The Hindu Business Line : <I>Blogs are designed for people who don't want to learn </I>

These are the mantras that Andy Wibbels offers in Blogwild! from Nicholas Brealey (www.nbrealey-books.com) . "Blogwild is for businesses and entrepreneurs who have heard about blogs, know that there's something special going on, but aren't quite sure what the big deal is," notes the introduction. So, first, `what is a blog?'

Short for Web log; it is an online diary, explains the author. "For the elegant simplicity and beauty that blogs create, they certainly have an ugly, ungainly name," he says.

Blawg (the way it is pronounced) sounds like "some kind of gurgling sound your cat makes prior to coughing up a giant hairball."

Yuk! But wait. "Blogs are designed for people who don't want to learn (or don't have the time to learn)." It is as simple as sending an e-mail, entices the author, before giving his updated description of blog thus: "An easily, instantly, and frequently updated Web site, focussed around a topic, industry, or personality."

Start reading blogs, exhorts Wibbels, because that's "the easiest way to get acquainted with the conversations of the blog format".

Gradually, you'd pick up new words. Such as: `blogosphere', which is `the collective hive of blogs'; and `blogroll', which is a list of the blogger's favourite blogs and Web sites.

Get to know how to use blog search engines and directories such as Blogwise, Blogarama and Globe of Blogs.

`Blog ecosystems' are sites that monitor millions of blogs every minute of every day, "searching for the top key words being mentioned in blog posts or the most popular links, books, movies, and people."

Examples are Blogdex, IceRocket, BlogPulse and Technorati. Wibbels likens visiting these sites to "being in a huge conventional hall eavesdropping on millions of conversations at the same time." A fantastic way to do market research and to see what's buzzing, he says.

"Blogging provides a way for companies and customers to meet on common ground to talk about what excites them and what makes them tick. It also allows them to closely track where, and under what circumstances, their products are being talked about online."

Each day, seventy thousand new blogs are created, informs Wibbels. "More than a million posts are added every single day. Millions of people look to blogs for a good laugh, a great idea, a fantastic tip, or an instant analysis."

Blog was `the word of the year' in 2004, according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. But Blogger (www.blogger.com) had been launched in 1999. "Blogger provided both the blog platform and hosting space for blogs... The world's largest conversation began."

Wibbels sees in blogs the rise of `citizen journalism', a.k.a. `consumer-generated media'. This is because blogging supports "the idea that customers and consumers are not passive receptors of media and marketing."

Since bloggers are able to publish text, pictures, audio and video, "often, blogs are the first source of information for breaking events." Like it or not, `blogs drive transparency'.

Disturbingly for mainstream TV or newspapers, "blogs create a greater sense of trust and reputation than traditional media." With barriers gone for consumers to get online, and give vent to praise or criticism, "even grandma can wreck your ad campaign".

No tame read this!

Prepare for the most challenging profession

Modern project management is the most interesting and challenging profession, says Rudd McGary in Passing the PMP Exam, from Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.co.in) . "Project management has been used for thousands of years... from the pyramids of Egypt to the great cathedrals of Europe."

Though `de facto project managers' have been around throughout history, "the formalisation of project management did not really begin until the second half of the twentieth century."

PMI (Project Management Institute), formed in 1969, sought to make project management a profession. It brought out PMBOK (pronounced pimbok); it stands for `the Project Management Body of Knowledge', a codification of information needed for PM. In 2000, ANSI (American National Standards Institute) declared PMBOK `the official publication of project management'.

PMI's certification is PMP, that is, Project Management Professional. And McGary helps you clear the PMP exam; he begins by urging, "Repeat after me: `I am not here to take this test, I'm here to pass it.'"

Begin by knowing the most important document in project management: WBS, or Work Breakdown Structure. WBS comes after the `Scope Statement', and it determines `how you will manage all the aspects of the project'. You can develop this is on a whiteboard with the team and then let it sit for a day or two, instructs the author.

"Each project is unique, so it is extremely important to think and rethink those tasks that will be unique to the project on hand." Make it portable by having a scribe write out what's on the board, "so that people do not have to walk to the same place to look at it".

Software of choice, to work on a breakdown structure, is Microsoft Project. "Other excellent ones are available for engineering and construction, such as Primavera."

Once you translate your WBS into MS Project, you can e-mail the same to team members; also, "changes can be recorded, and version control be maintained." Version control should be maintained, insists McGary.

A chapter titled `IT and engineering' looks at the differences between the two. "First, engineering is a discipline that is taught with very rigid standards that have been gathered for thousands of years."

Not so with IT. Quite often people begin as coders, writing language for machines, and ascend the corporate ladder to become a group leader, and then begin managing projects. To them, the antidote is PMI, advises the author.

In IT, "a single `build' is done and then sent to the sponsor for approval," but things are changing, notes the author.

"The notion of `agile' programming process originated conceptually as a response to the more rigid building standards of engineering," is becoming popular.

SOW is another abbreviation you'd pick up in PM terrain. It stands for statement of work, "a narrative description of products, services, or results to be supplied."

Do it in sufficient detail, advises McGary. "For instance, if you are planning an IT project that involves outside vendors who will do the actual code development, you should explain the product of the development you expect, as well as how you want the vendor to report the progress on this part of the project."

Accountants may like to focus on the chapter about cost management. "Three processes in project cost management are cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control. In each process, it is important to construct a realistic budget."

To projects that aren't included in these three processes, `life cycle costing and value engineering techniques' are applied.

An IT example that the book offers is of how costs get shifted to the customer if tests aren't run on every iteration of an IT project. Life cycle can look at costs incurred after the project is completed, especially when "the customer may require that you do rework to handle any omissions that happen because of lack of complete testing."

A certification you can think of, with McGary's guide.

Tailpiece

"Midway during the project we found... ."

"That you were on the wrong track?"

"No. Our leader was missing!"

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