Tracking Your Life...11 "Apps" to Help You Out

I am always trying to find more efficient ways to do things; and trying to keep my life organized and on-track is always challenging, given my schedule. So, I thought I would share some awesome "apps" that allow me to track everything. I quote "apps" because almost all of them have a web-based and mobile application access, which makes life even better; because once in a while you just don't want to be on a small phone or tablet screen.

1. Evernote
• Quite simply, this is a notebook to store anything you can think of; scrap book, create To-Do Lists, projects for work or personal, etc.
• Alternative to Microsoft OneNote
• Available on virtually every platform
• You can pay extra to be able to have offline usage and some other great features
2. Mint.com
• When it comes to personal finance, Mint does everything stand-alone software does, but it's a website or mobile application instead of something you are forced to install on a computer
• Syncs with almost every financial institution for tracking loans, income, expenses, bill reminders, budget planning, and tons more
• Did I mention you pay NOTHING for it? Yep, awesome!
3. Wegmans
• Chances are you don't even know Wegmans. They are a grocery chain and their app ties seemlessly with their website.
• Grocery list building from all products available from store you set as your local store
• Tells you location in the store of the items on your list
• Can add recipes ingredients from their awesome recipe section to your shopping list
• Can view history of purchases to track spending, what you buy, or to compile new shopping lists quicker
• NOTE: If you shop at a grocery chain, see if they have an app that is similar
4. My Fitness Pal
• Whether you are trying to lose weight or just trying to stay healthy, it's important to know what you eat and recommended by most nutritionists, doctors, and specialists. MFP, as it's commonly called, can track all of that
• It has one of the largest food and drink databases I have come across, and although not all data is always 100% accurate, people can update the incorrect items with the correct information if they want
• You can also track any fitness you do
• Many external fitness sites and tools can automatically sync with MFP, allowing even easier tracking of fitness and activities
5. CardStar
• Did you forget your 10lb keychain at home with all of the different membership and store cards? Don't worry, you can use CardStar to input all of those pesky cards...ranging from an LA Fitness membership card to a GNC rewards card
• CardStar has a huge database of existing services, so usually you just find the name of the company, group, etc. and then input or scan your card
• If the rewards program isn't in CardStar's database, no worries, you can manually input it
• Also, a few updates ago they beefed up security, which is a really nice piece-of-mind
6. Waze
• No website, since this is a GPS app
• However, this is hands-down the best GPS app I have ever used; and although Google has bought Waze, Google's map app for iPhone still isn't that great
• It updates with alerts as people report them, so if Waze sees that there are a lot of slowdowns or an accident that pops up in your route, it doesn't need to wait for it to be reported to the local highway administration, it gets updated immediately by other users, then can automatically re-route you
• This really is a must-have for driving almost anywhere
• NOTE: Google's map program is still the best for walking around a city and finding things
7. Google Drive
• With some recent updates, you not only gain access to all of your Google Drive files, but you can now edit and create as well
• If you keep all of your document on Drive, then this app is a must!
• NOTE: SkyDrive people, unless you have a Windows Phone, forget the editing unless you get another app such as Office2 or CloudOn
8. OpenTable
• OpenTable is basically a restaurant finder and reservation scheduler tool
• Okay, not every place to eat will show up in here...just the ones who sign up with OpenTable
• However, it's great to find somewhere to eat when you are out, and you get rewards and can make an instant reservation...Perfect!
9. Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
• All the news
• Yes, for all of the goodies and articles, you need to pay, but comparing the quality of writing and journalism to other free news sources, you typically don't need to worry about a poorly written and/or researched article in here
• And I personally have no patience or time to weed out the junk articles...no offense to apps or services similar to Google News
10. Chrome
• Sorry Safari, Opera, and million other browser options
• I love the Chrome browser...syncing across all devices I have is awesome...not only that, but Chrome has a great feel to it
• NOTE: With iOS 7 coming out soon, I may end up changing this back to Safari, but we shall see
11. EasilyDo
• No website, but apps on iOS and Android
• If you are busy, and tend to forget things, even when you enter them in your calendar, then you NEED this app
• It basically acts as your personal assistant, and it will automatically send birthday wishes and presents to people via Facebook, or will track a shipment for an order you just, and much more
• Various functions include:
• Location-based items such as Direction to Home and Work, Local Weather and Alerts
• Facebook birthdays, RSVPs, Important Posts, Popular Posts, Daily Top Photos, Tagged Photos of you, Friends' Profile Pictures
• Email (ties into your email service) - boarding passes, hotels, restaurants, events, invitations, job changes, contact information, package tracking, bill pay reminders, receipts, expired deals cleanup, old calendar emails cleanup
• Calendar (ties into your calendar) - Next Calendar Event reminder
• Contacts (ties to your contacts) - Duplicate Contacts Cleanup
• Extras - Free App of the Week, Free iTunes Single of the Week (for iPhone)
• And they are always adding more features!!!
• NOTE: If you are a privacy nut, you don't want this app, it invades everything...HOWEVER, the privacy policy states they will not use any of the information other than for the functions of the app...this still means they can get your non-personal stuff and use it, as most apps do anyway

