Yes, there are pitfalls to BYOD, and one of them is that corporate security policies can make your device feel like it doesn't belong to you. And one restriction that companies can place on you is what you can – and can't – install on your BYOD smartphone or tablet.

But what apps are businesses blacklisting most often on BYOD devices?

Fiberlink, the company behind the MaaS360 mobile device management software, examined data for more than 2 million devices that it secures for companies around the world to get a picture of what's allowed, and what's not allowed, on BYOD devices.

Top 10 Blacklisted Apps: iOS Devices

• Dropbox
• SugarSync
• BoxNet
• Facebook
• Google Drive
• Pandora
• SkyDrive
• Angry Birds
• HOCCER
• Netflix

Top 10 Blacklisted Apps: Android Devices

• Dropbox
• Facebook
• Netflix
• Google+
• Angry Birds
• Google Play Movies & TV
• Google Play Books
• Sugarsync
• Google Play Music
• Google+ Hangouts

So, want to play Angry Birds on your BYOD device? Sorry, you're outta luck. Catch up on some of your favorite TV shows on Netflix while on the train? Tough. Share files on DropBox? 'Fraid not.

Fiberlink has also crunched the data to find what are the most popularly whitelisted apps for iOS and Android.

Top 10 Whitelisted Apps: iOS Devices

• iBooks
• Adobe Reader
• Google
• Citrix Receiver
• Numbers
• Dropbox
• Pages
• itunes U
• ... Read more »

PLANNING

1: Plan the work by utilizing a project definition document

There is a tendency for IT infrastructure projects to shortchange the planning process, with an emphasis on jumping right in and beginning the work. This is a mistake. The time spent properly planning the project will result in reduced cost and duration and increased quality over the life of the project. The project definition is the primary deliverable from the planning process and describes all aspects of the project at a high level. Once approved by the customer and relevant stakeholders, it becomes the basis for the work to be performed. For example, in planning an Exchange migration, the project definition should include the following:

• Project overview: Why is the Exchange migration taking place? What are the business drivers? What are the business benefits?
• Objectives: What will be accomplished by the migration? What do you hope to achieve?
• Scope: What features of Exchange will be implemented? Which departments will be converted? What is specifically out of scope?
• Assumptions and risks: What events are you taking for granted (assumptions), and what events are you concerned about? Will the right hardware and infrastructure be in place? Do you have enough storage and network capacity?
• Approach: How will the migration project unfold and proceed?
• Organization: Show the significant roles on the project. Identifying the project manager is easy, but who is the sponsor? It might be the CIO for a project like this. Who is on the project team? Are any of the stakeholders represented?
• Signature page: Ask the sponsor and key stakeholders to approve this document, signifying that they agree on what is planned.
• Initial effort, cost, and duration estimates: These should start as best-guess estimates and then be revised, if necessary, when the workplan is completed.

PROJECT WORKPLAN

2: Create a planning horizon

After the project definition has been prepared, the workplan can be created. The workplan provides the step-by-step instructions for constructing project deliverables and managing the project. You should use a prior workplan from a similar project as a model, if one exists. If not, build one the old-fashioned way by utilizing a work-breakdown structure and network diagram.

Create a detailed workplan, including assigning resources and estimating the work as far out as you feel comfortable. This is your planning horizon. Past the planning horizon, lay out the project at a higher level, reflecting the increased level of uncertainty. The planning horizon will move forward as the project progresses. High-level activities that were initially vague need to be defined in more detail as their timeframe gets closer.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

3: Define project management procedures up front

The project management procedures outline the resources that will be used to manage the project. This will include sections on how the team will manage issues, scope change, risk, quality, communication, and so on. It is important to be able to manage the project rigorously and proactively and to ensure that the project team and all stakeholders have a common understanding of how the project will be managed. If common procedures have already been established for your organization, utilize them on your project.

4: Manage the workplan and monitor the schedule and budget

Once the project has been planned sufficiently, execution of the work can begin. In theory, since you already have agreement on your project definition and since your workplan and project management procedures are in place, the only challenge is to execute your plans and processes correctly. Of course, no project ever proceeds entirely as it was estimated and planned. The challenge is having the rigor and discipline needed to apply your project management skills correctly and proactively.

• Review the workplan on a regular basis to determine how you are progressing in terms of schedule and budget. If your project is small, this may need to be weekly. For larger projects, the frequency might be every two weeks.
• Identify activities that have been completed during the previous time period and update the workplan to show they are finished. Determine whether there are any other activities that should be completed but have not been. After the workplan has been updated, determine whether the project will be completed within the original effort, cost, and duration. If not, determine the critical path and look for ways to accelerate these activities to get you back on track.

• Monitor the budget. Look at the amount of money your project has actually ... Read more »

In the duplicate world, definition means everything. That’s because a duplicate is subjective to the context of its related data. Duplicates can occur within a single column, across multiple columns, or complete records. There’s no one feature or technique that will find duplicates in every case.

To find duplicate records, use Excel’s easy-to-use Filter feature as follows:

1. Select any cell inside the recordset.
2. From the Data menu, choose Filter and then select Advanced Filter to open the Advanced Filter dialog box.
3. Select Copy To Another Location in the Action section.
4. Enter a copy range in the Copy To control.
5. Check Unique Records Only and click OK.

Excel will copy a filtered list of unique records to the range you specified in Copy To. At this point, you can replace the original recordset with the filtered list (the copied list) if you want to delete the duplicates.

