Friday, December 31, 2010

Prosci's change management methodology

Prosci's change management methodology is based on research with over 1600 participants over the last ten years. What is unique about the methodology is that it comes from real project leaders and teams reflecting on what worked, what did not and what they would do differently on their next projects. At its core, Prosci's methodology is the collective lessons learned by those introducing change across the globe. Based on this research, Prosci's goal has been to develop a methodology that is holistic and at the same time easy to use. The resulting process, tools and assessments have been developed with one goal in mind: that you can put them to use on your projects, building your (and your organization's) own internal change management skill set. Below is a high-level overview of Prosci's methodology.
Research forms the foundation of
Prosci's methodology. To the
right is the geographic distribution
of participants in the latest
benchmarking study. 426 participants
from 59 countries shared best practices
that form the foundation of Prosci's
change management approach.

Certification program - In Prosci's 3-day certification program, learn the underlying concepts and principles and then apply the methodology and tools to a project you bring with support fromone of Prosci's experienced executive instructors.




Do it yourself, online option - Prosci's Change Management Pilot Pro 2010 is an online tool that has step-by-step instructions for applying the methodology, eLearning modules and downloadable templates, assessments and presentations you can use immediately.
Do it yourself, hardcopy - Prosci's Change Management Toolkit presents the entire methodology and guiding principles in a 3-ring binder with a CD-ROM containing templates and assessments.



Key principles:






1.Change management requires both an individual and an organizational perspective
2.ADKAR presents an easy-to-use model for individual change
3.The 3-phase process gives structure to the steps project teams should take




Change management requires both an individual and or ganizational perspective



Individual change management






Understanding how one person
makes a change successfully






Organizations don't change, individuals do. No matter how large of a project you are taking on, the success of that project ultimately lies with each employee doing their work differently, multiplied across all of the employees impacted by the change. Effective change management requires an understanding for and appreciation of how one person makes a change successfully. Without an individual perspective, we are left with activities but no idea of the goal or outcome that we are trying to achieve.






Organizational change management



Understanding what tools we have to help
individuals make changes successfully






While change happens one person at a time, there are processes and tools that can be used to facilitate this change. Tools like communication and training are often the only activities when no structured approach is applied. When there is an organizational change management perspective, a process emerges for how to scale change management activities and how to use the complete set of tools available for project leaders a and business managers.
ADKAR presents an easy-to-use model for individual change






The first step in managing any type of organizational change is understanding how to manage change with a single individual. Prosci's model of individual change is called ADKAR - an acronym for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. In essence, to make a change successfully an individual needs:
.Awareness of the need for change
.Desire to participate and support the change
.Knowledge on how to change
Ability to implement required skills and behaviors
Reinforcement to sustain the change
ADKAR describes successful change at the individual level. When an organization undertakes an initiative, that change only happens when the employees who have to do their jobs differently can say with confidence, "I have the Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement to make this change happen."
Because it outlines the goals or outcomes of successful change, ADKAR is an effective tool for:
.Planning change management activities
.Diagnosing gaps
.Developing corrective actions
.Supporting managers and supervisors



The 3-phase process gives structure to the steps project teams should take
Prosci's organizational change management process was first introduced in 2002 after the third change management benchmarking study was conducted. Prosci felt that with the third study, there was a strong enough research basis for the process below. This process is built in steps that a project team can complete for a particular change or initiative they are supporting. The methodology includes research-based assessments and templates that are available in the online Change Management Pilot Pro 2010 or hardcopy Change Management Toolkit, or by attending one of Prosci's 3-day certification programs.



Phase 1 - Preparing for change



The first phase in Prosci's methodology is aimed at getting ready. It answers the question: "how much change management is needed for this specific project?" The first phase provides the situational awareness that is critical for effective change management.



Outputs of Phase 1:



.Change characteristics profile
.Organizational attributes profile
.Change management strategy
.Change management team structure
.Sponsor assessment, structure and roles



Phase 2 - Managing change


The second phase of Prosci's process is focused on creating the plans that are integrated into the project activities - what people typically think of when they talk about change management. Based on Prosci's research, there are five plans that should be created to help individuals move through the ADKAR Model.



Outputs of Phase 2:
.Communication plan
.Sponsor roadmap
.Training plan
.Coaching plan
.Resistance management plan



Phase 3 - Reinforcing change
Equally critical but most often overlooked, the third phase of Prosci's process helps project teams create specific action plans for ensuring that the change is sustained. In this phase, project teams develop measures and mechanisms to see if the change has taken hold, to the see if employees are actually doing their jobs the new way and to celebrate success.

Outputs of Phase 3:
.Reinforcement mechanisms
.Compliance audit reports
.Corrective action plans
.Individual and group recognition approaches
.Success celebrations
.After action review



Conclusion:

The linkage between individual change management and organizational change management is the key - and is what sets Prosci's approach apart from other change management methodologies. There are numerous models available that address individual change. There are also numerous models available that give guidance and structure to project activities for change management resources.

The difference with Prosci's methodology is that it integrates individual change management and organizational change management to ensure the achievement of business results.

The image below shows the connection between the change management tools developed in the organizational change management process and the phases of individual change described by the ADKAR model. This picture is the essence of effective change management and is the core of Prosci's change management methodology.


