Thursday, November 20, 2014
Procrastination and Boredom
My job isn't terribly difficult. Most days, I should be able to get everything done that needs to get done in less than 1/2 of a workday, and yet still I procrastinate. I'm not sure what the problem is. The tasks I need to complete aren't boring - not exactly. My gut instinct is that it has something to do with poor self-esteem and lack of confidence, as in I put things off because in my heart of hearts I feel like I can't do them effectively and no one takes me seriously as a manager.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Business Plan
I'm thinking more and more about starting up my own professional services firm. These guys that I'm working for now seem like good people, but it's obvious to me that they don't know how to build a business.
I see two branches of this type of business: 1) Staffing and 2) Professional Services. To be clear, "staffing" is a professional service, but I'm differentiating here between the business of providing contractors and FTEs to companies vs. other professional services, such as application development and support.
The advantage of the staffing business is that it provides recurring revenue that helps support the rest of the company and it opens doors to the other side of the business, which is where the real money is made. Five years in, the goal should be to have a staffing business that's pulling in $3 million or more each year, and a professional services business that's worth $20 million or more annually. With profit sharing to key practice leaders and partners, income for a CEO should be in the range of $300K.
The opportunity that's hitting me over the head is in the so-called big data/business intelligence stack. This is what I think that stack looks like:
Client Application Development
Custom development of client applications on PC, Mac, Tablets, iOS, and Android devices. This is one end of the data stack, where user activity is captured. At this layer, we'll need expertise in project management, requirements gathering, design, user experience, development and testing. I don't know if this is really where the big money is or to what extent expertise here is truly a differentiator. It may be the case that the way to go here is to have a small team and then sub-contract out that work to other shops.
Front-End Web Services
Web service architecture allows us to create applications that can provide initial processing of input from client applications and provide information in return. We can think of the front-end as the next step in the data chain. At this layer, we'll need expertise in project management, requirements gathering, front-end web development, and testing. Since the front end will likely need to exist on a cloud platform, expertise in Azure, AWS, and similar services comes into play here as well.
Cloud Hosting and Storage
The basic idea here is that data comes in through the FE and then needs to be stored somewhere, either in a relational database of some kind or some sort of structure like Cassandra or Amazon S3, or perhaps all of those. I'm not versed enough in the various tools that are available to know the distinctions, especially between Cassandra and S3. The expertise that would be needed at this layer would be varied, but would include basic server administration, SQL, Cassandra, and Hadoop, and possibly even this new thing called Spark that I am completely unfamiliar with. Opportunities at this layer also include reselling of cloud services and providing expertise in various pricing plans and structures.
This is also where I think there may be opportunities in application monitoring and support.
Data Mining and Business Intelligence
These are probably two different areas but for now I'm going to lump them together, the basic idea being that this is where the data that is collected is somehow turned into useful information for business people or in some cases consumers (e.g. recommendations). This is probably where the "data scientist" application comes into play.
To deliver on all of this, you need some sort of Project Delivery Framework, some set of agreed upon methods and processes for getting work done from initial requirements gathering to project delivery. Which brings us to...
Project Management Office
This is both something that will be needed to get work done and potentially another practice area as well. The PMO is where projects are registered and chartered, where project managers are assigned and where project planning takes place. The PMO is also where project status across the company is compiled and centralized, so business leaders understand how work is progressing and where problem areas may be cropping up that require intervention. Over time, as we get better at managing work efficiently and effectively, we can farm out that expertise to companies that want to implement a PMO themselves.
I see two branches of this type of business: 1) Staffing and 2) Professional Services. To be clear, "staffing" is a professional service, but I'm differentiating here between the business of providing contractors and FTEs to companies vs. other professional services, such as application development and support.
The advantage of the staffing business is that it provides recurring revenue that helps support the rest of the company and it opens doors to the other side of the business, which is where the real money is made. Five years in, the goal should be to have a staffing business that's pulling in $3 million or more each year, and a professional services business that's worth $20 million or more annually. With profit sharing to key practice leaders and partners, income for a CEO should be in the range of $300K.