Finding duplicates in a single column or across multiple columns is a bit more difficult. Use conditional formatting to highlight duplicates in a single column as follows:

1. Using the example worksheet, select cell A2. When applying this to your own worksheet, select the first data cell in the list (column).
2. Choose Conditional Formatting from the Format menu.
3. Choose Formula Is from the first control’s drop-down list.
4. In the formula control, enter =COUNTIF(A:A,A2)>1.
5. Click the Format button and specify the appropriate format. For instance, click the Font tab and choose Red from the Color control and click OK. At this point, the Conditional Formatting dialog box should resemble the following figure:

1. Click OK to return to the worksheet.
2. With cell A2 still selected, click Format Painter.
3. Select the remaining cells in the list (cells A3:A5 in the example worksheet).

The conditional format will highlight any value in column A that’s repeated. If you want Excel to highlight only the copies, leaving the first occurrence of the value unaltered, enter the formula=COUNTIF($A$2:$A2, A2)>1 in step 4.

The conditional format works great for a single column. To find duplicates across multiple columns, use two expressions: One to concatenate the columns you’re comparing; a second to count the duplicates. For example, if you wanted to find duplicates of both first and last names in the example worksheet, you’d enter the following formula in cell D2 to concatenate the first and last name values:

=A2&B2

You could insert a space character between the two names if you liked, but it isn’t necessary. Copy the formula to accommodate the remaining list items.

Next, in cell E2 enter the following formula and copy it to accommodate the remaining list:

... Read more »

1. Listening

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.

2. Storytelling

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.

3. Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.

4. Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.

5. Team Playing

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

... Read more »

People are often afraid to hire entry level developers because they are relatively expensive to hire and it can take months before their productivity is high enough to justify hiring them. In addition, their lack of experience makes it hard to evaluate their abilities before you take them on. At the same time, bringing aboard entry level developers can make for a good long term investment in your company if you are willing to mentor them. Look for these 10 qualities in an entry level programmer to have the best chance of success.

1: Good attitude

All employees should have a good attitude, but it is even more important for entry level employees. They have a lot to learn, and the wrong attitude will keep them from learning what they need to. Another factor to consider is that the ROI on entry level developers is already poor; their salaries are much higher than entry level employees in other careers, and it can take months for them to meaningfully contribute to the bottom line. When someone is a "long term investment” in the future of the company, it is really important that they not make someone regret having them around long term.

2: Computer experience

While it is true that the typical programmer does not need to spend much time in server rooms or inside the guts of PCs, it is also true that the more general and advanced computer experience they have, the better able they are to understand how to fix problems with their code. For example, I’ve spent a lot of my career as a systems administrator, and I am constantly finding myself using tools and skills I learned while working with servers to find and fix bugs in code. The more computing experience an entry level developer can bring to the table, the better.

3: Work ethic

What takes an experienced developer a few hours may take an entry level developer a week. Clearly, it is critical that entry level programmers be willing to put in the time. I am not saying that they should be expected to work 60 hours a week and fire ‘em if they can’t! But what I am saying is that there needs to be the attitude of "I’m not happy until this task is done right,” and if that means paying some dues, some dues need to be paid.

4: Ability to learn

Because entry level developers lag so far behind experienced developers, they must be able to get their knowledge levels up quickly. To make this worse, inexperienced developers can often cause friction on the entire team, between the errors that need to be fixed and the help that the rest of the team needs to provide. The longer an entry level programmer takes to learn the job, the longer it takes for the company to start seeing its investment pay off.

5: Educational history

Not every developer goes to college, and not every college makes good developers. But educational history can provide an important understanding of what someone’s capabilities and interest are. A person with a science or math degree from a respected institution is likely to have strong logic skills, for example.

6: Previous job experience

Even if someone is new to software development, it does not mean that they are new to the workforce. Previous job history can tell you a lot about who they are. I did not major in computer science, but I worked a number of programming jobs and other computer jobs during college. On the other hand, I saw people with CS degrees who were flipping burgers in school. I really liked working with computers, and that’s why I was working with them even when I did not need to be. Today, I look for the same thing in entry level programmers.

For "second chancers” (people who are making a major career shift), the previous job experience can be useful to know about. There are a lot of other jobs out there that hone the raw skills that go into a good developer, and it gives these folks a big leg up when they start writing code.

7: Lack of preconceived notions

The development industry is filled with dogma. And so long as that dogma is well founded, there is nothing wrong with it. Sadly, too many entry level developers parrot something a professor or online pundit has said, without fully understanding the reason or context. Or worse, they are stuck on an idea that isn’t very good to begin with. Good entry level programmers will respect the opinions of their teachers and mentors but be willing to hear new ideas and approaches to problems.

8: Passion for programming

It is pretty easy to separate those who went into development for a paycheck from those who went into it because they were interested in it. Finding the folks with a real desire to be in this industry is critical, because when the chips are down, things like "work ethic” and "good attitude” depend heavily on the desire to learn and grow in the industry. And again, entry level programmers are a long term commitment. If they’re just chasing a paycheck, you can bet that as soon as the job you have given them sweetens their resume, they will be headed to greener pastures.

9: Ability to ask questions

One of the most important things for an entry level developer to do is to ask questions. When someone lets the fear of sounding foolish get in the way of asking questions, it makes for a rocky relationship. A good entry level developer is willing to ask questions because it is better to spend a few minutes having a discussion than to lose two days trying to track an answer down.

10: Soft skills

In many software development shops, the programmers are little more than machines following a blueprint someone else made to crank out code. But most places need programmers to do more than sit at a desk grinding away. In my experience, soft skills, like written and oral communications and the ability to work with others, are much harder to teach than technical skills. If someone lacks these skills, it will be hard to have the risk you take in hiring them pay off in the long run.