Nike Training Club - NTC

I wanted to review a bunch of the Nike apps, as I really like the simplicity, yet effectiveness and usefulness of them. The first app on the chopping block is NTC, Nike Training Club. As a quick note, I am reviewing from an iDevice perspective, as I do not have Android or other mobile OS. With that said, let's dive in.

Walkthrough

First off, you'll need a Nike Plus account. You can either sign up with your own e-mail or use your Facebook account. I am not a fan of how much companies get when I use a Facebook login, so I use it as little as possible, but that is just me. You have less logins to worry about if you use your Facebook account though; that is pretty nice. Anyway, you can learn about the Nike account on your own.

The intro screen is nice and simple. The Swoosh is for the home screen, with My Workouts you can view your recent and saved workouts, Progress shows your training totals in minutes as well as the general info from your workout, and Rewards are the typical Nike fashion of encouragement, which is pretty effective. I do want to note that if you want heart rate and calorie burn information, you will want to get a heart rate monitor, such as the Polar FT40 or similar. The Quick Start option will let you go immediately to the last workout you did, if that is the one you want to perform. Get Workout allows you to browse a very healthy list of workout routines, including:

• Get Lean
• High Interval Cardio Drills to Slim Down
• Get Toned
• Light Weights and Intervals to Add Definition
• Get Strong
• Increased Weights and Reps to Build Strength
• Get Focused
• 15-minute Workouts to Target Specific Areas

After you select what you want, you select an intensity level:

• Beginner
• You Average 4-5 Workouts a Month
• This is really for someone who is not used to doing strength training or is wanting to get back into strength training
• Intermediate
• You Average 2-3 Workouts a Week
• If you have been doing strength training, then you still may want to ease into things with Beginner, or you can take the plunge
• Advanced
• You Average 3-5+ Workouts a Week
• You really want to have most of your current workouts focused on strength training and have a good base
• Typically you will work up to this; it's definitely challenging

Now you will get to see all of the workouts available in the level you selected. The list in the example above is from Get Strong - Beginner. Don't worry if you have no idea what Workout Routine to choose, select one and you can view the workouts and even click on each workout to see a video of that workout.

If you want to listen to music during your workout, go for it! It will be lowered when the voice is instructing you to do your next workout, if you need to switch sides, or just shouting out some encouragement. Then, select Do Workout and go!

During the workout you can Pause whenever you need. Also, if you get to a workout you either don't know or can't remember what to do, you select the Play button and can view the workout. This in essence pauses your workout, so after the video, you will be required to resume. 

The workouts have some simple warm-up and cool-down built in, but if you are a person who is typically very stiff before workouts or suffers from post-workout soreness, I highly recommend additional warming up and/or cooling down.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of any misgivings people have with Nike, this application and its workouts are completely free. It's one of the best free workout routine programs I have tried out. Sure, there are better paid ones out there, but free is free. And you will get a workout from these routines. Now, if you are a BeachBody or hardcore CrossFit convert, then even some of the Advanced workouts may not feel as challenging as you would want...but chances are if you are one of those people, you aren't interested in this app in the first place. Enjoy the burn!

