How to Resolve Project Conflict

Here's how to face and deal with conflict within your project team...

You need to face conflict and not ignore it, as ignoring it only makes the problem worse. The earlier you face it, the easier it will be to resolve. Here are some examples of conflict you might experience on projects:

• Your boss is frustrated with progress and takes it out on you openly, in front of others in your team.
• Your colleague wants something from you that you can't give them, or can't do for them within the timeframe required so they get angry.
• Your staff think you're being unrealistic about timeframes, so they handle it badly by raising their voice and being obstructive.

When conflict occurs, take these steps:

• Time out: If the other person is getting heated, tell them you need to take five minutes to collect your thoughts. Then make a coffee or go for a walk. This will help you both to calm down and reflect on what has happened.
• A pacifier: When you restart your conversation, start with "I know that you're under pressure because of... " This will pacify them a little and will make the atmosphere more positive.
• Problem solving: Then agree that a problem exists and that you both need to work together to resolve it constructively. Discuss the various solutions to the problem and try to agree on the pros and cons of each before deciding on the best course of action.
• Body language: While all this is happening, you need to focus on your body language. Use open stances. Take your hands out of your pockets and never fold your arms. Try and use slow hand movements. Use a passive voice and don't show emotion. Maintain good eye contact. Listen carefully and watch their body language as well.
• A mediator: If the above steps are going poorly, then you need to get someone else involved who can help mediate informally. Tell them you'd like to add a colleague to the conversation as they will have ideas for a solution. Then invite someone who is a good problem solver, whom you trust.
• Giving feedback: When the conversation becomes a little more relaxed, it's time to give the person some constructive feedback. Let them know how you would like them to deal with you next time a similar issue comes up. Only by giving positive constructive feedback, can you change their behaviour.

One great way to avoid conflict within teams is to use the same Templates for projects. If everyone uses the same project management template then there's no dispute about what it is that needs to be done and how to do it. Everyone will have all of the tools they need to get on with the job

Setting up Blackberry Enterprise Server BES with Exchange 2007

Getting BlackBerry Enterprise Server up and running needn’t be complex, but it can be tedious: here’s how to get BES working with Exchange 2007 in a Windows network.


The BlackBerry has become a standard business tool for any size of business. The latest devices, like the Bold, have become ever more capable, able to edit Microsoft Office documents at the same time as giving you an almost desktop-like Web experience.


Many small businesses start with consumer BlackBerrys, and it’s easy enough to hook the cloud-based BlackBerry Internet Service to an IMAP4 or POP3-capable mail server. If there’s an Exchange server in the picture, you can even hook BIS up to an Outlook Web Access page. BIS is fine for consumer mail, or for small amounts of mail – but it falls down when you want to work with more complex mailboxes with lots of folders, plus users will have to synchronise their calendar and contacts manually using the BlackBerry Desktop Software. It also means the business is relying on a cloud service with consumer SLAs, not the business-class service your clients expect.

That’s where BlackBerry Enterprise Server comes in. It’s a tool for connecting your clients’ networks up to RIM’s secure network, piping mail straight from an Exchange (or Notes or GroupWise) server straight into a BlackBerry. RIM was one of the first companies to succeed with push email, and it’s made it a key piece of its strategy. Once a BES is in place, it will just sit there, handing mail over to devices – as well as giving you the tools to manage a small fleet of BlackBerrys.

Setting up BES isn’t that easy. It’s a complex piece of software, which needs to interact with a Windows network at a very deep level. You’re not just installing software: you’re creating new users that need administrator-level access to your email server. With so much at stake, it’s important to take care at each step of the process – which differs for different versions of Windows Server and Exchange. You’ll also need to set up a new server, with at least 2GB of RAM to host BES, as its software that’s best hosted on its own.

A BES server doesn’t need to be big; for a small business a low-end Xeon or an AMD Athlon server with 2GB of RAM is sufficient. It’s important to note that the current version of BES doesn’t install on Windows Server 2008, so you’ll need to work with Windows Server 2003 R2 or earlier. There is 64-bit support, so you can take advantage of the full capabilities of the latest hardware. These instructions are for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running on a 64-bit install of Windows Server 2003 R2, in a network with a Windows Server 2008 domain controller: the steps are similar for Exchange Server 2003 though the there are some differences in how you create the BESAdmin user, because of the different way Exchange Server 2007 works with Active Directory.

For smaller customers, consider the wizard-driven BlackBerry Professional Software, which can run on the existing email server and support up to 30 users.

BES from scratch
BES can be delivered in several different ways. You can get a CD from a reseller, or a download from RIM’s Web site. You’ll also need a set of product keys – BES needs not just CALs, but also a set of keys to handle
its connection to RIM’s private network.


