The planning of the project may be ending

But the project is just getting started. I already gave them an assignment that is specifically for the web site - writing up a brief history of the business and its plans for the future, as well as brief bios of the employees. I am also having them check on the amount of storage space that they have for the web site. If they want to include videos, they're going to need quiet a bit of room for them. I also need to tell them that they should check on their bandwidth they currently have available. I was reminded after I had met with them the other evening that is also very important. Overall they're very enthusiastic about my helping them create a better web site and were happy to have my help in planning. They even wanted to sign a form or send letters about how much they appreciated my help. Now lets hope that I can do just as good a job on their web site.

And another thing

Technology can be such a pain in the arse sometimes. Particularly if it does not want to work when it should.

What do you mean I'm not authorized to open a program on my computer?

One thing I learned this week is that for some reason my Inspiration 8, which I downloaded and registered on this computer suddenly tells me that it has been authorized to be run on a different computer. Huh? Just how does that happen? So much for using it on my projects.

Action Plan

Sounds like it could be the name of a movie. I think I have a grasp of how to create one, but I am not sure. The final project is under way and the end of the semester is getting closer. Then a nice break, followed by the next semester. I still need to make plans for that. At the moment though, I just need to focus on the rest of this one.

I am hoping for a meeting with my main stakeholders this week and need to make plans for it.

What good is a plan if you don't follow it

It was interesting to see the different aspects that some businesses neglect in creating a strategic plan, and how most of the people in an organization don't understand the plan once it is completed. Then there are organizations that will create a plan and then do nothing with it. That's something I don't understand, especially if you paid someone from outside the company to come in and help create the plan.

I have yet to hear back from my contact about how the artist survey has been going. Maybe he's having problems getting in touch with some of them. I will be doing a follow up to see how the responses have been.

Evaluation

One thing I learned from the reading is that they need to do a better job of proofreading the material before posting it, particularly if you are talking about evaluating.

I received the customer survey that was taken by my contact. The results show that there is an interest in their having a website, and some even included a few suggestions for it. I have a different survey that I am planning on having performed in regards to a portion of their content, and that's whether or not artists who have showcased their work would like to participate in the website and just what form would that be - links, inclusion of samples of their works, or if they would allow sales of either the works or prints of it. I know that they have had postcards of some work available in the business, but the site would potentially help them reach more people.

Proposing Solutions

Hmm. How do you do a causal analysis for a website? I'm not really sure. Anyway creating a future wheel sounds kind of fun and could still be useful for my strategic planning, so I am considering it. Fishboning, as strange as the name is (and I keep thinking about how I hate to eat fish) also seems interesting. I can see how it would be useful in some cases.

I finally decided on three questions that I could use in creating a customer survey about the need of a website for the business that I am helping. I have also been considering the scope of the survey. One day is not long enough to get a good sampling of the customers, but about a week's worth of gathering responses would be better.

On another note, I'm very happy with the Presidential election and unhappy about other results in this state and in others. I shouldn't have said though last week that there will be an end to discussion on the news. They never stop talking about elections as they are already talking about potential candidates for 2012 elections.