Archive for the ‘General News’ Category.

The Eye Street “Home” Office

You may think that my contract holder is a big downtown DC firm. Not so, although they do have offices near Dulles, VA. This office, however, is my favorite. And it really is rural. You can see cows from the window. As long as you have big internet pipes, you can work anywhere. Yes, that is me standing out front.

Eye Street - Lincoln Office

Eye Street - Lincoln Office

Been a While

It has been a while since I posted anything. Lots has been happening. The world is good, if a bit stressful.

I am working hard for FEMA defining interoperability system requirements. It is a way back to my fish cannery days.  Wow, started working full time in 1973 and have not stopped yet. When you love what you do, and can be surrounded with people you respect, you want to work forever. It is better than play. Life is good.

Also working hard to support my wife in her convalescence from surgery. The new kidney is working well. Praise God. And thank the wonderful team at Walter Reed.  May God’s blessing be with all of my friends and colleagues for the new year!

Last Day at DMV

Today is my last day with the Virginia DMV Systems Redesign Team. I will miss them. On the other hand, I leave them in good hands: their own home-grown expertise. Hopefully, the “fertilizer” I have provided over the past 18 months will help them grow as their re-engineering effort continues. I look forward to their success.

The Grandsons

2 Oldest Sons and 5 Grandsons

2 Oldest Sons and 5 Grandsons


For those of you who wonder if Grandpa Ham is really a grandpa, here they are! Two of my three sons and all 5 grandson on the same couch. What a bunch of Hams!

Back to DM-OPEN

I just just singed an agreement to go back to work for DM-OPEN.  I will be sad to leave my friends at the DMV.  They had truly become family to me.  But the Virginia Commonwealth budget issues were just to much to overcome.  Still, I believe they will carry on with a successful redesign project.  I always said that my goal was to become dispensable.  I guess It happened just a little earlier than we planned.

Luckily, I have been able to return to my roots in Emergency Management.  I am now working with the folks at Eyestreet Software to revitalize FEMA’s Disaster Management – Open Platform for Emergency Networks.  More later on this very real mission in life.

Oops! BPR and Software Process Mentor/Trainer/Consultant Now Available

The Virginia DMV just got another budget whack. It means that I am part-time for a while and eventually no-time, unless they can find a way around the latest hit. Looks like I made a mistake when I did not take the offering I referred to in my 30 August post. It was a mistake of loyalty. I am going to miss the folks I worked with a lot. So, I am now available full-time to for any other folks who might have a use for my help. DMV references are available.

Whew! Some Decisions are Hard to Make

My last post was some time ago. At that time the Virginia DMV had asked me to stay for another 1500 work hours. But, there was a bit of a glitch. The Virginia budget crunch meant that the extension package approval had to go to the Secretary of Transportation for approval. This took two tries and a lot of effort by my DMV sponsors, but they got it through. In fact the package actually was sent to the Governor’s budget office for final approval, but it got done!!!!

In the meantime, I let a couple of friends know that I could possibly be available. I got two very good offers, one in Emergency Management for a long term contract. The other shorter, but including at least two trips to Australia. In the end, I chose to stay with my DMV colleagues. They have become family to this grandpa in a very real way. There are even a few family squabbles to deal with. But these are good people, and this opportunity is so unique that I cannot walk away until my job is done. It is also true that I owe them a lot for all of their efforts in support of my extension. So, I think that I made the right decision.

Still Going Strong at Virginia DMV

I originally thought I was in for 3 to 6 months. It has now been one year and I have been approved for a one year extension. Here is a secret for all you consultants out there. Empower your customers! Emphasize the value that they bring to their own projects. Teach them how to do without you. My experience tells me that you may find that the environment you help create gives you more opportunity in the long run. Not less. My point — you do not have to be come indispensable (“all contractors are dispensable”). You just have to add more value than you cost. Multiplying the value of others is a good way to do that.

Virginia Diamonds Baseball

My youngest son is the pitching coach for a great AAU Baseball Team. This Weekend they won 5 games in three days to win the Virginia AAU State championship for the second year in a row. Daddy (me) would say it was my son’s coaching . Grandpa (me again) would say that it was a LOT more than that. Great Kids, Great Parents, and Great Teamwork. There are stars, but everyone contributes. These are special folks. Check the link to their site. http://virginiadiamonds.org/index.html
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Mentoring, Consulting, or Outsourcing?

What is the difference, if any? I would contend that there are differences. Simple outsourcing occurs when a company or government agency wants something done that it either does not want to do itself, or can get done at less cost from outside. Consultants, on the other hand, are normally hired to do a task cannot be done with in-house resources. As such, they are generally fairly expensive. Usually, consultants are hired to get an outside view, to get objective recommendations, or to do a one-time task that requires special expertise. In such cases they are a good use of resources.

There is a downside however. When a consultant is hired to do perform a repetitive task, and he simply performs that task, again and again, he is no longer a consultant. He has become a high-priced outsource contractor. It is also possible that he makes his contribution indispensable to mission performance. Now he is not only high-priced, but a risk. From an organizational viewpoint, any indispensability is risky. Indispensable consultants or consulting companies are even more so.

So, what do you do when there is a long term task that must be done, but cannot be done with in-house resources. One way to handle the situation is to grow some in-house resources. You can send folks to training. Sometimes, however, training needs follow-up, reinforcement, and a bit of friendly supervision. This kind of activity is known as mentoring. Mentoring can be done in-house if there are sufficient resources. Often, however, in-house mentoring is a one-on-one activity and carries intimation of favoritism because of hierarchical relationships between mentor and protege. For less direct mentoring activity, some large companies have large separate mentoring/training divisions. This works well where tasks an procedures are well-defined and folks simply need non-threatening help to understand their work environment.

So, what about something new? You want to follow a new and exciting way for doing something. You want to adopt a cutting edge technology or methodology. If you can find the right person, a professional mentor might be the right answer. A good mentor is less concerned with his accomplishments than those of the folks he is helping. A good mentor is helpful, but no overly directive. It is actually useful to allow proteges to fail on occasion. The learning is valuable. A mentor never competes with his proteges for favor or glory. His value is in multiplying their capability. It is not in his personal glory.  A mentor has the goal of working himself out of a job, as he makes everyone else more productive. A good mentor does not allow himself to be indispensable in the long term. His goal must be to achieve the exact opposite result.

This goal seems to go against human nature. Maybe that is why really good professional mentors are not easy to find (and why good ones are actually in demand because of their scarcity). In order to avoid the human tendencies that lessen the value of my mentoring activity, I have developed a creed. I try to follow Grandpa’s Creed in all my work with the Virginia DMV and with other consulting clients where mentoring comes into play. In general, I would say it works. I am certainly better for it.