Building your Website

When you start to think about building a website, you'll need to know there are several options available -

1) You can hire a designer to build the website for you
2) You can learn HTML and build your website by hand coding
3) You can buy website templates and modify them to suit your needs
4) You can use an HTML editor

Hiring a Website Designer -

This is probably the easiest choice for getting your website built, since someone else will be doing the actual building. It's also the most expensive way to go. Having your website built can vary considerably in price, depending upon the complexity of your website and the experience level of the designer you choose.

Sometimes, you can find local help from young people just getting started. They're willing to work for a low price because they enjoy building websites and they're interested in gaining more experience. Under these circumstances, you should expect to pay perhaps $100 or so for a fairly small website. Some high schools and colleges offer classes in web design, so check them out to see if they can recommend a budding designer that can help you.

If you'd rather hire a professional, expect to pay considerably more. A professionally designed website, depending upon complexity, can cost from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

If you want to have an experienced designer build your website, but you don't have the budget to hire a professional, there are alternatives. You could post your project on one of the online freelance sites and take bids. I have done this with projects before and I was able to get good quality work done at very reasonable prices. You can try www.elance.com or www.rentacoder.com to get started. This method will probably cost less than half of what you'd pay a commercial website designer.

Learning HTML -

Although HTML isn't terribly complicated, it may take some time before you're comfortable enough with it to build anything more than the most simple websites. In order to take full advantage of the available technology, many websites incorporate Javascript, PHP, databases, Flash presentations, etc. If you're an absolute beginner, it may take you a while to come up to speed with all this.

Unless you just feel compelled to learn HTML, Javascript and all that, I don't recommend that you code your website yourself. As a beginner, it will take you a lot of time to 'get it all right', and you may be better off finding a faster method of getting your website online. If your intention is to make money with your website, you'll want to get it producing an income sooner, rather than later.

If you want to learn how to code HTML yourself, there are plenty of learning resources available. Just go to Google and search for 'HTML tutorial'.

Website Templates -

Using a website template falls somewhere between coding HTML yourself and hiring it done. A template is a ready made webpage that has all the basic code to be displayed on the web. Generally, all you do is add your content. In most cases, you'll open the template file using a plain text editor, such as Windows Notepad, then paste in your own content.

Templates are available in a variety of styles and layouts. They differ a great deal of complexity and appearance, so the prices are very different. In most cases, a decent template will cost approximately $ 15 to over $ 100. During the search, you can also download free templates. When searching for free templates to be willing to consider many of them before you find one of your taste.

HTML editors -

There are many HTML editors available, such as Microsoft Frontpage, Dreamweaver and others. Be prepared to pay $200 to $400 for a good, high quality professional editor.

The big advantage of an HTML editor is that you can build webpages without having extensive knowledge of the underlying HTML code. These editors work sort of like Microsoft Word - they give you 'point and click' capability. These editors have many built in features and a lot of power, so you'll probably have a steep learning curve when you first get started.

Is an alternative, you can free HTML editors. The free editors are quite easy to build Web sites good, but they lack some of the advanced functions within the higher-priced editors. However, the free editors are a good choice for getting started. And because of its simplicity, it is now not so long to be productive.

You can download a free HTML editor at pagebreeze.com and you can also search for 'free HTML editor' at Google to find other choices.

10 Tips For Writing An E-Learning RFP / RFQ

In assessing the many types of products and services, companies or organizations sometimes use an RFP proposal (request) / RFQ (request for quotation) process. There are challenges associated with rifampicin / inquiry process, for example, may need the length of time, its complexity, and so on. Many companies turned to the use of invitations to tender explicit / inquiry process which is based on the above reasons, as well as a host of other issues does not belong to the subject of this article.

Just writing an e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ can be a pretty daunting job. The task of putting together a good e-Learning RFP / RFQ is exacerbated because Learning Management Systems software and e-Learning Solutions can possess many layers of complexity, especially when they are developed to integrate with and meet the needs of your organization's information technology backbone.

Communicating your company's needs is often difficult. The tips below are by no means exhaustive, as they are designed to give you some suggestions and information to help you with writing an e-Learning / Learning Management System software RFP / RFQ.

