What is a ‘data breach’?
A data breach doesn’t need to be a big headline grabbing event (think of some of the high profile breaches by the likes of Equifax, TalkTalk or Wonga) to do your organisation serious harm. In this blog I am going to cover what constitutes a data breach and what can you do to avoid them. […]
How achievable is your portfolio of projects in 2018?
It’s January and you’ve got the whole year ahead of you. If your financial year matches the calendar year then you’ve also got a full budget to spend – which due to last year’s careful planning should be mostly allocated already. You will also have an agreed delivery strategy supported by business cases on how […]
If Your Only Tool is a Hammer, Every Problem Looks Like a Nail
The concept known as the law of the instrument, otherwise known as the law of the hammer, Maslow’s hammer (or gavel), or the golden hammer, is a cognitive bias that involves an over-reliance on a familiar tool. As Abraham Maslow said in 1966, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is […]
Seasons Greetings from Solitaire Consulting
As we reach the end of another year I hope you can look back and feel satisfied with what you have achieved, both personally and professionally. For me it has been a year where I have started to invest time to diversify into other areas, whilst still spending the majority of time focusing on my […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Why the GDPR Matters
I make no apologies for another blog on the subject of data, because I believe data is one of the most important subjects in both our personal and working lives at the moment. But first let’s talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I was at a conference this week listening to a great keynote presentation […]
New Product: Triyo project collaboration software
According to the Gallup 2017 Digital Workplace Survey, 31% of senior executives state their biggest workplace challenge is the lack of “Cross-Departmental Collaboration”. The same survey reported that 33% of executives stated their biggest digital priority was “Enterprise Social / Real-Time Collaboration”. My experience working with organisations of different sizes is that enterprise wide collaboration […]
Why Cyber Security Training is Essential for Your Employees
This is a guest post by Caroline Black. Caroline is a cyber security specialist and technology blogger. Heavily invested in risk prevention and damage control, much of her time goes into educating other tech users and staying up to date on the latest threats. Security begins from the ground up. No matter how aware leadership is […]
Power Pivot for Excel: Top Use Cases and Examples from Toptal
Editor’s Note Everyone I know uses Excel to some extent, but few (including me!) even scratch the surface of its capabilities. In this article, written by Ellen Su, Finance Expert at Toptal, the capabilities of Excel’s PowerPivor addin are demonstrated to provide a number of time saving analysis techniques. The original post can be read here. Ellen […]
Training staff to spot the signs of phishing attacks – by Daryl Flack, BLOCKPHISH
Creating awareness among employees about the damage a successful phishing attack can cause, is the key to an organisation’s cyber resilience. This article is by Daryl Flack, Co-Founder and CIO of BLOCKPHISH. BLOCKPHISH are specialists in cyber security and partners of Solitaire Consulting. Phishing emails remain a primary weapon of the cyber-attacker, whose techniques are […]
Software Costs Estimation In Agile Project Management
Editor’s Note I am often asked by client’s to manage software development projects. One of the aspects that most bothers a client is the cost of bespoke development, particularly because of the reputation major software development projects have of going over budget. This is often down to poor estimating, or even worse, of trying to […]
