Home / Blogs
Follow this blog:
RSS
Email Alert

IT Consultant

Mary Weilage

Mary Weilage

TechRepublic Staff

Mary Weilage

Mary Weilage
Mary Weilage is a Senior Editor for the CBS Interactive site TechRepublic. She edits the Android App Builder, Asian Technology, IT Consultant, SMB Technologist, Social Media in the Enterprise, and Software Engineer blogs.
  • 1

    Three tricks to help sort out work from activity

    Over the years I've written a great deal about the difference between activity and work. However, I don't know if I've ever actually explained what the heck I'm muttering about or why it's...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | September 30, 2007, 7:07 AM PDT

  • 9

    How to become a better consultant by doing less billable work

    In most any profession, things seem to get added to your schedule faster than they get taken away -- so you tend to get progressively busier.  For a consultant, the effect can be magnified...

    Posted by Chip Camden | September 25, 2007, 12:53 PM PDT | Latest comment by smankinson

  • 16

    How to deal with a personnel problem on your project team when you're not the functional manager

    Frequently, a person's talents drive him to work in certain areas where he excels. In other cases, the individual talents of a person and the job he performs are not aligned. Sometimes this lack...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | September 24, 2007, 12:57 PM PDT | Latest comment by mikifinaz1@...

  • 2

    Use one simple question to help get the project back on track

    Have you ever listened to people talk about how, when, and why they failed? Or, for that matter, listened to your own stories about how circumstances and events conspired to create a “perfect...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | September 22, 2007, 7:19 AM PDT | Latest comment by meryllogue@...

  • 11

    Define project scope to include deliverables, boundaries, and requirements

    There are two places that scope is defined on your project. High-level scope is defined in your project charter. Low-level scope is defined in your business requirements document. High-level...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | September 18, 2007, 1:01 AM PDT | Latest comment by user_786@...

  • 22

    Consulting independence

    In my previous post, Employee vs. contractor (and in the discussion that followed) a distinction was made between two different kinds of contractors: those who work as employees of a...

    Posted by Chip Camden | September 12, 2007, 4:06 PM PDT | Latest comment by walter@...

  • 20

    What makes a high-performing team?

    Have you ever been on a project team where team members all got along, they all had the right skills, and everyone worked hard and pulled together to get the project done? Those are just some of...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | September 10, 2007, 10:43 AM PDT | Latest comment by sonja.Young@...

  • 0

    How to leverage a project assistant's unintentional role as project archivist

    Today, I'm going to talk about a resource most of us don't have the opportunity to utilize often enough. The project assistant, a combination secretary, record-keeper, and general project minder...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | September 9, 2007, 3:22 PM PDT

  • 25

    Employee vs. contractor

    Tom Mochal's post got me to thinking about the differences between the employee and contractor relationship. As a consultant, I always work on contract.  That isn't strictly necessary,...

    Posted by Chip Camden | September 4, 2007, 2:32 PM PDT | Latest comment by QualityIT

  • 35

    Three tactics for dealing with sub-par performance of contractors

    What do you do when a tem member is not meeting your expectations? Normally, a project manager would deal with poor performance through a process of trying to determine the cause of the...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | September 4, 2007, 4:48 AM PDT | Latest comment by Sterling "chip" Camden

  • 3

    Using contextual analysis to address project team problems

    Sometimes, when I'm out reading apparently random things for no particular reason, I run across two quotes which click together. In this case, I found something while out reading about the...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | September 1, 2007, 7:39 AM PDT | Latest comment by ffloresv@...

  • 7

    Handing off your project (without killing it)

    Many of the projects I work on begin with me as the sole designer -- and I think that's a good thing.  As Paul Graham points out, one key to good program design is the ability to hold the...

    Posted by Chip Camden | August 29, 2007, 11:38 AM PDT | Latest comment by Sterling "chip" Camden

  • 0

    Use color coding to quickly show overall project health

    The purpose of a project status report is to manage expectations by commenting on any and all items that show a variance from your project baselines and stakeholder expectations. Typical status...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | August 27, 2007, 10:57 AM PDT

  • 3

    Is project management a language rather than a discipline?

    Project management is, in theory at least, a common language spoken by facilities, IT, operations, and the company's management group. This common language allows individuals with very different...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | August 25, 2007, 6:03 PM PDT | Latest comment by dccd

  • 6

    Outsourcing a project does not relieve you of responsibility

    The outsourcing of project work is more common today than ever. But even though you outsource the work, you can't completely outsource your obligation to make sure the project is progressing...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | August 20, 2007, 12:28 PM PDT | Latest comment by afranquesa

  • 5

    Putting the client before the technology, by putting the right technology before the client

    When recommending a solution to a client, I'm easily tempted to go with what I know or like best -- but of course I owe it to the customer to recommend what will work optimally for them long...

    Posted by Chip Camden | August 20, 2007, 10:46 AM PDT | Latest comment by Sterling "chip" Camden

  • 9

    Three "project management sins" and how they affect our teams

    Project management as a profession barely recognizes the importance of individual ability or talent. In many ways, it evolved close to the nexus of our current society's tendency to sequester...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | August 18, 2007, 7:04 AM PDT | Latest comment by mikifinaz1@...

  • 17

    Should consultants blog?

    So you're a consultant. Should you blog? What issues do you need to consider? Yes. The answer to the first question, that is. Blogging is one of the best ways to promote yourself, build contacts...

    Posted by Chip Camden | August 16, 2007, 12:47 PM PDT | Latest comment by israelking

  • 21

    Get everyone on the same page with a project kickoff meeting

    Sometimes projects don't always go through an organized sequence of planning and execution. On many projects, you're forced to jump into execution and then catch up with the planning later. Before...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | August 14, 2007, 6:35 AM PDT | Latest comment by dasha_g

  • 8

    Setting up priorities in an "A" world

    Lack of priority information is the death of management and the bane of leadership. It is also the single most common problem project managers run into when trying to filter activities into a...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | August 11, 2007, 9:53 AM PDT | Latest comment by apotheon

Keep Up with TechRepublic

Discover more newsletters

Follow us however you choose!

Media Gallery

View All

Hot Questions

Ask a Question
View All

Hot Discussions

Start a Discussion