Five Steps to Goal-Setting

What would you like to achieve in your lifetime?Author Basil S.Walth once said, "If you don't know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?" These are words well spoken, because whether you're working toward freelancing full-time or selling your novels, you need a roadmap.Goals are indispensable.They provide direction, long-term vision and short-term motivation.They separate the important from the irrelevant.Goals also build self-confidence by helping you grow as an individual.Olympic athletes, successful business people, and (hint.) bestselling writers are goal setters.You aspire to greatness too, don't you? If you do, and you're not already setting goals, now is the perfect time to start.Five Things to Remember When Setting Goals..1.Write Goals Down.Always jot down your goals-this is powerful.The process of physically seeing your goals helps crystallize them in your mind.This process also better enables you to commit to them.Interesting Fact. A popular Harvard Business School study once found that only 3% of the population records their goals in writing.Another 14% have goals but don't write them down, whereas 83% do not even have clearly defined goals.More interesting is that this 3% earned an astounding ten times that of the 83% group!2.Make Goals Short, Attainable, & Measurable.Set attainable short-term goals that can be measured.This means setting quantifiable goals.Here are some examples..Commit to writing a certain number of words each week .Submit at least two articles a week .Find two new markets each week .Take at least one writing course a year .Attend at least one writer's conference a year .Make your goals attainable so you won't get discouraged.The short-term goals above are attainable for me, but they may not be for you.Or maybe for you, my short-term goals aren't challenging enough.Goals are very individual.You have to set your own goals.Remember, you're charting your own course to success!On the other hand, don't set wimpy goals simply because you're afraid to fail.Talane Miedaner, author of Coach Yourself to Success (McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books, 2002) notes. "People sometimes give themselves 'weeny' goals-they play it safe so they don't fail.But the bigger the goal, the more likely you are to achieve it.".3.Create Deadlines.Without deadlines, your goals are merely dreams.Set deadlines for both short- and long-term goals, and I promise, you'll get there sooner!Remember that deadlines can be flexible.Life changes and so do goals.Never be afraid to adjust the timeframe for a goal.What's important is to keep moving forward.4.Look at your goals everyday!Visual aids are an effective way to program your brain.Reading and re-writing goals are two very effective visual aids.By physically rewriting your goals and pasting them in places you regularly frequent, you make them more real in your mind.I read an article in this month's Shape magazine that inspired me.The author mentioned that before Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of the bestselling book & Oprah Pick Simple Abundance. A Daybook of Comfort and Joy (Warner Books, 1995) became a bestselling author, she pasted her name on the #1 spot of the New York Times bestseller list and posted it on her computer.Visual Aids like these give you that extra ammunition that will make a difference.5.Make Goal Setting a Routine.Begin every morning with a "To Do" list.This will help you organize and better manage your time.Plus, your goals will be right smack under your nose every day.Do not get discouraged over any unfinished items.Simply transfer them to the next morning's list.The above said, keep your goals front and forward in your mind.Remember.You only get one chance to live your dreams!In the words of Cecil B.De Mille. "The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly.That is dedication.".

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Software Process Improvement -A Successful Journey

