What is ITIL?

The official ITIL books define an IT Service as means of delivering value to the customer/client. The definition of IT Service is simple enough but to understand it more let us see some examples of IT Services:

• Internet service
• Email service
• Database backup service
• File hosting service
• Remote desktop sharing
• Language translation service (like Google Translate)
• Online calendars
• Network monitoring
• Etc

What is ITIL About?

ITIL is a set of practices and concepts for IT Service Management. ITIL was born by the UK government in 1980, and now it is recognized as best practices for IT Service Management. It was developed in response to the recognition that organizations are depending on IT more and more everyday. As the dependency on IT grew, the need for quality IT services that meet business goals and customers requirements effectively also significantly increased. That is the reason ITIL was introduced and today hundreds of organizations in the world use ITIL and benefit from implementing it. ITIL provides businesses with a framework of best practices that help in achieving quality and overcoming difficulties associated with IT system's growth.

What Does ITIL Talk About

ITIL talks about terms, activities, practices, IT Governance, Guiding Principles that an IT organization or an office should adopt, and presents best methods for implementing them.

Which is the ITIL book to read?  The ITIL Foundation study book is available for purchase at Amazon.com

IT Service for External and Internal Customers

IT Services are not only developed to serve a customer who sits in another office building, another city or country. IT Services are developed for internal customers too. Internal customers could be anyone in the office - your executive management, call center staff, HR office etc who want something to facilitate in their daily routine office work. For example your IT department may develop an IT service for running internal office database backups, or software that will allow staff to register their hours they've worked every week.

 

Utilization of project management practices has become essential in offices throughout the world. However, project management can not be effective or easy enough without the use of project management software. Different industries require different types of project management software to help in their project works.

Different Types of Project Management Software

Offices are even getting dependent on use of project management software and often they need to use it as part of the contract they make with the clients. So, there are different types of project management practices that require computerization and this is possible with the use of project management software, and the these are the different types of project management software available for offices to use:

1. Scheduling software

This is a type of project management software that helps in planning, maintenance, monitoring and reporting on project activities. For example, there is very famous project scheduling software called Primavera P6; you can read about its benefits here, this is extensively being used worldwide to plan the project activities. Without scheduling software, it is not possible to list down activities, create dependencies between them, update them, see effect of delay of one activity on all of the other activities, manage resources and many other things can not be done using simple software like MS Word, Excel, etc.

2. Issue Tracking

There is no project without issues and it is not a good idea to let issues forgotten, even unintentionally. So, there must be a way to record project issues, create issue log, assign a responsible person to manage the issue and report on the issues. There comes the issue tracking software to help record and track issues throughout the project life cycle.

Issue tracking project management software could be used as a standalone software and often other project management software includes a functionality of issue tracking, which saves your desktop space by not needing to have many application for different purposes.

3. Risk Management

Risk management software is also project management software that helps users in entering project risks, risks details such as risk probability and impact information. The software recommends required schedule, cost and other necessary contingencies to have for every activity or the whole project. The software can also incorporate the contingencies into the activities using the complex formulas to determine how much reserve is required and where to keep it e.g. in the start, middle or end of the activity.

4. Document Management

This project management software allows the users on the Intranet or even Internet to share and access project documents. This software can grant rights to different users for access to different resources. Further features in document management software include document versioning, check-in and check-out features to prevent simultaneous editing by multiple users. These all features and more in document management software make it a very good choice in office for document sharing.

5. Resource Management

This project management software allows the user to add project resource and assign on different projects and project activities. It also shows resource utilization, resource cost per time period such as week or month. Primavera (mentioned above) is also a good choice for this purpose and there are software available that only have resource management features.

Desktop based and Web Based Project Management Software

Project Management software applications are available both to run on desktop and on a computer browser. The ones that run on a browser are often available on a cloud. The software developer provides access to the software online on monthly or yearly payment plans.

Hence, there are many different types of project management software available and you also have the option to buy the desktop based or the web based software, to best suit your needs.

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International Space Station (ISS) is an accommodation for scientists and researchers, about 400 kms above the Earth surface. The ISS is 73 meters in length and 109 meters in width. To date, two hundred and forty individuals from nineteen countries have visited the ISS for experiments and research and since the year 2000 the ISS has continuously been occupied. There are many interesting facts about International Space Station and these are mentioned below:

Facts About International Space Station

• The ISS visitor has to work out at least 2 hours a day in the ISS or his bone and muscle starts to decrease.
  
  
• To date, more than 230 times astronauts have done spacewalk. These were done for construction of the space station, upgrades and maintenance.
  
  
• The cost to manufacturer the ISS is over $120 billion, which makes it the most expensive single thing every built.
  
  
• The computers in the ISS have also been once hacked!
  
  
• After moon and Venus, the ISS is the 3rd brightest object in the sky and you can spot it in the night sky if you stare at the sky closely.
  
  
• Since there is no oxygen in the space, the ISS generates oxygen for the crew by splitting water molecules in to oxygen and hydrogen gas, using the electric currents from the solar panels.
  
  
• The ISS is made of multiple modules and the largest ones, due to their size and weight were delivered up in the space on 42 flights.
  
  
• There are two bathrooms, 6 bedrooms, a gym and a 350 degree view window in the space station.
  
  
• You might have watched live the recent SpaceX capsule docking with ISS but do you know that at the same time 8 spaceships can be connected to the ISS.
  
  
• The ISS has more than fifty computers that control the space station.
  
  
• There are about three million sensors in the ISS that ensure safety and health of the space station and the crew.

These were indeed interesting facts about International Space Station

Advantages of Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a famous project scheduling software. It is developed and sold by Microsoft and is used globally. There are many advantages of Microsoft Project, including these:

• It is a generic software that can be used to create any project schedule. For example, a building construction schedule, software development project schedule, etc.
  
  
• It's interface is easy to use and the interface and buttons are very similar to the interface of other Microsoft Office products like Microsoft Excel. Moreover, the shortcut keys that you use in Microsoft Office products like Ctrl+C (Copy), Ctrl+V (Paste) and more shortcuts keys like these can also be used in Microsoft Project for the same functions.
  
  
• Although Microsoft Project is a desktop software, it is easily integrated with Microsoft Project Server to use the software at enterprise level. By integrating with Project Server, all Project users in an office can share and access project information with other connected users and also view updates on other project schedule instantly as these are made.
  
  
• Microsoft Project is used globally and by all different types of industries. If you know how to use Project and you land on a job where a project scheduling software skill is needed, you will be expected to know Microsoft Project. So, knowing Project is helpful as it can even help you to stand out in your CV.
  
  
• Anyone with basic Microsoft Word, Excel experience or even without it can quickly learn Microsoft Project, due to its easy to use functionality and user friendly interface.
  
  
• Microsoft Project creates beautiful graphical reports. You can create pie chart, bar charts and almost all other types of charts also that are available in Microsoft Excel.
  
  
• Microsoft Project is also available online. You can buy cloud service of Microsoft Project, which starts at 10$ per month per use.
  
  
• Microsoft Project is reliable software.

Microsoft Project is available for purchase on Amazon.com. You can buy a lifetime license for $119.

If you want to learn Microsoft Project, I recommend this book, which you can buy at Amazon.com

These were the benefits of Microsoft Project. One another project scheduling software that is also globally and extensively being used is Oracle Primavera. Read about benefits of Primavera here.

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