CNMCyber Coordinator

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CNM Cyber Coordinator (hereinafter, the Coord) is the pre-entry-level position that The Economic Group has developed and markets as a job opportunity for vocation discoverers, soft skills builders, career developers, employment gap fillers, and those learners who are undergoing initial practical training while being matriculated into the CNM Cyber Placement stage (hereinafter, the Placement).

The Placement is a part of the WorldOpp Pipeline program (hereinafter, the Program). CNM Cyber (hereinafter, the Cyber) is a collection of career services that include (a) information technology called CNM Cloud (hereafter, the Cloud), as well as (b) support for apprenticeships, internships, and jobs that are organized at the Cloud specifically or the Cyber generally.


Contents

Trivia

Benefits

The Cyber provides every Coord with opportunities to:
  1. Get prepared to get employed. The package of (a) CNM Cyber Welcome Session, (b) CNM Cyber Orientation, and (c) CNM Cyber Placement is designed to provide the learners with theoretical knowledge from scratch and place them in pre-entry-level jobs.
  2. Start working in a pre-entry-level position of the Coord in order to (a) possess work experience, (b) advance their soft skills, as well as (c) get introduced to various professions practically.
  3. Identify the target profession and, if needed, outline the professional preparation at the WorldOpp Bootcamp and WorldOpp Employment package.

Competencies

No specific knowledge, skills, and abilities are required to begin. Vice versa, the Coord's position is created to build or refresh so-called soft skills. The Coords work with documents, technology, and other people, while entering the industry, building their general expertise, and observing what various professions look like.
The Team provides all of the interested candidates with free-of-charge training. Once again, no prior training and no experience are needed in order to get started. The Coords are encouraged to start from scratch and go where ever they dream.

History

Main wikipage: History of CNM Cyber Coordinators
History of the Coord's position encompasses about nine years that witnessed tech advancements, Bskol and iDosvid spins-off, concept proving and re-launch.

Position

The Coord is marketed as a pre-entry-level position. Entry-level jobs usually are offered to those who got trained in a particular profession, but hasn't had any experience yet. The Coord position is designed for those who obtained neither formal training nor expertise.
At the Occupational Information Network, the closest occupation is Information Technology Project Manager; the principal difference is that the Coords don't make managerial decisions. The Certified IT Project Management Associate (CITPMA) credential is awarded to the successful Coords.
However, the Coord's position is a point of entrance, not a destination. Based on the Coords' experience, they may be placed in professional jobs such as CNM Cyber Project Manager, CNM Cyber Recruiter, CNM Cyber Security Analyst, CNM System Administrator, CNM Systems Engineer, CNM Web Developer, as well as positions available through Cyber partners.

Target audiences

The Team believes that, besides the Placement learners, a few audiences can get benefited from service as the Coord. They are:
  1. Vocation discoverers such as middle- and high-school students, as well as someones else who consider what profession they would like to pursue. While serving as Coords, they will be exposed to a variety of professions and can pick up their own one.
  2. Skills builders. The Coord's work by itself delivers valuable practical experience and build-up of soft skills to the Coords.
  3. Career developers. Over its years, the Cyber witnessed many successes of people who transitioned from one industry and/or profession to other ones. Normally, one employer utilizes a limited scope of processes and technologies; consequently, scopes of competencies of its employees are limited as well. Someones who are currently employed, but would like to obtain wider skill-sets, may dedicate few hours a week, month, or even a year to explore something new in their industries and/or professions or outside of those.
  4. Employment gap fillers. Those who need to drop out from the formal workforce, for instance, due to medical or family issues, may utilize the Coord work to fill in employment gaps.

What Coords produce

To facilitate development and/or management of Cyber products, the Coords produce four categories of their first-level results: (1) Meetings, (2) Documents, (c) Records, and (d) Communications.

Communications

For the purposes of this very wikipage, communications are defined as distribution of the messages that are related to the Cyber, the Cloud, as well as efforts to develop those. Particularly, the communications are used to exchange the Documents and Records; the Meetings are used to facilitate the communications.
The Coords run their communications to make development of Cyber products possible. These communications include:
  • Internal communications such as project and product communications, meeting invitations, reminders, moderation and discussion messages, and follow-ups.
  • External communications such as marketing campaigns, as well as distribution of outreach messages.
Marketing communications are described in the Market presence section of this very wikipage. Within the Project results, internal communications represent project scraps; they are needed to produce project outputs. External communications, especially marketing campaigns and products, represent project outputs.

Documents

Generally speaking, a document is a separate piece that (a) presents data, (b) is composed with texts and/or images, and (c) can further be edited or revised. The former document that can no longer be revised, for instance, a signed contract, becomes a record.
Probably, documents are the single most important output of the Coords's work. To facilitate development of Cyber products, the Coords draft, edit, groom, and manage documents. Those documents may include:
  • Blueprints, which are document prototypes useful to create final documents. For instance, the Careerprise contractor agreement wikipage is used as a blueprint to draw up contracts with individual contractors. As a rule, these target documents are published on CNM Wiki.
  • Legal drafts such as papers drafted to be signed as contracts.
  • Outreach materials, which are marketing drafts intended to outreach to current and potential clients and participants such as Friends Of CNM newsletters.
  • Product documents, which are descriptions of former, existing, and future products published at CNM Wiki, as well as deliverable requirements, emails and other messages between product owners and developers, organizational and technical documentation such as standing operating procedures (SOPs), minutes of the meetings, testing and other reports, etc.
  • Project documents, which are project requirements, progress reports, emails and other messages between project owners and developers, memos with the results of project approvals, developments, meetings, and research.
  • Webpage texts
Within the Project results, those draft and final documents are either project scraps or outputs. As the outputs, they usually accompany other Cyber products. For example, products normally come with instructions. However, some of documents represent whole products on their own. For example, to bundle the functional product with the instructions, those instructions were needed to be developed before.

Meetings

Generally speaking, a meeting is an occasion in which people meet to exchange data, discuss something, make decisions, and/or collaborate. Meetings occur online and/or offline in forms of verbal conversations, videoconferences, and/or webcasts.
To support development of Cyber products, the Coords prepare, moderate, conduct, and close meetings. Those meetings may include:
  • Hiring events, which are interviews and other meetings between contractor candidates and CNM Cyber Project Manager organized to discuss potential entering into a contract and/or to make that decision.
  • Outreach events, which are CNM Cyber events organized to promote the Cyber, the Cloud, its Team, technologies, needs, and services to outreach to current and potential clients and participants. Specifically to the Coords, the outreach products include Week at CNM Cyber events, which are weekly meetings of the Coords who present (a) what they accomplished last week, (b) what they plan to do next week, and (c) what assistance do they need. The outreach events are normally published at the CNM Cyber Meetup group.
  • Product meetings, which are meetings organized (a) to discuss deliverable features, (b) to make deliverable decisions, and/or (c) to communicate those decisions.
  • Project meetings, which are meetings organized (a) to discuss project features, (b) to make project decisions, and/or (c) to communicate those decisions.
Within the Project results, the outreach events represent project outputs. The other meetings should be considered as project scrap; those meetings are used to develop Documents.
Moreover, meetings tend to address a number of purposes. For instance, meetings of the CNM Technology Board may touch both product and project features and decisions. When they are open to the general public, they also serve the outreach purpose.

Records

Generally speaking, a record is a piece of matter that (a) presents data and (b) cannot further be edited or revised unless losing the status of a record. For instance, a signed contract, which is a record, can be used as a prototype to create new documents.
To support development of Cyber products, the Coords collect records, place them in designated spaces, and, if applicable, manage their storage. Special standing operating procedures (SOPs) shall designate spaces for that purpose. Those records may include:
  • Archived files such as videos, audios, textual files, as well as coded and programmed scripts.
  • Databases of contacts, competencies of contractors, characteristics of tested software, etc.
  • Enterprise records such as contracts, which are legally-binding agreements, applications and reports that are officially submitted to governmental bodies and partners, identification and other personal documents of Cyber's employees that the law requires to keep in the enterprise system, accounting records, etc. At the Cyber, enterprise records are stored at CNM Venture.
  • Product records such as approved requirements for the project deliverable are posted at CNM Wiki. To be product records, they need to be protected from unauthorized edits and belong to the Product records category.
  • Project records are kept at several spaces depending on their nature. Project reports are posted at the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage. Legally-binding documents are stored at CNM Venture. Accepted deliverables are stored at CNM Repo.
  • Publications such as minutes of meetings and others textual records that reflect past events, content of CNM Repo, Page, Social, and Wiki, as well as those postings on YouTube, CNM Cyber Meetup, and other social media that the Coords may make. There is no single place for publications' storage at the Cyber; they are posted at different media. CNM Wiki can be used for development of publications; appearance of CNM apps at the WWW can also be considered as publications.
  • Technology records such as access credentials and detailed descriptions of software used in the Cloud. At the Cyber, technology records are stored at CNM Repo.
Within the Project results, the records represent project outputs by their definition.

Work in general

The Coords work is to facilitate someone else's performance on Projects vs operations related to Cyber products. The Coord chooses the paid work from the Authorized work; alternatively, the Coord may propose own work, which may or may not be authorized for compensation.

Choice of work

By default, the Coords choose Endeavors that suit them best. CNM Cyber Project Managers may ask a Coord to take an urgent or specific project when they know anything professional about the Coord. That means that the Coords have to choose their first endeavor at least.
The work of the Coords is paid when they work on those endeavors that funding is authorized on the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage. That page contains links to:
Any Coord is welcome to pick any endeavor he or she would like to work on. In addition, the Coords are encouraged to propose their own endeavors.

Hours of work

The Coords choose their schedule. Rarely, they get more than 20 hours a week to leave enough time for looking for an entry-level job or another regular employment. The Coords are encouraged to serve as Contractors outside of their Coord's work; there are no limits on hours of contracting.