Background..For many organizations like ours, the interim target of achieving ISO 9001 or CMM levels is a daunting task.Discipline is no fun --Organizations readily acknowledge that striving to address projects according to ISO 9001 or CMM guidelines requires the creation of new procedures.It is vital to the success of improvement efforts to realize that process change entails cultural change and its human nature to resist change.Numerous social and technical barriers must be overcome to effect lasting improvement.My organization aimed for ISO 9001 certification and then CMM level 2 and Level 3 assessment approximately one and half year back and knew that it would be grilled thoroughly by the ISO auditors and CMM assessors.For Software Process Improvement first we need to know your strengths and weaknesses so that the management can scope the improvement effort.Only with this knowledge can we customize an infrastructure for process improvement.We have had success with plans tailored according to the Software Engineering Institute's CMM model.This includes formation of Software Process Engineering Group, who know their roles, responsibilities, charters, and action plans, which helps you develop a charter and vision and to establish a clear match to organizational goals and objectives.They will be much more effective if they receive the right formal and informal training.One pivotal decision was "not to reinvent the wheel", but seriously consider Industry Best Practices.Later we saw that, Process improvement always pays dividends for those with the discipline to do it right.Process Improvement Project.The Strategic Plan.A clear vision is essential to the success of process improvement project.Senior management in our case had the vision that Process is Product and was committed to sponsor and support improvement efforts.We were responsible for mobilizing people and resources to try and make it happen, but process improvement was a new endeavor for my group and everyone was unsure how to get started and get organized My organization went for strategic planning using Total Quality Management's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.We developed a vision to use the best practices of software development teams and the eleven best practices were identified..* Develop iteratively (incremental development life cycle) * Use component-based architecture * Visually model the product using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) * Formal Risk Management * Agreement on Interfaces * Formal Inspections * Metric-based Scheduling and Management * Program-wide Visibility of Progress Vs Plan * Defect Tracking Against Quality Targets * Configuration Management * People-aware Management Accountability.In the planning model we tried to analyze the current projects keeping the insight of ISO/CMM through rigorous reviews.Next, we conducted organizational Gap Analysis between its current state and the vision we were seeking.The ISO 9001 status feedback itself became the catalyst for develop tactical plans by providing the team leaders with the required control mechanism for project tracking and oversight.Our organization tried to Treat Software Process Improvement also like a development project! Senior management sponsored to recruit a corresponding project team (Software Quality Assurance team or the Software Process Engineering Group), selected a project leader, and established a repository to store process documentation and other process artifacts.We followed the plan as. Start by discovering and understanding current practice throughout the group.Find existing process documentation and talk to practitioners to understand how tasks are performed.Reconcile any differences between actual and espoused processes.Document and review the newly characterized process.Then iteratively and incrementally improve the process and ensure that the documentation is updated appropriately.Project Planning, Software Configuration Management, and Software Quality Assurance, project tracking, Software Tools usage were the key areas where our organization concentrated more for process improvement.We tried to customize Rational Unified Process for our working environment and automated tools in process was also taken up.We also ensured that the visibility of the project to upper management and the rest of the organization were comparable to that of other important projects.Culture and Resistance.Process improvement affects more than just the processes used by practitioners to perform their work.Process change means culture change, replete with all the difficulties inherent in changing the perceptions, values, and normative behaviors of a community.Some of the forces that make such improvement efforts difficult are..OResistance to change (often due to a perceived threat of losing power, control, familiarity, or social status).OThe existing tolerance and readiness for change present within the current organizational climate.OProcess change imposes a learning curve, which typically makes things appear to get worse before they get better.OImprovement efforts consume time and resources, which many would prefer to spend on their particular development projects.In my organization we tried to solve the above problem by bringing our improvements from the Local Heroes itself (Involve Everyone!!).These people should be "all-stars in the family". respected members of the organization with proven track records as developers or managers.Emphasize the importance of having the "local hero" be part of the Software Process Engineering Group and try to hold out for the "real thing" if you can manage it (this is another one of those times when senior and middle management support may be needed).We documented our local technical procedures by choosing the se champions/local heroes to write that procedure by using SEI-CMM key practices.Software Quality Assurance team was the center of guidance and support for all the process improvement activities.The SQA was the primary authoritative body for conducting and organizing improvement efforts in the organization.The entire practitioner community was regularly informed of the status of improvement efforts.It is also desirable to solicit input and feedback on process improvement issues from the practitioner community.We chose one pilot project so that we could discuss and test how software process improvement really helps in current scenario.Benefits of Process Improvement.The clearest textbook definitions of Return on Investment (ROI) is, as described by Lawrence Putnam "Investing to improve [productivity] involves foregoing the use of those funds for other purposes.In time the payback from the future stream of gains from operations returns the capital invested." The ROI may not always be in dollars, Quality and schedule issues as a return are nearly as important to the participants as are the cost issues.Our measurement set spanned the following eight categories of metrics. effort, process, productivity, progress, quality, schedule, stability, and staffing.We asked our research participants to indicate which metrics from our set they maintained and add to our list any additional metrics they used.We also solicited the starting and ending phase of the software lifecycle over which each metric was maintained.When we analyzed the participants' measurement data across maturity levels against the eight metric categories, each maturity level showed, on average, a consistent growth pattern.We also tried to relate any immeasurable benefits we experienced from their process improvement program.The benefit most frequently noted by the research participants concerned attitudinal changes.The morale and confidence of the developers improved significantly, and software development experienced increased attention and respect from organizations external to the software organization.Participants also attributed less overtime, less employee turnover, improved competitive advantage, and increased cooperation between functional groups as benefits that resulted from process improvement initiatives.Conclusion.Software Process Improvement is crucial as any organization attempts to take on and deliver larger projects.The lack of well-defined software processes can be very costly.Support from all staff, especially top management, is a prerequisite for any serious SPI initiative.As a great philosopher once said, "It won't happen overnight, but it will happen".Many improvement efforts fail or falter during the initial phases of process improvement.My organization was successful at rapidly reaching ISO 9001/CMM because it made a point of applying lessons learned by others.But this cannot be the end for process improvement in any organization, our journey towards process improvement will always continue.References.1.Carnegie Mellon University/Software Engineering Institute, The Capability Maturity Model. Guidelines for Improving the Software Process, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1995.2.Roger S.Pressman, Software Engineering. A Practitioner's Approach, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1996.3.Watts Humphrey, Managing the Software Process, Addison-Wesley, 1989.

