IT BEST PRACTICES

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Words of Wisdom

Read this somewhere, very good direction to use daily.

Don't screw the customer.

Don't rob from the future to pay for the present.

Make promises you can keep.

If there's a problem, get it out in the open fast.

If you don't know, ask.

Lessons Learned from an ERP implementation, article from a Network Computing Magazine article http://www.nwc.com/1323/1323f26.html

Before signing on for any large-scale business application integration, make sure the project has non-IT executive ownership--and know the execs' names.
Crash the party: Force your way into meetings at the earliest possible stage; don't let businesspeople minimize IT's involvement.
Pick a code-freeze date well before the go-live date and stick to it no matter what anyone says.
Test, test, test. When it comes to ERP, fight for end-to-end transactional testing.
Know your audience. Spend time plumbing the knowledge depths and skill sets of your integration partners. Don't let them make decisions outside their abilities.
Size matters. Do proper due diligence before selecting and sizing your hardware environment; don't rely on the vendor to do it for you.
Talk to your customers. Engage end users to ensure what's being built meets their needs. Don't let a vendor start any conversation with "It's been our experience ...."
Love your DBA. Success or failure can hinge on how well your databases are tuned.

Top Ten Reasons Why Some Projects Fail – by Deming

1. Inadequate project manager authority.

2. Lack of project team participation in planning.

3. Lack of project team participation in problem solving.

4. Improper structuring and use of status and progress reports.

5. Use of superficial status and progress reports.

6. Inadequate project manager human skills.

7. Inadequate project manager technical skills.

8. Inadequate project manager administrative skills.

9. Unrealistic project schedules.

10. Unclear project goals.

Elements in the Critical Thinking Process – by Woolfolk

Defining and clarifying the Problem

1. Identify central issues or problems.

2. Compare similarities and differences.

3. Determine which information is relevant.

4. Formulate appropriate questions.

Judging Information Related to the Problem

5. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment.

6. Check consistency.

7. Identify unstated assumptions.

8. Recognize stereotypes and clichés.

9. Recognize bias, emotional factors, propaganda, and semantic slanting.

10. Recognize different value systems and ideologies.

Solving Problems/Drawing Conclusions

11. Recognize the adequacy of data.

12. Predict probable consequences.

Four key barriers for bringing complex, innovative products and services to market – by Midior

1. Support for integration with existing systems and processes

2. Information about new products/services must be kept accurate and updated in the sales cycle.

3. Implementation requires active support of multiple departments.

4. Changing organizational behavior required due to adopting new technology.

CIO Info / Lessons Learned

20/20 Hindsight for ERP Projects - http://www.nwc.com/1323/1323f26.html

Strategic Planning - http://www.cio.com/archive/060102/donts.html

IT Value Methodologies - http://www.cio.com/archive/071502/value.html

Ten Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Consultants - http://www.cio.com/archive/071502/control_sidebar1.html

CIO Guide to Tough Users - http://www.cio.com/archive/091502/win_sidebar_1.html

Viewing IT as Strategic and Vital - http://www.nwc.com/1213/1213colfeldman.html

Career Experiences of Six CIOs - http://www.cio.com/research/futurecio/edit/060101_careerpaths.html

“Have patience, maintain a balance between the drive to achieve results and how those results were achieved. Ensure that our actions are consistent with our purpose. Give staff a few simple things: a sense of mission, an intellectual challenge and time. Time to contemplate, time to innovate, time to make the inevitable mistakes and recover without penalty or recrimination, and time to deliver as good a finished product as possible. Tell them why, don't tell them how, they will tell you when. When a manager appreciates his/her employees, actually listens to their ideas and encourages collaboration, they will want to stay. Retaining good employees is the key to productivity and profitability.”

Sites / Magazines

To Keep Current in the Tech Industry

www.cio.com

www.informationweek.com

www.networkcomputing.com

www.networkmagazine.com

www.securityfocus.com

www.techweb.com

Good Web Links of Interest

IT Papers, tons of white papers online -- http://www.itpapers.com/

FBI's Washington Field Office Infrastructure Protection and Computer Intrusion Squad -- http://www.nipc.gov/sites/ipcis/ipcis.htm

Microsoft Tech Resources Portal -- http://www.mvps.org/

Layman’s Guide to Tech Speak -- http://www2.darwinmag.com/learn/glossary.cfm

Budget Management 101. Do you feel like you need to be a mathematician and an acrobat to balance your IT budget? Try these basic techniques.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/1305/1305f8.html

An encyclopedia of tech terms and technologies -- http://www.webopedia.com/

An online Tech Encyclopedia -- http://content.techweb.com/encyclopedia/

The ultimate computer acronyms archive - http://www.acronyms.ch/

A great place to find just about any definition you need - http://whatis.techtarget.com/

One of the Internet's premier sites for detailed PC reference information - http://www.pcguide.com/

Covers the PC's major internal components and peripheral devices - http://www.pctechguide.com/

Section of articles about how computers and the Internet works - http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Help for all versions of Windows - http://www.windows-help.net/

Hundreds of tutorials for many tech topics - http://www.techtutorials.com/

Certification links, articles and info - http://www.itprc.com/training.htm

Certification links, articles and info - http://www.certcities.com/

Security Alert Mailing Lists

- Security Focus (viruses, worms, bugs) http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.pl