The opportunity that's hitting me over the head is in the so-called big data/business intelligence stack. This is what I think that stack looks like:
Client Application Development
Custom development of client applications on PC, Mac, Tablets, iOS, and Android devices. This is one end of the data stack, where user activity is captured. At this layer, we'll need expertise in project management, requirements gathering, design, user experience, development and testing. I don't know if this is really where the big money is or to what extent expertise here is truly a differentiator. It may be the case that the way to go here is to have a small team and then sub-contract out that work to other shops.
Front-End Web Services
Web service architecture allows us to create applications that can provide initial processing of input from client applications and provide information in return. We can think of the front-end as the next step in the data chain. At this layer, we'll need expertise in project management, requirements gathering, front-end web development, and testing. Since the front end will likely need to exist on a cloud platform, expertise in Azure, AWS, and similar services comes into play here as well.
Cloud Hosting and Storage
The basic idea here is that data comes in through the FE and then needs to be stored somewhere, either in a relational database of some kind or some sort of structure like Cassandra or Amazon S3, or perhaps all of those. I'm not versed enough in the various tools that are available to know the distinctions, especially between Cassandra and S3. The expertise that would be needed at this layer would be varied, but would include basic server administration, SQL, Cassandra, and Hadoop, and possibly even this new thing called Spark that I am completely unfamiliar with. Opportunities at this layer also include reselling of cloud services and providing expertise in various pricing plans and structures.
This is also where I think there may be opportunities in application monitoring and support.
Data Mining and Business Intelligence
These are probably two different areas but for now I'm going to lump them together, the basic idea being that this is where the data that is collected is somehow turned into useful information for business people or in some cases consumers (e.g. recommendations). This is probably where the "data scientist" application comes into play.
To deliver on all of this, you need some sort of Project Delivery Framework, some set of agreed upon methods and processes for getting work done from initial requirements gathering to project delivery. Which brings us to...
Project Management Office
This is both something that will be needed to get work done and potentially another practice area as well. The PMO is where projects are registered and chartered, where project managers are assigned and where project planning takes place. The PMO is also where project status across the company is compiled and centralized, so business leaders understand how work is progressing and where problem areas may be cropping up that require intervention. Over time, as we get better at managing work efficiently and effectively, we can farm out that expertise to companies that want to implement a PMO themselves.
Monday, November 17, 2014
New Job
So I see it's been about 10 months since I posted here. In the intervening time period, I've moved to a new job, which in most ways is an improvement over the previous situation. What I was starting to realize about this time last year is how miserable I was working for Steve at Microsoft. There was no sense of mission and there was never any sense of accomplishment or that we were even working for anything that mattered. Things got better in January when Abdul came along, but it was too little too late. By April-May I was ready to go.
So at the end of June my contract ended, at which point I basically went on the bench for 4 months until my company called me back and asked me to take over management of this contract with one of their main customers. The job, this time around, is more of an account management role than project management, which is fine by me. I don't think I actually like project management all that much, even though I know quite a bit about it at this point.
The problem is that I'm not sure anything can be done with this customer. It may just be scorched earth. Also, I'm getting conflicting messages from my manager telling me not to worry about the status of invoices, but to simply focus on making sure the service is running correctly and that we don't pay penalties. This is confusing to me because my understanding of account management has me wrapping my arms around the whole thing and owning it. That's the kind of work I want to do, especially the money part. I want to see the money each month.
Another issue is that there is this very real, very tangible sense that this position isn't permanent, that it could all come crashing down and I could be out of a job. However, I suppose as long as I keep things running and we don't pay any further penalties, that it could last a while. But it seems like there just isn't that much that I can do, which makes me feel like I'm not doing enough, which makes me feel like the job isn't going to last.
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