[New post] Assignment 9: Barney Harford Interview – Part 2

SamanthaRuffin posted: "Barney Harford learned a lot from his career.  There were a lot of points he mentioned that I thought were very important when it comes to being a leader.  He starts out his life like most individuals, having no idea what to do with their lives.  As a res" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Another Monday Morning... Assignment 9: Barney Harford Interview – Part 2 by SamanthaRuffin Barney Harford learned a lot from his career.  There were a lot of points he mentioned that I thought were very important when it comes to being a leader.  He starts out his life like most individuals, having no idea what to do with their lives.  As a result, he was able to learn a lot at an early stage. One lesson of leadership he points out that I thought was very important was how he approached budget.  He explained that 'the wrong approach is to spread those budgets across the organization like peanut butter.'  Because I have very little experience with leadership, I would've made that mistake.  But after his explanation I understand why you wouldn't spread the budget throughout the company evenly.    You must reward those who work hard and find the 'bad apples' in your company. It may seem like a 'heartless' task when you view it at a glance, but it is mandated in order to run a successful company.  It is all about the investment.  Your investment determines the value of your outcome. He also takes an interesting approach with his hiring process.  He reads resumes and sees how an individual advanced over the years.  From his statement, I made a mental note to review my resume again.   How was I able to get from point A to point B and does that show in my resume?  This type of thinking seems like common sense, but most individuals do not contemplate on this aspect.  As a result, this is definitely a quality a leader must be able to perform. In order for his business to flourish and be successful, he must look for an individual who wants to be successful. Overall, Barney's interview was an interesting read.  I can definitely relate with him more because he started out his interview with his childhood and college 'careers'.  He explained that he too was an average person who wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to do.  He paints out a picture where the reader can understand that he wasn't born a leader.  Over time he was able to become a leader. SamanthaRuffin | August 29, 2014 at 10:46 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p1COYN-8i Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Another Monday Morning.... Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://gracefullybold.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/assignment-9-barney-harford-interview-part-2/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] Assignment 9: Paul Maritz Interview

SamanthaRuffin posted: "Paul Maritz make a valid point when he expressed that managing 100 people is different from managing 1,000 people.  He explains that when he manages more individuals it requires him to be less personal and think things on a broader scale. Managing more in" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Another Monday Morning... Assignment 9: Paul Maritz Interview by SamanthaRuffin Paul Maritz make a valid point when he expressed that managing 100 people is different from managing 1,000 people.  He explains that when he manages more individuals it requires him to be less personal and think things on a broader scale. Managing more individuals also prevents him from knowing details about certain topics. In a sense, he sets an overall goal for his employees rather than having 'one-on-one' time with each employee. He also mentions that with a larger group, he isn't able to receive immediate feedback from his employees. He has to critique his own work in order to figure out if he is doing a phenomenal job.  I disagree with that.  I can admit, I never managed 1000 employees before, but I'm sure he's capable of receiving some kind of immediate feedback from his employees.  From experience, surveys take forever (especially if they are lengthy), but, he could hold group discussions every once in a while and speak with his employees.  He doesn't have to talk with all of them but he could have key individuals report to him.  It may take a day out of his busy schedule but I'm sure it's worth the effort when he has the results at the end of the day.  He could have a group meeting with the key individuals or he could meet with them individually.  He even admits himself that successful people are 'ones who try to structure their lives to learn and get feedback and be self-aware'. He discusses that a in any great leader you'll find four personality traits.  The have to be a strategist, a class manager, customer oriented, and an enforcer.  He explained that you will find at least two of the personality traits rather than all four in a leader.  I never thought twice about the idea. Thinking about the leaders in my life I can safely say that I met someone who has at least three of the characteristics.  In theory, all of them clash with one another.  There is a possibility that employees won't view you as customer oriented' if you are an enforcer.  I agree that these are ideal characteristics, but I also believe that leaders are capable of having more than two of the characteristics. On the other hand, it is hard for teams to have all four characteristics and harmony.  From experience, teams always have some kind of clash (even if it's minor).    I also can agree that when it comes to teams, they always inhibit two of the characteristics.  It is hard to find the 'perfect team'.  The important part is how they handle the situation.  Handling the situation efficiently will allow faster progress in a project and obstacles can be solved at a faster rate. Paul Maritz brought up some valid points.  Some of them I definitely disagreed with, but I also agreed with some of his statements.  Managers have to take a different approach when they are managing 1000 people rather than 100.  Paul seems like an experienced manager, but I would've taken a different approach to things.  From experience, employees work harder when they feel like they matter within an industry.  Employees tend to work harder without thinking twice about it if they have nothing to worry about.  I'm sure 1,000 employees is a lot to manage and become personal with, but the employees must always know that the company will always take care of them. Click here to view the interview. SamanthaRuffin | August 29, 2014 at 8:02 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p1COYN-8c Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Another Monday Morning.... Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://gracefullybold.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/assignment-9-paul-maritz-interview/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] FOSS Project: VuFind