How to start

Are you interested in getting started as the Coord? Please follow a step-by-step instruction as follows:
  1. Read this wikipage. If you cannot read, you cannot work. This wikipage contains everything you need; however, its content is neither intuitive nor user-friendly yet.
  2. Ask questions. Questions are a huge part of your work; if you cannot ask, you cannot work. If you prefer videoconferences, attend any Week at CNM Cyber event. You will have opportunities to ask questions and get responses in real time.
  3. Study this wikipage to be ready to discuss two topics: (a) what paragraph is intentionally left unclear and (b) what section can be taken out without big harm. You will be offered to discuss those topics during your job interview. Why? If you don't know your job, you cannot work.
  4. Understand why the Cyber project is undertaken and what value is expected from the Coord. That's simple. If you cannot deliver what the Customer pays for, you cannot work. Everything that the Customer pays for is stated on this very wikipage.
  5. Wait for 2-3 months if you cannot understand what your objectives are. There is a chance that the course and/or videos will be developed out of this wikipage during that time. The introductory courses will be available at https://cert.cnmcyber.com after registering at https://opplet.net/user/register ; the videos will be published at CNM Tube and YouTube. Some of course wiki-materials are linked to CNM Cyber Welcome Session, CNM Cyber Orientation, and CNM Cyber Placement wikipages
  6. Pick up your first endeavor at the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage when you understand what your objectives are. You may have no idea what that particular endeavor is about. First of all, no endeavor is fully clear and, secondly, to learn about one endeavor is always simpler that to learn about many. When you really studied this very wikipage, you should know how to go about that endeavor. If you cannot pick your project, you cannot start working as the Coord.
  7. Contact the Customer while stating (a) the effort you picked, (b) what you plan to deliver, and (c) how much time you expect to work in order to deliver what you plan to deliver.
By the way, you can be paid to ask questions about this wikipage when you identify the endeavor behind that page.

Supervision

The Coords work with no supervision. They choose their endeavors, get or don't get the Customer's authorization, collaborate with the Administrators, produce what the Coords produce, and submit the outputs of their work.

Endeavors

For the purposes of this very wikipage, endeavors refer to both development projects and management operations. Each endeavor can have the Coord who coordinates this endeavor and, particularly, facilitates the Contractors' performance. Each Coord chooses his or her endeavor to coordinate.

Endeavors may include several projects and/or operations, but the Coord must concentrate only on one project or operation during one week. The endeavors are listed in the "CNM Cyber endeavors" category.

Endeavor documents

At CNM Wiki, Cyber endeavors are documented using two types of wikipages:
  1. The progress on particular endeavors is reported at the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  2. Endeavor pages document everything, but progress reports. Those pages are listed at the "CNM Cyber endeavors" category and include project documents such as project charter, asset register, competency register, stakeholder register, requirements traceability matrix, project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and acceptance criteria.

Projects vs operations

The Coords work and/or facilitate someone else's work on endeavors, which are either:
Regardless of work on projects or operations, the Coords are always engaged in the Studying the backgrounds activities and can be engaged in the Hiring the contractors and Working with contractors activities.

Sets of processes

Any endeavor can be viewed as sets of processes. On that very wikipage, those processes are grouped in nine sections of What Coords do.
However, every of those groups, in fact, are separate developments on their own. For instance, the project formalization shall result in a project charter, but this document may be considered as an output of a separate development that requires its own formalization, studies, specification, planning, creation, and commissioning. Sometimes, it also requires hiring contractors and working with them. Thus, the sections of What Coords do show just some level of tentative divisions and do not represent definite classifications.

Why endeavors

In business, a combination of two or more projects and, possibly, some ongoing operations, is often called a program. In this sense, a program refers to a set of structured activities that is undertaken on a systematic basis.
The term, endeavor, is chosen to separate the work that is available to the Coords from complex and lengthy programs. Since the Coords choose their endeavors to coordinate, Coords' endeavors are not undertaken systematically.

What Coords do

The Coords' work can be divided in nine Sets of processes. Every Endeavor shall start with Formalizing the project, go through at least Studying the backgrounds and Creating the deliverables, as well as end from the Managing the product activities.

Formalizing the project

For the purposes of this very wikipage, project formalization refers to the set of efforts that is undertaken to the extent necessary to start researching the backgrounds for envisioning of Project deliverables and their production. This formalization aims to setup the stage for Studying the backgrounds activities.
The formalization shall produce a project charter, which is a document that (a) formalizes a project out of undocumented change making or development and (b) authorizes the project administration. The charter contains Customer's business requirements or those product and/or project requirements of the Customer that are not negotiable. These requirements shall address some business need; the terms business requirement and business need are synonims and often used interchangeably. At CNM Cyber, they may be stated in one or more of the following:
  • Business case. A description of the Customer's vision for what and/or how the project shall accomplish. The case may or may not state success criteria or those key performance indicators (PKIs) that would or would not constitute the project's success. Any successful project shall satisfy specific business needs. Generally speaking, the business case constitutes why the project exists.
  • Statement of work (SOW). A document that states hard requirements related to product and project scope, budget, as well as schedule. The statement lists "hard" deliverables and key factors that affect the project work. The statement may or may not indicate project tools, policies, regulatory and governance terms. The budget part of the statement may or may not describe milestones. The schedule part of the statement may or may not describe funds available, work authorization process, and/or constraints to the funds' availability. The statement is often employed as a part of a request for proposal (RFP).
On a slang, non-negotiable requirements are called "hard requirements". The charter contains all of the hard requirements that come from the Customer. However, some of hard requirements derive from the laws, availability of workforce, and other environmental factors. They shall be added to a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) during the Studying the backgrounds activities.
To coordinate the project formalization, the responsible Coord:
  1. Collects data related to the business requirements from the Customer.
  2. Analyses the collected data related to business needs while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  3. Drafts a project charter.
  4. Makes sure that the statement of work (SOW) in the drafted project charter addresses the business need and supports the business case.
  5. Submits the drafted project charter for the Customer's approval.
  6. Publishes the project charter, after its approval, on CNM Wiki.
  7. Requests (a) assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed and/or (b) changes to the project charter when new data from existing and/or new sources of data prompt so.
  8. Reports on progress of the project formalization using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  9. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The project formalization starts after the business need is identified and ends when the project charter is completed.

Studying the backgrounds

For the purposes of this very wikipage, endeavor studies refer to the set of efforts that is undertaken to the extent necessary to start envisioning, planning and managing for the project deliverables, their production and management. These studies aim to setup the stage for Specifying the deliverables, Planning the project, and Managing the product activities.
Endeavor studies shall produce data needed for (a) envisioning of the product, (b) planning its production, and (c) managing the produced product. At CNM Cyber, the project studies shall produce the following outputs:
  • Asset register, which is a database of assets that can be used in the project. Particularly, those assets include non-human sources of data that are useful for production of project deliverables.
  • Competency register, which is a database of those competencies that can be valuable to Cyber efforts and their owners, potential and current Contractors and members of the Team.
  • Product user group at CNM Social, which is a space for project stakeholders to receive project updates and contribute their questions and comments. The group shall be open 24/7 for asynchronous activities; a functioning group shall also meet simultaneously via video-conference on a weekly basis. The groups of COTS software users tend to be titled in the "CNM/Opplet COTS-name Users" format.
  • Product pages at CNM Wiki, which are wikipages on which the product is being developed. The pages that represent COTS software tend to be titled in the "CNM/Opplet COTS-name" format. They belong to the "CNM Cyber products" category.
  • Endeavor pages at CNM Wiki, which are wikipages on which the endeavor is being developed. The pages that represent endeavors on COTS software tend to be titled in the "COTS-name for CNM Cyber/Cloud/Opplet/Farms" format. They belong to the "CNM Cyber endeavors" category.
  • Requirements traceability matrix, which is a grid that links requirements and their sources.
  • Stakeholder register, which is a database that lists stakeholders of the endeavor. Those stakeholders include the Administrators, Team, those Contractors that work on the endeavor, as well as regulatory bodies that define and/or constrain endeavor's efforts issuing applicable laws and binding requirements. The complete register contains analysis of stakeholders.
To coordinate the project studies, the responsible Coord:
  1. Identifies those available resources that should or can be used in project activities. Human resources include Team. Other resources include those presented in the initial WorldOpp Pipeline courses, on CNM Wiki, existing tools, materials, prototypes, and finished products available at CNM Cyber, on the World Wide Web and other sources. For off-the-shelf products, developer websites and professional resources like https://stackoverflow.com/ are usually helpful.
  2. Analyses the identified resources with regard to their nature, usefulness, and potential impact while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  3. Selects those resources and those data that may be used in the project activities.
  4. Composes the asset register, competency register, and stakeholder register.
  5. Forms a product user group at CNM Social if this group hasn't formed yet; refreshes the group if it has already formed.
  6. Organizes weekly video conferences, as well as other meetings and activities of the user group. Topics of those events shall address the product, its production when the product is under development, work of its administrators, user feedback and market trends.
  7. Invites everyone who is interested in product's development to the user group.
  8. Offers those experts and specialists who have knowledge, skills, and abilities useful for product specifications or project planning to discuss the deliverable and/or project.
  9. Interviews those experts and specialists who agreed to discuss the deliverable and/or project.
  10. Collects data related to (a) the project deliverables and their production when this deliverable hasn't been deployed yet and (b) product performance when the deliverable has already been deployed, as well as its industry trends.
  11. Makes sure that all of the collected data sources are listed in the asset register, competency register, or stakeholder register.
  12. Publishes the collected data on CNM Wiki. Product data shall be published on the product pages; project data shall be published on the project pages. The published data shall refer to its sources; however, personal data publication requires permissions. From a legal point of view, we cannot publish the confidential information of our contractors, for instance.
  13. Creates a requirements traceability matrix to trace the product and project requirements from the selected sources to perspective project deliverables.
  14. Updates the asset register, competency register, stakeholder register, requirements traceability matrix, as well as project and product pages when ever new data from existing and/or new sources emerge.
  15. Requests assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed.
  16. Reports on progress of the project studies using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  17. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The project studies start after the project charter is approved. Collection of requirements, product envisioning, project planning, production, as well as commissioning and management of a product always reveals new factors and data. That is why the studies end with the project closure.