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Mcgraw Hill Reading Macmillan McGraw Hill Reading Unit 5 Teachers Edition [Hardcover] Cheap

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The Evolution of Mobile, Local and Social Marketing Techniques

For us marketers, social media opened up a new way to engage in real dialog with our consumers.We could listen to our customers in real time, develop products that solved immediate needs, and tailor messages to consumers in such a way that they looked forward to hearing from us.As social media evolves it continues to improve the relationship between buyers and sellers.Earlier this week, we hosted a mobile marketing webinar that looked at how the rise in mobile usage was helping to drive authentic conversations between brands and customers.A quick look at how social media, local and mobile marketing have evolved in the last 18 months or so..1.Who are you?It started with an answer to that question.Brands no longer had to guess where to find entrepreneurs in California, working moms in Chicago or CTOs in New York.The rise of social media meant that consumers were voluntarily providing this information.The result? Brands spent more time reaching the right people and consumers heard from brands that were relevant to them.2.What are you doing?Then there were status updates.Twitter sought to find out "What are you doing right now?" Smart marketers are using status updates to talk with customers at just the right time.If you say you're planning to buy a house, a smart homebuilder will ask you to stop by a model home.If you say you're reading reviews of servers online, a smart hardware provider will reach out to you.If you say you have a toothache, a smart dentist will reach out to you to set up an appointment.3.Where are you doing it?Now with all of us carrying mobile devices on our hips or in our purses, the conversation gets even more interesting.GPS technology, smartphones and check-in services like foursquare are converging to allow consumers and brands to have conversations not only in real time, but in "real space." Now, if I'm touring a college with my parents, another college in the same city can reach out to me to stop by for a visit.If I'm having dinner downtown, a neighboring bar can invite me over for happy hour.If I'm at a trade show looking at security software, a competing software product can invite me over to its booth for a demo.What does this leave for the future? How much growth potential does mobile marketing have? Surely, social media will continue to evolve and grow - exponentially.Will this create further avenues for markers to interact with consumers? Probably, although it is unlikely that any such avenues will be created directly.Marketers will always have to be innovative and creative.

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Better Brand Research: What Customers Want

Several years ago I came across one of the most useful and practical articles on market research I have ever read -- "How To Turn Customer Input into Innovation" by Anthony Ulwick.Published in the January 2002 Harvard Business Review, the article briefly outlined a methodology and set of tools for gathering customer input in a way that actually drives product innovation.In addition, the article illustrated how Cordis -- a medical device manufacturer specializing in products for interventional vascular medicine -- used Ulwick's approach to innovate the heart stent and gain market leadership in the angioplasty balloon market.As a result, Cordis' stock went from $20 to $109 per share when it was acquired by Johnson and Johnson.Now, Ulwick has updated his tools and provided a more comprehensive look at his methodology in his recently released book, What Customers Want McGraw Hill).This book should be required readying for anyone involved in product development and marketing.Partly because it offers a comprehensive, step-by-step approach for converting innovation from a random hit-or-miss process into a more methodical approach, but also because it greatly reduces the risk of new product failure and substantially increases the odds of success.In a world where some 80 to 90 percent of new products fail, the ROI for using Ulwick's methods is substantial.New Solution to an Old Problem.According to Ulwick, most customer research provides little real value to the companies conducting it.Worse, it often misinforms their decisions and steers them in the wrong direction.Why? Because the methods most companies use to gather customer input are inherently flawed.In fact, Ulwick argues that faulty research methods represent both the source and the cause of most new product failures.Based on my own experience, I tend to agree.Traditional qualitative research methods ask customers to define their needs, benefits, specifications and solutions.However, the most frequent responses to questions about product improvements focus mainly on "better quality" and "lower price." Besides indicating that the product category under question might be perceived as a commodity, these generic answers leave little room for new product developers to devise truly innovative new products.The reality is that customers have a hard time articulating why they do what they do and what will motivate them to buy a new product.Therefore, traditional research methods -- such as talking to customers about the solutions they want or can envision -- essentially ask them to act as product developers and marketers, and that's a job most customers are ill equipped to do.How do you gather customer input in a way that supports innovation?Start by silencing the literal voice of your customers.In other words, suggests Ulwick, stop asking customers to tell you how and what to innovate.Instead..*Focus on the jobs your customers need to get done.*Work to uncover measurable outcomes your customers hope to achieve.*Isolate important customer constraints.By directing your research towards these key areas, you will make more appropriate and better-informed decisions about what represents meaningful innovation for your customers.A Good Investment.For me, the best and most practical part of the book lies in Ulwick's eight-step approach, which dramatically improves every aspect of the innovation process from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating and marketing breakthrough product ideas.Drawing on more than 200 complete studies, Ulwick loads his book with real life examples that bring meaning and insight to the process and make it easy to translate his principles to companies of all shapes and sizes.For less than $20 and a few hours of reading time, What Customers Want delivers a remarkable return on investment.A can't-miss formula that delivers real innovation that your customers will value, it just might ensure that your next new product introduction hits the target in regards to the jobs your customers need help with and delivers measurable improvements to their most important outcomes.

