Web Development

• There is a new breed of online video consumers: those who consume via mobile devices. Is your business utilizing HTML5 video to tap this growing marketing?
• We share more of our Internet marketing predictions on the Galvin blog. 2012 is the year to really think about how you are engaging, converting, and retaining your website visitors.
• Did you know you that by employing certain web technologies, you can create a game? Check out the reality of HTML5 Game Development and where it’s headed in 2012.
• Web developers will love this! “HTML5 Please” allows you to keep track of what parts of HTML5 and CSS3 that are supported in today’s web browsers.
• Firefox 10 was released January 30, 2012.Mozilla’s Firebug interface got a makeover, focusing on making the user experience a bit more polished. What do you think?

Project Management

• Our senior project manager, Crissy Koger, shares her experience at a restaurant. It’s not a surprise to find out that even waiters have trouble getting requirements from clients.
• Thomas Paine once said we should lead, follow, or get out of the way.Project managers are no stranger to this philosophy. Do you think followship is what makes a project manager effective?
• Project managers can ask questions all day long, but are you asking these 20 questions that should always be asked, regardless of project or organization?
• Generational awareness is another skill that project managers must learn how to master. Are able to recognize generational differences within your team?
• We admire the Veterans who have defended our country and protected our freedom, so we thought it was right on par to hear why veterans make good project managers.

Interactive Design

• Great mobile designs consider the clumsiness of our fingers and limitations of our hands. Are you designing for touch in an ergonomic way?
• Our senior interactive designer, Kiley LoCascio, shares her predictions for the responsive web in 2012by laying out the changes to the development process. Are you ready for a more agile approach to responsive design?
• Typekit released a new feature, which allows you to browse by list. List features include font organization by theme, intended use, and defining characteristics.
• A responsive website demands flexible images. Responsive images can work, but there is a better solution waiting to be discovered by designers and developers alike.

Software Engineering

• Many software developers do not fundamentally understand the nature of the SharePoint beast and what exactly it can do. Are you able to wrap your head around this application?
• Sometimes those 30-day trials aren’t worth the download. As more and more software is spit out on a daily basis, we hope that businesses keep in mind that features and functionality should be communicated to the user before they hit the ‘Download’ button.
• Salesforce released a new help-desk application this week called Desk.com, which helps you reach end users through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
• Performing inspections and walkthroughs reaps benefits to your software development team, such as sharing a knowledge of the code. Is it time to rethink software development, testing, and inspection?

Web Development

• How do you cope with HTML5’s dueling standards bodies while supporting web browsers that are becoming more fluid?
• The line between writing books and programs has gotten more blurry these days. Will you take advantage of the tools Amazon has released to allow you program e-books with HTML and CSS?
• Great news for mobile web developers! They can now utilize jQ.Mobi, a lightweight and faster mobile-optimized HTML5 rewrite of the JQuery Framework.
• Firefox has slipped in the web browser market, falling behind Google Chrome. Many users have their reasons for switching, but what will Firefox need to do to get back on top and regain dominance in the market?

Project Management

• How do you kill the switch on a project that is doomed? First of all, don’t declare “done!” Check out these five key strategies that will help your organization to fail fast on projects.
• Project managers should carry out a Lessons Learned meeting with the project team at the conclusion of a project to reinforce both the positive and negative experiences. What kind of questions would you ask your team?
• Project expectations and deliverables are equally important, and should be your focus of every project. Our VP of Professional Services, Tom Schaetzle, shares what it means to go above and beyond client expectations.
• Are you showing your appreciation for your project team? Positive feedback is crucial to any project team’s success. Here’s what it matters so much.
• Ten Commandments of Project Management is a great set of rules that any project manager should follow to help lead them to success.

Interactive Design

• Mobile design is about your audience’s culture, the tasks they want to complete, and the context in which they complete these tasks. Are you raising the bar for mobile standards?
• The Internet is not an interactive Postcard according to the Big Spaceship! There are stark difference between digital and print typography. What would you add to the discussion?
• Responsive design is a process that first requires you to define your break points. Here are some tips that will help to create a better workflow when designing for Smartphones, tablets, and wide-screen monitors.
• When you design a landing page, it is important to make it as visually appealing as possible. Likewise, it should be easy to navigate and error-free. Here are some other unbreakable rules to consider when designing landing pages.