1. You and your company should perform a thorough internal and external needs assessment, research, and planning long before you sit down to write your e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ. A whitepaper I wrote a few years back, called ‘e-Learning Best Practices' that is available at http://www.syberworks.com/articles/Bestpractices.pdf. It has a section on ‘Scoping Out your e-Learning Needs', and other information, which will provide you some information and guidelines for this part of the process.

2. If possible, try to write in a group context, or at least, access to colleagues, your boss, or your assistant is another set of files the eye. RFP / RFQs there is a tendency, that is a long-term, complex, involving documents, so let others view your work is very useful. This is when a better principle or stakeholders more help with writing e-learning / learning management systems tenders / inquiry.

3. Provide a company background statement that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information that is useful. It's fine to pull your company background statement from your marketing material, but don't stop there. If your e-Learning initiative will serve several departments, it might be a good idea to provide some sort of an organizational framework in your RFP / RFQ with a little history to help fill in the pieces of the puzzle.

4. Supply a statement of work that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information they will need. Sometimes a company will cut and paste their training department's goals and objectives into the statement of work. While this is helpful information to a point, too much information of this type may throw a potential vendor off course, which may result in you receiving proposals that do not meet your needs.

The problem is that people can have the tendency to lump goals, objectives, and tactics in the same category, but ultimately, they are not the same. There is a difference between a set of tactics verses a set of objectives verses a set of goals. A group of tactics can be the mechanism by which an objective is achieved. Objectives can monetize, quantify, and delineate desired outcomes to achieve a stated goal or goals.

Its important to remember that an e-Learning solution / Learning Management System is a tool used to achieve and / or promote a various set tactics as part of an entire training strategy which ideally, should be in line with company or department goals. Since it is a tool that is executed and used as part of a tactic, be sure to provide enough detailed information that is specific to your desired uses of an e-Learning solution along with your department's goals and objectives.

5. Develop a set of user personas so potential vendor companies will be given framework as to how their system will be used by every person that will touch it at your organization. Provide a breakdown of technical skill required for each user persona, including the technical requirements of any other IT systems they would use and need to be integrated into the e-Learning Solution / Learning Management System technology.

For example, a Human Resources Manager may work with an HRIS (Human Resources Information System) that would need to integrated with the Learning Management System. Be sure to provide the platform type, version, underlying database technology, the file structure, and any other information that is useful to the potential vendor company.

6. Prioritize features and functionality into a hierarchy based on the concepts of absolutely must have (priority 1), would like to have (priority 2), nice to have but not necessary (priority 3), or something along these lines to demonstrate level of importance to the vendor companies that will submit proposals for your RFP / RFQ.

Be sure to explain the features and functionality you require in concise and complete sentences. Features and functionality displayed in lists of three or four word bullet points often falls short of really explaining what your requirements are and can cost you more time further down the road.

7. Ask for and include sections for ‘RFP / RFQ boilerplate' type of information. Some are listed below:

Vendor Information-Your RFP / RFQ should contain a vendor information section that details all contact information, company size, public or private, the number of years in business, etc. You may also want to ask for financial information. *

*It's important to remember that company financials can be relevant information for your firm to have when evaluating a vendor; but they are not a consistent indicator of a company or product's longevity or market staying power, especially in technology industries. Venture funded or publicly traded firms are often bought and sold to pay off investors, eliminate competing technology platforms, and for other reasons.

The e-Learning / Learning Management Systems industry continues to experience lots of consolidation and many industry analysts predict this trend will continue. For example in the last twelve months, Saba bought Centra Software and Blackboard acquired Web CT.

General product / service information in this chapter are general information about the proposed system as the release date, version, number of users, the number of years in operation, server platform, database, Java clients, browser compatibility, any licensing -- , support and maintenance contracts and more. It's also good to ask how the potential provider company differentiates itself from its competitors and includes a list of all URLs, usernames and passwords for the demo version of their product.

Reference Information-This section is an area for the potential vendor company to list three or more reference customers and a partial list of clients.

