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Author: Revoltit
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IT Projects – Why Do Project Fail and How Project Managers Can Prevent?
The principal aim of this article is to identify and explore multiple dimensions of project failures during the entire life of project execution.
Many projects fail. The only way that companies can get better at performing projects is by learning from projects they have carried out. There are small things that can decide the fate of the project.
These all in project management practice and research has been to see it as a threat and as something that should, if possible, be neutralized, reduced and followed.
Question – “Did the project deliver the results and quality we expected?“
Answers to this question could be different from a different perspective. There is no single method or organizational structure that can be used to manage projects to success. Project failure can happen in any organization.
There are many reasons why projects (both simple and complex) fail; the number of reasons can be infinite and can fit into a different phase of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), initiation through go live. Sometimes it’s out of the control of a project manager and/or the team members. Sometimes failure is controllable.
Here are some of the common reasons why the project fails.
1. Incompetent Project Manager — A manager who helps steer the project in a timely fashion and provides sound, inspiring leadership can go a long way toward bringing about a successful project.
2. Less Involvement of Project Managers — Even the biggest project depends on the success of the smallest components. On relatively inexperienced teams, managers must be involved in the details for key activities.
3. Unavailability to Skilled Resources — Managers always struggle for the right skilled resources; leadership must provide planned/skilled resources on time to avoid project delay or failure.
4. Lack of Proper Planning — Without a clear focus at the earliest stage of the project, you make things harder on yourself, leading to inappropriate estimations and half-cooked planning.
5. Lack of Management Support/Leadership Alignment — Senior management must remain fully engaged throughout the project life cycle.
6. Missing Communication — A clear communication plan with stakeholder details, distribution methods, and frequency is essential to save your project from failure.
7. Ignoring Change Management Process — Every project must have a change control process, and every change request, however small, must go through it.
8. No-Risk Management Process — Many projects fail because there is no risk management process as an integral part of the management process.
9. Inadequate Quality Assurance — Managers often fail to plan appropriate reviews, tests, or checkpoints where quality can be verified.
10. Missing Management Tools/Framework — The right methodology and management tools help managers stay on top of the project.
11. Company/Culture — A political culture unsupportive of competency and transparency will leave team members unmotivated.
12. Inappropriate Prioritization — Managers should lead prioritization exercises with all relevant stakeholders, weighing value, cost, and risk.
13. Inaccurate Stakeholder Analysis — Identify your stakeholders, understand their influence and interest, and develop a plan to win their support.
14. Use of Unfamiliar Tools — Unfamiliar tools can cause severe problems as teams deal with a learning curve on top of usual duties.
15. Always Saying “Yes” to the Customer — Change is a major cause of project failure; before committing to something, analyze the pros and cons.
16. Bonding Between Team Members — It is the manager’s job to unite the team through forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.
17. Unrealistic Expectations — Set realistic expectations for every team member early so they don’t lose clarity and focus.
18. Talking Through Problems — Stakeholders have a vested interest in the project’s success and have a right to know about developments impacting the outcome.
19. Guesstimates on Effort — Inaccurate “gut feel” estimates can leave a team slogging to meet a deadline with a huge effort overrun.
20. Avoiding Code Reviews — Code review helps produce a stable, quality deliverable and catches issues testing alone may miss.
21. Skipping Prototyping — A sketch, wireframe, mockup, or prototype keeps expectations aligned and communication clear between stakeholders.
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SEO Plan for 2020
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not something you can do once and rest till eternity. Google keeps updating its algorithm, so top results for the same keyword change over time. As a website owner, you have to keep adapting your SEO efforts. Here’s how to tackle Google’s algorithm changes for SEO in 2020.
Finding New Keywords and Using Them Naturally — New trends bring new keywords. Once you find useful ones, integrate them naturally into your content rather than grinding them in.
Linking Your Website Properly — Strong backlinks from authoritative sites remain at the forefront of off-page SEO. Don’t overload on outbound links, and keep relevant inter-site links in relevant articles. Useful directories include Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, and local business directories.
Content and Readability — Longer content performs better (top Google results average around 1,900 words), but avoid duplicate content just to hit a word count. Use Google Search Console to catch issues, add multimedia, and check readability with a plugin like Yoast SEO.
Healthier Website Performance — Check page loading speed with PageSpeed Insights, scan for malware from manually installed plugins, and optimize visual content so it’s easy for every visitor to see.
That’s how you can improve your SEO efforts for 2020, keeping them in line with the newest Google algorithm.
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AntiVirus Software – How Does It Work?
A computer virus is a self-replicating program that installs itself on your computer without your consent, inserting itself into other programs, data files, or the boot sector of your hard drive. Once this happens, the affected areas are said to be ‘infected’.