Software Development

• Application developers are expected to favor the Android platform over the iOS platform within the next year. However, good news for mobile users: nearly all developers will choose to support both platforms.
• Have you ever wondered how open-source software is made? If you use the web browser Firefox, it might be easier than you think to contribute.
• Windows 8 Beta is coming out in February with the release of the Windows 8 store. Some of the store app developers speak out against the lack of proper documentation during development.
• Search engine optimization can easily be integrated in your web development process. Developer can use these 7 tips to enhance websites without the magic work of an SEO expert.
• Does America have a developer shortage? Employers are saying that they can’t find enough programmers, but could they be going about it all wrong?

Web Development

• Want to establish an online authority? Here are 11 ways to use content to do so.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes a draft of media accessibility requirements.
• Web developers have a lot to look forward to in 2012, like saying goodbye to IE6 support. Here are 4 other predictions.
• Foursquare’s mobile recommendation engine, Explore, hits the Internet this week.
• Did you know people spend an average of 94 minutes per day using mobile apps? Web consumption wanes as mobile app usage skyrockets.

Project Management

• Here’s a great project management tip for the week: remember to send a follow-up and offer help after a project status meeting.
• We’re half-way through the new year, but here’s 10 project management trends to watch out for in 2012.
• An effective status report should accommodate the needs of executives, the project manager, and the project team.
• Do athletes make good project managers? Here’s a look as to why this may be true.

Interactive Design

• Now is an important time for design; we can’t deny its role in the evolution of the Internet.
• Do you want to tell your client’s story? Then make web content and design impactful.
• The web community is still predicting the top web design and web development trends for 2012.
• To communicate effectively in web design, use the proximity principle.

Software Development

• Need to align people, technology, and process? Then check out this SharePoint implementation checklist.
• There are several ways to capture mobile users, including through the development of mobile-friendly sites, custom mobile sites, and native apps.
• The future of software development is ever-changing, but it might include “probabilistic” applications.
• Building secure .NET websites and web applications isn’t easy, but here are some tips and techniques to consider.
• We thought this was a great read. Ever wonder how to to get software developers to document their code? Here are few tips that might help.

Other Noteworthy Highlights

• This week, Congress felt the backlash against SOPA and PIPA, two bills that threaten the Internet economy as we know it.
• Many websites, including Wikipedia and Google, planned an blackout on Wednesday, January 18 to spread awareness to users.
• The results were stunning. More than 2.4 million Tweets were sent and Google collected 4.5 million signatures to stop SOPA and PIPA.
• As a web company, we understand the significance of these bills and plan to share our thoughts on the issue soon.

While growing up just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Gary Galvin had a close relationship with grandmother.  She also happened to suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Even as a child, Gary could see the pain and suffering this brought on his grandmother. At the time, there just wasn’t much that could be done to counteract the effects this debilitating disease.

Fast forward 20 some odd years, when Gary had become a successful business owner an a outgoing member of the Indianapolis business community. It was then that Gary’s own mother was also diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At first, this was terrible news, leaving Gary to think back to the effects the disease had on his grandmother and fearing that those same effects would now burden his mother as well.

After talking a little bit more with his mother and her doctor, however, Gary learned that advances in drugs and treatment methods over the previous 20 years had significantly reduced the footprint that Rheumatoid Arthritis took from people’s lives. This advancement, in large part, could be attributed to the work of the National Arthritis Foundation.

It was then that Gary decided to make a commitment to the Arthritis Foundation and went so far as to join the board for the Indianapolis Branch of the organization. As a member of the board, Gary was exposed to many of the fundraising events that the Arthritis Foundation put on each year. One new event in particular caught Gary’s eye. The Jingle Bell Run was scheduled for early December and was intended to be a fun filled, festive, 5k run/walk, full of the holiday spirit.

When the need arose for a website that would help the Arthritis Foundation market this new event, Gary was happy to donate the design and development of the website for the initial Jingle Bell Run. That initial commitment continues today. It has become a July tradition for the Arthritis Foundation staff to come to the Galvin offices for lunch, while noting what aspects of the site will be revised for that particular year’s event.