You’ll need to start the install over on the Exchange server. The first step is to create a new mailbox account for the default BES service BESAdmin account. You can do this using the Exchange Management Console wizard, which will create an Active Directory account for the BES service. Don’t forget to give it a password, as you’ll need to log on with the account to install BES.

Once you’ve created the account, make it an Exchange administrator with view only rights. In the Exchange Management Shell use the following PowerShell command to set the role:

add-exchangeadministrator “BESAdmin” –role ViewOnlyAdmin


Check the user has the correct role using
this PowerShell statement:

get-exchangeadministrator | Format-List


You’ll next need to use PowerShell to give the BESAdmin account additional rights to send and receive mail as any user. Replace with the name of your server:

get-mailboxserver | add-adpermission –user “BESAdmin” –accessrights ExtendedRight –extendedrights Send-As, Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin

Again check the result with some more PowerShell.

get-mailboxserver | get-ADpermission -user BESAdmin | Format-List

You can now switch to the server you’re planning to install BES on. Log on as a domain administrator and give your BESAdmin account local administration rights before you start the install. BES needs to be installed by the service account it will use in order to ensure that all its components and databases are set up with the correct permissions, so log out and log in with your BESAdmin account.


To install BES, if you’re using a CD, run the Setup.exe programme you’ll find in the root directory. If you’re working with a download you can run the self-extracting archive you downloaded from RIM: once the archive has extracted all its files it will launch the setup program automatically. If you have any problems, launch it from the Research In Motion directory in the root of C:/ created
by the archive.

Selecting the location for the install defines the licence you’ll need to agree to, and the servers that the BES will connect to transfer mail to and from your clients’ BlackBerrys. Once you’ve chosen a licence, you can then choose the type of install you want to use. BES is a modular system (each BES supports up to 2,000 users), and there are install options that let you build a multi-server scalable enterprise-grade system. That’s not what’s needed for an SME – so just choose the single server options. You can install BES purely as a mail server, or you can set it up
to work with internal applications using MDS, the BlackBerry Mobile Data System. If your clients are using tools like Microsoft’s Office Communications Server you can use the collaboration tools to link their BlackBerrys into their internal instant messaging and presence service.

You’ll then need to accept a range of licences for components that RIM is using in BES, including the Apache Web server, before you can start with the actual install. The installer will first check on the state of your system, making sure you have the appropriate pre-requisites. BES will install many of these for you – including the Java runtime and Microsoft’s XML components. However, there is one key set of components it won’t install – the software needed to handle the connection to your client’s Exchange server.

These are Microsoft’s Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects. They used to be bundled with Exchange, but Exchange 2007 makes them a separate download. If you’ve not already installed them, download the Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1 from www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E17E7F31-079A-43A9-BFF2-0A110307611E&displaylang=en. If you’re installing a recent version of BES you’ll get the following message in the pre-installation check list: “Exchange server is not detected. A newer version of mapi32.dll may need to be installed”.

There’s no need to worry about this error message, all you need to do is click Next. There’s a mismatch between latest version of Microsoft’s components and the version numbers used by the BES installation files. The version you’ve downloaded and installed is correct, and BES will use it happily.


The rest of the install is relatively painless, and won’t take that long. You’ll need the password for your BESAdmin account, as well as the name of the server that you’re installing BES on. You can also change the install and log file folders. You have the choice of installing a local copy of MSDE for BES to store configuration information, or connecting to a remote copy of SQL Server. For most SMEs there’s no need for a large database, and you should go ahead and install MSDE.


It’s a good idea to check the install summary over (and also to make a copy for future reference). The installer will install BES and the third-party tools it needs on your server and reboot when the first stage of the install is complete. You’ll need to log on to the server with the same account to complete the install, which will first set up your BES database, creating the database if a new one is required. Next you need to fill in the keys that BES will use to define how many BlackBerry devices can connect and to authenticate its connection to RIM’s BlackBerry network.


Once you’ve filled in the CALs, you can test a connection to the BlackBerry network. Check the server is trying to connect to the regional SRP server. In the UK you should be connecting to srp.uk.blackberry.net. (For other regions you can find a list of servers at www.blackberry.com/SRPAddressLookup/). Click Test Network Connection to complete the test. You can now add your BES’s identifiers: the SRP ID and the SRP authentication key. These will have been given to you by RIM or your supplier, either with the download or in a .SRP file. These need to be validated before you can complete your install. BES is now ready to be connected to your Exchange server. As you installed Microsoft’s connection tools, you’ll find the connect dialog box very familiar! Fill in the Exchange server details and check the BESAdmin account can connect. Much like setting up an Outlook account, all you need to do is click the Check Name button – if the name and server are correct they will be underlined. You’ve now connected BES to Exchange, and are very nearly ready to start setting up devices.