Connecting organizational and individual change management

Three easy ways to begin applying Prosci's change management methodology:

Certification program - In Prosci's 3-day certification program, learn the underlying concepts and principles and then apply the methodology and tools to a project you bring with support from one of Prosci's experienced executive instructors.

Do it yourself, online option - Prosci's Change Management Pilot Pro 2010 is an online tool that has step-by-step instructions for applying the methodology, eLearning modules and downloadable templates, assessments and presentations you can use immediately.

Do it yourself, hardcopy - Prosci's Change Management Toolkit presents the entire methodology and guiding principles in a 3-ring binder with a CD-ROM containing templates and assessments.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Microsoft .NET Framework

The .NET Framework is the infrastructure for the Microsoft .NET platform.
The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web applications and Web Services.
Microsoft's first server technology ASP (Active Server Pages), was a powerful and flexible “programming language”. But it was too code oriented.
It was not an application framework and not an enterprise development tool.
The Microsoft .NET Framework was developed to solve this problethis is microsoft for net frame work

Net frame work a very hard work but now we have great microsoft for this difficulty solved easily.

Hardware and Software specifications

Hardware and Software specifications.
This section elaborates on the functional requirements of the application. The SRS itself can be divided into module, each module having specifications. In order to carry out the project, the following hardware and software is required.
Software Requirements:
· Operating System : Window XP
· Web technologies : ASP.NET with HTTP
· Server : ISS-5.0

Hardware Requirements:
· Processor : Pentium 4
· Speed : 633mhz
· Ram : 512
· Hard disk : 40GB
· Monitor : 17”

Thursday, November 25, 2010

DERIVATTIVES / DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS.

DERIVATTIVES / DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS.
A derivattives is an instrument , value of which is derived from the value of another investment / asset.Called a underliying asset or security. A brief description on derivattives are given below;

(1)-Forward Contracts.
A forward contract is an agreement made between two parties to exchange an asset at a specified price at a specified date. Because it is a contract , the buyer is obliged to purchase the asset the seller is obliged to sell at the predetermined price ( the exercise price ) on the specified date ( the expiration date ).

•The buyer of a future enters into an obligations to buy on a specified date.
•The seller of a future is under an onligation to sell on a future date.

These obligations relate to a standard quantity of a specified asset on a fixed future date at a price agreed today.
Types of Futures
(1). Commodity futures,
Based on underline commodities & could be used to hedge an underline commodity position or to speculate on the commodity.
(2). Index Futures,

Based on stock indexes.
(3). Interest Rate Futures.
Based on movement in interest rates & could be used to hedge diposits or borrowings or speculate on interest rate movements.
(4). Currency Futures.
Based on foreign exchange rates between two specified currencies & could be used to hedge underlying currency positions or to speculate on currency movements.
(3)-Options.
An option is a contract that confers upon the buyer the right , but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a given price on or before a given date. All the comments related to standard quantities , specified assets , fixed future dates & price agreed today that we noted for futures still apply for options as well.

In the definition above , on option was discribed as being the right , but not the obligation to buy or sell. The right to buy & the right to sell are given different names, as follows ,

•The right to buy is known as a call option.
•The right to sell is known as a put option.

(4)-Swaps.
A swap is a contractual agreement evidenced by a single document in which two parties. Called counter parties, agree to make periodic payments to each other.In other words , it is the transformation of one stream of future cash flows with another stream of future cash flows with different features.

Swaps have become one of the most important & flexible instruments available to banks & corporate treasurers for asset & liability management.Like other hedging & treasury management models, swaps themselves are not instruments for rising new funds. They are transacted to make new or existing cash flows more attractive, Swaps are often combined with bond issues to achieve particularly favorable funding costs. They also allow a borrower , unable to raise funds efficiently in the bond markets , acces to fixed rate finance. For banks, the swap market provibes a means of laying off risk when they are providing clients with medium-term fixed rate loans. Bank can also make profits from trading swaps.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

EFFICIENT CAPITAL MARKET of EMH & ( Efficient Market Hypothesis ).

Efficient Market & EMH.
In an efficient capital market, security prices adjust rapidly to the infusion of new information. And therefore current security prices fully reflect all available information. This is to as an informationally efficient market.

Why Capital Markets Should Be Efficient ?

Following set of assumptions imply an efficient capital market:
1 .A large no of profit maximizing participants analyze & value securities, each independent of others.
2 .New information regarding securities comes to the market in a random fashion, & timing of one announcement is generally independent of others.
3 .Profit maximizing investors adjust security prices rapidly to reflect the effect of new information.
4 .Because security prices adjust to all new information, these security prices should reflect all information that is publicly available at any point in time.

Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH).
The three (3) forms of efficient market hypotheses are:

1. Weak for EMH.-----The week for EMH assumes that current stock prices fully reflect all security market information. Including the historical sequence of prices rates of return trading volume data & other market generated information. This hypothesis implies that past rates of return & other market data have no relationship with future rates of return.
2. Semi Strong Form EMH.-----This assets that security prices adjust rapidly to the release of all public information; that is, current security prices fully reflect all public information, The semi strong for EMH encompasses the weak form hypothesis, because all the market information considered by the weak form hypothesis, such as stock prices, rates of return , trading volume is public. Public information also includes all non-market information such as earnings & dividend announcements price earnings ratio, dividend yields,book value etc. This hypothesis implies that investors who base their decisions on any important new information after it is public should not derive above average risk adjusted profits from their transactions, because the security price already reflects all such new public information.
3. Strong Form EMH.-----The strong form EMH contends that stock prices fully reflect all information public & private sources. This means that no group of investors has monopolistic access to information relevant to the information of prices.Therefore this hypothesis contends that no group of investors should be able to consistently drive above avarage risk adjusted rates of return.This hypothesis encompasses both the wake form & semi strong form EMH.Further , the strong form EMH extends the assumption of efficient markets, in which prices adjust rapidly to the release of new public information to assume perfect markets , in which all information is cost free & available to everyone at the sometime.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Management of Bookstore


Book store
The Bookstore is a list of reference materials, books and leadership packages for managing change - resources include managing the people-side of change, managing resistance to change, building executive sponsorship, preparing communication plans and developing coaching roadmaps for managing change.



Ask an analyst

Featured resources:

Best Practices in Change Management: 575 organizations share experiences in managing change making this the most comprehensive study to date. The 2009 report includes greatest success factors, greatest obstacles and lessons on how to build great executive sponsorship.


Change Management Toolkit: The most popular and widely-used change management resource from the Change Management Learning Center - a comprehensive change management process, including templates, worksheets, readiness assessments, checklists and guidelines - a must have for change management team members and consultants.

New - Change Management Pilot 2010: A fully electronic version of Prosci's popular change management toolkit with templates, worksheets, assessments, checklists, eLearning modules, ready-to-use presentations and guidelines.

Change Management Guide for Managers: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for managing change specifically designed for managers and supervisors - complete with team and individual coaching activities, best practices findings and tools to manage resistance. This product provides managers with a complete process for using the ADKAR model with their employees.

PCT Analyzer: Web-based project performance diagnostic tool. Collect data on the Leadership/Sponsorship, Project Management and Change Management elements of a project, analyze results and create action steps to improve the health of the project.

Change Portfolio Toolkit: A step-by-step process for understanding, evaluating and managing your entire portfolio of change. The Change Portfolio Toolkit provides an approach and full toolset for making sense of the your portfolio of change. Use the Change Scorecard, Group Impact Matrix, Change Heat Maps and Portfolio Dashboard to manage your change portfolio.


Packages:

Change Management Leadership Packages: the leadership packages are designed to provide combinations of our products that you would find useful, at a discounted price.
Books

ADKAR: a model for change in business, government and our community: How to implement successful change in our personal lives and professional careers; the first full text on Prosci's popularChange Management - the people side of change: A solid foundation in change management perspectives, theories and practices for executives and managers.
Employee's Survival Guide to Change: A handbook to help employees survive and thrive during change - answers frequently asked questions and empowers employees to be effective change agents with the ADKAR model.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Change Management Learning Center.Tutorials

Tutorials.
The Learning Center tutorial series is designed to provide consultants, managers and practitioners with insight into the field and practice of change management.
and we have any thing to learning on this site.




Current releases:




  1. The LOE Index: A Quantitative Tool for Measuring the Individual Response to Organizational Change

  2. Principle 5 - Incremental vs radical change

  3. Prosci's Advanced Change Management Program

  4. Principle 4 - Value systems

  5. Deciding to deploy change management throughout your organization

  6. Principle 3 - Authority for change, the role of leadership during change

  7. Principle 2 - Understanding resistance

  8. Prosci's Train-the-Trainer overview

  9. Five Bs of Executive Buy-in

  10. The psychology of change: understanding the guiding principles of effective change management

* Benchmarking report available *
575 participants shared lessons learned and best practices in managing the people side of change. The new report includes 112 pages of tips you can put to use immediately on your change initiatives. Learn more about the 2009 Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report or view the table of contents.



Getting started:


The tutorials below are designed to help you get up to speed on change management. These specially selected tutorials give a solid foundation and background in change management principles, concepts and processes.


An overview of change management - the individual and organizational perspective



The What, Why and How of change management - The "harder" side of change



Defining change management - relative to project management and "the change"


Examining the definition of change management the three clauses of the definition



Establishing the scope of change management - taxonomy for scoping change management



Effectively positioning change management




Change management methodology overview



The ADKAR Model



ADKAR foundation - the individual as the unit of change



ADKAR - why it clicks



5 roles in change management



Connecting change management to business results



Cost-benefit analysis for change management



State of the union for change management



Useful references for making the case for change management




In-depth change management tutorials:


The tutorials below provide more in-depth discussions into particular change management issues.

Why change management


Data on impact of effective change management


Cost-benefit analysis for change management


Connecting change management to business results



Case study: impact of effective change management



Why change management?


ROI of change management


Useful references for making the case for change management



Building organizational change management competency - Enterprise Change Management


Five tips for: Building organizational change management competency


What, Why and How of Enterprise Change Management


Treating change management deployment as a project


Top 5 reasons to build change management competency


Prosci Change Management Maturity Model


Vision of a change competent organization


Case study - Building Change Management Competency at Ashland Inc.



