Trick or Treat?

Ready to roll for a fun night of trick or treating! Lindsey on the left, Andy in the middle, and their friend, Emma on the right.

Fired!

My mom is down to visit with us from Canada. Last night we decided to have a campfire in the back yard and roast some marshmellows. The kids (and mom!) had fun.

We also invited some friends to join us. Good times for all!

Misha

Misha was watching me work from the top of a new piece of furniture I brought from Michigan. She likes being on the high ground.

Michigan to Texas, Again!

After I finished up in Chicago I picked up a Penske truck and drove from Chicago to Kalamazoo, MI. The goal was to pick up a load of furniture from a storage unit and drive it back to Texas. I hired Two Men And A Truck to help me load. They were awesome. I've used them in the past for other jobs and I am always impressed by the quality of their work.

After we finished loading the truck I hit the road. The total trip was about 1000 miles, so my goal was to drive 500 that day and the balance the next day. This is the fourth time I have done this run and I remember each time how boring i55 south is. Miles of nothing.

I am always excited to see the arches in St. Louis. It means the end of i55 and the start of my westward trip to Oklahoma.

I arrived at my 500 mile mark and looked for the first hotel. Checked into a Red Roof Inn and then walked to a local resturant. Selected Aussie Jack's. The food was average at best, but the beer was good!

Arrived home the next day around 5 pm to a very excited family. Was able to get a good nights sleep. Today we unload the truck.

Chicago NDC Acceptance Testing

On my way to Chicago to perform acceptance testing at one of our sites.

Arrived at the Merchandise Mart around 1:30 pm. Will jump right into the testing.

First test was a video conferencing session with a group back in Michigan. Testing went very well. System is functioning as expected.

Checked out the other technology in the space. All systems meet the acceptance criteria. Time to hit the road again!

Handy

Andy is checking out some decorations on a local pizza shop window!

Self Conscious

Does this curtain make me look fat?

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First Fish

I took Andy and Lindsey fishing today with my neighbor and his grandson. The caught a BUNCH of small bluegill fish. The pics are of the first fish Andy and Lindsey have ever caught! They ended up catching over 20 fish collectively over about a 2 hours timeframe. Great spot for a little fishing fun!

The Supervisor

We are in the process of renovating our living room. We appear to have a new supervisor to watch over us from the top of an 8' ladder. So far she has been fairly quiet and just let us do our work in peace. Not sure how she will react if we start to fall behind schedule or go over budget.

Reading

Andy is starting to enjoy reading. We no longer have to fight when it is reading time. The challenge now is finding books he hasn't read yet! A good problem to have.

Ruff Life

Yea, sign me up for some napping action.

Effect of Biases on Project Selection

By Thomas Kennedy, PMP

Organizations execute corporate strategies through projects. All have a limited amount of funding available and must choose the projects that best meet their objectives. Organizations use project selection processes to compare projects. The intent is to select the projects that provide the best value, as measured through the selection criteria. If project selection teams are able to evaluate objectively potential projects, the organization will be able to select the projects that best meet the selection criteria. However, Lefley (2006) believes that biases of selection team members may influence project selection.

Lefley set out to evaluate the selection of an information technology project for the UK-based Association of International Accountants (AIA). His intent was to investigate empirically whether the bias of the project champion influenced project selection. The project champion in this case was the person who proposed the project and his department would have benefited directly from a successful implementation.

The AIA uses a three-component model to attempt to convert opinions and views into actual judgmental values or numbers: financial, risk and strategic fit. The project champion along provides the financial data. However, all members of the project selection team provide input into the risk and strategic fit components. Therefore, Lefley decided to compare the results in these two areas to see if he could identify any biases.

In the risk area, each team must determine a score for risk probability and risk impact. The team develops a collective group of risks and then individually scores each risk. Lefley then calculated the mean probability score for the project champion, the highest team member and the mean value for the remaining team members. In all mean risk measurements, the project champion had the lowest mean.

In the strategic fit area, each team member must evaluate the project against a list of weighted strategic benefits provided by the organization's management team. The evaluation creates a strategic fit index for each team member. The team provides its judgmental values after each round of three discussions. Lefley calculated the mean index score for the project champion, the lowest team member and the mean value for the remaining team members. In all mean strategic fit index measurements, the project champion had the highest mean.

The results showed that the project champion felt the risks for this project were lower than the rest of the members of the selection team. In addition, the project champion felt that the strategic fit was higher than the rest of the members of the selection team. Lower risk and higher strategic fit will make the project appear more attractive than other projects. If the project champion scores were influenced by his biases toward the project, selection of this project might not be in the best interest of the organization.

Lefley realizes that further study must occur to understand fully the relationship between project champion biases and project selection. However, he believes that the biases of selection team members may influence project selection. In addition, through the development of an evaluation model like defined in this study, organizations can identify the biases early in the process and improve its project selection process.

References

Lefley, F. (2006). Can a Project Champion Bias Project Selection? Management Research News , 29 (4), 10.