SamanthaRuffin posted: "I explored two FOSS projects and was able to find some interesting things about the both of them.  In a nutshell, VuFind is a 'library resource portal designed ' and it was 'developed for libraries by libraries.'  Mifos is a financial platform to provide " Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Another Monday Morning... FOSS Project: VuFind by SamanthaRuffin I explored two FOSS projects and was able to find some interesting things about the both of them.  In a nutshell, VuFind is a 'library resource portal designed ' and it was 'developed for libraries by libraries.'  Mifos is a financial platform to provide financial solutions.  After looking at some of their documentation, I decided to explore Vufind in more detail. I definitely think Vufind is very innovative for libraries.  The platform runs on Solr Energy, which apparently is a good search engine. Users can potentially get results for a search query in milliseconds.  Developers have the option to save their catalog over multiple servers or one server farm environment.  The most amazing part of the entire FOSS project is that it is free.  Because it is open sourced, developers have the capability to help each other create a better environment. Overall, here is a list of capabilities VuFind can offer: Users can narrow down their results Users will receive live results.  The interface will not slow down as a result of it. Users will be offered suggestions based on their results Users will be able to save their list of results User will be capable of browsing authors and their work Users will be able to bookmark their favorite URLs Users will be able to tag any records Users will be able to change the language of the interface Users will be able to create custom data reports to review Digital Library Display from Falvey Memorial Library on Vimeo. From reading the documentation, the platform is capable of using third party plug-ins in order to enhance the experience of the user.  The user can download the program online. They have a list of instructions on how to download the program and install it for linux and windows.  There are a variety of versions offered to download but, there is no detailed description on what exactly is different between all of them. There is a 'Support' tab if the user runs into any problems.  The user can join their mailing list for general issues and support questions.  In addition, there are other mailing lists that the user can sign up for.  They include tech (list for all code related issues), admins (discussing management of the project), and unicorn users (a list for SirsiDynix Unicorn).  In addition, the user has the capability to search through a database of older and archived issues that may have already been solved. The archived issues are handled by Atlassian JIRA Software.  The user also have the option to join other websites that troubleshoot their problems with VuFind. Lastly, the documentation they offer is definitely useful.  The first document is about the software.  Then they explain the requirements for the document which include hardware and software dependencies.  Afterwards, they list the current users.  It would be more useful if the list of users were a separate tab.  I strongly believe that the list of user should be more noticeable.  In addition, here is where you can read the changelog.  Lastly, they offer the usability document (how to test it) and the current and previous manuals. Overall, I strongly believe that they provide all of the right documentation for VuFind.  In addition, they explain the software nicely.  I know what the project is capable of.  I'm not exactly sure how useful all of the information would be if I was a current user.  On the other hand, all of the information I perused curtailed to potential users.  I only glossed over the detailed information.  If I was a library, I would definitely try to invest in this project. SamanthaRuffin | August 19, 2014 at 8:03 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p1COYN-7D Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Another Monday Morning.... Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://gracefullybold.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/foss-project-vufind/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] Info324 Assignment 3 – Business Requirements

