UTC Website Projects

and CMS migration

Let’s Go To Camp

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Remember the summer days when time was spent in the great outdoors chasing friends through the woods and discovering new worlds? Or perhaps, summer camp might have been classes at a museum filled with art or at the zoo tending to the elephants. Camps and campers typically equate to fun, summertime activity.

June 7 and 8 will provide an opportunity to attend another type of camp…”Drupal Camp.” Rather than spending time in the great outdoors, the local Drupal community will set up camp at Chattanooga State to share in the adventures of using, programming and learning about all things Drupal.

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Why Drupal? Why Not?

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I’ve been working on web projects for nearly a decade. I enjoy crafting solutions and, thankfully, my work over the years has steered me towards providing technological answers. What I’ve learned is that Drupal is the defacto content management system/framework for many public sector organizations and entities.

This makes sense because groups in the public sector often have very unique organizational qualities, which requires a product suite that can complement those complexities. Drupal is both pliable and opinionated; you may build what you need but you have to do it the Drupal way. The following are snippets of research I’ve done regarding Drupal and why it’s a great solution for UTC. [Read more…]

Time Marches On

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How do we predict how long it will take to <fill in the blank>? When it comes to initiatives or activities that have been done before, experience plays a pivotal role in determining outcome. On the other hand, luck may play just as much of a role in the end.

I’ve managed dozens and dozens of projects over the years. Based on my years of experience, I should be able to more or less accurately predict a project’s timeline. I also know that every project is different and, while I’m pretty good at identifying risk factors at the start of the project, there will always be something that comes up that no one thought of before. A bit like Murphy’s Law, but we’ll call it Whipple’s Hypothesis for now.

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To Train or Not to Train, Is Not the Question

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Having worked as a trainer and educator for a large part of my professional and volunteer life, I can say, with 100 percent certainty, that we all need a little training now and then.

It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained. -Queen Elizabeth II

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Help! I Need Somebody, Not Just Anybody!

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I need somebody
(Help) not just anybody
(Help) you know I need someone
(Help)

Welcome to your first day of Spring term 2019. Before you even refill your coffee cup, you notice there are some changes needed on your departmental web site that just have to be fixed. Right. Now.

You could use some help from the UTC Web Team but aren’t sure how to contact them other than calling one of the team members and hoping their voicemail isn’t full or to find out they left the country and haven’t returned from break.

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A Look Back…and Forward

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As this will be the last post before Winter Break and the end of 2018, let’s take a look back over the last several months. Pour yourself a virtual toddy, throw a log on the fire and reflect on what has been accomplished.

Website Refresh: We have refreshed content, revitalized pages and transformed sites across the student-facing galaxy this fall. By the time you read this, these pages will be showing off their fresh new look and feel: [Read more…]

Training Time

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In order to form a more perfect website, the UTC web team and colleagues from across campus, including the Library and Information Technology, will be participating in a series of training workshops.

Lee Walker, a local Drupal expert with Code Journeymen, kicks off the workshops this week, Dec. 10-14.  Lee’s workshops are intended for those with technical skill sets and who will be supporting the Drupal content migration and managing the system and coding environments.

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It Always Starts Small

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It’s called Scope Creep. It happens when someone says ‘we need a new dishwasher’ and seven months later, after walls have been removed, new cabinets have been set in place and new appliances hooked up, that you realize the $900 dishwasher cost way more and took a lot more time. Classic scope creep!

Most project managers recognize scope creep is happening when someone says, ‘Well, while we’re doing this anyway, let’s <fill in the blank>.’

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A Thanksgiving of Progress

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Time to assess progress and celebrate accomplishments! I started working with the UTC Communications and Marketing team in mid-September to provide project management for the Drupal migration. As projects often layout, a few other tasks have crept into the initial plan, but I’d like everyone to recognize what has been accomplished in summary form:

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