The next few screens are optional. One option lets you switch to using BlackBerry data only over WLAN connections – something you’ll only want to do if your clients aren’t using their carrier’s data plans. If you don’t want to use a carrier, you can allow WLAN access only. In most cases you won’t want to do this. Similarly you can also configure the server to allow WLAN OTA activation. Again this isn’t usually necessary. Another option lets you set up your own secure password for the connection between your BES and the built-in communication components like MDS: it’s not necessary, as BES will automatically generate a password. You’ll also be given the option to use a proxy server if your client’s firewall won’t let external applications through.


Finally you can start the service. Click Finish to leave the installer. You can now log off the BESAdmin account and log on with a standard administrative account to run the BlackBerry Manager. Use this to activate devices and add users, picking them from your client’s Active Directory. You can provision devices directly over a USB connection to the BES server, or you can just send your users an email with their activation password. All they need to do is choose the built-in Enterprise Activation tool in their BlackBerrys, fill in their password and email address to activate their devices and connect them to BES. Run through the process with a test device to ensure that users are provisioned correctly and can connect to your network.


BES Manager also gives you the tools you need to send IT policies to mobile devices – in the BlackBerry Domain view, open the Global Tab, choose Edit Properties and then click through to open and edit the IT Policy settings. You can push policies directly to devices, controlling password strength, timeout locks and other key settings to protect your clients’ data.



RIM provides plenty of support tools for anyone setting up a BES, including a tool kit full of helpful videos:
www.blackberry.com/select/toolkit

If you’re having problems with BES, it’s well worth spending some time in the community forums, where you’ll see plenty of tips from BES administrators all over the world: http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board?board.id=BlackBerryEnterpriseSolution

Another source of useful community-driven information is the BlackBerry Forums site – especially its BES Admin Corner:
www.blackberryforums.com/bes-admin-corner/
Show other articles by this author

* Mining Logs with Splunk (10 October 2009)
* Managing Mobile Devices: Anywhere, Anytime (10 October 2009)
* Blackberry Apps Top Picks (28 June 2009)
* Congifuring SCE to manage a small business setup (28 June 2009)
* Small Business Applications for Blackberry (25 June 2009)
* Managing networks with System Center Essentials... (25 June 2009)
* Using vCenter Converter in standalone mode (30 March 2009)
* Exchange 2007 safe list aggregation (29 March 2009)
* Dealing with spam in Exchange 2007 (29 March 2009)
* Managing Skype in business (29 March 2009)
* Rebuilding a NAS appliance RAID array (29 March 2009)
* Consolidating servers with VMware Server (29 March 2009)

How to Create a Communications Plan

If you manage projects, then you will know that to succeed, you need to communicate clearly with all of your project stakeholders. Otherwise your staff will lack clear direction, team morale will be low and your project may deliver over schedule and exceed its budget.

To make sure that your projects communicate effectively, we have described here...

How to Create a Communications Plan

Step 1: Situation Analysis
The first step to take when creating a Communications Plan is to perform a Situation Analysis. This is a fancy term for researching your existing communications environment.

Review the performance of all communications within your project and identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Then identify any lessons learned from past communications exercises, so that the same mistakes made in the past are not repeated here.

Step 2: Communications Objectives
Great. So you know what your communications strengths are and where you need to improve. You are now ready to set out your communications objectives.

List the top three objectives that you want to achieve from your project communications. For instance, you might want to inform stakeholders of the project progress, boost management buy-in or improve your team productivity.

Step 3: Communications Guidelines
Then set out your communications guidelines for controlling communications within your project. For example, you may decide that:

	All messages will be distributed through pre-defined channels
	All critical communications will be pre-approved by management
	All communications will be tailored, based on stakeholder needs

Step 4: Target Audience
Now define exactly who it is that your team will formally communicate with. Remember, formal communications are a method for controlling the messages sent out by your team. They promote a single consistent view of your project to a specified audience so that "everyone has the same version of the truth".

Step 5: Stakeholder Needs
Each target audience group will have their own needs. These stakeholders will require information that is specific to their role in the project. For instance, a Project Sponsor will need to be informed of high priority risks and issues, whereas a Quality Reviewer might need to be notified of the current status of project deliverables.

Step 6: Key Messages
Then list the key messages that need to be sent to each Stakeholder. Key messages may include project status, project issues, project risks, project deliverables or project resources. The next step is to define how you will deliver each message to them, through a delivery channel.