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Mcgraw Hill Reading SRA Imagine It! ESkills & EGames Language Arts/ Grade 4 / Level 4 Cd-Rom On Line

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Reading, Writing, 'Rithmetic -- and Recess!

Recess has begun disappearing in states all around the country.The reason is the increasing emphasis on "academics" and the mistaken belief that recess detracts from time that could be better spent studying.According to some estimates, 40% of schools have already eliminated recess or are considering the idea.Some cities have abolished recess completely and are building new elementary schools without playgrounds!But does recess detract from children's studies? What does the research say?Recess and Academics.Language arts (comprised of listening, speaking, reading, and writing), mathematics, science, and social studies are often considered the "essential" content areas in a typical curriculum.Although it may not be immediately obvious, recess can have an impact on all of these subjects.For example, when children speak and listen to one another, they're using and expanding their vocabularies and learning important lessons in communication.When they move over, under, around, and through pieces of equipment, these prepositions take on meaning and relevance to them because children need to experience concepts to understand them fully.When children invent stories to act out, they develop skills essential to writing.These are some of the ways in which the language arts are addressed on the playground.When children keep score, they're dealing with important mathematics concepts. counting, quantitative ideas (which number is bigger?; which score is highest?), and simple computation.When they decide on and act out a series of events, they're tackling the mathematics concept of sequencing.When they play hopscotch and jump rope, math is involved.Throughout it all, the children are working together, interacting in numerous and varied ways and thereby learning valuable lessons in social studies.As children learn about themselves and about each other, they discover how they're alike and different.They explore feelings and rules for living, make decisions, and solve problems.Learned, too, is the ability to deal with conflict.In other words, children learn how to be part of and work together in a community.Additionally, much of the learning that takes place outside is related to science.Classroom themes typically falling into the science category include the human body and such nature-related topics as the seasons, weather, plants, and animals.Where better to experience these subjects than in the outdoors?Consider, too, such scientific concepts as evaporation (learned when children "paint" the sidewalk or side of the school with water), flotation (easily demonstrated with a bottle of bubbles and a wand), balance and stability (the lesson of the seesaw), gravity (why doesn't the ball stay in the air no matter how hard we throw it?), and action and reaction (obvious during a game of tug-of-war).Of course, we can "teach" children these concepts through the use of lectures, books, and/or demonstrations.Or we can let children really learn them - in such a way that the lessons remain with them for a lifetime.The research shows that, for the majority of individuals, learning by doing is the most effective.In fact, the more senses involved in the learning process, the more individuals retain.What Else the Research Says.Recess also contributes more indirectly to the learning of academics.As far back as 1885 and 1901, the research showed that both children and adults learn better and more quickly when their efforts are distributed (breaks are included) than when concentrated (work is conducted in longer periods).In fact, because young children don't process most information as effectively as older individuals (due to the immaturity of their nervous systems and their lack of experience), they can especially benefit from breaks.We also have to consider the value of the outdoors.The outside light stimulates the pineal gland, which is the part of the brain that helps regulate our biological clock, is vital to the immune system, and simply makes us feel happier.Outside light triggers the synthesis of vitamin D.And a number of studies have demonstrated that it increases academic learning and productivity.Young children learn much through their senses, and the outdoors is a virtual wonderland for the senses.There are different and incredible things for the children to see (insects, clouds, and shadows), to hear (traffic sounds, birdsongs, leaves rustling in the wind), to smell (flowers and the rain-soaked ground), to touch (a fuzzy caterpillar or the bark of a tree), and even to taste (newly fallen snow, a raindrop, or a freshly picked blueberry).Children who spend much of their time acquiring experiences through television, computers, and even books are using only two senses (hearing and sight), and this can seriously affect their perceptual abilities.Then, too, there's the aesthetic value of the outdoors.Because the natural world is filled with amazing sights, sounds, and textures, it's the perfect resource for the development of aesthetics in young children.Since aesthetic awareness means a heightened sensitivity to the beauty around us, it's something that can serve children well at those times when, as adolescents and adults, the world seems less than beautiful.

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