- CERT (advisories and bulletins) http://www.cert.org/contact_cert/certmaillist.html

- Sophos (viruses and worms) http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/notifications/

Computer Forensics Resources

- Forensics on Windows NT/2000 systems, white paper and list of tools http://www.foundstone.com/pdf/ir-primer.pdf

Tools

- bintext.exe http://www.foundstone.com/ reads ascii, unicode, and resource strings in a binary

- fport.exe http://www.foundstone.com/ reports open ports, PID of the process listening on them, and the path to the program

- handle.exe http://www.sysinternals.com/ reports what files are open by what processes

- listdlls.exe http://www.sysinternals.com/ list the DLLs that are open, the path to the DLL, and the version number

- netstat.exe -- a copy of netstat from the Windows 2000 operating system

- netstat95.exe -- another copy of netstat from the Windows 95 operating system

- patchit.exe http://www.foundstone.com/ binary file byte-patching program

- procexp.exe http://www.sysinternals.com/ shows what files, registry keys, and other objects processes have open, along with process ownership

- regmon.exe http://www.sysinternals.com/ monitors registry activity in real time

- showin.exe http://www.foundstone.com/ shows information about hidden or disabled windows that exist on the desktop

- tcpview.exe http://www.sysinternals.com/ shows all TCP and UDP end-points, on Windows NT/2000 shows what process own the endpoint

- Trinux http://www.trinux.org/ “A ramdisk-based Linux distribution that boots from a single floppy or CD-ROM, loads it packages from an HTTP/FTP server, a FAT/NTFS/ISO filesystem, or additional floppies. Trinux contains the latest versions of popular Open Source network security tools for port scanning, packet sniffing, vulnerability scanning, sniffer detection, packet construction, active/passive OS fingerprinting, network monitoring, session-hijacking, backup/recovery, computer forensics, intrusion detection, and more. Trinux also provides support for Perl, PHP, and Python scripting languages. Remote Trinux boxes can be managed securely with OpenSSH."

- FIRELite http://sourceforge.net/projects/biatchux Forensics workstation/Data Recovery, Live System Incident Response, Virus Scanning, Pen-Testing Platform

Great Email Newsletters

- Network Magazine (numerous newsletters on various topics) http://www.commweb.com/forms/NewsSignUp_form.html#newsletters

- TechWeb (numerous newsletters on various topics) http://www.techweb.com/newsletters/subscribe

- CIO (numerous newsletters on various topics) http://subscribe.cio.com/newsletters.cfm

- Network Computing (numerous newsletters on various topics) http://www.submag.com/sub/nc?wp=wpdly1&tc=1&pk=WKNCED

- Cisco (Network Professionals Newsletter) http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/largeent/netpro/subscribe.html

- Business 2.0 (good tech related stuff, I like Defogger and Barely Managing and Brazen Careerist) http://www.business2.com/articles/web/newslettersub/1,,manage,FF.html?EmailAddr=sfd@csi.com

- Dr. Dobb’s Update (development oriented) http://www.ddj.com/maillists/

- Darwin Magazine (business information age) http://www.darwinmag.com/subscribe/

- ZD Net (various, pc magazine oriented) http://www.zdnet.com/filters/email/

- MCP Magazine (for microsoft pro topics) http://www.mcpmag.com/newsletter/

- Microsoft TechNet (for IT professionals) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/

Some Good Technical Tools

The Coroner’s Toolkit (TCT), help to diagnose system compromises on UNIX systems, free:

http://www.porcupine.org/forensics/tct.html

The @stake Sleuth Kit (TASK), open source forensic toolkit for analysis of Microsoft and UNIX file systems:

http://www.atstake.com/research/tools/task/index.html

The @stake Autopsy Forensic Browser for the above:

http://www.atstake.com/research/tools/autopsy/index.html

Network Monitoring from Ipswitch, product is Whats Up Gold (also make WS_FTP):

http://www.ipswitch.com/

NetScan Tools (whois, traceroute, port probe, finger, etc)

http://www.nwpsw.com/

NT Event Log Monitoring with Network Monitoring, IPSentry

http://www.ipsentry.net/

Interesting Companies / Products

Interactive customer service using instant messaging from ActiveBuddy

http://www.activebuddy.com/

Push/Pull software patches via PatchLink

http://www.patchlink.com/

Knowledge Management vendor Scopeware

http://www.scopeware.com/

Product Development innovation consulting from Midior

http://www.midior.com/

Interesting Presentations

These are from various vendors.

Introduction to .NET

http://www.delahunty.com/stuff/presentations/DotNetIntro.ppt

Role of Information Management in Customer Relationship Management

http://www.delahunty.com/stuff/presentations/InfoMgtCRM.ppt

Verizon Disaster Avoidance Services

http://www.delahunty.com/stuff/presentations/VerizonServicesDisasterAvoidance.ppt

Siebel eGovernment CRM Solutions

http://www.delahunty.com/stuff/presentations/SiebelEventCRM.ppt

Novell eXtend BPM/EAI Platform

http://www.delahunty.com/stuff/presentations/NovelleXtendProductBrochure.pdf