Roles in change management - sponsors, managers and supervisors



5 roles in change management




Change Management Job Description



Sponsors


Executives and senior leaders: importance and role


Neutralizing threat #1: the missing sponsor


Sponsorship checklist



Five Bs of Executive Buy-in

Managers and supervisors


Managers and supervisors: importance and role


Neutralizing threat #3: the manager's challenge


Five tips for: Developing managers and supervisors as change coaches

From obstacles to advocates: Six key research findings for enabling managers to become great change leaders

Introduction to Prosci's new Change Management Guide for Managers



ADKAR

The ADKAR Model

ADKAR foundation - the individual as the unit of change


ADKAR: 6 applications


ADKAR - why it "clicks"



Origins of ADKAR: Preface to the ADKAR book



Chapter 1 - ADKAR: Overview


Excerpts from the new book ADKAR: a model for change



Prosci PCT Model - the Project Change Triangle


The Prosci PCT Model

The Prosci PCT Assessment

Relationships between Prosci PCT Model corners



Using the PCT Model to improve performance


Project performance diagnostics with the Prosci PCT Model:


Collecting data from a group and over time

Diagnosing project health: PCT Analyzer outputs



Current best practices in change management


Top contributors to success from the 2009 study


Best Practices Audit


Top trends in change management


What is new in the 2009 study?


Interview with Director of R&D




Change saturation and Change Portfolio Management


Change Portfolio Management


Five tips for: Addressing change saturation


Neutralizing threat #6: too much change



Case studies


Case study: impact of effective change management


Case study: Using ADKAR and the PCT to Strengthen Lean Six Sigma Success


Case study - Building Change Management Competency at Ashland Inc.




Prosci tutorial archive history:

Below is a list of the change management tutorials released by Prosci over the last several years. Email a Prosci analyst or call 970-203-9332 for more information on any of the tutorials below.
Release date: Title of article
August 24, 2010....... Deciding to deploy change management throughout your organization
July 29, 2010........... Principle 3 - Authority for change
July 21, 2010........... Principle 2 - Understanding resistance
July 15, 2010........... Prosci's Train-the-Trainer overview
July 1, 2010............. Five Bs of Executive Buy-in
June 24, 2010......... Principle 1 - the disconnect between senders and receivers
June 17, 2010.......... The psychology of change: understanding the guiding principles of effective change management
June 10, 2010......... Effectively positioning change management
May 27, 2010......... Participant profiles for the 2009 benchmarking study
May 20, 2010........ Using the PCT Model to improve performance
April 22, 2010....... Relationships between Prosci PCT Model corners
April 6, 2010......... The Prosci PCT Assessment
April 1, 2010......... The Prosci PCT Model
March 24, 2010... Communications: with and without change management
March 18, 2010... Establishing the scope of change management
March 10, 2010... Examining the definition of change management
February 17, 2010..... ADKAR: 6 applications
February 9, 2010...... ADKAR: Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement making the change
February 4, 2010 ...... ADKAR: Awareness and Desire - the first two steps to success
January 28, 2010 ...... ADKAR - why it "clicks"
January 12, 2010 ...... What, Why and How of change management
December 15, 2009... Best tutorials of 2009
December 2, 2009.... Interview with Director of R&D
November 17, 2009.. Top trends in change management
November 11, 2009.. What is new in the 2009 report?
October 27, 2009..... Top contributors to success from the 2009 study
October 22, 2009.... Best Practices Audit
September 29, 2009...... Addressing change management myths
September 23, 2009...... Defining change management
September 16, 2009...... ADKAR foundation - the individual as the unit of change
September 10, 2009..... Five tips: Recap and summary
August 27, 2009........... Five tips for: Addressing change saturation
August 20, 2009.......... Five tips for: Building organizational change management competency
August 6, 2009............ Five tips for: Developing managers and supervisors as change coaches
July 15, 2009.............. Five tips for: Better communications
July 8, 2009................ Five tips for: Managing resistance
June 30, 2009............. Five tips for: Succeeding in change management
June 24, 2009............. Emergence of change management
June 4, 2009............... Case study: impact of effective change management
May 20, 2009............. Cost-benefit analysis for change management
May 13, 2009............. Data on impact of effective change management
April 29, 2009............ Change Management Job Description: Reader feedback
April 16, 2009............ Prosci Global Conference: A memoir
April 1, 2009.............. Managers and supervisors: importance and role
March 26, 2009........ Executives and senior leaders: importance and role
March 12, 2009........ 5 change management roles
March 4, 2009......... Change Management Job Description
February 26, 2009.......... The CMO and structural change
February 12, 2009......... Managing the change of improvement systems
January 29, 2009.......... Change Portfolio Management
January 6, 2009............ State of the Union for Change Management
December 17, 2008...... Neutralizing threat #6 - too much change
December 11, 2008..... Neutralizing threat #4 - no plan for the people side
November 12, 2008.... Neutralizing threat #3 - the manager's challenge
October 29, 2008........ Neutralizing threat #2 - resistance to change
October 23, 2008....... Neutralizing threat #1 - the missing sponsor
October 15, 2008....... Neutralizing change threats in the new year
September 4, 2008.... Useful references for making the case for change management
August 26, 2008........ Defining Enterprise Change Management
August 13, 2008........ Biggest contributors to project success
August 6, 2008.......... Case study: Building Change Management Competency at Ashland Inc.
July 30, 2008............ Change hazards - biggest obstacles to successful change
July 8, 2008.............. Change management roles
July 3, 2008.............. My change management certification experience
June 17, 2008........... Diagnosing project health: PCT Analyzer outputs
June 10, 2008.......... Project performance diagnostics with the Prosci PCT Model: Collecting data from a group and over time
June 4, 2008............ How do you identify project risk
May 28, 2008.......... Introducing Prosci's new Change Management Guide for Managers
May 22, 2008.......... From obstacles to advocates: Six key research findings for enabling managers to become great change leaders
April 22, 2008........ Case study: Using ADKAR and the PCT to Strengthen Lean Six Sigma Success
April 9, 2008........... Treating change management deployment as a project
April 2, 2008........... The future direction of change management
March 13, 2008...... Prosci's Change Management Maturity Model
February 26, 2008...... The challenges of deploying change management
February 14, 2008...... Role of Internal Consultants in managing change
January 24, 2008........ 2008 Kickoff - Developing a solid strategy
January 17, 2008........ 2008 Kickoff - Positioning the project for success
January 10, 2008....... 2008 Kickoff - Applying best practices
December 19, 2007....... Best of 2007
December 12, 2007....... Change management methodology overview
December 5, 2007........ Special best practices tutorial series: Change saturation
November 20, 2007.......... Special best practices tutorial series: Participant profiles
November 14, 2007.......... Special best practices tutorial series: Resistance to change
October 25, 2007.............. Special best practices tutorial series: Communication best practices
October 18, 2007............... Special best practices tutorial series: Four critical #1 findings
September 26, 2007......... Excerpts from the book: Change Management: the people side of change
September 12, 2007........ Connecting change management to business results
August 30, 2007............... What, Why and How of Enterprise Change Management
July 26, 2007.................... Chapter 1 - ADKAR: Overview
July 19, 2007.................... Origins of ADKAR: Preface to the ADKAR book
June 21, 2007................... Two advanced applications of the Prosci PCT Tool
June 7, 2007..................... Data: Impact of effective change management on project success
May 17, 2007.................... 3 ways to use the Prosci PCT Tool to improve project performance
May 3, 2007...................... Why you need an individual change model
April 11, 2007................... 30 second change management elevator speeches
March 20, 2007............... Five change management levers
March 8, 2007.................. Frequently Asked Questions
March 2, 2007.................. Top 5 reasons to build change management competency
January 30, 2007............ Defining change management
January 17, 2007............. The Essence of ADKAR
December 19, 2006......... Best tutorials of 2006
November 30, 2006........ Start with a solid change management strategy
November 15, 2006......... Why change management?
November 9, 2006........... ROI of change management
October 28, 2006............. Prosci Change Management Checklist
October 12, 2006............. Vision of a change competent organization
October 3, 2006............... Resistance checklist
September 27, 2006........ Sponsorship checklist
September 19, 2006........ Communication checklist
September 13, 2006........ Integrating project management and change management
August 30, 2006.............. Managing change: one person at a time
August 15, 2006.............. Executive role in creating successful change
July 27, 2006................... Assess your projects with the Prosci Change Triangle
July 19, 2006................... 3 components of successful projects
July 13, 2006................... Introducing the Prosci Change Triangle
July 6, 2006..................... Putting the change management 'gears' into motion
June 22, 2006.................. Who is responsible for managing change?
June 8, 2006.................... 3 critical roles for managers
May 23, 2006.................. Change management quick reference glossary
May 9, 2006................... Six reasons for adopting a common change management approach
April 26, 2006............... Advanced change management tutorial series - ECM
April 19, 2006............... Don't use project management in place of change management
April 5, 2006................. 10-minute executive primer on change management
March 30, 2006............ Change management is not just communication
March 24, 2006............ Change management is not my responsibility
March 9, 2006.............. Dispelling four myths of change management
February 9, 2006........ Checklist for successful change management
February 3, 2006....... Successfully integrate Change Management and Project Management
January 19, 2006....... Three lessons learned from active change managers
January 12, 2006....... Top three factors for project success
November 29, 2005......... Structured change management process delivers results
November 16, 2005......... Research-based change management methodology
November 8, 2005........... Top five change management insights
November 2, 2005........... Positioning to succeed in 2006 changes
October 27, 2005.............. Increase change management impact - invest in coaching
October 19, 2005.............. Correlation of change management and project success
October 12, 2005.............. Six keys to preparing for change scorecard summary
October 6, 2005................ Keys 5 & 6 - special tactics and strategy
September 28, 2005........ Keys 3 & 4 - assessing organization and risk
September 22, 2005....... Keys 1 & 2 - assessing change and groups
September 8, 2005.......... 2005 Best Practice highlights - Team Structures
August 25, 2005............... Key messages for your change management team - step three
August 4, 2005.................. Educating change management team
July 14, 2005..................... Team member criteria
July 7, 2005........................ Diagnose the root cause of resistance to change
June 16, 2005..................... Reasons employees resist change
May 26, 2005..................... Managing change: greatest sponsor mistakes
April 28, 2005..................... Greatest change management obstacle
April 15, 2005...................... Sponsoring change - 2005 report data
March 30, 2005................... Communicating change - 2005 report data
March 10, 2005................... Coaching your sponsor
February 24, 2005.............. Acquiring the right level of sponsorship
February 10, 2005............. Three reasons executive sponsorship fails
January 27, 2005............... Reinforcing change by celebrating successes
January 13, 2005............... Reinforcing change by diagnosing gaps
December 16, 2004........... Reinforcing change with employee feedback
December 9, 2004............. Supervisors' critical role in change management
December 3, 2004............. Creating successful change management coaches
November 5, 2004............ Top 10 most frequently asked questions and answers
October 22, 2004............... Change management for supervisors
October 15, 2004............... Engaging supervisors in change management
October 8, 2004................. Leadership competency - change management
September 16, 2004.......... Business case fundamentals
September 10, 2004......... Action plan for change competency
August 20, 2004................ Change management maturity model - Update
August 12, 2004................. Change management competency
July 27, 2004....................... Integrating change management and project management
July 8, 2004......................... CM - what every project team should know
June 30, 2004...................... Change management and the ADKAR model
June 3, 2004........................ ADKAR series - Ability
May 27, 2004....................... Change management checklist
May 20, 2004...................... Unanticipated effect of empowerment and accountability
May 13, 2004....................... Six Sigma and change management
May 5, 2004......................... Executive sponsors and change management
April 15, 2004...................... Readiness assessments for change management
April 9, 2004........................ ADKAR series - Knowledge
April 1, 2004........................ Change management communications - is it enough?
March 18, 2004................... Change management maturity model
March 11, 2004................... The most effective change management strategies
March 4, 2004..................... Role of executive sponsors during change
February 27, 2004.............. ADKAR series - Desire
February 20, 2004............. What change management strategy works the best?
February 13, 2004............ ADKAR series - Awareness
February 5, 2004.............. Using ADKAR to manage change
January 30, 2004.............. Change management: reactive or proactive
January 21, 2004............... Resistance to change - the Flight and Risk model
January 14, 2004............... Seven change management principles
December 18, 2003........... Change management - scope and definition
December 11, 2003........... Round two: Why manage change?
November 21, 2003......... Role of executives and CEOs in change - DEBATE series
November 7, 2003........... A thirst for change leadership
October 15, 2003............... Why manage change?
August 28, 2003................ Creating a change-ready organization
August 20, 2003............... BPR - the process modeling step
August 13, 2003............... Change management - building change competency
July 29, 2003.................... BPR - The creative component of process design