SamanthaRuffin posted: "The main discussion of this post is business requirements.  What characteristics are required for a business requirement?  According to Thomas Hathaway and Karl Wiegers, requirements have a lot of requirements.  Thomas Hathaway explained that business req" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Another Monday Morning... Info324 Assignment 3 – Business Requirements by SamanthaRuffin The main discussion of this post is business requirements.  What characteristics are required for a business requirement?  According to Thomas Hathaway and Karl Wiegers, requirements have a lot of requirements.   Thomas Hathaway explained that business requirements should start with the words 'I need' (or anything along the lines of that), names a single component/feature/state/behavior is worth funding, focus on business outcome, and can be tracked back to the individual who has authority.  Thomas also explains that anybody should be able to understand the system requirements.  Once the requirements are established, the business departments and the technology department must determined if both side interpret the requirements correctly.  Once this has been established, programmers and analyst can proceed to start the project. Karl Wieger also explains some characteristics of good requirements.  He explained that requirement statements should be correct, feasible, necessary, prioritized, unambiguous, and verifiable.  He then explains the characteristics of requirement specifications.  The requirements should be complete, modifiable, and traceable.  Unlike Thomas Hathaway, Karl Wieger breaks everything down in two categories.  The first set of characteristics explains what each requirement statement should consist.  As for the second set of characteristics, it explains what the entire document should consist. Surprisingly, business requirements is new to me.  Only recently, my job started to implement procedures in order to get individuals to start creating goals, documents and business requirements. On another note, I decided to join an IRC chat.  To start off, it was difficult joining it.  Before class, I never heard of it. I decided to join the #Ubuntu chat room.  I wanted to join the #android-dev, but I didn't know how to make myself 'visible'.  Everytime I tried to join the chat room, I ended up getting an error message explaining something along the lines that I can't be anonymous in order to join the IRC.  Back in the 90s, I'm sure this was an excellent way to communicate. Now? I think it is the most awful way to communicate. To start off, I was caught off guard with the first screen.  I learned that you could join any chat room by typing in whatever topic you want to talk about but I didn't take that seriously.  I stayed in the chat room for 30 minutes and felt pretty amazing that I was able to finally get in.  Majority of the chat is how someone joined or quit the chatroom.  Because they aren't a different color or distinguishable, it was kind of hard to read the discussion.  Apparently, someone was experiencing a problem and was asking for help.  From what I was able to read, it was an issue with the battery. I think it was an issue with a battery.  The notebook goes on 'standby' when the user doesn't want it to.   Overall, I wouldn't want to IRC for anything. Instant messenger is definitely more use friendly and less confusing to the average user.  It was definitely a fun experience.  It might be good for computer professional, I can admit that.  With IRC you can get responses at a much quicker rather than an email or post a forum about your IT problems. On the other hand, I don't see everyday users using this kind of software. SamanthaRuffin | August 12, 2014 at 8:46 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p1COYN-7A Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Another Monday Morning.... Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://gracefullybold.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/info324-assignment-3-business-requirements/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

Sailor Moon Crystal: Which Sailor Soldier Are You?

I am so excited for the new anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, which is the remake of the original anime Sailor Moon.  For starters, because of the new anime coming out on July 5th, 6am EST via Crunchyroll, I decided to take a 'Which Sailor Soldier Are You?' quiz.  Can you guess which one I am?  Here are my results:

"Guarded by Neptune, planet of the deep blue sea.
I'm the soldier of affinity, Sailor Neptune!"

Sailor Neptune

You are graceful, elegant and very sophisticated. You pursue things like art and music. You are very perceptive of your surroundings, to the point that you even have psychic ability. People think you are mysterious, and you prefer it that way, but you can be very warm and caring to the person you love. You control the element of ocean, and lover of Sailor Uranus.

My Thoughts: I definitely agree.  I never would have guessed I would be Sailor Neptune. I was thinking that I was more like Sailor Mercury because of her diligence and intelligence.  But, this quiz definitely nailed it for me.

On another note, Sailor Moon Crystal is 26 episodes long and will be airing on Crunchyroll twice a month for one full year. That's perfect for me.  Sailor Moon Crystal won't distract me too much away from my school assignments.  As a celebration for the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime and the 4th of July weekend, I am giving away a Crunchyroll All-Access Membership for 48 hours pass (no credit card needed) on Friday, July 4th.  All you have to do is comment below your name, email address and how excited you are to watch Sailor Moon Crystal by Thursday July 3rd at 11:59 EST.  With this access pass you will be able to watch Sailor Moon Crystal ad free.