Specifying the deliverables

The main goal of the product specification activities is to get the deliverable in a state of certainty, which is determined by the presence of a validated product specification. This specification is needed to compare the created deliverables against their requirements. To coordinate the product specification, the responsible Coord:
  1. Collects data related to stakeholder requirements for the project deliverables and product specifications using the asset register, competency register, and stakeholder register. This collection includes communications with stakeholders and review of documents and other assets that are registered.
  2. Examines available prototypes, unfinished and finished products against the collected data.
  3. Analyses the collected product data while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  4. Clarifies the collected data based on the examined prototypes and finished products.
  5. Identifies those target audiences who are supposed to use future deliverables.
  6. Creates imaginary personas that would represent each of the identified audience.
  7. Produces stakeholder requirements for each created persona using CNM Wiki.
  8. Composes product specifications based on the produced stakeholder requirements using CNM Wiki.
  9. Traces in a requirements traceability matrix the formalized stakeholder requirements from their sources to perspective project deliverables.
  10. Makes sure that (a) the product specification supports the stakeholder requirements and (b) all the deliverable data is published on CNM Wiki.
  11. Checks product specifications for completeness. This completeness shall be characterized by the presence of conditions for (a) functionality, (b) applicability, and (c) manageability of the deliverables. Conditions for functionality should include measures for product's performance. Conditions for applicability should include measures for product's deployment, testing, diagnostics, accessibility, serviceability, protection, and capacity to recover after disasters; these measures must be documented in product's standing operational procedure (SOP). Conditions for manageability should include measures for product's monitoring, periodic audits and revisions, as well as timely software updates for the COTS software products.
  12. Updates the stakeholder requirements and product specifications when ever new data from existing and/or new sources emerge.
  13. Requests assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed.
  14. Reports on progress of the product specification using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  15. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The product specification opens when the Customer approves the project charter and ends with the project closure.

Planning the project

The main goal of the project planning is to decide how the project deliverables will be developed. Those activities shall result in validated acceptance criteria. In other words, planning is getting a description of project activities that allows this development to be certain. To coordinate the project planning, the responsible Coord:
  1. Collects data related to project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and acceptance criteria using the asset register, competency register, and stakeholder register. This collection includes communications with stakeholders and review of documents and other assets that are registered.
  2. Examines the existing products that are going to be further developed if they are available.
  3. Analyses the collected project data while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  4. Formulates the difference between what actually is and what is needed to be. The existing products are what actually is, while the specified deliverable is what is needed to be. The project activities shall address this identified difference; they represent what needs to be done.
  5. Drafts a project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and acceptance criteria, based on the resources recorded in the registers.
  6. Makes sure that the acceptance criteria supports the project scope baseline and project schedule baseline.
  7. Submits the drafted project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and acceptance criteria for the Customer's confirmation.
  8. Publishes the project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, and acceptance criteria, after their confirmation, on CNM Wiki. To make future negotiations successful, neither the project cost baseline nor other financial data should be available to the general public.
  9. Requests (a) assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed and/or (b) changes to the project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and/or acceptance criteria when new data from existing and/or new sources of data prompt so.
  10. Reports on progress of the project planning using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  11. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
Similarly to Specifying the deliverables, the project planning opens when the Customer approves the project charter and ends with the project closure. However, the project plan not entirely, but depends on product specification, while the specification rarely does. The deliverable to be rules what needs to be done, not vice versa. Only impossibility of the specified deliverable production can initiate the change to its product specification.

Hiring the contractors

At the Cyber, the main goal of hiring of project contractors is to expand the Coords' expertise and resources in order to accomplish the project. The contractors must be hired to produce anything beyond #What Coords produceWhat Coords produce; however, the contractors can also be hired to produce special Communications, Documents, Meetings, and/or Records.
In order to be hired, though, the prospective contractors need to be sourced first and selected second. Moreover, the sourcing, selecting, and hiring require their own "cycle phases" such as request formalization, background studies, contractor competencies' specification, recruitment plan, as well as this plan execution.
All of those activities shall result in fully-executed Careerprise contractor agreement. To coordinate the hiring of contractors, the responsible Coord:
  1. Evaluates whether third-party contractors are needed and, if they are needed, what Types of contractors should be looked for.
  2. Provides data to the Customer for making the decision either to bring external contractors on the board or not to bring. The positive decision assumes the Customer's willingness to finance the contractor's work.
  3. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities to identify those available resources that should or can be used in sourcing, selecting, and hiring of contractors.
  4. Collects data related to sourcing, selecting, and hiring of contractors that are able and available to satisfy Cyber needs using the asset register, competency register, and stakeholder register. This collection includes communications with stakeholders and review of documents and other assets that are registered.
  5. Analyses the collected sourcing, selecting, and hiring data while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  6. Composes solicitation materials including a request for proposal (RFP), which is a solicitation announcement, and the list of its placement options.
  7. Submits the composed materials to the CNM Cyber Project Manager for their publication.
  8. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities to update a list of potential contractors in the stakeholder register.
  9. Invites the listed contractors to discuss project's deliverables and product specifications, as well as the project including project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and acceptance criteria.
  10. Treats the discussions with the contractor candidates as primary sources of data to revisit the Studying the backgrounds activities. Hiring people is a great way to learn about aspects of an endeavor. Conducted interviews shall add to the CNM Wiki documentation. Particularly, that means publishing on CNM Wiki the data related to the deliverables and schedules extracted from the discussions. As a rule, meetings with contractors serve two different purposes: (a) selection of right candidates and (b) learning about the deliverables and/or project. Historically, requirements are refined during the recruitment process. If the requirements cannot be formulated during the recruitment process, they themselves shall become deliverables of an intermediary project.
  11. Assists in selection of the most promising candidates, negotiations, and other processes aimed to source and select contractors.
  12. Makes sure that the contractors are being selected not only because of their ability to speak, write, look well, get in touch on time, respond quickly, and so on, but, primarily, because of their ability to satisfy the Funded demands this contractor is being hired to resolve. Specifically, the Customer's:
    1. Approval of acceptance criteria makes possible hiring of developers.
    2. Validation of a standing operating procedure (SOP) makes possible hiring of servicers.
    3. Authorization of paid hours makes possible hiring of on-call specialists.
    If no job vacancy document is available at the moment, the candidates shall be offered to help developing it on a volunteer basis. If the need exists, but all internal and external resources to develop the document are exhausted, the Coord shall initiate a preliminary project to produce that document.
  13. Initiates a preliminary project to document the Funded demands if own efforts of the Coord didn't produce that document.
  14. Drafts a Careerprise contractor agreement while using its blueprint and entering subject matters to negotiate or agree.
  15. Provides the prospective and/or selected contractor with the drafted agreement.
  16. Informs the Customer about the readiness of the contract or contract for the full execution. The execution of the contract authorizes the financing of the production of the deliverables by contractors. One of the consultants may be contracted for consultations and/or participation in video conferences.
  17. Requests (a) assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed and/or (b) changes to the request for proposal (RFP) when new data from existing and/or new sources of data prompt so.
  18. Reports on new contractor hires using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  19. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The hiring of contractors opens when the Customer approves the Coord's request for the hire. It ends with full execution of the Careerprise contractor agreement.

Working with contractors

The main goal of collaboration with endeavor contractors is to enable the Contractors to deliver rightly right project deliverables or other requested services. To coordinate collaboration with contractors, the responsible Coord:
  1. Serves as an liaison between the Customer and contractors, reporting problems that need to be resolved.
  2. Organizes videoconferences or other meetings of parties interested in the project, especially those necessary to resolve problems arising during the project.
  3. Collects data related to the contractor performance.
  4. Analyses the collected data related to contractor performance while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  5. Initiates the process of paying contractors for their work. The process shall be described in a special standing operating procedure (SOP). Prior to creating it, this start of the process implies a request to the manager or Customer.
  6. Requests (a) assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed and/or (b) changes to the fully-executed Careerprise contractor agreement when new data from existing and/or new sources of data prompt so.
  7. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities when new data or new sources of data emerges in order to revisit further the Specifying the deliverables and Planning the project activities.
  8. Presents the progress of collaboration with contractors, plans and possible concerns about that collaboration during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The collaboration with contractors opens when their Careerprise contractor agreement is fully executed. It ends with the closure of the agreement.

