. The application started throwing timeouts in that area. Our first thought was that we may have incorrect indexes, so we reviewed the tables and indexes. However, similar queries elsewhere in the application also run quickly. Reviewing the indexes showed us that they were configured as expected. We were able to narrow it down to a single query, not a stored procedure. Running this query in SQL Studio also runs quickly. We tried running the application in a different server environment. So a different web server with the same query, parameters and database. The query still ran slow. The query is a fairly large one related to determining a student's current list of training. It includes joins and left joins on a dozen tables and subqueries. A few of the tables are fairly large (hundreds of thousands of rows) and some of the other tables are small lookup tables. The query uses a grouping clause and a few where conditions. A few of the tables are quite active and the contents change often but the volume of added rows doesn't seem extreme. These symptoms led us to consider the execution plan. First off, as soon as we reset the execution plan cache with the SQL command 'DBCC FREEPROCCACHE', the problem went away. Unfortunately, the problem started to reoccur within a few days. The problem has continued to plague us for awhile now. It's usually the same query, but we did appear to see the problem occur in another single query recently. It happens enough to be a nuisance. We're having a heck of a time trying to fix it since we can't reproduce it in any other environment other than production. I have downloaded the High Availability guide from Red Gate and I read up more on execution plans. I hope to run the profiler on the live server, but I'm a bit concerned about impact. I would like to ask - what is the best way to figure out what is triggering this problem? Has anyone else seen this same issue?

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  • Getting your bearings and defining the project objective

    - by johndoucette
    I wrote this two years ago and thought it was worth posting… Some may think this is a daunting task and some may even say “what a waste of time” and want to open MS Project and start typing out tasks because someone asked for an estimate and a task list. Hell, maybe you even use Excel and pump out a spreadsheet with some real scientific formula for guessing how long it will take to code a bunch of classes. However, this short exercise will provide the basis for the entire project, whether small or large and be a great friend when communicating to anyone on your team or even your client. I call this the Project Brief. If you find yourself going beyond a single page, then you must decompose the sections and summarize your findings so there is a complete and clear picture of the project you are working on in a relatively short statement. Here is a great quote from the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) relative to what a project is;   A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. With this in mind, the project brief should encompass the entirety (objective) of the endeavor in its explanation and what it will take (goals) to create the product, service or result (deliverables). Normally the process of identifying the project objective is done during the first stage of a project called the Project Kickoff, but you can perform this very important step anytime to help you get a bearing. There are many more parts to helping a project stay on course, but this is usually the foundation where it can be grounded on. Through a series of 3 exercises, you should be able to come up with the objective, goals and deliverables on your project. Follow these steps, and in no time (about &frac12; hour), you will have the foundation of your project plan. (See examples below) Exercise 1 – Objectives Begin with the end in mind. Think about your project in business terms with a couple things to help you understand the objective; Reference the business benefit in terms of cost, speed and / or quality, Provide a higher level of what the outcome will look like (future sense) It should be non-measurable, that’s what the goals are all about The output should be a single paragraph with three sentences and take 10 minutes to write. *Typically, agreement must be reached on the objectives of the project before you would proceed to the next steps of the project. Exercise 2 – Goals A project goal is a statement that answers questions about who, what, why, where and when. A good project goal statement; Answers the five “W” questions for the project Is measurable in each of its parts Is published and agreed on by all the owners This helps the Project Manager receive confirmation on defining the project target. Using the established project objective done in the first exercise, think about the things it will take to get the job done. Think about tangible activities which are the top level tasks in a typical Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The overall goal statement plus all the deliverables (next exercise) can be seen as the project team’s contract with the project owners. Write 3 - 5 goals in about 10 minutes. You should not write the words “Who, what, why, where and when, but merely be able to answer the questions when you read a goal. Exercise 3 – Deliverables Every project creates some type of output and these outputs are called deliverables. There are two classes of deliverables; Internal – produced for project team members to meet their goals External – produced for project owners to meet their expectations The list you enter here provides a checklist for the team’s delivery and/or is a statement of all the expectations of the project owners. Here are some typical project deliverables; Product and product documentation End product/system Requirements/feature documents Installation guides Demo/prototype System design documents User guides/help files Plans Project plan Training plan Conversion/installation/delivery plan Test plans Documentation plan Communication plan Reports and general documentation Progress reports System acceptance tests Outstanding bug list Procedures Risk and issue logs Project history Deliverables should go with each of the goals. Have 3-5 deliverables for each goal. When you are done, you will have established a great foundation for the clarity of your project. This exercise can take some time, but with practice, you should be able to whip this one out in 10 minutes as well, especially if you are intimate with an ongoing project. Samples  Objective [Client] is implementing a series of MOSS sites to support external public (Internet), internal employee (Intranet) and an external secure (password protected Internet) applications. This project will focus on the public-facing web site and will provide [Client] with architectural recommendations based on the current design being done by their design partner [Partner] and the internal Content Team. In addition, it will provide [Client] with a development plan and confidence they need to deploy a world class public Internet website. Goals 1.  [Consultant] will provide technical guidance and set project team expectations for the implementation of the MOSS Internet site based on provided features/functions within three weeks. 2.  [Consultant] will understand phase 2 secure password-protected Internet site design and provide recommendations.   Deliverables 1.1  Public Internet (unsecure) Architectural Recommendation Plan 1.2  Physical Site construction Work Breakdown Structure and plan (Time, cost and resources needed) 2.1  Two Factor authentication recommendation document   Objective [Client] is currently using an application developed by [Consultant] many years ago called "XXX". This application, although functional, does not meet their new updated business requirements and contains a few defects which [Client] has developed work-around processes. [Client] would like to have a "new and improved" system to support their membership management needs by expanding membership and subscription capabilities, provide accounting integration with internal (GL) and external (VeriSign) systems, and implement hooks to the current CRM solution. This effort will take place through a series of phases, beginning with envisioning. Goals 1. Through discussions with users, [Consultant] will discover current issues/bugs which need to be resolved which must meet the current functionality requirements within three weeks. 2. [Consultant] will gather requirements from the users about what is "needed" vs. "what they have" for enhancements and provide a high level document supporting their needs. 3. [Consultant] will meet with the team members through a series of meetings and help define the overall project plan to deliver a new and improved solution. Deliverables 1.1 Prioritized list of Current application issues/bugs that need to be resolved 1.2 Provide a resolution plan on the issues/bugs identified in the current application 1.3 Risk Assessment Document 2.1 Deliver a Requirements Document showing high-level [Client] needs for the new XXX application. · New feature functionality not in the application today · Existing functionality that will remain in the new functionality 2.2 Reporting Requirements Document 3.1 A Project Plan showing the deliverables and cost for the next (second) phase of this project. 3.2 A Statement of Work for the next (second) phase of this project. 3.3 An Estimate of any work that would need to follow the second phase.

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  • Does Your Website Do the Job?

    Before you even think of starting to build a website, you must put together a proper plan of how you want every part of you site to fit together, if you don't have a plan, you might as well forget about any success as failure to plan is a plan for failure. Even if you have a small one page website, you must make sure you run it to its optimum level, or you will see no rewards for your efforts whatsoever.

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