Polar FT40 Review

I have had my Polar FT40 for about 3 years now. I purchased it for 2 reasons; 1) It was one of the few watches out at the time that had great reviews on overall accuracy of calorie expenditure during a workout and 2) It was Polar, so I knew the heart rate tracking was going to be very accurate and I could train in zones. Now, the FT40 does not have specific zone training settings, so this was a manual effort; I really only cared if my heart rate went too high. I also wanted a watch that was designed to be able to track fat vs. cardio; basically meaning that I wanted to figure out approximate calorie burn when I was doing weight lifting or HIIT workouts, in addition to my cardio workouts.

Watch Functions and Setup

When I bought the watch, it came with the manual, software installation CD, heart rate strap, heart rate monitor, USB sync dock, and the watch. I had to setup the watch first, since part of the software installation process was to sync the watch to the software. Watch setup was very easy; you put in your gender, height, weight, date of birth, and activity level, and set the time and date.

For more options from the main screen, press the bottom right button. The first option is settings. Now press the right middle button. Here are the Training Settings:

1. Training Sounds
• Off, Soft, Loud, Very Loud
• Pick whichever you want. When I used to listen to music, I turned the sound off, but since I don't usually listen to music now, I usually set the noise to Loud, which is usually a good volume to hear over gym noise or a treadmill motor.
2. Heart Rate View
• Beats Per Minutes or Percent of Maximum
• I do BPM because I don't train based on % of max, but if you do, you can
3. HeartTouch
• The Polar explanation says it better than I can: "When HeartTouch is on, different training information during training can be accessed without pressing buttons, for instance, when gloves make pressing buttons difficult, by bringing your training computer close to your transmitter."
• I personally use it so I can keep session duration displayed on the watch, and then when I want to see what time it is, instead of scrolling through the displays, which is a pain, I just move the watch near the heart rate monitor, and the time will be displayed.
• Per the manual and my usage, HeartTouch only displays the time, and no other display values...HeartTouch is either On or Off.
4. Heart Rate Upper Limit
• This value is set based on your personal info when you first setup the watch. However, if you are in amazing cardio shape, your max HR may be a lot higher. Therefore, you can change this if you know your max HR is different.

Other options on the main selection menu after Settings are Fitness Test and Data. You can read below about Fitness Test. For Data, you get some nice options:

1. Training Files
• Starts with most recent workout
• Displayed date, time of workout, duration of workout
• Press the right middle button to see details
• Calories
• This is your calories burned during the workout
• Cal. Fat
• This is the fat percentage of calories burned
• Average
• Average Heart Rate during session
• Maximum
• Maximum Heart Rate during session
• Fat Burn
• Amount of time you were in the fat burning zone
• This time is usually higher during low intensity workouts, such as strength training
• Fitness
• Amount of time you were in the fitness zone (or cardiovascular zone)
• Typically for runs, biking, or other purely cardio workouts, most of your session time will appear here.
2. Week Summaries
• Shows current week first
• Graph shows activity level of selected week vs. other weeks
• Pressing the middle right button, you can see the details for that week
• Duration (overall for all sessions)
• Calories (total from all sessions)
• Sessions (total sessions for week)
3. Totals since (when you first started using the watch)
• This is a really awesome feature, as you can see how awesome you are
• The one problem is that the max Duration time is 99 hour, 59 minutes, so although it will keep adding sessions and calories, your Duration will stop at 99h:59m
• Displays Duration, Sessions, and Calories
4. Delete Files
• Deletes your currently stored files...if your storage is full and you need to do a workout, you may need to do this
5. Reset Week Summaries
• Same as Delete files
6. Reset Totals
• Same as Delete files
• This is good to use if you are trying to achieve certain goals. This way you can see how many sessions, total duration, and total calories burned to achieve your goal. Then you can reset for you next goal.