Creating the deliverables

The main goal of deliverable creation activities is to create rightly right deliverables. "Right" means that every deliverable shall be in a state of capability, which is determined by the fact that the deliverable meets all the product specifications that have been approved for this deliverable. "Rightly" means that the aggregate of creation activities match the agreed acceptance criteria.
At the Cyber, Contractors create Project deliverables. To coordinate the deliverable creation, the responsible Coord:
  1. Initiates hiring of development contractors.
  2. Plays roles of the product owner and/or project owner in the absence of other members of the Team assigned to those roles. In that case, the Coord decides how, within the framework of the approved requirements, the deliverable and the project should be.
  3. Tests the deliverable and, if necessary, its parts.
  4. Collects data related to the deliverables under development and their production.
  5. Analyses the collected project data while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  6. Monitors the development and execution of the project, including compliance with the budget, schedule and scope of work.
  7. Inquiries about changes to the project charter, product specification, project scope baseline, project schedule baseline, project cost baseline, and/or acceptance criteria when new data from existing and/or new sources of data prompt so.
  8. Organizes a closed-from-the-public-view project space on CNM Repo for work on the deliverable in addition to the project wikipage on CNM Wiki.
  9. Invites the hired contractor to the project space.
  10. Reports to the Customer on the status of the project, collecting, analyzing and summarizing information and trends.
  11. Treats creation of deliverables as primary source of data to revisit the Studying the backgrounds activities.
  12. Makes sure that the created deliverables (a) represent a complete bundle of products that are listed in the Careerprise contractor agreement and (b) satisfy their acceptance criteria.
  13. Recommends, after the contractor informs about the completion of project work, either (a) acceptance of the deliverables or (b) refusal to accept those deliverables while providing the Customer with explanations for that refusal.
  14. Requests assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed.
  15. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities when new data or new sources of data emerges in order to revisit further the Specifying the deliverables and Planning the project activities.
  16. Reports on progress of the deliverable creation using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  17. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The deliverable creation opens when the Customer authorizes its financing and ends when the deliverables are accepted. To expedite the project, the creation may start before its acceptance criteria have developed.

Commissioning the product

The main goal of the product commissioning is to obtain the product in its state of applicability, which is determined by the fact that the deliverable is not only functional, but can also be sustainably used for the purpose for which it has been created. In simple words, the commissioning is a transfer of the accepted deliverables from the contractor into Cyber operations. To coordinate this commissioning, the responsible Coord:
  1. Clarifies with CNM Cyber Project Managers which members of the Team will: (a) deploy the newly-deployed product if it hasn't been deployed yet, (b) test the newly-deployed product, (c) restrict access of the development contractors to the product and product's classified documentation, (d) access the classified documentation on CNM Repo, (e) establish new product operations based on its standing operating procedure (SOP), and (f) manage hiring of service contractors.
  2. Initiates (a) deployment of the newly-deployed product if it hasn't been deployed yet, (b) beta testing of the newly-deployed product, (c) restrictions of the development contractors' access to the product and product's classified documentation, (d) new administrator's access to the classified documentation on CNM Repo, (e) establishment of new product operations based on its standing operating procedure (SOP), and (f) hiring of service contractors.
  3. Collects data related to the product commissioning.
  4. Analyses the collected data related to product commissioning while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  5. Publishes the documentation received from the contractor on the Cloud resources. Internal, closed to the public, documentation, such as administrator access to installed software, is published on CNM Repo. The documentation that can be open to the public without restrictions is published on CNM Wiki.
  6. Requests assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed.
  7. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities when new data or new sources of data emerges in order to update the Managing the product activities.
  8. Reports on progress of the product commissioning using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  9. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
The product commissioning opens when the deliverables are accepted and ends when the product is ready to be used in Cyber operations.

Managing the product

Two main goals of product management are (a) to obtain the product in a state of manageability and (b) to keep it in this state. The state is determined by the fact that the product is not only used for the purpose for which it was produced, but also controlled. This management includes both maintenance and improvement of product performance, as well as decisions to end its life or replace. To coordinate the product management, the responsible Coord:
  1. Monitors product usage, administrator performance, user feedback, industry trends, best practices, and situations in those markets that are associated with the product, its alternatives, and components.
  2. Treats the product management monitoring as primary sources of data to revisit the Studying the backgrounds activities.
  3. Collects data related to the product performance and its administration.
  4. Analyses the collected data related to product management while organizing that data on CNM Wiki.
  5. Identifies problems and opportunities to improve the product or replace the product with other solutions.
  6. Inventories the problems and opportunities that have been identified using Cyber's idea management software when it is available; temporarily, CNM Wiki shall be used.
  7. Presents the problems and opportunities identified in the inventory to the Customer for making decisions about opening new projects.
  8. Requests assistance of the Administrators when additional resources are needed.
  9. Revisits the Studying the backgrounds activities when new data or new sources of data emerges.
  10. Reports on progress of the product management using the CNM Cloud Usable wikipage.
  11. Presents the progress, plans and possible concerns during Week at CNM Cyber meetings.
Product management opens when the product is put into service and ends when the product gets retired.

Cyber products

For the purposes of this very wikipage, Cyber products refer to the products that are components of the Cyber. They are belong to one of sub-categories of the "CNM Cyber products" category.

Categories of products

At CNM Wiki, wikipages of Cyber products belong to several categories.
Category This wikipage section
CNM COTS products (category) COTS software (wikipage section)
CNM Cloud products (category) Software systems (wikipage section)
Careerprise marketables (category) Marketables (wikipage section)
CNM customer products (category) Customer-oriented (wikipage section)
CNM corporate products (category) Corporate-oriented (wikipage section)
Some products may belong to more than one area. For example, a hands-on training session is a service, but the announcements during it may be for the purpose of being in the market. Apps can be considered software, but apps that are capable and full of content are services first and foremost.
Moreover, a few intermediate products belong to all of the categories and can be considered as Universal.

Corporate-oriented

For the purposes of this very wikipage, corporate-oriented products refer to those Cyber products that serve the enterprise rather than its customers directly. Basically, the talk is about Cyber administration that covers personnel, legal, financial and organizational issues. Those products are listed in the "CNM corporate products" category and may include:
  • Administrative procedures for personnel, financial, accounting and legal operations of the organizational structure behind the Cloud.
  • Corporate events, in which real people participate physically or remotely, such as interviews of candidates for contractors, meetings of professionals and conferences for potential participants. A separate section of this wikipage, Meetings, is dedicated to them.
  • Partnerships, which are contractual agreements to mutually develop and market offers. Historically, the Team partnered with two Microsoft stores, in Pentagon City Mall and Tysons Corner Center, several employers, training providers, governmental, and non-profit organizations.
  • Positions, which are documented workplaces of associates included in the organizational structure. This very wikipage is the development of one of Cyber positions. Moreover, the Coords are welcomed to own their role, which assumes both (a) developing and updating general instructions, policies, and/or recommendations for the Coords and (b) contributing to and grooming of the backlog of the Coord's tasks at the CNM Cloud Usable and related wikipages.
  • Relationships with potential and existing clients such as exhibitors, contractors and partners. Stakeholders are involved in communications through (a) hiring contractors to turn those descriptions that the Customer approved into the Cyber products, (b) hiring employees for developed positions, (c) participation of potential Cyber participants in events organized by the project.
  • Structures such as an organizational structure to organize the work of Team; their rights and duties are determined by positions.

Customer-oriented

For the purposes of this very wikipage, customer-oriented products refer to those Cyber products that are designed to serve the customers, but not marketed separately. At the Cyber, any Marketable is a package of "customer-oriented products". Those products are listed in the "CNM customer products" category and may include:
  • Content, such as texts, illustrations and multimedia materials that can be used in CNM apps.
  • Customer support for end-users, potential participants and partners of the Cyber.
  • End-user applications known as CNM apps that can be used by current and potential students, apprentices and employees of the Cyber.
  • Information resources for attracting potential partners and clients of the Cyber, such as websites, social media materials, and mailing lists, as well as standard messages, invitations and advertisements.
Obviously, there are some interconnections between products areas. For instance, any CNM app needs its content and so on. At the Cyber, Software products are not considered as customer-oriented products since the Cyber doesn't offer software on the market.

Personnel development

In terms of the development of human resources, the results of the work of the Coord can be:
  1. Sourcing and orientation of contractors and new Coords by:
    • Development of ads, own website and other resources.
    • Placement of ads on specialized sites, social networks such as Telegram, TikTok, and Instagram, as well as other channels.
    • Conducting video conferences and other events for interested parties.
    • Finding partners among commercial, public and government organizations.
  2. Development of professional knowledge, skills and abilities of the existing workforce and new recruits. That includes facilitating of training and participating in mentor-protégé arrangements.

Software systems

For the purposes of this very wikipage, software systems refer to those Cyber products that are assembled of two or more specially-written and/or commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages. At CNM Wiki, they are listed in the "CNM Cloud products" category and may include the following information technology:
  • CNM Farms, including tools for their high availability and recovery.
  • Opplet that serves both end-user applications called CNM apps and end-users directly.
  • CNM apps as software. Some application developments concern only their software, some - only the content used in the provision of services, some developments combine both.

Universal

For the purposes of this very wikipage, universal products refer to those Cyber products that belong to all of the product categories. They include:
  • Labor resources. All products require someone's work on them. Thus, sourcing, selecting, onboarding, and development of labor resources belong to every of the categories. On this very wikipage, the Personnel development section reflects those products. All in all, development of human resources generally and the Coords particularly is the primary of Cyber objectives.
  • Testing of project inputs and deliverables under development. At the Cyber, those projects that are undertaken in order to obtain testing results only are rare. The Coords execute the overwhelming majority of testing while obtaining other deliverables or simply utilizing existing Cyber products such as this very wikipage.
  • What the Coords produce such as Meetings, Documents, Records, and Communications to facilitate development and management of Cyber products. Cyber products are outcomes rather than outputs of the Coords' work.

COTS software

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software powers (a) CNM apps, (b) a significant part of Opplet, and (c) all of CNM Farms products. Those COTS-based products belong to the "CNM COTS products" category.

Packages

At the Cyber, the COTS-related products shall come in packages as follows:
  1. Documentation that describes the software in technical details at CNM Wiki and access details at CNM Repo.
  2. Hands-on assignments that CNM learners can use to get accustomed with the software while using its hands-on training systems and applications.
  3. Lectios that provide CNM learners with knowledge about the deployed software.
  4. Presentations that presents the software to its new users in the multimedia, video, just audio, and/or just graphic formats.
  5. Software that powers core, hands-on training, and experiential systems and applications. This software tend to be titled in the "CNM/Opplet COTS-name" format. For example, CNM MediaWiki powers the CNM Wiki, Inplz Wiki, and Kryvi Wiki applications.
  6. User group at CNM Social; the group may organize software-related events and produce newsletters.

