This one has been an incredibly long time in coming, but it's finally happened: The latest Project Importer release!

This release can be downloaded here: Project Importer v2.2

The big updates for this one are simple:

One of the most terrifying fun things that goes along with growing a company is adding additional staff. At some point, it gets to the point where you can't do it all. For some organizations, this will happen on Day One. With some other organizations, it will take months, years, or never happen.

There are some people/roles that can be added without an immediate effect on the customer. Adding an Office Manager or Accountant isn't likely to impact your customers directly. It means invoices might be generated/paid more quickly and calls/emails might be answered a bit faster, but the bigger impact is that it frees up your schedule to get back to the important stuff... building your systems. You have to have a lot of trust in these people as most of your most sensitive internal information will be available to them at any time. You have the tough decision of figuring out which information is necessary to do their job while restricting access to the unrelated information.

Often in this space, you read about the latest and greatest events happening around DC... or read the coverage of the conferences I've attended all over the place. This time, I'm using this space to announce something different:

ZendUnCon 2008

Disclaimer: I am the Chair/Chief-Cat-Wrangler of this UnConference. It means I'm 137.2% biased in everything I say here. But remember, "biased" is not the same as "wrong". ;)

Due to a slight mishap in my own coverage of the 2008 DCPHP Conference coverage, this writeup of Day 3 is going live long after my "Closing Thoughts". And by "slight mishap", I mean I forgot to write this one. ;)

Two weeks ago saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the third and final day of the conference and was written after everything was done. Previous coverage is available here: 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 1 and 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 2.

Disclosure: Although I am a shameless promoter of the DCPHP Community, my only formal role is one of the three moderators on the mailing list. Other than being a member of the group, I have no title, investment, or financial/legal ties to any of the groups involved. I just believe firmly that success for the conference and the community means bigger success for the community... myself included on both sides of that equation.

Last week saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the second day of the conference and was written after everything was done. The first day of coverage is available here: 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 1.

Last week saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the first day of the conference and was written after everything was done.

The opening keynote was from Kshemendra Paul, Chief Architect for the Office of Management and Budget Executive Office of the President, who talked about their attempt collaboration and coordination going on between the different Federal Agencies. While I found some of his discussion points and examples interesting, there weren't many Fed or govt-types in the audience this time around. In addition, he didn't bring slides, so the url's he shared were spelled out for all to write down. Wha? The dynamic duo from the State of Iowa - Michael Tutty and Tony Bibbs - were in attendance and shared some perspective and ideas, but it simply wasn't relevant to a good portion of the audience.