Too Wet

I am out trail riding this morning. The trails are too wet for the bike, so I have dropped off the trail and am now riding some of the dirt roads near the trail.

The pic is of Lake Grapevine along one of the dirt roads.

Lindsey Lost a Tooth!

Lindsey is pretty excited. She lost another tooth. This one she worked at and worked at until the tooth finally came out. She is very excited that the tooth fairy will come tonight. She said she hopes the tooth fairy brings her 100 bucks. Yea, that's not gonna happen!

The Video Professor FINALLY Refunded My Money!

Well, it has been a long road attempting to get my money back from the Video Professor. For a history, see my previous posts. I ended up sending an email to ceo@videoprofessor.com and calling their main office number and leaving a message for John W. Scherer, the CEO of Video Professor. I received an email response (not sure if it was really from John) and a phone call from the head of their public relations department, Brian. Once again, they were very professional and pleasant to work with. Brian apologized for the problems I had encountered and told me that he would make sure I received my refund within the next few days.

I checked my bank account yesterday and sure enough, there was a credit from Video Professor for the full amount that they charged me... $189.95. Brian also said that he would refund the shipping charges, but I haven't seen that yet. But I am not worried about the shipping charges. I had expected to pay the charges and I am OK with paying them.

So now I have finally received my refund from the Video Professor. Yes, I am happy about that. HOWEVER, the situation begs to answer one question. If Brian was able to get the money back in my account in 3 days, why does it take 20-30 business days for the customer service reps to do it? Yes, I understand that Brian has more power and authority than the front line customer service reps. But the fact that he can technically do it means that they can technically do it also, which means that the Video Professor is making a conscious business decision to withhold your money for a month or more longer than is necessary. I think this sucks. I still think the promotional methods of the Video Professor are deceptive (I no longer think the Video Professor is a scam). I think they hide behind the Better Business Bureau with their fine print. I think they could be more honest on the front end instead of tricking you into getting something you didn't ask for or want (a 10-day trial of one of the lessons). There is nothing illegal about what they are doing, but again I do believe their approach is very deceptive. 

So what's left? Well, I received my refund. However, as I mentioned a few posts back, I would like an apology from John W. Scherer. I haven't received my apology from John yet. Yes, Brian (the PR guy) apologized. But he is paid to apologize for stuff like this. I want an apology from the guy that said he would send me the lessons for free--John W. Scherer. In his email to me he said he was traveling extensively for the next 10 days. However, Brian said he was in the conference room next to his office. So I still think the there are some integrity problem with John W. Scherer. 

Video Professor Refund Is Coming???

Well, I am very quickly changing my view of the Video Professor (although at this point they still have not refunded my money). As I have explained previously, I had a very bad experience with an online order from the Video Professor. As I dug into it further I found hundreds of posts on the internet from people that have experienced the same thing. However, the more I speak with people at the Video Professor, the more I am convinced that it is not their intention to scam people. But I still feel they are using deceptive marketing techniques to sucker people into signing up for something that is different than what they expect.

Again, as I mentioned previously, I realize now that I did not take the time to read the fine print on the Video Professor website. If I had read it I would have understood that they send you three lessons and that only two of them are free. If you keep the third lesson they bill you the full cost of $189.95. That is what happened to me. I didn't ask them to send me a lesson to evaluate. I asked them to send me the free lesson that John promotes on his television commercials. Again, this is deceptive marketing. Yes, they will quickly point out the find print on their website that explains how it works. But that isn't good enough. They have clearly decided to promote free products without clearly communicating the catch. That is smart marketing tactics or deceptive marketing tactics, depending on which side of the fence you are on. 

Here's the fine print from their website...

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ANY TWO of the three computer tutorial CD-ROMs are yours free without further obligation, PERIOD. Take 10 days to decide if you want to keep the complete set of CDs. After your 10-day free trial, if you decide to keep the complete set, we'll conveniently bill your credit card just $189.95. Or simply call our customer care number at 1-800-519-4110 if you decide to return any one of the lessons. You will be charged nothing more and get to keep two computer learning CD-ROMS! You can also return everything within 10 days and receive a full Shipping and Processing refund upon your request. Click here to learn more about this offer. 

I think it is pretty darn clear. Problem is, people don't read the fine print. They choose to use fine print to communicate the message instead of just simply telling you up front. John should simply say what it is. The problem with that is that if he explains clearly how it works, fewer people will order. That will cost him money. That is a business decision. 

I received a call today from Brian in the Public Relations department. Brian was very nice. He had a copy of the email that I had sent to John. I am still not clear if John actually reads the emails or if he has someone do that for him. Regardless, Brian called me directly to talk through the problem. He assured me that he would take care of the problem and that I would see a refund within a few days. He is also going to refund the shipping charges that I originally paid. It is a shame that I had to go through all of this. I am sure Brian and others at the Video Professor have better things to do than to talk with people like me who don't read the fine print. But I appreciate that they took the time to call me and to talk through it. I will appreciate it even more when they actually refund my money!!!