Software instances

At the Cyber, the COTS-powered software may be installed in various instances as follows:
  • CNM instance that CNM patrons can use to get benefited from the functions for which this software has been created. For example, you are using CNM Wiki while reading these lines. For example, you are using CNM Wiki while reading these lines.
  • Inplz instance that CNM learners can use for their structured practical training. For example, the learners shall be able to use Inplz Wiki to complete their hands-on assignments after going through those lectios that cover CNM MediaWiki.
  • Kryvi instance that CNM felows can use on their fellowships and entry-level jobs. For example, Kryvi Wiki shall be an experiential instance of CNM MediaWiki.

Marketables

For the purposes of this very wikipage, marketables refer to those products that The Economic Group offers to the general public and positions on the market. All of Cyber marketables are largely undeveloped yet; that is why the Coords are urgently needed.

At the Cyber, its marketables are called "Careerprise marketables", assembled from Customer-oriented products, and listed in the "Careerprise marketables" category.

Career services

Those career services that The Economic Group offers to the general public and positions on the market include:

Introductory jobs

Introductory jobs is the signature offer of The Economic Group on the workforce market. This component makes its Career services unique; this is also the "heart" of WorldOpp Pipeline. Introductory means that those jobs come with complete preparation for them. Anyone can possibly start from scratch and land the pre-entry-level position, the Coord, in order to gain work experience, get introduced to various professions, and pick up the one to pursue further.
On its platform, the Cyber offers a few professional positions to Certified IT Project Management Associates (CITPMAs) and/or the Coord graduates. These positions are:
  • CNM Cyber Project Managers are responsible for resolving administrative, personnel, financial, legal and organizational issues. In particular, the executive officer assigns projects to the Coordinators, places advertisements for hiring contractors, gives the coordinators recruiter access and pays the project budgets. The executive director can be called a "super-coordinator". If the Coords work on one endeavor, which they choose on their own, the executive is responsible for the entire group of developments and operations, including finance, personnel, administration of the Coords, and so on. At the moment, the Customer plays the role of Cyber executive, but he does it temporarily, until such a person or people are found.
  • CNM Cyber Recruiters ensure that the recruiting process is in place, there are candidates for Coords and, with the approval of the Customer, for other full-time positions in the recruiting "pipeline", and also advise on those developments that relate to recruiting. In their projects, the Coords also play the role of recruiters and take over the hiring of contractors. Unlike recruiters, the Coords discuss requirements and other project documents with candidates. The Coords turn to recruiters in cases where their own competencies or resources are not enough to attract contractors.
  • CNM Cyber Security Analysts monitor, analyze, and revise security of the Cyber and adequacy of its security policies.
  • CNM System Administrators ensure the stability of the Cloud's operations and advise on technological developments.
  • CNM Systems Engineers design new Software systems and revise the existing ones.
  • CNM Web Developers develop websites of the Cyber.
Those jobs come with vocational guidance, training, support of mentors, and other Careerprise services, as well as the Cyber workspace. The workspace comes with administrative procedures for hiring and retaining of its workforce, end-user applications for person's work, as well as personnel meetings, marketing campaigns to attract candidates, and so on.
More positions are available through Cyber partners. The Economic Group is constantly looking for new opportunities for Cyber customers.

Partnerships

The Team produces itself just three marketables, which are (a) Certified IT Project Management Associate (CITPMA) certification, (b) CNM Cyber (as web-based resources), and (c) the first three stages of WorldOpp Pipeline. However, it markets not only services that it produces.
All the other services are produced by Cyber partners. To source, select, contract, onboard, and retain partners, the Team must offer partnerships on the market. There are three basic patterns of partnerships:
  1. Cyber partners offer the to their customers.
  2. The Team offers partner's marketables to its customers.
  3. Cyber partners and the Team together develop new marketables.
The Team assembles partners' marketables and, altogether with its own ones, positions and promotes them on the market.

Professional networks

Human connections is the key to many jobs; that is why the Team is building its professional networks including:

Public events

The Team organizes CNM Cyber events in order to position the Cyber on the market and to:
  1. Attract prospective contractors, customers, and partners. Those outreach events are marketing efforts to reach out to current and potential customers on the labor market and business services market in order to gain their attention, build their interest, arise their desire to utilize Cyber opportunities and not the products of the competitors, as well as to motivate them to act in that direction.
  2. Generate revenues. Some events come in the freemium mode; basic events are free-of-charge; however, some extras might be paid.
Those events are combined in series such as:
  • Week at CNM Cyber. The series of free-of-charge events that the Coords organize to exchange ideas, to present new developments and plans, as well as to market their work.
  • CNM Cyber Guided Tours. The series of freemium-mode events that are organized to present technologies of the Cyber. The basic attendance is free-of-charge; hands-on access to the technologies and/or one-on-one consultations are paid.
More public meetings, in which real people participate physically or remotely, may be organized by the Professional networks.

Market presence

For the purposes of this very wikipage, market presence refers to the Team's efforts to present its Marketables on the markets, so their current and potential customers can find and take advantage of them. While accomplishing that goal, the Coords may work on a variety of marketing products generally or marketing communications specifically.

Communications to build

The Team shall create a variety of communications in order to reach out to prospective Coords, contractors, partners, supporters, as well as paying customers. Customer relationship management (or CRM) is an important part of these efforts. While documenting their efforts in customer relationship management systems (or CRMS), the Coords may coordinate endeavors to produce marketing communications as follows:
  • Customer support is a contact person or people who assist customers in installing, upgrading, maintaining, using, and/or disposing a product correctly and cost effectively. In the case of the Cyber, its customer support shall yet be designed.
  • Help desk is a contact person or people who provide the customers with technical assistance and troubleshooting. In the case of the Cyber, its help desk shall yet be designed.
  • Marketing outlets, in the case of the Cyber, are efforts to establish points of Team's direct contact with prospective contractors, customers, partners, and supporters. Cyber's booth at a job fair or table at the marketplaces would be an example of physical point of contact. Marketplaces refer to virtual and physical locations where sellers and buyers regularly gather to buy and sell products. Virtual points of contact may include (a) corporate profiles at web-based marketplaces, including freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr and Upwork, (b) corporate channels at videosharing platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, (c) corporate pages or groups at social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup, and Twitter, and (d) other direct marketing opportunities given by third parties. For example, some job-search websites feature free announcements; the Team, particularly, used robota.ua and work.ua to look for potential Coords in Ukraine. As another example, the Team once considered publishing its courses at learning platforms such as Udemy.
  • Public relations (PR), in the case of the Cyber, is efforts to transfer marketing messages from the Team to mass media and/or the general public directly. While publicity is controlled by external media, the Team controls PR.
  • Stakeholder communications, in the case of the Cyber, are efforts to transfer marketing messages such as newsletters from the Team to those who are listed in the stakeholder register directly.
  • UX design is efforts to enhance user satisfaction with marketables by improving their accessibility, credibility, desirability, findability, usability, usefulness, and value. Any product implies some unspoken and unwritten messages; Cyber products are not exceptions. Good marketing of bad products just increase user dissatisfaction. That is why the Coords are encouraged to take into consideration user experience design while working on Cyber products.
  • Websites, in the case of the Cyber, are composed of lead-generation, prospect-education, and deal-closing websections. A special section of this very wikipage, Websites, is dedicated to them.

Communications to buy

The Team may purchase a variety of communications in order to reach out to prospective Coords, contractors, partners, as well as paying customers. The Coords may coordinate endeavors to buy marketing communications as follows:
  • Advertising, in the case of the Cyber, is buying media's delivery of marketing messages to potential contractors, customers, partners, and supporters. The world's oldest forms of advertising are, probably, vocal announcements and distribution of samples, especially, in public spaces. Published advertising is either posting messages on something like walls or billboards that people can physically see or distributing something like leaflets hand-to-hand. Radio and television are considered as traditional electronic media; while mobile and web are new ones. The Team, for examples, may purchase advertising to support its activities at marketplaces and social media. Often, but not necessarily, advertising also entails creation of marketing messages. If so, their ownership depends on agreements.
  • Personal selling (outsourced), in the case of the Cyber, is hiring agents, brokers, and/or sales representatives to promote one or more Cyber products to their potential customers on a one-to-one basis. Obviously, personal selling is the most expensive form of marketing communications. That is why the Team tends to hire those on a contingency model rather than to retain them (see the "Payment models" section of this very wikipage).
Communications for sale tend to be less trusted than unpaid ones. Furthermore, advertising is usually less trustworthy than personal selling, however, trustworthiness of personal selling heavily depends on seller's features and capacities.

Communications to earn

The Team may attempt to earn a variety of communications in order to reach out to prospective Coords, contractors, partners, as well as paying customers. The Coords may coordinate endeavors to earn marketing communications as follows:
  • Publicity, in the case of the Cyber, is efforts to support mass and other media to cover the Cyber and/or its products on a non-monetary basis. After those efforts, the Team no longer controls its content. For instance, a television report may theoretically promote the Cyber without paying for that; however, the Team cannot dictate the TV producer what this report should look like. Social media
  • Word of mouth is the transfer of messages from person to person using oral communication. When they say, "a good product sells itself", they probably mean that good products shall generate words of mouth in sufficient amounts. This form of communications is the most effective when the listener trusts the messenger, for instance, a relative or friend. Obviously, the Team cannot produce those messages directly; they can be caused by other types of communications, Public events, and, especially, Cyber products when their users like them. At the same time, the Coords are encouraged to take into consideration possibilities of word of mouth generation while working on marketing products.
Earned-media messages tend to be more trusted than, let say, paid-media ones. However, earned-media messages are pretty much always distorted since they pass one or more intermediaries.