Monday, October 11, 2010

Add-Management Replacing your window...

Replacing your Windows/Mac apps on Linux

Switching operating systems can be tough. When you get accustomed to certain applications sometimes it can be hard to learn how to use other ones. I recently installed Ubuntu Eee (soon to be Easy Peasy) on my Eee PC 901 and it took quite a while to find apps that cam do everything I can do within Mac OS X and Windows. Here’s a quick guide so you can make your Linux machine feel like home.
HP announces Mac-compatible MediaSmart
Sometimes connecting Macs and PCs on the same media network can be a pain. There are plenty of media servers that work well with one but not the other, or require third-party software to work well with one (usually on the Mac side). HP is making connecting the two platforms a bit easier with the newest version of its MediaSmart media server that’s fully compatible with both.

The MediaSmart Server ex485 and ex487 models will both have features that set the MediaSmart above other such servers. As any media server, it can hold and stream music and photos with any computer, using HP photo viewer for photos, and streaming music directly to iTunes for any computers connected to the same network.



Automated Database Maintenance Task
Management in Oracle Database 11g Release 1

This is a brief overview of the management of automated database maintenance tasks in Oracle database 11g. I've tried to keep this article quite light for two of reasons:

1. I'm sure a lot of people will never touch these settings. Having said that, if most of your processing is done at night, having the maintenance windows opening at night is not a good idea and you should consider altering them.
2. The basic management tasks are quite self contained, but beyond that the discussion moves on to the scheduler and the resource manager, which is a bit beyond the scope of the article. I've put links to articles on those subjects at the bottom of this article.

Oracle 11g includes three automated database maintenance tasks:

* Automatic Optimizer Statistics Collection - Gathers stale or missing statistics for all schema objects (more info). The task name is 'auto optimizer stats collection'.
* Automatic Segment Advisor - Identifies segments that could be reorganized to save space (more info). The task name is 'auto space advisor'.
* Automatic SQL Tuning Advisor - Identifies and attempts to tune high load SQL (more info). The task name is 'sql tuning advisor'.
see it and learn something

Saturday, October 9, 2010

ADD Management

12th Annual PC building competition to take place at CES 2009
The 12th annual Build Your Own PC Race for Charity hosted by TigerDirect, CompUSA, AMD and Systemax is set to take place again from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. on January 8, 2009 at the Wynn Hotel. In case you aren’t familiar with this charity event, basically 30 tech journalists/companies work amongst themselves to design a PC in the shortest amount of time. For first place, $10,000 gets donated to that companies’ chosen charity, second place gets $2,500 to their charity, and then third gets $1,000 for their charity.
This is very fast. and now generation is very fast for controling it.
To give some perspective on how fast these computers can be assembled, last year’s winner, Maximum PC’s Will Smith, made his PC in 10 minutes 30 seconds.
Acer crams a Quad-Core processor in the Aspire Acer has just added the Intel Core 2 Quad Mobile Processor Q9000 to its Aspire 8930G-7665 laptop. This particular version of the Aspire does not appear to be on the Acer website just yet. It looks pretty stylish, but any computer with an 18.4-screen will probably be pretty heavy to lug around. This notebook is really meant to be a desktop replacement with its 18.4-inch full HD display, Blu-ray drive, 4GB of RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphics card.

