Dedicated to CAD Managers
  J A N U A R Y, 2 0 0 8
   I N   T H I S   I S S U E

Betting the Farm - What are you gambling with?

Deal or No Deal? - Decision Making Tips

CADD Manager Blog Moved

Survey - BAD CAD? - How bad - who fixes it.
 

  A R T I C L E S

Betting the Farm - What are you gambling with?

CAD Managers have to bet on things all the time. And that is not just because Autodesk University is in Las Vegas.

I am all for planning and proactively mapping out where you are going to be in the future. By planning your workload and prepping for the next phase of technology upgrades you can avoid the unexpected from happening. But even when you plan ahead, map out the steps, effectively manage the process of change, there will be times when you have to roll the dice. You have planned enough, thought enough and thought through the possible and probable scenarios of any given task. Now is the time to flip the switch and put something into place.

On some issues, even with all your planning, you need to throw the switch with a few unknowns in place. This is when a CAD Manager has to "bet the farm". The term is an American creation that comes from the concept of placing your entire future on one event or decision. If it succeeds, then you have much success. If it fails, then you will experience a major setback. "Betting the Farm" is not something you want to do a lot.

Sometimes you may be betting the farm without realizing it. These times may come and go without you even noticing if nothing happens while the bet is on. Let's look at a few that might bite you...

You Bet the Farm when you...


Deal or No Deal? - Decision Making Tips

Making decisions is a large part of the CAD Managers day. We make them all the time. Hopefully your making more good ones than bad. Decision making does not have to be just random selections of suitcases like the American TV show. It is something that - if you practice - you can actually increase your odds of making a good decision every time.

Maybe you have Decidophobia - Defined as "a persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted fear of making decisions". This actually exists and sometimes cripples people who just can't make the call.

Here are some tips for making the bad ones good and the good ones better.

 

More...


CADD Manager Blog Moved

After a good amount of setup - I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress.  I am still working on it. I have moved all of the posts to the new site. I have added a more robust categories drop down and a categories cloud.  The Archives are now under a dropdown.

I am testing out a Poll widget, Pages and more. The Pages still link back to my website until I move them all. I still need to figure out how to refocus the RSS feeds and such.

Let me know what you think by posting a comment on the new site.

Here is the link... New CADD Manager Blog.

Give it a test drive and let me know what works and what fails.

Thanks so much for reading...


December 2007 Survey

BAD CAD - How bad is it?  Who fixes it?

I delivered a class at AU2007 on BAD CAD, so a survey help to show how much of it there is...

76% said that they encounter BAD CAD every day or at least once a week.  That is a lot of bad files.  Most of the time it was bad because of not following standards.  What was interesting was that YOU have to fix these files.

Since there is such wide evidence of BAD CAD and obviously someone needs to fix it.  Well - who do you think that might be?  65% of you spending up to 4 hours of your week just fixing these things. 

See the complete results...

 

Take the January Survey - What did you do before you became CAD Manager?
 
 

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CADD Manager Journal is a publication of the Core Technology Group
Editor: Mark W. Kiker
mark dot kiker at caddmanager.com © 2008 by CTG.

 
WELCOME

January 2008 - Another Year Begins

Well the new year is well underway and looking back over the last few years brings me to some reflections.

I started the caddmanager.com online life back in April of 2004.  It started as a website, then spun off a blog in December of 2004.  I started an email journal in September of 2004 that now has almost 1000 subscribers.  Since that time over 500,000 page hits have passed.  It might not seem like much compared to some of the big boys, but it amazes me that over half a million clicks have hit my site. 

Moving the site to a WordPress site this past month was a large undertaking for me.  I am still working on getting all of the content to the place where I want it. 

This month - a perspective on your gambling habits and some decisions making advice. 

Mark W. Kiker, Editor


ON THE WEBSITE

Take the Latest Survey

What were you doing before you became a CAD Manager?

There is a poll on the left column of the new site.
 


CADD Manager Book Store

Book Reviews 

This is not a collection of Google Adware recommendations.  These are books that I have read and recommend.

Buy the Book!

 

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