Recommendations for Initial Use

After you have setup your watch, signed up on Polar Fitness website and are ready for a workout, I recommend doing 2 things. It's important to know 2 things; what is your resting heart rate and what heart rate range should you be working out in. Heart rate ranges for age and gender are good guides, but people who fall on either extreme end of the spectrum may either hurt themselves or not get enough out of a workout. For example, someone who is extremely out of shape, overweight, and has no real fitness stamina, then their heart rate range is going to be significantly less than another person who is in the middle of the spectrum in the same age group and gender. So, make sure to do the fitness test.

To do the fitness test, press the bottom right button 2 times, then press the right middle button. Make sure you heart rate monitor is on. You also want to do the following:

• Find a relaxed environment to do the test
• Avoid any physical activity prior to test, or any food, drink, or medicine that could alter your heart rate...do this for up to 1 day before test
• Avoid any large meals at least 2 hours before test (I tried test this way and right after a large meal and got the same results)
• Make sure if you are doing the test multiple times over time, always do it in the same conditions

Then, you can start the test, wait 5 minutes for it to finish, and see your results. You will then be asked to update your VO2Max, at which point you should, since it will make calorie burn more accurate.

My result for example, the first time I took the test mine was 42. Per the chart in the manual, that means my VO2Max was on the low end of being moderately good. The last time I took it I was at 53, which is very good. So, you can see I have improved. In essence, the fitness test is Polar's version of trying to determine your VO2Max. Compared to getting your actual VO2Max tested, it's not the greatest, but compared to most other calculators and competitor watches, it's one of the most accurate.

Training

When you want to start your workout, press the middle right button and wait for the watch to pickup the heart rate monitor signal. If you want to start, just press the middle right button again and go! If you need to pause, press the bottom left button, and the press the middle right button to resume. if you are done, press the bottom left button twice.

If you want to customize your workout, before pressing the middle right button a second time, press the bottom right button to see Training Settings, and then press the middle right button to see options.

• Training Sounds
• If you want beeps or not, and how loud
• Heart Rate View
• BPM or % of Max...whatever you want to display based on your training session
• Heart Touch
• I usually keep it on all of the time so I can see the current time if I need to
• Heart Rate Upper Limit
• If you are trying to keep from going above a certain heart rate, set the upper limit and make sure you have Training Sounds enabled so you know if you go over

Sadly, there are no other special training settings. However, there are plenty of other models you can get for this. But for a watch to get you accurate calorie burn from workouts, this is definitely the watch for you.

Can your company survive without Windows 8

For most companies, the answer is yes. Windows 8 doesn't have any ground-breaking features that alter business as we know it. With that said, there are a lot of operational efficiencies a company can gain from Windows 8. Therefore, your IT and business management need to run through some questions to decide if Windows 8 can help move your business forward.

 

Are we a "Microsoft Shop"?

 

I am not really sure when I first heard this term, but for anyone not familiar with it, it basically means your company invests heavily in Microsoft infrastructure. For example, your company may actually strive to be a Microsoft Business Partner because your company develops software or sells computers, and everything you do is around Microsoft products. Or, maybe your company is just "Microsoft-Centered" as I call it. This might be a typical example of the software your company has:

• Windows XP or 7 (for employee computers)

• Windows Server
• Exchange Server

• Microsoft Office
  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Outlook
  • Visio

• SQL Server

• Visual Studio
• Internet Explorer

 

If you fall into any of the descriptions above, and your company usually tries to keep up with the latest technology offerings, the simple answer on whether or not to go to Windows 8 is yes. The reasoning is that your cost to upgrade will generally be lower because of licensing agreements and other discounts. I will throw out the disclaimer that you will need to do a full software and hardware system review to make sure upgrading to Windows 8 will not negatively impact any other software or hardware currently in your company, unless you plan on upgrading that as well.

 

Are we mobile?

 

A really simple question that can make your life easy is if your company is mobile. Mobile can mean that your employees use laptops or tablets instead of desktops, most of your employees work from remote locations, and/or a large percentage of your employees are on the road and/or in field offices. If the answer is yes, Windows 8 has a lot of great tools to aid in keeping your technology footprint light while still having tons of security and flexibility. BitLocker and Trusted Boot are two applications that come with Windows 8, and they are pretty solid. There are also a lot of other tools that help with mobile broadband, remote desktop, file sharing, and more.

