Sure Step

The Sure Step Rule of Taxi Fare

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Some time back, as I was riding a taxi from Prague airport to Holiday Inn hotel, I wondered about the fixed price I was about to pay for the ride.

– “Airport to city is 700 flat.” – said the driver when I asked how much approximately will it cost.

Common wisdom goes that flat rates mean you get it worse than if it wasn’t flat. Indeed, if it was on meter, and if the driver took the shortest route (I had a GPS device on me, I could’ve easily checked it!), the fare would’ve been lower. And yet, I decided I loved the flat rate.

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Read My Lips: Why?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Recently, a reader, commenting on my last post about Sure Step, pointed me to an article by Karl E. Wiegers
“Read My Lips: No New Models!” I initially responded to the comment, but I figure the comments aren’t read as often as posts, so I decided to blog it.

It’s doubly funny that the reader is using Dr. Wiegers to devalue and dismiss Sure Step: firstly, the article has really nothing to do with implementation methodologies at all, and secondly, when I delivered Sure Step training at WinDays pre-conf earlier this year, I gave to each attendant a copy of Karl E. Wiegers’s latest book “Practical Project Initiation”—at the time it was the best book available that matched both the message of my training and the point of Sure Step as a methodology.

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Diagnostic Phase – a signpost for implementation

  • Reading time:5 mins read

Each phase of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology is equally important in an implementation project. You could argue that analysis is the most important, or that design is the most important, or that operation is less important. I’ll paraphrase Scott Adams here and ask: how one phase can be more important if each of them is completely necessary? Well, except for Diagnostic phase.

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A case for Sure Step: how Sure Step brings project success

  • Reading time:8 mins read

Methodology is a tough topic. There are good methodologies, there are bad methodologies, there are good methodologies gone bad. Methodology is not a silver bullet, it won’t just make any problems disappear, and is hardly ever the single source of success or failure. But a methodology can be a major contributor to success. I could put it this way: you stand much better chances of success if you apply a methodology, then if you don’t. With something as critical as an implementation of business software, methodology is a key success factor. According to Jim Johnson of Standish Group, it’s number nine on their ten identified most important success factors.

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Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2.0

  • Reading time:2 mins read

A new version of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology was released yesterday and is available for download to all Microsoft Dynamics partners enrolled in a service plan. If you were a partner, and thought you had no reason to enroll in one before, now there is a compelling reason to do so. This version brings so many improvements over the previous one that it is really worth it.

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Microsoft WinDays 2008

  • Reading time:3 mins read

No, it is not a new piece of software; although I admit that to anyone not knowing exactly what it is it might just seem so. Microsoft WinDays is the largest and most important business and technology conference in Croatia (and the region), traditionally organized in Opatija in the last week of April. This year it is taking place from April 22 to 25, with a pre-conference day on April 21. Last year it gathered over 1,900 attendees from Croatia and neighboring countries, and this year it is expected to even surpass this number. During the conference the attendees will have an opportunity to visit 160+ presentations covering 28 different topics, 9 pre-conference seminars, plus enjoy themselves and mingle about the evening parties, or simply enjoy the mild weather, sea and fresh air.

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