One of my hobbies is making home videos, using my digital camera and video editing software. I have a lot of fun playing with photos and video clips to make them all blend together in an attractive short video.
Here are a few tips for producing great home videos.
Always carry your camera. You never know when you might be able to get a great video. For instance, I was at the barn the other day and another boarder wanted to turn her horse out with mine. I got some great video footage and photographs of them playing, and was able to turn it into a really fun video (which you can watch below). High quality camera cases enable you to carry your camera with you and still keep it safe. I personally prefer a sling camera bag because it enables you to keep your hands free when you don’t need your camera.
Find a video editing software you like. I am just doing amateur videos at this point, so I use Windows Movie Maker, but there are many more advanced programs on the market. If you plan on using Windows Movie Maker and your camera takes video in Quicktime format, you will also need a video converter tool, such as Rad Video Tools, to convert your videos to a compatible format.
Be careful of copyrights! If you are going to be using your video for anything other than home viewing — for instance, if you are going to be posting it online — be sure you aren’t violating someone else’s copyright. Yes, using a copyrighted song without permission is a violation! You can get around this by using music from the 1920s or earlier, as this is part of the public domain (which means you can use it freely). Also, if you are posting your video on YouTube, you can check their Audioswap feature to see what songs are available – the copyright holders actually give YouTube permission to use the songs, in exchange for advertising (a link people can click to purchase the song).
I think you will find, like I did, that making home videos can be quite addictive and enjoyable. Here is the video I was talking about — I stayed up half the night making this one!
Owning a boat is something that you would think a celebrity might do right? Certainly there are plenty of superstars out there who own their own boats. It’s not quite the same as owning a boat when you’re a regular person though.
Owning a boat is a big responsibility. It’s a great luxury for the average person and totally worth all that it requires but it’s a responsibility nonetheless. You need to be able to maintain the boat, replace parts as needed, take it out regularly, pay for the slip that it’s in and so on. When you’re a celebrity, you can just pay someone to do that. You can hire someone to tell you that you need new OMC parts or Mercruiser parts or whatever and you can send them out to go get them and install them for you. The average person does that stuff for himself.
Most celebrities don’t even bother with this though. Instead, they spend their time on the boats that other rich people have. Most of them prefer to spend their time on luxury yachts. They hobnob with people who have a lot of money and who like to use that money to treat celebrities to a day out on the water. Sounds nice but I think I’ll stick to owning my own boat. There’s a level of pride in that which you just can’t buy!
Have you every had a director of IT say on the night before the live of a new system, we are also going to bring up this module in its vanilla form to see how it works out. Oh the joys of evil vile scope creep! I’ll share with you a secret, the goal of a scope change process is not to always immediate scream no from the executive ivory towers. A scope change process is to assure that the risk is worth the rewards when it comes to scope change. So let’s talk about how to introduce a scope change process into a chaotic project management culture.
In a chaotic project management culture, the jack of all trades who can do it himself is rewarded, and will look like a cowboy forced to wear a three piece suit when feeling constrained by a scope change management process. Therefore do not introduce a process that constricts and is an obstacle, have it augment efficiency.
There are some common characteristics to a scope change management process.
The approval of the change is aligned with the organization’s authority to act
The sponsor approves the changes, before moving to the next level of authority
The change request form clearly asks for the impacts and the benefits
Requested Changes have a change number
The process is agreed to by the sponsor before the project starts
When starting out, with this new process, I’d recommend the pmo clarifies with the IT leadership what is in and not in a scope management standard. We previously shared a scope management standard which can be used as a starting point for the standard. Also the purpose to a scope management process, has to vet at the decision level necessary the requested changes to project scope. After the IT leadership has agreed it makes sense, start organizing a couple of projects with this in the mix. Open discuss using the process with those project sponsors, and executive sponsors if applicable. The goal here is to gain buyin and suggestions as to a process which will work at your organization.
With a scope change management process your outcomes will be clear, the more time planning a commercial off the shelf implementation, the better the execution, and the lesser degree of scope changes. It will also help to engage the project sponsor.
Further Readings on Taming Chaotic Project Management:
Physician CPOE adoption is being discussed in IT strategy sessions across the US. But before one needs to get it adopted, one has to get it implemented. Truthfully, there are a lot of horror stories out there. One of the main critical success factors for a computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) implementation is for the order entry team to truly understand the nuances of the electronic ordering process compared with the current paper process.
Here are six steps, you and your project team can take to assure they have got this one in the righteously done category
Gain an understanding of what went wrong in the horror stories! - Those horror stories have good insights in what not to do, or what to mitigate early. Check out the literature, and if there are similarities, identify a risk
Have a couple analysts go through the day in the life of the practitioners - Commonly IT departments will hire a nurse or three to help relay this process, however having those individuals accountable for designing and configuring the screen flow. Having them understand how extra clicks actually matter becomes crystal clear in following a nurse or a physician around. There is also no better way to instantly imbed a sense of purpose in IT staff. Using the management chain of command, get the request to the CNO or CMO
Gain an understanding of what went right! - There are a couple of tales of success stories out there. Check them out and try to see if similar techniques will work for your organization
Create a strong partnership between the informatics department and IT - Having these two departments become a performing team is the goal of the project manager. Set an environment up for teaming, a common location, team building activities, small wins for the team, and facilitate team development. These two departments are each a leg of the implementation and need to walk in a powerful stride.
Rather than invent the wheel, use a consultant who has been through it - Having a talented consultant who has traveled this road before is worth their weight in gold. Utilize this skill set in order to help identify understanding gaps.
Reuse the successful techniques from the documentation coordinators - As AP-DRG’s rolled out, efforts were taken to improve physician documentation so that coders could accurate ascertain SOI and ROM. The techniques to improve the physicians documentation will be similar to their adoption of the CPOE. Additionally this will provide insights into the daily life on the floors