 

If the answer is no, this does not mean you should not consider Windows 8. However, depending on your current IT infrastructure, both hardware and software, you may not see the ROI you want or any ROI at all by getting Windows 8. 

 

What is the average technology learning curve of each employee?

 

This question can tend to be a huge unknown if a company does not have a tech support department or tech support department doesn't have a useful reporting system to capture metrics. If you know the learning curve is large, stay away from Windows 8, as you will never see the return you will be hoping for, despite the amazing benefits you can get from Windows 8. If you have no idea, then a good benchmark would be something like "How painful was it upgrading Internet Explorer from version 6 or 7 to version 8?" Or "How hard was it for users when the company upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007?" If it went pretty well, then you can assume that the learning curve will not be too bad overall.

 

Do we have the hardware in place to leverage all Windows 8 has to offer?

 

This is a complicated question. The benefits from Windows 8 unfortunately come with the synergies of the other Microsoft software; Office or Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, etc. Although, from a system resource perspective, Windows 8 is more lightweight than Windows 7, if you are upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8, your computers, servers, and even your network may not be able to support the system requirements. Also, you have to worry about older software being compatible with Windows 8, or more importantly, loss of functionality of older software in Windows 8. I already said this, but can't emphasize it enough; a full impact analysis must be done before upgrading to Windows 8. As a matter of fact, you should ALWAYS be doing an impact analysis, even on software patches. SQL Server is notorious for its patches messing things up.

 

Conclusion

 

Sure, there are many other questions, but I wanted to provide some key ones to ask. Windows 8 is not like any other prior Windows OS release, and needs to be treated as such. It has amazing capabilities and is a great step forward for personal and business computing. However, most people and businesses are not ready for that leap, as there is always fear and resistance to drastic change of any kind.

 

I am a technology advocate and believe that a company should stay as current with technology as their business operations demand. So, do you need to upgrade to Windows 8? Maybe not, but it may be worth it.

TomTom MultiSport Watch - Part 1

As some background, I was following this watch from the moment it was first announced. One of the main reasons is that I had tried the Garmin 310 and 910xt, and they were perhaps the most uncomfortable and bulky watches I have ever tried doing an activity with. I really liked the Polar RCX5, but it had too many external accessories (mainly the GPS had to be worn on an arm strap) and the price is even worse than the Garmin 910xt. So, I was excited there was a possibility of a multi-sport watch that would get all 3 sports, have integrated GPS, not be bulky, and not too be ridiculously expensive. I bought my TomTom Multi-sport watch a little over a week after it was released.

There are probably many more in-depth reviews on this watch, but I am going to cover in this first post the unboxing, setup (on a Mac), and my initial workouts with the watch.

Unboxing

I purchased the TomTom Multi-Sport + HRM + Cadence/Speed/Altimeter. It arrived stylishly boxed and compact; following in Apple and Ikea's footsteps for packaging.

In the box were manuals (multi-language) which are not very helpful past the most basic setup and use; although, setup was fairly straight-forward and easy, so that's not really a big deal. Also in the box was a heart rate strap, TomTom heart rate monitor, handlebar watch mount, cadence sensor with cords to attach to bike, the watch, watch band, and USB sync/charger.

Setup with a Mac

I recently went to the dark side and left the PC world and got a MacBook Pro. Not going to get into likes and dislikes vs. Windows-PC vs. Linux (Linux is the best IMO). Anyway, I went to the website in the instruction manual to download the software. The website automatically detected I was on a Mac and the download button was for the Mac version of the software. I downloaded and installed the software quickly. I did have to signup for a TomTom MySports Connect account. This sign-up process was quick as well.

With everything setup, I synced my watch to the computer. It detected the watch and synced immediately. I want to disclose something VERY important, as this information is NOT noted anywhere except the forums.

IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE USING YOUR WATCH
If you want detailed stats, you need to enable ALL export options. Granted, if you don't plan on using MapMyRun or RunKeeper, you can ignore those. But for all file exports, enable them ALL. The watch will NOT create the files for older workouts, so you if you did a few workouts before enabling the exports, you can't get the extra detail (this happened to me). Fortunately it was only 3 workouts, so not a big deal...I at least got my overall stats. For Windows computers, the work-around for this is to double-click on the <> and then re-sync your watch. Sadly, this will not work on Mac. Again, for me, not really a big deal at all. Just a surprise...and from the forums, this angered a lot of people. You can follow my steps below for Mac...I assume it isn't much different for Windows.

My First Run

Upon putting on the heart rate monitor, the watch detected it immediately with no issues. I want to note that I do not like the new HR straps, as they chafe badly. You can solve this with BodyGlide or something similar. I like my Polar HR straps a lot more, plus they are machine washable. Either way, most HR straps fit the TomTom HR monitor. I did not try using my other bluetooth HR monitor and will have to report on that another time.

I went outside and noticed that the watch already had GPS signal, which is nice, because GPS on my phone is bad until I get a little away from my house. I had an interval run planned, so I went to Run\Settings\Training\Laps\Manual. To track each lap I just tap on the right side of the watch face; easiest thing ever. The only issue I have with this is that the backlight is operated the same way, so I can only see the running info when I select a new lap. I am hoping TomTom will fix this in a later firmware release. Otherwise, for my other runs I have done at night, I tap that spot and the backlight comes on and is extremely easy to read in the dark.

The running training options, if you want to use them at all, are:

• Goals
• Distance
• Time
• Calories
• Laps
• Time
• Distance
• Manual
• Zones
• Pace
• Heart
• Race
• 3 miles
• 5k
• 6 miles
• 10k
• 13.1 miles

I am hoping they allow for custom or more distance options for races in the future. But it will suit me fine for now. For the other options, like Distance, you can go up to 99.9 miles. 

Battery Life

I want to take a moment to say the battery life is awesome so far. It gets up to 10 hours, but that is from constant use with HRM and GPS going. I haven't had any workout or event remotely that long yet. I did have a 14 miles long run, and the battery didn't make much of a dent. I also have tried using this as a regular watch and didn't charge for 4 days and had 2 workouts...when I checked the battery, it was still well over 50%. I am impressed with the low power consumption when not working out.

My First Swim

I have not done an open water swim, but I don't see an option for it anyway. I guess you could use the running tracker, but for anyone not aware, GPS signal doesn't work under water, so the Garmin 910xt for example, although it can track open water swims, it loses signal every time the watch goes under, and then tries to regain each time the watch goes out of the water. So, open water tracking isn't that big of a deal. Anyway, my first swim was in a 25m pool, and it was easy to set the distance in the watch. The laps were 100% accurate and it was really nice seeing the stats:

• Time
• Distance
• Calories
• SWOLF (Swimming Golf: SPL + length time)
• SPL (strokes per length)

Training options are:

• Goals
• Distance
• Time
• Calories
• Laps
• Time
• Distance

Also to note, you can set which wrist you will have the watch on and customize some of the stats you see on the display. Had a good swim and tracking was great.

My First Bike

I was hoping to add to this when I wrote up the blog, but I still haven't gone on a bike ride yet...haven't even hooked up the sensors to my bike. I have done some spinning, but I got my trainer and hope to, at the very least, get an indoor session if not an outdoor session. I'll keep you posted.

My First Treadmill

This will have to be added at another time, as I try and avoid treadmills like the plague...just a personal preference. I still run on them a lot more than I would like, but I haven't had a treadmill run since I got this watch. The one concern and complaint I already know about is that there is no foot pod, and even if there was one, the watch is terrible at tracking anything other than consistent speed on the treadmill...so forget if you change your speed or try intervals. However, most devices and watches are bad at this too, even with foot pods.

The Agile Buzz

Agile is one of those buzz words that IT managers, business execs, and everyone else love to use in conversation. However, I have yet to meet more than a handful of people who ever really knew what Agile really was; more importantly, how it could and/or should be used at their company. This is not going to be another "Here is the definition of Agile; go forth and use it wisely, as great knowledge of definitions comes terrible application of that term". Okay, just killed the quote, whatever. I am going to focus on the why your company should consider Agile, a hybrid, or just drop the darn buzz word and get work done instead.