With the 2010 event raising just over $50,000 for the research and development of treatments for arthritis, the Indy Jingle Bell Run has continued to grow over the last 4 years and is now one of the largest Indianapolis Arthritis Foundation events of the year, as well as, one of the top Jingle Bell Run events for the National Arthritis Foundation. Even today, the Indy Jingle Bell Run website is the only dedicated marketing website that any regional Arthritis Foundation has and is the envy of Jingle Bell Run event coordinators nationwide.

Galvin Technologies’ commitment to the Arthritis Foundation has also continued to grow. In 2009 my own father was diagnosed with RA. I, much like Gary, hated to see a loved one be limited in the things that they enjoyed doing. As a result, my wife and I joined the event planning committee as the Logistics and Planning Coordinators for the 2010 event.

I can tell you firsthand that event is growing and the magic of the holiday season really makes it something special. There is nothing quite like hearing Christmas carols echo off the downtown Indianapolis skyline just before as the race starts, only to have them be drowned out by the ring of complimentary jingle bells that the 4,000 participants each tie to their shoes. It is that moment that makes all of the time and effort that we put towards the event so very worth it.

For more information on the Jingle Bell Run, please visit www.indyjinglebellrun.com . You can register for the event here. For more information on the Jingle Bell Run or on Galvin’s continuing efforts to enhance the Indianapolis Community, please give us a call.

Now, what does this really mean to someone who does not necessarily manage projects every day? In short, a deliverable is any officially documented information that is critical to the end product of the project. For example, consider the screenshots of a potential new homepage design or the list of things that your organization knows that the new mobile application needs to have. A deliverable is these types of information that contain documented traits that are crucial to the end product.

Now that we’ve highlighted what a deliverable is, it’s important to understand exactly how many deliverables are available for a given project. Sometimes this can be tricky as the types of deliverables critical to a project is dependent upon the industry you are working within. Take that space shuttle that is one day bound for Mars for example, that project is so large that it’s likely to be broken down into many smaller projects…each of which might have 1000′s of deliverables.

As you might guess, producing deliverables takes time and we all understand that time is money. If you connect all of the dots, you’ll start to understand why NASA spends an average of $450 million dollars per mission….it all comes back to the number of deliverables (tangible documents that are critical to the end product) that are required to complete a project.

Luckily, it’s not likely that a web site or web application project will require 1000′s of deliverables or a 450 million dollar budget, but the analogy still works. Identifying which deliverables are crucial to your end product and, conversely which are not crucial to achieving project success within the most cost effective budget structure possible.

The process of indentifying which deliverables are included and excluded is called “tailoring” and relies heavily on experience within managing similar projects successfully. Galvin has successfully completed all kinds of projects, from complex Insurance Rating Software Packages to the simplest of websites. This helps to ensure that the deliverables produced are the right ones for your project, ultimately delivering a superior product at the lowest cost.

For more information on the concept and types of deliverables or on how to better select which ones are the right ones for your project, please give us a call. We’d love to chat more.

The business and economic leaders of Indiana have done a very good job of leading the state in the right direction.  Agricultural, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Logistics, Sports, Associations and Technology are well represented in Indiana.  The leaders know the strengths of the land, advantages of the Midwestern location and the values and ethics of Hoosiers and thus built a strong state headed in the right direction.  There are lots of good people leading the state of Indiana and as the next election nears it is very important for Hoosier business leaders to elect a candidate that  continues to support businesses and employees in Indiana.  Indiana is headed in the right direction and let’s not forget that.

I also look back and I am thrilled with the impact Galvin Technologies has been able to contribute to Indiana.  In just the past year we have been able to work on the following Indiana and Indianapolis projects that help improve Indianapolis and Indiana:

• Mitch for Governor
• Mayor Greg Ballard
• Indianapolis Economic Development, Inc.
• International School of Indiana
• Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
• Indiana State Republican Party
• Indiana Secretary of State – Rethinking Redistricting
• Indianapolis Zoo – MyCarbonPledge.com

Indiana is a darn good state of have a business.