Welcome to
Gird Solutions
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The Web Gird Solutions
Gird Solutions is a small, project management-based company that can provide a variety of technical, process, and people based solutions to help software and other organizations prepare themselves for their next big step in business growth or analysis.
Project Management Gird Solutions provides project management services principally through the owner, Dorna Caskie, who has over 30 years' experience developing software products and managing organizations. She received her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2007 and is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Mass Bay Chapter of the Project Management Institute.

Her recent project management work has included:
Managing software projects, requirements, overall program schedule coordination, and ultimately program closeout for a major network appliance development effort at Nokia (100+ contributing engineers).
Assuming control of the nascent Nokia phone/PC music program and guiding it from a single prototype project to a technology deployed at multiple product creations sites (Finland, Canada, the USA, the UK, Sweden, Japan, and Germany), and ultimately helping it evolve into a major component of the Nokia technology platform.
Planning and executing a major heritage event in Scotland for 300 people from over 9 countries, who required housing, transportation, catering, entertainment, and business and educational programs in the Hebrides for 10 days.
Business process analysis and development Both before and after the establishment of Gird, Dorna has contributed to the development of software and R&D processes that improve product delivery results and add value to the owning organization. Contributions have included:
Analysing the internal documentation needs of software start-ups, and designing processes that are fit for use in resource constrained environments. An example of this is a simple documentation configuration model for a University-based venture.
Modeling services and customer reports based on data incidents produced by security monitoring software (tracing "data leakage" and content theft). An example of this is a risk-based "key threat indicator report card" (available on request.)
Working with a variety of start-ups in Scotland (mostly through the Hillington Innovation Centre) and advising small companies on disciplines that would help prepare them for investment, in the form of either venture funding or acquisition. The approach to the needs of these organizations is summarised in the Gird Venture Exit Model. (Sample case study available on request).
Harvesting internal assets (OLE controls, simulation software, SNMP technology) to develop a major partnership program for a network management company. Items produced included testing, documentation, marketing, and training artifacts. (Hard copies available for examination.)
As a member of several formal committees at a major mincomputer company in the 1990's, establishing process programs and delivering training to guide cross-functional teams and improve overall product quality and organization performance.
Organization development through communications Gird's simple external communications model is a short presentation to help small businesses understand what they need in a communications plan.

On a more light-hearted note, years of working in various types of organizations have produced a few insightful guides:
Ten things you learn as a volunteer
Ten things you learn about events
10 things you learn about the swamp
10 things you learn about worrying
Website triage and Rx A paralysing condition - sometimes referred to as "website rot" - can set in after a website has been neglected, worked on by too many people, or no longer fits the purposes of the business for which it was designed. However, any website in any condition can both represent a significant investment as well as still hold value for future company communications. Before abandoning a website, it is wise to comprehensively quantify the material in place and its ease of use.

Gird Solutions can provide its signature NaviMap, a single document that captures the existing navigation and resource characteristics of a website. (Example available on request.)
Contact (e) dcaskie@greennet.net
(l) +1 (978) 373-7826
(m) +1 (508) 878-8416
(f) +44 (131) 777-8017
This web page was last updated on 27-Apr-11.
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