Acer is hoping to reach “multimedia and gaming enthusiasts” with this particular laptop and I think Acer should get their attention. The Acer Aspire will be priced at $1799.99.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Management Experts Agree


"Smile or You're Fired...Seven Lessons for Managers of Service" is a book specifically written for the 6.7 million managers in the retail, hospitality and travel related industries. Simple to read yet high impact, Smile or You're Fired... offers a series of seven short stories which each leave the reader with a greater understanding of their role, self-worth and responsibilities as a manager.

"Smile or You're Fired...Seven Lessons for Managers of Service" is the first and only book written for customer service managers to help:
◦Improve the manager's confidence and sense of worth by allowing the manager to
see their own challenges through the story's characters, highlighting the
importance of this work.

◦Increase managers emotional intelligence by educating them in a positive tone
on the realities of being a customer service manager today.

◦Reduce managers stress and improve the chance for advancement by teaching how
to better relate to customers, hourly workers and supervisors expectations.
◦Provide a tutorial on the impact of a customer service managers budget and
fiduciary expectations.

◦Provide instruction on how to put these lessons into action.

Click here to buy at Amazon.com

Click here to download Bobby's latest white paper:
How to Conduct an Interview Using Skype

Author Robert "Bobby" Fitzgerald is a 25 year customer service veteran and Director of Operations of a 400 employee company which serves over 20,000 customers a week. He has written dozens of articles on management and business for numerous outlets including Kiplinger.com, Examiner.com and The American Management Association and he speaks at Universities across the country on the hospitality industry and careers in management. Click here to contact Bobby:

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Financial Management Book Recommendations

Financial Management Book Recommendations
Trying to find a suitable financial management book is difficult. When trying to learn concepts, a well structured book that explains concepts simply and effectively will go far. Not only will you learn faster but you will likely have a better understanding of financial management. There are literally hundreds of different books to choose from.

Visiting a bookshop is no use as they don’t usually have much to choose from. On the other hand, browsing Amazon is too difficult and it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the number of choices. Thus, the purpose of this website is to act as a mid point between the two. Below I have narrowed down your choice by compiling the best financial books I have encountered, whilst still giving you a final choice of which titles to buy.

Introductory financial management book
Financial Management: Core Concepts
Here is a well structured introductory book. It is by far the best at explaining the core concepts of financial management and does a better job than more comprehensive books. If you are new to financial management, definitely pick up this book along with one of the titles mentioned below.

More detailed financial management books
Financial Management: Theory & Practice (with Thomson ONE – Business School Edition 1-Year Printed Access Card)
Fundamentals of Financial Management (with Thomson ONE – Business School Edition)
Contemporary Financial Management (with Thomson ONE)
All three options would be a good choice out of the pool of financial management books. If you want to learn the concepts relatively well, go with the first option. It has much of what you need to know regarding financial management and it’s well structured. If you are looking to excel in the subject then grab one of these other books as you can only learn so much from a single book.
Good general financial management
Guide to Financial Management (The Economist)
This is a great resource to anyone studying and learning financial management. Additionally it is written by a reputable source. However, most importantly it’s really cheap for the amount of information in which it provides. Whatever level of knowledge you have in the area, in my opinion this books is well worth your time in reading.

Monday, October 4, 2010

forex Management.. Trading In Forex Market Volatility






Generally speaking, there are two ways to practice successful money management. A trader can take many frequent small stops and try to harvest profits from the few large winning trades, or a trader can choose to go for many small squirrel-like gains and take infrequent but large stops in the hope the many small profits will outweigh the few large losses. The first method generates many minor instances of psychological pain, but it produces a few major moments of ecstasy. On the other hand, the second strategy offers many minor instances of joy, but at the expense of experiencing a few very nasty psychological hits. With this wide-stop approach, it is not unusual to lose a week or even a month's worth of profits in one or two trades.To a large extent, the method you choose depends on your personality; it is part of the process of discovery for each trader. One of the great benefits of the FX market is that it can accommodate both styles equally, without any additional cost to the retail trader. Since FX is a spread-based market, the cost of each transaction is the same, regardless of the size of any given trader's position. For example, in EUR/USD, most traders would encounter a 3 pip spread equal to the cost of 3/100th of 1% of the underlying position. This cost will be uniform, in percentage terms, whether the trader wants to deal in 100-unit lots or one million-unit lots of the currency. For example, if the trader wanted to use 10,000-unit lots, the spread would amount to $3, but for the same trade using only 100-unit lots, the spread would be a mere $0.03. Contrast that with the stock market where, for example, a commission on 100 shares or 1,000 shares of a $20 stock may be fixed at $40, making the effective cost of transaction 2% in the case of 100 shares, but only 0.2% in the case of 1,000 shares. This type of variability makes it very hard for smaller traders in the equity market to scale into positions, as commissions heavily skew costs against them. However, FX traders have the benefit of uniform pricing and can practice any style of money management they choose without concern about variable transaction costs.