8. Provide a place for the prospective vendor company to detail their proposed solution. It should cover in detail the product; pricing; its implementation; IT platform requirements; licensing or hosting requirements; system configuration; testing; user loading; HRIS data loading; interfaces between software applications that need to be developed; acceptance testing; general functionality; priority 1, 2, and 3 features and functionality (as discussed in #6); user hierarchies; localization; course and curriculum administration; system administration; authoring tools; system and authoring tool training; project plan and timelines; maintenance; support; and more.

9. Create a question and answer section for the prospective vendor company. The question and answer section contain questions about the technology; system requirements; project implementation; time needed for implementation; testing acceptance period; or another types of questions that are specific and germane to e-Learning solutions / Learning Management Systems implementation initiative.

10. Clearly identify the number of copies, formats, submission dates, locations where the proposal should be sent, and next steps. Be sure to include a date as to when you will be choosing your shortlist for the next round of evaluation.

SCRUM Methodology

The system development process is complicated and complex. Therefore maximum flexibility and appropriate control is required. Evolution favors those that operate with maximum exposure to environmental change and have optimised for flexible adaptation to change. Evolution deselects those who have insulated themselves from environmental change and have minimized chaos and complexity in their environment.
An approach is needed that enables development teams to operate adaptively within a complex environment using imprecise processes. Complex system development occurs under rapidly changing circumstances. Producing orderly systems under chaotic circumstances requires maximum flexibility. The closer the development team operates to the edge of chaos, while still maintaining order, the more competitive and useful the resulting system will be. Langton has modeled this effect in computer simulations13 and his work has provided this as a fundamental theorem in complexity theory.
Methodology may well be the most important factor in determining the probability of success. Methodologies that encourage and support flexibility have a high degree of tolerance for changes in other variables. With these methodologies, the development process is regarded as unpredictable at the onset, and control mechanisms are put in place to manage the unpredictability.
If we graph the relationship between environmental complexity and probability of success with a flexible methodology that incorporates controls and risk management, the tolerance for change is more durable.

Current Development Situation of SCRUM

Systems are developed in a highly complicated environment. The complexity is both within the development environment and the target environment. For example, when the air traffic control system development was initiated, three-tier client server systems and airline deregulation did not have to be considered. Yet, these environmental and technical changes occurred during the project and had to be taken into account within the system being built.
Environmental variables include:
·  Availability of skilled professionals - the newer the technology, tools, methods, and domain, the smaller the pool of skilled professionals.
·  Stability of implementation technology - the newer the technology, the lower the stability and the greater the need to balance the technology with other technologies and manual procedures.
·  Stability and power of tools - the newer and more powerful the development tool, the smaller the pool of skilled professionals and the more unstable the tool functionality.
·  Effectiveness of methods - what modeling, testing, version control, and design methods are going to be used, and how effective, efficient, and proven are they.
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·  Domain expertise - are skilled professionals available in the various domains, including business and technology.
·  New features - what entirely new features are going to be added, and to what degree will these fit with current functionality.
·  Methodology - does the overall approach to developing systems and using the selected methods promote flexibility, or is this a rigid, detailed approach that restricts flexibility.
·  Competition - what will the competition do during the project? What new functionality will be announced or released.
·  Time/Funding - how much time is available initially and as the project progresses?
How much development funding is available.
·  Other variables - any other factors that must be responded to during the project to ensure the success of the resulting, delivered system, such as reorganizations.
The overall complexity is a function of these variables : complexity = f(development environment variables + target environment variables) where these variables may and do change during the course of the project.
As the complexity of the project increases, the greater the need for controls, particularly the ongoing assessment and response to risk.
Attempts to model this development process have encountered the following problems:
·  Many of the development processes are uncontrolled. The inputs and outputs are either unknown or loosely defined, the transformation process lacks necessary precision, and quality control is not defined. Testing processes are an example.
·  An unknown number of development processes that bridge known but uncontrolled processes are unidentified. Detailed processes to ensure that a logical model contains adequate content to lead to a successful physical model is one such process.
·  Environmental input (requirements) can only be taken into consideration at the beginning of the process. Complex change management procedures are required thereafter.
Attempts to impose a micro, or detailed, methodology model on the development process have not worked because the development process is still not completely defined. Acting
5 as though the development process is defined and predictable results in being unprepared for the unpredictable results.