The funnel

On one hand, marketing products are not equal. On another hand, Cyber consumers shall go through several stages from "barely aware" to, in the best case, "highly loyal". The marketing funnel concept is deployed to map out the journey consumers undertake while making purchases, re-purchases, and/or advocating actions from the marketer's perspective. This concept utilizes a funnel as an analogy because the number of "barely aware" consumers is much larger than "highly loyal" ones.

A purchase funnel is the marketing funnel that is viewed from the buyer's perspective. A sales funnel represents the portion of the marketing funnel that describes a sales stages. It has three clearly-distinctive conversion points: (a) a visitor to a lead, (b) the lead to an educated prospect, and (c) the educated prospect to a customer.

The funnels need to be taken into consideration in building Marketables such as Website developments and their marketing campaigns. The Coords are encouraged to be aware of the various levels of the funnel and marketing products that are utilized at those levels.

Top of the funnel

The top of the funnel, which is also known as ToFu, refers to lead generation, which aims to convert an unaware to a lead. That unaware is someone who is unaware of a product; that lead is someone who is interested in that product enough to act in order to learn about it. Two levels can be distinguished at ToFU:
  1. Attract attention of potential consumers or, in other words, move an unaware to a visitor. At this level, potential consumers haven't got to Cyber websites yet, but those consumers shall get either (a) their domain names through marketing products like advertising, marketing outlets, public relations (PR), publicity, and word of mouth or links to the websites via search engine optimization (SEO) or other online resources.
  2. Build awareness and prompt consumers' discovery or, in other words, move a visitor to a lead. At this level, potential consumers have got to Cyber websites, probably, to their lead-generation websections.
In the case of the Cyber, lead-generation websections are expected to attract consumers' attention in order to generate traffic to Cyber's prospect-education websections. Every Cyber website has some lead-generation websections. At the Cyber, Bskol.com, FriendsOfCNM.com, HOTCOE.com, Inplz.com, and Kryvi.com websites are fully dedicated to lead generation.

Middle of the funnel

The middle of the funnel, which is also known as MoFu, refers to prospect education, which aims to convert a lead to a prospect. That prospect is someone who has started product's purchase process. Two levels can be distinguished at MoFU:
  1. Present deals to potential consumers to prompt their consideration or, in other words, move a lead to an educated lead.
  2. Address doubts to eliminate potential consumers' objections to their purchase or, in other words, move an educated lead to a prospect.
At those levels, potential consumers have got to prospect-education websections of Cyber websites. Other marketing products that can be helpful at MoFU include personal selling and educational resources of the Cyber such as CNM Cyber Welcome Session.
In the case of the Cyber, prospect-education websections are expected to prompt consumers' purchase consideration in order to generate traffic to Cyber's deal-closing websections. At the Cyber, CITPMA.com, CNMCyber.com, and iDosvid.com websites feature prospect-education websections. They also feature lead generation; in addition, CNMCyber.com provides its customers with services at the Bottom of the funnel.

Bottom of the funnel

The bottom of the funnel, which is also known as BoFu, refers to customer acquisition, adoption, and engagement which aim to convert a prospect to a customer. That customer is someone who has purchased at least once at least one Cyber product and, preferably, is loyal to it and advocating in its behalf. Three levels can be distinguished at BoFU:
  1. Close deals to finalize purchases; deal-closing websections and personal selling may be especially helpful in deal closing. In the case of the Cyber, deal-closing websections are those websection boxes of CNMCyber.com that are expected to prompt prospects' purchase.
  2. Support acquisitions of customers to build loyalty; customer support, help desk, and UX design may be especially helpful in retention.
  3. Engage customers to build their advocacy; stakeholder communications may be especially helpful in engaging.

Projects

Generally speaking, a project is a development Endeavor or a set of enterprise efforts undertaken to produce a unique deliverable, functional features of which are identified or can be identified before the efforts start. Those deliverables are those new and modified products that are produced during those developments. Indeed, the aim of Cyber's developments is to produce new or modify existing Cyber products. At the Cyber, former and current projects are listed in the "CNM Cyber endeavors" category.

Cycles of cycles

To coordinate endeavors, the Coords shall accomplish cycles of efforts that consists of several steps. Similar procedures are normally needed to produce project scraps and by-products. That means that the Coords are expected to follow the same cycle to create What Coords produce.
Furthermore, the most of projects may be viewed as sets of smaller developments. Among the Coords' outputs, Meetings, Documents, and Communications usually belong to project scraps. Indeed, Project results and results of the Coords' work are different phenomena.
Project deliverables normally utilize outputs from other projects as its scrap. A CNM app development, for example, requires documents that describe its requirements, and drawing up those requirements requires meeting events. If we consider the Coords' work as micro-projects, we can say that outputs of micro-projects tend to become scraps for small projects and, furthermore, outputs of small projects tend to become scraps for macro-projects.

Deliverables vs by-products

Those project outputs that are not Project deliverables may be called project by-products. Their range is huge; there are some imaginary scenarios:
  • A contractor submitted more products than the contract had required. If they are further deployed, those additional products would be by-products of this project.
  • Contractor's performance demonstrated advanced competencies in something unrelated to the project. The updated records are by-products of this project.
  • While organizing a meeting, the Coord encountered the problem of the policy's incompleteness. The project customer agreed to fund the policy's updates. The updated policy is a by-product of the project

Durations

The Coords work on one project, usually up to three and, in exceptional cases, up to five weeks.
  1. In the first week, they shall get familiarized with the project. At the end of the familiarization, the Coord should be able to explain what is described on the relevant wikipages and be ready to discuss its Sprint Zero with the Customer.
  2. From the second week to the penultimate week, they facilitate the project work in accordance with the What Coords do section.
  3. In the final week, they close the project or project part, documenting their work and the data that was uncovered during that work.
Projects can overlap. For example, the last week of work on one project may be the first week of work on another project. For senior Coords, there are no restrictions.

Patterns

Although no single straightforward pattern of project advancement exists, some patterns can be found in various developments. As an example, letters in the DREPD pattern represent five phrases:
  1. D for "discover the need".
  2. R for "research the background".
  3. E for "envision the deliverable".
  4. P for "plan the production".
  5. D for "do what is planned and discover what hasn't been expected". This discovery is supposed to start a new cycle; new data shall emerge while doing and/or after getting something done.
This pattern can be found in the whole development, in every group of processes, every process and every part of processes where ever anything new is or is going to be developed.

Project deliverables

Projects are undertaken to create project deliverables. Project customers initiate projects in order to get something in return. Normally, customers fund projects because of its expected deliverables. Any project is expected to deliver some outputs. In other words, project deliverables are those products for which development the project exists.
For instance, when a contractor is hired to produce a particular thing, that very thing should be the deliverable of that project. Literally, the contractor is expected to deliver the deliverable to complete the project.
At the Cyber, former, current, and expected deliverables are listed in the "CNM Cyber products" category. Project deliverables exist in various Product states and belong to various Product areas. In addition, one project rarely produces one single deliverable. For instance, the HAProxy for CNM Farms project is expected to deliver high-availability capabilities for CNM Campus Farm and Campus Farm Lab, as well as related presentations on various media resources, updates to the CNM Cyber Orientation course, and a bundle of exercises for the learners.
Finally, project deliverables and Coords' deliverables are not the same things. Any development can be represented as Cycles of cycles. Just few Coords' deliverables, for instance, records, become a part of project deliverables. Normally, the Coords deliver to the project something like Meetings, Documents, Records, and Communications to be consumed in the project activities as project scraps.

Project results

Project results or results of the projects may be classified in four levels:
  1. Project scraps, which are intermediate products that either become parts of the Cyber products or have been decommissioned before the end of the project. Nevertheless, the outputs cannot be produced without those scraps. As they say, sausage making is messy, but no sausage can be produced without that mess.
  2. Project outputs are the things that are produced during the project and kept after its end. Besides the Project deliverables, the outputs may include other-than-the-project Records such as publications and Documents such as blueprints that have been developed and commissioned in order to produce the Project deliverables.
  3. Project outcomes. On the Coord's side, the outcomes are those KSAs that the Coord has obtained during the project coordination. On the other stakeholders' side, the outcomes are something for which the Project deliverables have been produced.
  4. Project impacts, which are consequences of the project, its outputs and outcomes on a society. Beyond the Coord's work, some projects, for instance, may initiate further meetings, documents, actions, and changes.

Status reports

While working on the deliverable, the Coords are expected to report their project status. In CNM Agile framework, these statuses are reported at the product line wikipage, CNM Cloud Usable, using the following readiness levels for each Product state and Device of certainty:

Websites

Generally speaking, a website is a collections of webpages published at the World Wide Web (WWW), as well as service capacities and resources attached to those pages. Cyber websites serve marketing purposes; they are important at every level of The funnels, including attracting, educating, closing, retaining, as well as engaging. As work products, Cyber websites are also vital in Cyber learner training.

Featured

At the Cyber, featured websites are those that the Team specifically promotes through its Market presence. Particularly, those websites are promoted at marketing outlets, public relations (PR), advertising, and personal selling. Three featured websites of the Cyber are:

Traffic-generating

At the Cyber, traffic-generating websites are those that the Team doesn't promote, but support in order to generate traffic to the featured websites. Five traffic-generating websites of the Cyber are:

Website developments

For the purposes of this very wikipage, website projects, website developments, or, simply, web devs are those projects that are undertaken to develop Cyber websites and their components. Website development normally consists of several interrelated projects. New Coords are expected to take one of them as their first-week-on-the-job assignment at least.