If you want the definition of Agile, go to Wikipedia or search for Agile Manifesto. That should be a good start.

If you are a software development company, I will argue until I am dead that you should be using Agile. I have been in highly regulated environments and can argue agile's benefit in virtually all cases. I can also argue in almost all cases that the cost-benefit will be so shocking in the long run that you would be squandering a small fortune by not investing in Agile.

But I don't care about the software development companies...if they don't at least know what agile is and have made a conscious decision to use or not to use it, then they probably have far bigger problems they need to focus on...I can help you with that if you need. Who I really care about is every other company out there that has an IT department or technology team or designated "tech" people that need to write code in order for the business to function. For example, if you have a database system or data warehouse and need to write SQL to pull out data into spreadsheets....or write code to pull the data into a BI tool such as Cognos. I do want to note that Agile can be applied to business processes and just about anything, but there will be plenty of post for that later...I could probably write a book series on this.

Anyway, let's discuss how Agile can help you. If your company is broken into a bunch of silos, groups don't work well together, there is generally poor communication, and/or the culture is that people cling to their knowledge and refuse to share and play nice, then I highly recommend you not only throw out the idea of Agile, but don't even waste your breath with the word until you have fixed your other issues first. This is the short and easy one.

If your company still has any of the above issues, but they are minimal, or non-existent (yay), then you should consider Agile, or at least a hybrid. Since it would take too long to cover all uses for Agile, I am going to focus on something all companies need and use...reports. If you want examples for development related to operational systems, shoot me a message and I'll write up something for that.

One thing to understand is that a huge benefit of Agile is delivery of something that will provide immediate business value. Let's use a financial report for our example. Here we go: the business needs a financial report that will show a financial snapshot of how the company is doing in regards to operational costs, sales figures, profits and losses, and trending against competitors. Let's ignore the BI piece of this for now, since my BI people are going to scream dashboard.

The reporting need that I just wrote is very generalized and contains tons of top-level requirements that could technically equate to dozens of smaller reports, each of which could have dozens upon dozens of requirements. If we try to tackle this the old-fashioned way, then we would get a project manager, do a cost-benefit analysis, figure out resources, get an idea of complexity, and put together some insanely large Project outline that has about as much chance of being met as I do winning Powerball.

Let's break this up. Let's ask what the most important piece of data is. Maybe there are a few items...so let's rank them if need be. Either way, we want to start with one item. For simplicity, we are going to focus on sales figures for each of the company's products in each division. Again, for simplicity, we are going to assume that our data is in a structured source and we don't need to worry about where to get the data from. So, my first User Story is "I want total sales for all products company-wide for last year." This is something I can write some quick SQL for and get an immediate result and a manager can use that data to make business decisions. Wow that was fast and simple. I already have a deliverable and I haven't even broken a sweat. Now my next user story will be "I want to see total sales for each division for last year." Great, some more SQL and I have another deliverable. Now I can take both sets of data and plop them into a spreadsheet, or PowerPoint, or whatever and I now have the beginnings a of sales report. We can then get more detail from there and with each user story, or building blocks as I usually call them, we can keep building our report without affecting the currently useable product.

I have probably oversimplified this to no end, and you are probably saying that all of this is common sense. I would not be able to dispute that. However, I would then probably point at you and say how often does this actually happen at your company? And the common response would be "Well, it's more political than that and there is lots of red tape, blah blah, etc."

But here is the reality, if you have the culture to support Agile methodologies, then what I just described is really that easy for your company to implement. Of course you will need documentation, of course you will need detailed workflows to follow, and of course, like implementing anything that is different from the norm, you will have push-back.

One final touch-point I want to leave you with is that Agile may not be right for your company. Maybe it is the right thing to use, but it wouldn't be cost effective in enough time to allow for a proper budget to be assigned. Maybe the culture just won't support Agile without "changing the world". Or, maybe Agile is the perfect fit and it's time to go for it. Either way, you need to know what Agile really is and how it can be used as a tool to improve your company; otherwise, you are just tossing around buzz words and ultimately causing more headaches for everyone.