The markets don’t always behave the way we’d like them to: Geopolitical turmoil, natural disasters, interest rates and world events can have a profound effect on market movements. If recent market volatility has you concerned about the economy, you are not alone; this is a confusing time for many investors.

An increase in market volatility often leads traders to find a lot more trading opportunities. The opportunities to catch and profit from price movement, especially if it is the HUGE one. The huge market usually swings lots of potential for gain, but also for loss, especially if traders do not take the necessary precautions.

During times of volatility, traders need to adjust their strategy to compensate for erratic market. The FX Markets also provides a great section on their site showing traders which currency pairs are experiencing the most and least volatility that day.
1. Decrease in Leverage
During times of extreme volatility, losses may seem traumatic. With the average daily pip movement increased in volatile times, traders should be considering how their leverage will affect their trades. At a one percent or even a half percent margin, investors should be mindful of how much leverage, or even the size position being traded, can affect their portfolio.

In normal market conditions, placing a 2 lot position is fine when you are looking to make about 50-100 pips. During a more volatile time, when the potential loss is 100-200 pips, it stops being an effective risk to reward ratio. To compensate, traders should look to taking on smaller trading positions, in this case only one lot as opposed to the average 2 lot position.

2. Use Tighter Stops
Many traders are hesitant to use tighter stops in volatile markets because they see the large swings increases the likelihood that the position will be taken out. Having tighter stops can also provide great risk managers in times of extreme volatility. For example, on a EUR/USD trade, rather than setting an 80 pip stop to protect your position, consider placing a 50-60 pip stop. This will insure the protection of your currency position and if the stop is broken, there is a higher likelihood that the trend will continue lower and the stop took you out before you could potentially lose more money.

The width of the stop being set does depend on the currency pair being traded, as some pairs have wider ranges. In a Yen cross like the GBP/JPY or AUD/JPY, traders may be more likely to have wider stops as their average daily range is 50% more than that of the EUR/USD. With that said, stops during volatile market conditions should not be as wide as before. Instead of a stop of 100 pips below entry, traders may consider a 25 pip reduction and have a 75 pip stop.

Below is a chart showing the EUR/USD and the GBP/JPY on the same very volatile day in the forex market. The EUR/USD had an impressive range of nearly 600 pips! The GBP/JPY far dominated though with nearly a 2000 pip trading range.


3. Be Selective with Trades
In volatile market conditions, traders are often tempted to place an increase in trades as the market is going wild and they want to take advantage of all the trading opportunities. It is important to remember that in volatile times, losses are likely to be big. Before placing a trade, assess risk tolerance levels. How much risk is acceptable for the trader both psychologically and financially? It may be a good idea for a trader to shift their interest somewhere else until things settle down, instead of trading a violent pair.

4. Increase Discipline When Trading
During all market conditions, traders should follow their predetermined trading strategy. During volatile market conditions, it is important to use that same level of restraint and self discipline. Any set stops, contingency plans or risk management benchmarks must be adhered to without hesitation. This will help in defining how much risk is taken and should price action be uncontrollable.

5. Know Before You Go
It also helps a trader to know what is causing the current spate of volatility in the markets in order to be prepared for the unexpected. As such, an investor can accommodate their strategy to the market environment and not just the currency pair being traded. The first of these considerations is accounting for emotions in a market: is fear currently driving the market lower? Or is it buyer’s mania that is keeping the bullish tone alive? Traders’ overreaction and emotion tend to push markets to overextended targets. This fact alone creates volatility through simple supply and demand.

Volatility can also, and more than likely will, be sparked by economic events. In this instance, market participants may interpret fundamental data differently and not as cut and dry as the more novice trader. A perfect example of this is usually monthly manufacturing reports that are released in pretty much all industrial economies.

The classic scenario has the market honed in on a particular number for the month. However, traders young and old will sometimes wonder why the market sold off if manufacturing showed positive growth. The answer is simple. The market had a different interpretation and positions were violently reshaped and shifted. These tend to create great opportunities for some and horrible memories for others. Below is an hourly chart of the EUR/USD during ISM Manufacturing for October 1, 2008. Here we can see the huge price gap that occurred due to market volatility as well as the resulting trend.

Panic and erratic momentum can additionally be found in certain market environments. Not to be confused with fear or greed, panic selling and buying can create very choppy and relatively untraceable markets. These conditions will lead some to flip flop their positions while leaving others gaping at the fact that the position was right, only to be stopped out prematurely. These two common examples will create further panic and volatility as traders abandon their own individual strategy for the possibility of instant profits or stoppage revenge. As a result, a vicious cycle of volatility ensues until a definitive market direction can be established.

The simple rules above, and a task of getting to know the current trading environment, can empower every trader through the ranks. Although some relate volatility with difficult and untouchable markets, opportunities continue to remain abound in these less than attractive conditions to those focused and fortunate.

By following these five simple steps, trading in volatile market conditions should be a little simpler. Remember to adjust leverage based on volatility, stick to how much risk your trading plan already determines, use tight stops and don’t jump into every trade that looks good.

Put volatility to work for you. Do you think of the glass as half empty or half full? Your perspective can affect the investment decision you make during market downturns. Investors who view market volatility negatively can make irrational decisions. A down market can be an opportunity for you to build your portfolio and take advantage of lower unit costs.