Most viruses perform some sort of harmful activity: accessing confidential information, corrupting data, stealing hard disk space or processing power, logging your key-strokes, or spamming your contacts.
Anti-virus software is used to detect and remove computer viruses, using two basic approaches: signature scanning for known threats, and heuristics for unknown viruses.
Infected Files
Years ago most viruses lived in executable files (.exe, .com). Today, anti-virus software has to check a much wider variety of files, including Word documents with macros and even email bodies in some mail clients.
Identifying Viruses
Signature scanners search a computer’s boot record, programs, and macros for known patterns of code matching known viruses, using regularly updated ‘dictionaries’ of virus signatures. This is effective against known viruses but not new or modified ones.
Heuristic detectors look for code characteristics typical of viruses, using generic signatures to catch variants of known malware.
File emulation runs a file in an isolated ‘sandbox’ to observe its behaviour before deciding whether it’s malicious.
Memory-resident anti-virus software runs in the background, monitoring actions like downloads, running programs directly from the internet, or attempts to modify program code, halting suspicious activity for the user’s approval.
Drawbacks
Anti-virus software can slow a computer down slightly, can’t guarantee full protection, and can produce a false sense of security. Heuristic detection can also generate false positives — misidentifying safe files as viruses, which can render an operating system or application unusable if the software auto-quarantines or deletes them. Anti-virus software itself runs at a highly trusted kernel level, which can create its own attack surface.
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4 Ways CompSec Pros Protect Their Computers
Computer and network security: everyone knows they should be doing it better, but no one really knows all the best ways to do it. Believe it or not, everyone agrees on the single most effective way to keep your computer safe: don’t use a computer. Since that’s not practical, here’s what computer security professionals actually do to secure their own machines.
Take Online Security Seriously and Respond Quickly
Panera Bread famously failed to address a massive user data breach for eight months, exposing customers’ names, addresses and email addresses. Whether it’s public relations, data security, or productivity, there’s never been a more important time to take digital security seriously.
Update Your Software — Now, Not Later
It’s easy to click ‘Remind Me Later’, but software updates exist because a team of programmers patched something — often a security loophole. Read the release notes, check the forums for reported issues, and weigh the risk before updating — but don’t skip it.
Be Miserly With Permissions
The Principle of Least Privilege asks how few permissions each user really needs. Think of your network like a house: if every room has a locked door and valuables are in a safe, a break-in in one room doesn’t expose everything else. Restrict access carefully, based on need.
Prepare for the Worst: Do Your Backups
Ransomware, environmental disasters, even simple burglary can make your data unreachable. Backing up essential files to a geographically separate location can mitigate most of these failures.
Update software, back up your data, and restrict user access — those three steps alone can save a company hundreds of hours and real money. When asked what they do to secure their own machines, most security professionals give the same answer: not enough. You can always do more — get started today.
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SEO – The Unique Way to Market With SEO
SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is a method to increase your website or page ranking in Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook or any other platform for personal or business purposes.
It works by increasing the visibility of your website, page, product or service through organic (‘earned’) search results, and can target image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. The readability of a webpage in its browser and language plays a big role in how well it ranks.
SEO is a new and optimal way to market or promote products, services, causes, articles and campaigns — used by everyone from a single person optimizing a personal page, to small businesses, to multi-national companies looking to generate more business and gain more clients.
Many people don’t fully understand SEO and try it without the proper skills, so their page doesn’t rank properly — it’s technical, requires time, and getting traffic doesn’t always translate into business. With proper skills, time and resources, though, you can get real benefits from SEO.
Firms operating online know SEO is vital, since without it they can’t list their products or services in a fast-growing, highly competitive market. A person with the right skills can present their brand in local or international markets without spending heavily on marketing.
To get a better chance of success, treat SEO as a tool that, used properly alongside other resources, can get real results without the hassle — often with help from professional service providers or experts who can help you achieve your target.
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VPN – Every Business Need Remote Network Access for Their Employees
If recent years have taught us anything, it’s that businesses should be prepared for any eventuality — including a sudden need to shift employees to working from home. Remote network access is critical to keeping your company running, customers happy, and workers productive.
Remote Access Solutions
Telecommuting helps companies cut overhead costs and lets employees work at their own pace. There are a few ways to set up remote access:
- A complete Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Remote desktop access
- A cloud computing network with shared files, for a virtual office setup
Virtual Private Network
Pros: good for intermittent or full-time remote access; encryption keeps data transfer secure; the VPN itself isn’t directly vulnerable to attack.
Cons: unprotected PCs can transfer malware to the VPN; harder to set up than remote desktop access.