Step 7: Delivery Channels
There are a huge variety of ways in which you can deliver your key messages to stakeholders (e.g. emails, newsletters, meetings, conferences). For each stakeholder, identify the channel that you will use to deliver your key messages.

Step 8: Communications Schedule
Now you are ready to create the schedule of communications events, activities and actions that are required to deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time throughout the project. Create a detailed schedule of events and for each item listed, specify the timeframes for completion and any dependencies on other events in the schedule.

Step 9: Communications Events
For each event listed in your schedule, describe it in depth. Make sure that you define the purpose of the event, how it will take place and when it should occur.

Step 10: Communications Matrix
And finally, once you have listed the events and described them in detail, you need to identify who will manage them and who will review their effectiveness. Create a Communications Matrix which lists for each event who is accountable for the event, who will take part and who will review its success.

Why Projects Fail

There are a variety of reasons why projects fail. The good news is that they are often within your control. So read on, to learn the top 10 reasons for project failure and what you can do about them.
Why Projects Fail
Insufficient resource
The Project Manager was given insufficient resources and budget at the start of the project. If you don't have the level of resources or budget you need, then tell your Project Sponsor quickly.
Impossible deadlines
The deadline for the project was always impossible to achieve. The Project Manager should have told the sponsor at the start of the project and fought to have the deadline extended. You not only need to have sufficient time to deliver your project, but you also need contingency in case things take longer than expected.
Poor communication
The Project Manager fails to communicate the status of the project to the team and sponsor. So everyone thinks the project is going smoothly until the deadline is missed. You need to tell people early if its slipping. Don't hide it. By telling people you're running late, you give them the opportunity to help get it back on track.
Lack of focus
The team don't really know what is expected of them, so they lack focus. They are given a job to do but not told what is required and by when. Everyone in your team should have regular goals to meet, they should have deadlines and you should be monitoring their progress at every step in the journey.
Low morale
The project team lack motivation, so nothing is delivered on time. If you want someone to deliver within a set timeframe, then you need to motivate them to do it through reward and recognition. And you need to be highly motivated yourself. Only by being healthy, relaxed and truly motivated can you inspire others to be.
Sponsor support
The Project Manager gets very little support from their sponsor. There is no-one available to help solve problems or provide further resource or money when it's needed. If you lack sponsor support, then you need to tell your Project Sponsor about it. Be open and frank with them. Tell them what you need and by when.
Scope creep
The scope of the project keeps changing, so you never really have a fixed set of deliverables. Every time it changes, you lose time and resource, so Change Control is critical. The scope needs to be clearly defined and then a process put in place to ensure that change requests are formally approved.
Lengthy timeframes
The project timescale may simply be too long. Over time your customer's requirements will change, so you need to break your project into smaller chunks and deliver each as a project on its own.
Lack of tools
Not having the right tools to get the job done can also be a problem. Using good quality tools such as templates, processes and a project methodology will lead to project success.
Customer involvement
Lack of customer involvement has proved fatal on many projects. You need to involve your customer throughout the project to ensure that what you are building will meet their requirements. Remember, only if your customer is truly satisfied will your project be a success.

How to get your project back under budget

If you have a set budget for your project and you're currently exceeding it, then it's unlikely that you'll get it back under budget unless you do something about it. So here are 7 tips to help you do just that:

1. Take a helicopter view

First summarize all of the expenditure on your project to date vs. the expenditure you planned at the start. Then quantify the amount you have exceeded your budget by. If you're more than 10% over budget in total, then you need to take action.

2. Review spend

Next, review your actual spend vs. planned spend per week. Have you always been spending more money than you had budgeted, or is it only in the last few weeks? Then narrow down the cause of the problem. Was it that your budget was flawed, or have you experienced problems that were unexpected?

3. Lower resources

Now take the first step towards saving costs by determining whether you can use cheaper suppliers, equipment or materials. These types of costs usually consume a lot of your budget, so it's worth reviewing them in detail. You can also save money by reducing the number of contract or administrative staff assigned to the project.

4. Reduce scope

The best way to save money is by reducing the scope of the project. Identify deliverables that you believe are non-critical to the project and negotiate with your customer to remove them from scope.

5. Monitor changes

One place that unbudgeted spend usually occurs is in the area of change control. Review all of the project changes currently requested and only approve those requests which are absolutely necessary from this point onwards.

6. Minimize tasks

You may also be able to save costs by removing non-critical tasks from the project plan. Typically, project managers can save 10-15% of their budget by removing tasks that aren't critical.

7. Boost efficiency

Motivate your team and they will complete more tasks within the same period of time. This will save you a percentage of staffing costs, which are usually one of the largest cost areas of a project manager's budget.

