Visual Basic —

Getting Started

It's all very well to live in an esoteric consulting world of process and structure, but how does one get started on a real-live project? At TMS, we feel that the best way to begin is to define a target process and structure for the organization and to evolve toward this off the back of a pilot, or, as mentioned above, a Pathfinder project. On balance, the Pathfinder approach is better than attempting to set up the new process and structure prior to the first project. And of course, it's essential to have the right people with the right skills.

Skill Requirements

Table 15-1 shows the skills that key personnel require to make a first Visual Basic 6 distributed project a success. This information should form the basis of individual training plans.

Table 15-1 Skills Required for a Successful Project

Skill or Knowledge Business Analysis Development Technical Services
Business knowledge and business analysis High Medium Low
Project management High Low Low
Database modeling High High Medium
Help files, user documentation, and the like High Medium Low
Awareness of component availability Medium High High
Systems analysis Low High Low
GUI design skills Medium High Low
Visual Basic prototyping Medium High Low
Distributed design Medium High High
GUI testing Medium High Medium
Visual Basic/VBA programming Low High High
Diagnostics, logging, trace, error handling Low High High
Windows operating system and the PC architecture, memory, and so on Low Medium High
Connectivity, performance Low Medium High
Networking Low Medium High
Server operating system and database, DBA Low Medium High
Security, back-out, recovery Medium Medium High
Implementation, installation Medium Medium High