Social Media and your business

This is not a new topic, but I was in a discussion recently about it and thought I would share my thoughts; social media has been around for most of history in one form or another. But I am focusing on current Internet-based social media for this post and to provide guidance on how to choose where your business might want to be. So, the general timeline starts with websites, then blogs, SecondLife, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace, flickr, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, and so many more in the mix. It's actually quite daunting if you sit down and try to figure out where you want to make a presence.

Let's start with the basics; most companies rely on an employee's experience to determine what forms of social media to use. The common thing you will hear is that the employee who is deciding to use social media for the company has an account on LinkedIn, they and/or their kids use Facebook and Twitter, and every competitor has a website. If the company isn't trying to sell products or services online, then a simple website to show information about the company is created; if the company wants to extend it's selling power to the web, then it will either employee an internal IT team or hire a 3rd party to create an e-commerce website. Then, someone creates an account LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for the company, and works at maintaining it. Or for larger companies, they may have a dedicated person or team to manage these. I am not going to focus too much on IT infrastructure or security in this post, as they are really large topics I can cover later.

Website 101

A website is typically expected for any business; it doesn't matter if you are a Fortune 100 or a small pizzeria. The depth of the website really depends on your business and what you are trying to convey to current and potential customers. As I noted, if you have no interest to sell anything, you should at least have a website that explains what your company does, offerings of your company, and how potential customers, suppliers, partners, etc. can get in touch with you. For example, if you are a medical manufacturer that only sells directly to suppliers, you may just want to have a basic site that explains what you make, about your company, and how a potential supplier could get in touch with you. For a smaller business, such as a restaurant, you would want to describe your restaurant and food, and if you don't want to offer an online reservation system (maybe you are a pizza and sub shop), then at least have your menu posted so people can get an idea of what you offer and can make the process of reviewing a menu at the restaurant less daunting.

If you want to sell things online, then you will want an e-commerce website. Maybe you are into specialty crafts, so a site like Etsy or eBay would be more than sufficient for handling your needs. Or maybe you are trying to be the next Amazon and need a powerful and separately hosted e-commerce site. For the smaller companies, you can probably get away with setting up the site yourself on a per-canned hosting site; for the crafting example I mentioned Etsy or eBay. There are many other sites such as GoDaddy where you can get a Web 2.0 template that you customize and set everything up yourself. If you are a bit larger, then you will either want an IT staff that can handle this or you will want to contract out to a 3rd party.

Internet Social Sites-A-Plenty

This post would be too long if I went into detail on each service out there. Therefore, I am going to post some guidelines and you will have to do the leg work...or you can send me a message and we can talk. Basically, you need to know the type of audience you want for your business. I am going to bring back the Etsy example again, because it's a great example of a niche place for typically smaller businesses or hobbyists to sell their goods. People go to this site, which is very popular, knowing what Etsy is about.

Another example is that your company has products and services they sell, and want people to get excited about new offerings. One option is creating a Facebook site. This allows people to Like your site and get word out about your company and offerings. You can easily get feedback and opinions without even having to do focus groups. Please note that focus groups are still important depending on what you are trying to sell or produce.

Yet another example is that you are a company in the music or entertainment arena. Sites like the re-designed mySpace are great sites. And don't forget that Twitter is still extremely popular to use; especially for getting out bursts of news. Examples relating to this would be new artist releases, upcoming gigs, trends in the industry, and more.

Whatever you choose, make sure you do your research before just diving in. Although Twitter is popular, it may end up being a bad solution for your company. Or maybe Facebook would be a poor choice, but LinkedIn would be perfect. There are so many factors to consider.

Why Not to be Social

I am not going to imply that a company not getting into social media is hiding something. However, social media can be a blessing or a nightmare for a company. For example, if your company doesn't have much of a social media presence, and let's say there is a recall on one of your products, the buzz may not be as severe as if you had been in many social media arenas. However, if you were in the various social arenas, you may have more of a voice on the matter and you will be able to get a quicker idea of public opinion on the situation. This is one of the most important things to consider before divings into social media.

As a parting note, I love social media for the pure marketing and viral aspects of it. But be careful, social media should never be taken lightly in the decision making process.