By taking these tips seriously, you will be able to reduce project costs and ensure that you deliver successfully under budget.

The 5 Goals of a Project Manager

These goals are generic to all industries and all types of projects. Regardless of your level of experience in project management, set these 5 goals for every project you manage.
Goal 1: To finish on time
This is the oldest but trickiest goal in the book. It's the most difficult because the requirements often change during the project and the schedule was probably optimistic in the first place.
To succeed, you need to manage your scope very carefully. Implement a change control process so that any changes to the scope are properly managed.
Always keep your plan up to date, recording actual vs. planned progress. Identify any deviations from plan and fix them quickly.
Goal 2: To finish under budget
To make sure that your project costs don't spiral, you need to set a project budget at the start to compare against. Include in this budget, all of the types of project costs that will accrue, whether they are to do with people, equipment, suppliers or materials. Then work out how much each task in your plan is going to cost to complete and track any deviations from this plan.
Make sure that if you over-spend on some tasks, that you under-spend on others. In this way, you can control your spend and deliver under budget.
Goal 3: To meet the requirements
The goal here is to meet the requirements that were set for the project at the start. Whether the requirements were to install a new IT system, build a bridge or implement new processes, your project needs to produce solutions which meet these requirements 100%.
The trick here is to make sure that you have a detailed enough set of requirements at the beginning. If they are ambiguous in any way, then what was initially seen as a small piece of work could become huge, taking up valuable time and resources to complete.
Goal 4: To keep customers happy
You could finish your project on time, under budget and have met 100% of the requirements-but still have unhappy customers. This is usually because their expectations have changed since the project started and have not been properly managed.
To ensure that your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders are happy at the end of your project, you need to manage their expectations carefully. Make sure you always keep them properly informed of progress. "Keep it real" by giving them a crystal clear view of progress to date. Let them voice their concerns or ideas regularly. Tell them upfront when you can't deliver on time, or when a change needs to be made. Openness and honesty are always the best tools for setting customer expectations.
Goal 5: To ensure a happy team
If you can do all of this with a happy team, then you'll be more than willing to do it all again for the next project. And that's how your staff will feel also. Staff satisfaction is critical to your project's success.
So keep your team happy by rewarding and recognizing them for their successes. Assign them work that complements their strengths and conduct team building exercises to boost morale. With a happy motivated team, you can achieve anything!
And there you have it. The 5 goals you need to set yourself for every project.

Computer Science

Personal Information

Qadous Nidal Salamah

Place of Birth: Dammam – KSA
Date of Birth: 05/07/1982
Nationality: Jordanian.
Social Status: Married
Mobile #: +966 (0) 550507460
Home #: +966 (03) 8429939
E-Mail: nidalsq@hotmail.com

Objective

To play role in developing my IT professions where the professionalism and the honest competition also to be professional in my work.

Academic Qualifications

2005 Bsc. Al-Quds University Computer Science & M.B.A.
Abudees - Palestine “Good” within 4 years

2000 High Sec. Dammam Secondary School Science Field
School Dammam – KSA

Certifications

1 MCP (Microsoft Certified Programming)
2 MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist)

Languages

Arabic: Native.
English: Very Good.

Skills

Main Skills:
1 VB.NET/ASP.NET.
2 SQL Server 2000/2005/2008.
3 Oracle DB 9i,10g,11g.
4 Networks (MCSE).
5 Management (Team Leader, Project Managment).
Other Computer-related knowledge:
1 Analysis and Design.
2 Windows XP, Vista, 2000, 2003, 2008.
3 Servers (Installation, Configuration, Troubleshooting).
4 Object-Oriented Programming.
5 Database Analysis and Programming.
6 MS Office.
7 Familiar with GSM



Personal Characteristics

1 Ability to work in team work.
2 Ability to self learns.
3 Working under pressure and meeting deadlines.
4 Good Communication with Others.
5 Driving license and Transferable Iqama.


Professional Experiences

*Saudi electricity (as contractor work) X Developer.

*Al-Khodari Group X Technical Support Advisor.

My Duites in the work:
1. Analyze a Solution for the SRS.
2. Develop VB.NET and ASP.NET Applications.
3. Analyze D.B. and Build up it.
4. Dealing with D.B.
5. Serial Ports & Client \Server Applications.
6. XML & Web Services.
7. Supporting applications & training users.
8. AVL Systems (Automatic Vehicle Location) AND Security & safety Systems (VDO"IVMS") for siemens Company.
9. ERP (Programming, analysis).
10.Networking (MCSE).
11. Manage our servers.