Remote Desktop Access Solutions
Three main options: remote access software, enterprise remote desktop, and direct remote access. Remote access software is less secure with limited centralized control but affordable for smaller companies. Enterprise remote desktop is more scalable and seamless but costs more. Direct remote access is free but requires strict security protocols and on-site fixes for hardware issues.
Cloud Network Remote Work
A good option for a fully virtual office, offering flexibility and cost benefits — though it’s harder to control what employees do with their home hardware.
What to Consider
- Ease of Installation — time, effort, and downtime during the transition
- Ease of Use — for both employees and your IT department
- Cost — against the savings it provides your company
- Security — and how dependent it is on users following protocol
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Rank in TOP of the Google Search Results
Google Favors Unique Content
A website with unique content ranks sooner than others. Creating shareable content — videos, blog posts, eBooks — means people link to your site, and Google factors those backlinks into its rankings. This is where ‘off-page optimization’ becomes part of your SEO strategy.
Off-Page Optimization
Most SEO experts agree off-page optimization, especially link building, contributes roughly 80% to any SEO campaign. The key driving force is backlinks.
The Importance of Backlinks
A backlink is essentially a vote for your page, telling search engines that other websites find your content valuable. Not every link carries equal weight, so aim for links from pages with good authority.
Here are 5 tips for easy link building:
1. Analyze Competitors — find your competitors’ backlinks using a backlink checker and pursue the major ones, as a routine practice.
2. Content, Content, Content — consistent, useful, keyword-oriented content is the best way to earn links. Post at least two new articles a week, and don’t forget title tags and meta descriptions with your target keywords.
3. Join Web 2.0 Sites — platforms like StumbleUpon, Squidoo and Tumblr let you build backlinks through unique, keyword-focused content, ideally with images or video.
4. Testimonials — give testimonials to clients and partners, including your keywords, linked back to your site.
5. Ask Your Network — business contacts, suppliers, family and friends can all provide a backlink if you ask. Links from .edu domains are especially valuable.
These are just initial strategies to build a stronger foundation — hopefully enough to help you climb toward the first position.
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Microsoft Teams. What Is Microsoft Teams?
How many times do you get pulled into a lengthy email thread with co-workers? If your team communications are hard to document and scattered across programs, Microsoft Teams is the solution — a cloud-based collaboration tool that’s part of the Office 365 suite. Core capabilities include:
- Creating and managing workgroups
- Chat and instant messaging
- Audio calling
- Impromptu or scheduled video meetings
- File and link sharing
- Documenting work and resources
- Simplified access to other Office apps
Teams works across devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) and platforms (Windows and Mac), and can even bring in outside partners like vendors and consultants — a big plus for productivity and project management.
Better Than Slack & Google Hangouts
At its core, Teams is a chat-based workspace with group and private messaging, and threaded, persistent conversations. It’s more robust than similar tools, comes included with Office 365, and connects to Excel, Word, OneNote, Planner and SharePoint. Skype for Business users should note its 2020 sunset date pushes most organizations toward Teams.
Customize With Channels
Teams are made up of channels organized by topic, project, or department, storing meeting history, chats and shared resources, all searchable. Channels can be customized with tabs for SharePoint, Planner, OneNote and other apps. @ mentions make it easy to reach a specific member or the whole team, and the Activity tab helps you catch up on unread messages and replies.
Video & Voice Meetings
Schedule voice and video meetings directly from a thread or from Outlook, launch impromptu calls, and record meetings easily. A background-blur AI feature helps remote workers keep calls looking professional.
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Zoom – 5 Quick Tips to Use It Effectively
By now, most of us are conducting business by phone and Zoom — but a surprising lack of professionalism, preparation and organization keeps showing up on video calls. First impressions matter, so here are 5 tips to make a great one on your next Zoom meeting with a prospect or client.
Tip #1: Clear away distractions. Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean a barking dog or kids in the background belong on camera. Get help managing them, take the dog outside, and create a professional environment.
Tip #2: Dress the part. Business casual beats a t-shirt. Shave, comb your hair, and generally look like you’re ready for a meeting, not the couch.
Tip #3: Get your lighting right. Don’t sit backlit by a window or in a dark room — turn on lights or open the blinds so your face is clearly visible.
Tip #4: Mind your background. A messy room reflects poorly on you. If you don’t have a clean, professional background, use one of Zoom’s virtual backgrounds instead.
Tip #5: Be professional and respectful. Show up on time, don’t talk over people, and send a thank-you email afterward — the same things you’d do in the office.
Incorporate these 5 tips and you’ll stand apart from everyone else calling in from their bedrooms and patios. Always present your best in every client interaction.