Content projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, content projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to develop general public contents of Cyber websites. General public contents are those audio-visuals, images, multimedia, and texts that the visitors of Cyber websites shall be able to see or hear when they access the Cyber webpages.
  1. Non-textual contents such as audiovisuals, images, and multimedia. Contractors shall be hired to development audio-visuals, images, and/or multimedia. To accomplish so, separate projects shall be formalized. The completed audio-visual, image, and multimedia files shall be stored at CNM Repo. The other website developments do not necessarily depend on general public contents. Until they or their drafts are developed, placeholders shall substitute the future content in other developments.
  2. Texts. Cyber webpages are literally HTML-based documents, which means that the webpages are textual documents marked up with HTML tags in order to embed non-textual contents and make all viewable on the World Wide Web (WWW). Since Documents are regular outputs of Coords work, the Coords are encouraged to develop textual contents using CNM Wiki. The other website developments do not necessarily depend on general public contents. Until they or their drafts are developed, lorem ipsum shall substitute the future content in other developments.
Development of Cyber websites' content, most likely, consumes the most of website development time. Since the websites shall reflect the actual situation, the website content shall be periodically updated even when the website is already up and running.
The other, not for the general public, contents include key words for search engine optimization (SEO) and other technical texts.

Design projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, design projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to develop graphical appearance for Cyber websites. Creation of certain images or audiovisuals that are used in website contents is a part of the Content projects.
Web design is essential for every website generally and Cyber website particularly. By its definition, development of web design is creative; design-developing Contractors shall be hired on a per-hour basis. At the Cyber, web design projects can be undertaken to develop a single webpage section, especially a main one.
At the Cyber, designs are divided in graphic designs and UX designs. Graphic designers shall normally be hired to achieve webpage esthetics; UX designers shall work on great user experience with the page. The work outputs of one designer shall be given to another designer until both agree that the webpage section they work on is both graphically and UX acceptable.
Deliverables of design projects are pixel-sharp product depictions of one or more webpage sections. After the Customer's approval, they shall be used as inputs to the Website as one product developments. In order to store the deliverable files at CNM Repo, the Contractors who work on the designs need to have proper access.

DNS projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, DNS projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to develop DNS records for Cyber websites. Among website developments, DNS records, in average, consume the least time; however, DNS records for CDN-based websites might be complex. At any rate, DNS records are vital for website location in the World Wide Web (WWW).
Results of DNS projects are published at CNM Wiki; CNM System Administrators use those results to update the actual website records.

SEO projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, SEO projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to develop and manage search engine optimization (SEO) for Cyber websites. Cyber's SEO efforts aim to generate traffic of those people who look for apprenticeship, entry-level job, internship, hands-on training, high-school student job, professional orientation, sysadmin job, and other Cyber services to the Cyber websites.
SEO efforts belong to competitive marketing; various actors on the market try to emerge in search engine results as high as possible. Since Google search engine is dominant; SEO can be viewed as competition over Google ratings. SEO can also be considered as a part of information architecture.
Results of SEO projects are published at CNM Wiki; CNM System Administrators use those results to update the actual website protocols.

Software projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, software projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to develop software that powers Cyber websites.
  1. Primarily, this software represents a content management system (or SEO). Cyber websites normally use CNM WordPress under their hood. In the past, the Team have also used other content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla. If the need emerges, some considerations can also be given to Ghost, Grav, and Jekyll.
  2. The authorization and landing pages of primary websites can also be coded with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript without any CMS.
Results of soprojects are published at CNM Wiki; CNM System Administrators use those results to update the actual website records.

SSL projects

For the purposes of this very wikipage, SSL projects refer to the website projects that are undertaken to create SSL certificates for Cyber websites.
Results of DNS projects are published at CNM Wiki; CNM System Administrators use those results to update the actual website records.

Website as one product

No Cyber website can be developed immediately and completely. It starts with a sketch, which shall be gradually upgraded up to a minimum viable product (MVP). Hubs shall be developed first, while auxiliaries and essays may be completed after the MVP is launched.
For the purposes of this very wikipage, deliverable websites refer to those Cyber websites that serves as a part of The funnel. SOP
  1. Contents of hub webpages are more urgent than contents of essay webpages. Website assemblies cannot be completed without the viable version the hub pages' content.
Graphic representation of this box's positioning within website-wide Information architecture.

Website IAs

For the purposes of this very wikipage, information architectures or IA are images, layouts, mockup models, outlines, prototypes, sketches, wireframes, and/or words that represent classification, organization, and structure of content and other information at Cyber websites or similar products. Similarly to UX design, IA strives to enhance user satisfaction; IAs of Cyber products shall help to make them accessible, credible, desirable, findable, usable, useful, and valuable. Dissimilarly from UX design, IA shall help the Cyber to achieve the Cyber objectives. In simple words, IA shall balance benefits for the Cyber and its users.

IA components

Key components of IA are:
  1. Hierarchy of website and its webpages.
  2. Roadmaps of every identified persona through the website.
  3. Mockups of hub webpages at the websection box level.
  4. Labels of groups of information for user orientation and, when used in sub-domain names, for search engine optimization (SEO).
  5. Navigations such as menus, breadcrumbs, and pagination.
  6. Search tools that ensure findability of information.

IA developments

The IA-development projects closes when the Customer approves the IA. Development of IA is a:
  • Marketing project since the IA shall serve interests of both users and the Cyber.
  • Creative project since acceptance criteria rarely can be defined; product and project certainties rarely can be reached before the development starts. That is why Contractors shall be hired on a per-hour basis. In the industry, the most qualified architects are normally hired to develop the most important IA components such as the menu structure and landing page mockup.
  • Prerequisite project that shall be finished before the contractors for Section designs and Website assemblies can be hired. As product depictions, the outputs of the IA-development project shall be used for graphic design, UX design, and website assembly.

Personas in IA

In marketing, a persona is an imaginary product user that (a) represents a distinguishable type of customer and (b) has been created to design special appeals to that customer type while designing products.
Cyber websites may serve a variety of customers. For instance, a school student and school principal may visit iDosvid.com. However, interests of the student differ from ones of the principal. Moreover, the Team would like the student to get enrolled into CNM Cyber Welcome Session, while the Team would like the principal to contact Cyber administrators. So, their website roadmaps shall be different.
Information architectures (or IAs) shall serve all of its identified personas. If a subordinate IA serves one persona, and five personas are identified to be customers, the IA may be divided in one site-wide IA, which welcomes all of its customers and directs them to those webpages that are designed to serve specifically them and five separate subordinate IAs.

Website parts

Cyber websites are eventual deliverables from web-projects; however, website components need to be developed before any website can be assembled. Other deliverables include webpages, webpage sections, websection boxes, information architectures, web designs, SEO strategies, as well as contents such as audiovisuals, images, multimedia, and texts.

Websites are not created equal; neither are their developments. It may take about a couple of hours to setup a simple website if its content is ready. On the contrary, some other websites cost more than a million dollars.

Webpages

Any Cyber website is a collection of webpages. At the Cyber, those pages are divided in three categories:
  1. Auxiliary webpages are those that provide their visitors with supplemental services beyond essay information and hub navigation. Auxiliary pages include contact, error, and search pages, for instance.
  2. Essay webpages are those that cover one subject; they give the most complete information on a given topic that is available on that website.
  3. Hub webpages are those essential pages that lead their visitors to other pages or services, where essential means that the website cannot function properly without those pages. Every Cyber website has at least two hubs -- the authenticating and landing webpage.

Websections

Any Cyber webpage is a collection of two or more webpage sections. That section shall emerge on one user's screen or, at least on the top of the screen, after their clicks on some menu tab or other button. Every Cyber webpage shall have its main and footer sections at very least.
With regards to the purpose, websections may serve three purposes:
  1. Deal-closing websections normally belong to online stores.
  2. Lead-generation websections normally belong to hub pages of primary websites and any page of secondary websites.
  3. Prospect-education websections are normally main sections of essay pages of both primary and secondary websites.
A main section is the most important for every webpage. Webpage sections present one or more websection boxes. That box is the minimal rectangular element of webpage layouts that is distinguished from other rectangular parts both graphically and functionally. The main section normally consists of a header and a box such as carousel, featured-image, grid, slider, or CTA (which stands for "call-to-action"). The main section may also include a sidebar.

Product states

For the purposes of this very wikipage, product states refer to sets of conditions that Cyber products acquire during their development and service. The Coords work to bring the products into one or more of their states.

State definitions

  1. State of acknowledgment. In this state, the future deliverable exists in the form of a noticed and documented idea.
  2. State of certainty. In this state, the future deliverable exists as a validated product specification.
  3. State of capability. In this state, the functional deliverable has already been produced in accordance with all the requirements that have been approved for it.
  4. State of applicability. In this state, the deliverable is not only functional, but can also be used for the purpose for which it was produced in ways that are described by a validated standing operational procedure (SOP).
  5. State of manageability. In this state, the deliverable is not only used for the purpose for which it was produced, but also controlled, that is, the product undergoes periodic revisions and is either improved and its characteristics are improved, or withdrawn from service.

Hierarchy

In practice, product states do not always represent a hierarchy of five levels, in which the higher level includes the states of the lower levels. However, the Coords should strive for this ideal, for example, it is impossible to fully talk about applicability without capacity, manageability without certainty, and so on.

Thresholds

Product state Threshold
State of acknowledgment A record is added to the idea management system.
State of certainty A product specification is approved.
State of capability Acceptance criteria are met.
State of applicability A standing operational procedure (SOP) is approved.
State of manageability Periodic reviews find that standing operational procedures (SOPs) are both sound and followed.

Devices of certainty

For the purposes of this very wikipage, a device of certainty refers to an instrument or tool that ensures:

  • Product certainty, which their development shall deliver. When the Customer agrees, products shall not necessarily possess their state of certainty for the beginning of their development, but this state shall be achieved during that development.
  • Project certainty, which suggests the scope of product development. Project certainty cannot be reached unless product certainty is reached. Clearly, no one can know what to do unless they know what needs to be done. The scope of work depends on the scope of work product. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of Cyber projects cannot be fully predicted and, therefore, achieve their complete certainty only with their closure.

