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From CCGMag:

Bill Swanson’s ‘25 Unwritten Rules of Management’
1. Learn to say, “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.
2. It is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it.
3. If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
4. Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what’s there, but few can see what isn’t there.
5. Viewgraph rule: When something appears on a viewgraph (an overhead transparency), assume the world knows about it, and deal with it accordingly.
6. Work for a boss with whom you are comfortable telling it like it is. Remember that you can’t pick your relatives, but you can pick your boss.
7. Constantly review developments to make sure that the actual benefits are what they are supposed to be. Avoid Newton’s Law.
8. However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts.
9. Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement, or indifference. Don’t be known as a good starter but a poor finisher.
10. In completing a project, don’t wait for others; go after them, and make sure it gets done.
11. Confirm your instructions and the commitments of others in writing. Don’t assume it will get done!
12. Don’t be timid; speak up. Express yourself, and promote your ideas.
13. Practice shows that those who speak the most knowingly and confidently often end up with the assignment to get it done.
14. Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15. Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements.
16. Don’t overlook the fact that you are working for a boss.
* Keep him or her informed. Avoid surprises!
* Whatever the boss wants takes top priority.
17. Promises, schedules, and estimates are important instruments in a well-ordered business.
* You must make promises. Don’t lean on the often-used phrase, “I can’t estimate it because it depends upon many uncertain factors.”
18. Never direct a complaint to the top. A serious offense is to “cc” a person’s boss.
19. When dealing with outsiders, remember that you represent the company. Be careful of your commitments.
20. Cultivate the habit of “boiling matters down” to the simplest terms. An elevator speech is the best way.
21. Don’t get excited in engineering emergencies. Keep your feet on the ground.
22. Cultivate the habit of making quick, clean-cut decisions.
23. When making decisions, the pros are much easier to deal with than the cons. Your boss wants to see the cons also.
24. Don’t ever lose your sense of humor.
25. Have fun at what you do. It will reflect in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump.

I’ve been using Gmail for a few months now, and I’m quite happy with it. So happy actually that I turned all my email POP inboxes into forwarders to several Gmail accounts, and fetch my POP emails from there.

This enables me to save space on my own web/email space, have a great SPAM filter (much better than any of the local ones I tried, and I don’t have to download the emails to be able to filter them!), and a perfect web interface.

BUT:

I have now used 10 percent of my storage (75 percent of that being SPAM…) – what do I do if I ever reach 100 percent?

AFAIK there is no way for mass management of emails – like rules where I can delete anything older than x and not having tags. I don’t think that would be hard to add, but it’s just not there yet.

I wonder how Google will address that – they probably don’t have many users that complain yet, but this is just a matter of time…

What’s *your* Gmail strategy???

Dave Kearns has a new article up that talks about the benfits of rolling out identity management solutions. He’s citing from a study that Eurikify did:

“After drawing up rules and policies for an organization then comparing that to the organization’s actual practice or current implementation, Eurikify found that almost 1 out of 3 people have “out of pattern” (i.e., wrong) rights assignments ( 32%), which equates to 38% of the organization’s resources being used by these “out of pattern” users.

While not as pressing immediately, 1 in 3 (33%) have redundant or parallel access rights. Not an immediate problem, but it could be trouble when the person leaves the organization. Often, removing one access right gives us the false sense that there’s no other access right, but these redundant and parallel rights prove otherwise.

Eurikify also found a whopping 66% of people with access rights that bypass groups while another 25% are listed in overlapping or redundant groups. While it isn’t necessary to assign rights completely via roles or groups (for a personal folder, for example), this practice can get out of hand when someone needs to access a resource quickly and temporarily – ever notice how often “temporary” becomes “forever”?

The most troubling stat Eurikify found, at least to me, is that roughly 30% of accounts are “orphans” – no longer used, no longer needed but lurking, waiting to be the entry point for a security breach.”

Role based access control with decent provisioning tools is obviously a good solution to this kind of problem. It also fills requirements that you might face due to Sarbanes Oxley – Sara Gates, SUN’s VP of identity management, has more on this.

First of all: thank you. I *am* interested in reading your white papers.

BUT:

If you’re sending me emails that start with “Dear Frank, as someone who has been interested in xxxxxxx in the past, I wanted to notify you that we have updated our white paper “15 Rules For A Successful User Management And Provisioning Project.”, please make sure that YOUR user management works:

- my email address isn’t recognised in the form

- re-registering in your “automated user management” system throws errors and asks me to email you

I don’t mean to be nit-picking, but things like that may make your offering a bit less believable.

Thank you.

Denise Howell is blogging Digital ID World conference (amongst others, but I like her blog best, she seems to be able to listen and type ten times faster than everybody else). Also: Live coverage by Phil Becker.
So much to read, and so many great minds gathered together. Wish I could be there…
From my first impression, this will be a conference where common sense rules over technology, which may be the only way to make sure technology get not only implemented, but actually used.
Some quotes:
“Marc Canter: the things that a human values very often have nothing to do with lining anyone’s pockets. I want to keep track of my music, manage my RSS feeds, interact with my friends, etc. I’m building my meme. If along the way someone can make a buck, I don’t mind.”
“Phil’s concluding thought: Security is something that happens when you have a good digital identity management strategy, but is not the focus.”