Category: Practice
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Hits, Misses, and Abject Failures
There’s nothing like having a clever name for a system. In this installment of my blog, I’ll take a walk down memory lane and share with you some of the more fanciful system names I’ve run across. Along the way, I’ll also describe some of the more interesting projects that I encountered and their outcomes.
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Doing the Same Thing for a Different Result?
EPA recently completed an Alternative Analysis for the modernization of SDWIS. Is this something new or is EPA doing the same thing and expecting a different result?
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Customer Disservice
In this article, I describe an agile approach to developing customer service processes.
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Building Tomorrow’s System to Meet Yesterday’s Problems
Since 2009, EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) has been trying to replace its aging and technologically obsolete SDWIS State system. Originally designed in the mid-1990s and based on a data model going back to the 1980s, the majority of the States, Territories, and EPA Regions use SDWIS State to help manage their drinking water programs. To avoid a fifth incarnation, OGWDW needs to ensure the new system meets today’s needs.
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Moonshot Projects
Apollo was the original moonshot project. Most of us will never work on a real moonshot project. But sometimes we can turn a project into a moonshot if we’re not careful.
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The Problematic PMO
It’s tough to recognize a problem project if the experts charged with preventing problem projects are the cause of them. How do you know if you have a problematic PMO?
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Analysis Paralysis Disorder
There’s analysis paralysis, and then there’s analysis paralysis disorder – the fear of doing too much analysis that it affects the outcome of a project.
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Vendor “Shoot-out”
Are you considering the purchase of an off the shelf business system? This article describes the Software Capabilities Demonstration and how you can use it to help select the system that works best for your users.
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Some Inconvenient Truths About SDWIS
A recent Association for State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) report commented on the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). This article addresses inaccuracies about SDWIS in the report that may affect user expectations.
Practical IT Projects 