Core certainty

For the purposes of this very wikipage, a core certainty refers to those devices that may combine product and project certainties.
  1. Business requirements. Description of the needs for which the development of the deliverable is undertaken.
  2. Demands of Team funded by Customer. Description of what the Team needs and, possibly, when and how it needs expressed when the Customer has funded satisfaction of those needs. Those demands are expressed in either acceptance criteria or standing operating procedure (SOP).
  3. Stakeholder requirements. Description of the future deliverable made on behalf of various types of its stakeholders.

Product only certainty

A few devices ensure certainty of product deliverables:
  1. Product depictions. Representation in images, layouts, mockup models, outlines, prototypes, sketches, wireframes, and/or words of a deliverable to be created. Prototypes (from the Greek "prōtos" meaning "first", "original" and "typos" meaning "imprint", "pattern"). Instances, samples or models, following the example of which others are made or finalized. Prototypes of the deliverable are often built to test a perception, concept, or process. Prototypes can either be selected from existing products or produced during a project.
  2. Product specifications. Set of tasks for developers of a deliverable regarding its required characteristics.
Business requirements, stakeholder requirements, and acceptance criteria clarify product scopes, but may also clarify scopes of their production, delivery, and/or other elements of project scopes.

Project only certainty

Project scopes depend on their product scopes, so any project document can get some glimpse into its product certainty. A few devices ensure certainty of project processes and product delivery:
  1. Project scope baseline. The combination of project work requirements that the Customer has approved and that are used as the base to compare with actual results. For complex projects, the baseline normally includes a project scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and WBS dictionary.
  2. Project schedule baseline. The combination of project schedule requirements that the Customer has approved and that are used as the base to compare with actual results.
  3. Project cost baseline. The combination of project cost requirements that the Customer has approved and that are used as the base to compare with actual results.
Business requirements, stakeholder requirements, and acceptance criteria may or may not clarify project scopes in addition to clarifications of product scopes.

Administration

For the purposes of this very wikipage, administration is defined as the set of efforts that is undertaken to run Cyber resources such as its budgets, services, systems, and/or staffers of the Office.

Administrators

At the Cyber, several types of administrators can be distinguished depending on the category of administration:
  • Application administrators are administrative user roles in CNM apps. For example, an administrator of CNM Wiki can protect select wikipages from editing by non-admins. Application administrators are a software feature, which only system administrators may assign. Organizationally, CNM Cyber Project Managers must request assigning admin roles to select members of the Team and, vice versa, request removing them when there is no longer need.
  • Executive administrators, CNM Cyber Project Managers, are those of the Office who manage Cyber's development, operations, and product groups. This administrator can appoint other members of the Team to administer a particular group of developments, operations and products or the Cyber as a whole.
  • Product administrators are those of the Team whom CNM Cyber Project Managers have granted administration of a particular product. During its production, the deliverables are administered by the Coords. The superior administrator of each product is at least one of CNM Cyber Project Managers.
  • System administrators are dedicated positions intended for those associates who administer the technological systems of CNM Farms', Opplet's, and CNM apps' software. The highest administrator of each attachment is at least one of the system administrators, so the latter can be described as super administrators of applications.

Customer

The customer provides requirements for future products and pays project budgets. In simple words, the customer orders products and pays for their production. The work of the Coord is paid insofar as it is part of the development of the product. The customer implies that the Coord works out projects in accordance with the instructions set out on this wikipage. Out of the goodness of heart and for professional training purposes, the customer may do the work of the Coord temporarily as long as the customer believes that the Coord will someday be able to work independently.

Cyber objectives

  • Cyber's mission is to build a single-window platform that would responsibly and sustainably provide everyone with a wide range of career services.

Organizations

Legally, the Coords are either volunteers of The Economic Group or independent contractors of Educaship Alliance LLC. The LLC is willing to employ the Coords as employees, but, to do so now, no legal infrastructure has setup yet. These organizations may issue their own policies and regulations.

Team

For the purposes of this very wikipage, the Team refers to staffers of the Cyber. Although Contractors and the Customer are not formally part of the Cyber team, they are important parts of Cyber development and management.

Office

For the purposes of this very wikipage, the Office refers to entry-level staffers of the Cyber. They may include CNM Cyber Project Managers, CNM Cyber Recruiters, CNM Cyber Security Analysts, CNM System Administrators, CNM Systems Engineers, and CNM Web Developers.

Taskforce

For the purposes of this very wikipage, the Taskforce refers to the aggregate of the Coords.

Contractors

With the exception of the Communications, Documents, Meetings, and Records, the Coords rarely develop and manage the Project deliverables directly or, or least, without someone else's assistance. For the most part, contractors develop and service them. The contractors perform on the basis of approved descriptions, Funded demands, and finalized by the Coors and/or other members of the Team. The Coords facilitate the Hiring the contractors and Working with contractors activities.

List of contractors

The list of contractors is a part of the competency register created and updated during the Studying the backgrounds activities.

Payment models

  • Fixed-price basis (in recruiting, known as contingency model). When either acceptance criteria or standing operating procedure (SOP) is available, Cyber contractors are paid a fixed price. This price might be chunked in several payments and some payments may be made in advance. This model assumes that all of the three, "scope of work, terms, budget" are well defined. Otherwise, the Team risks to receive not what it needs, or not for the budgeted money, or when it no longer needs it.
  • Per-hour basis (in recruiting, known as retained model). When neither acceptance criteria nor standing operating procedure (SOP) is available, Cyber contractors are paid per hour. Architects, consultants, designers, managers, and others whose jobs are not structured shall be hired on the per-hour basis.
Those two models may be combined. For instance, compensation of agents, brokers, and sales representatives may consist of (a) payment for their time (sometimes, called a retainer) and (b) percentage of generated sales.

Restrictions in awards

To ensure diversity of contractors and, therefore, higher quality:
  1. No new contract can be awarded to the service contractor who serves the product currently.
  2. The development contractor cannot also be the first service contractor.
  3. Although the Coords are encouraged to serve as contractors outside of their Coord work, no one can simultaneously serve as the Coord and contractor working on the same product.

Types of contractors

For the purposes of this very wikipage, contractors are distinguished in three types:

Contractor agreements

The Team uses Careerprise contractor agreements to hire its contractors directly; hereinafter, they are called the Contracts. A blueprint of the Contract is published at the Careerprise contractor agreement wikipage.

Some portion of contractors is hired through freelance marketplaces such as Upwork; their blueprints are used in that case.

Content matters

Any contract's content features at least two major matters:
  1. Subject matters is what essentially the parties of the Contract are going to exchange. More specifically, they consist of two parts:
    • Funded demands is what the Customer would like to exchange its funds for. Usually, the demands include requirements to the deliverable, its production, and delivery.
    • Payment provisions that define what the contractor shall expect to be paid when the Funded demands are satisfied.
  2. Legal matters include legal provisions such as legal names, dates, statuses, ownership, representation, indemnification, confidentiality, communications, dispute-resolution procedures, warranties, and miscellaneous ones.

Funded demands

For the purposes of this very wikipage, funded demands refer to those demands of the Team that are funded by the Customer. The Team hires contractors to satisfy specific business needs when the Customer agrees to fund such hiring. Before they enter the Contract or third-party contracts, these funded demands can be stated in a project charter and/or request for proposal (RFP). For fixed-priced contracts, it can be stated in one of the following two:
  • Acceptance criteria. A combination of those demands that a deliverable must satisfy to be acceptable by the Customer.
  • Standing operating procedure (SOP). A set of instructions that cover both (a) regular business and/or technology operations and (b) actions in emergencies. SOP is applicable unless ordered otherwise.
For hourly-paid contracts the demand statement tends to be less concrete; at those cases, the Team "buys" contractor's time, not a particular deliverable, its production, or delivery.

Recruiting the Coords

There is no single simple indicator by which one can judge whether a person can become a successful Coord and, if so, whether similar jobs would attract and motivate him or her. One never knows unless one tries.

Coords' sourcing

Main wikipage: WorldOpp Sourcing
WorldOpp Sourcing encompasses the WorldOpp Outreach campaigns to attract attention of potential candidates and CNM Cyber Welcome Session to bring the candidates on the board.

Coords' orientation

Main wikipage: CNM Cyber Orientation
The CNM Cyber Orientation is designed to introduce promising Coords to the job market, the Cyber, its Team, services, and the Cloud.

Coords' placement

Main wikipage: CNM Cyber Placement
The Placement is designed to introduce the learners to various positions, help to select the promising one, and place the learner as an apprentice into both the job and educational program. In their practice, the learners work as the Coords.
The Coord is a temporary position, limited by the duration of the Placement. Not everyone is attracted to work on creating something new. Not everyone is able to work in conditions of uncertainty.
  • If the job of the Coord suits the participant, he or she moves towards the business analyst, systems engineer, partner coordinator, event organizer, information structure or solution creator, product or user experience designer, and product, information resources or development manager, and other occupations in projects.
  • If unable or unwilling, the participant is promoted to Contract or Systems Administrator, Usability Analyst, Accountant, Graphic Designer, Operations Engineer, Purchasing, Account Manager, and Procurement Manager and other occupations in operations.
During the Placement, students should be introduced to different professions from a programmer to an accountant. The specialty will be selected based on the results of the practice, and then it will be necessary to select a curriculum with a partner and organize an internship. We hope to organize the internship ourselves, but it will be difficult to replace educational institutions. Nothing unreal is foreseen, but everything needs to be worked out. Until the third course is ready, the Coords can work on it.

See also

Related lectures