Lessons from Undergraduate Studies

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Lessons from Undergraduate Studies

• Robin Woody, PMP
• Business Relationship Manager

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Objective

• About United
• Education
• Career
• 10 Lessons from Undergraduate Studies

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About United

• 49 stores in 29 cities in West Texas, Panhandle
  and DFW areas
• United Supermarkets, Market Street Amigos
• Fourth generation ownership

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About United
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Education

• Graduated Texas Tech University 2004
• Undergraduate studies in Technical Communication
• Minor in Marketing

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Career Starting Out

• IT Documentation Specialist
• IT help desk documentation
• IT project documentation
• Sales audit processes
• Disaster recovery planning

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Career Starting Out

• IT Enterprise Architect/Technical Author
• Building and Defining Enterprise Architecture
• Price Coordinator Manual, Disaster Recovery
  Planning
• Business Continuity Planning with TTU

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Career Current

• Business Relationship Manager
• Liaison to multiple departments, including
  Marketing, HR, Bakery, Floral, Deli
• Focused on business solutions, project
  implementation, business process improvement, and
  partner relationships
• Strategic alignment with departments

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Project Management

• Project Management Institutes PMP credential
  earned 2009
• 90 of all project management is communication
• Requirements
• Status updates

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Top 10 Lessons From Undergraduate Studies
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10. Web Design

• Managing help system
• Hiring web master
• Future of IT is web

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9.Professional Skills

• Working with clients
• Gathering requirements
• Meeting timelines
• Understanding expectations

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8.Usability

• Solution (software and hardware) solution must be
  usable
• Consider store environment
• Handheld devices in market

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7. Information Design

• Professional Documents
• Easy to access information
• Usable Documents
• 1 page checklists

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6. Professional Writing

• Feasibility study
• Proposals
• Recommendation reports

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5. Style

• Appropriate style for the audience
• Directors Executives
• Support Desk

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4. Tone

• 50 of my communication is written
• Tone interpreted by reader
• Use tone appropriate for the situation
• You Attitude Building Goodwill

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3. Grammar Punctuation

• Good style and tone can be lost due to poor
  grammar and punctuation
• Always use proper grammar. If in doubt, look it up

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2. Rhetorical Analysis

• Audience, Context, Purpose
• Project Initiation-Identify Stakeholders
• Why we are doing a project
• Who the project is for, who benefits
• How the solution will be used

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1. Research

• Breaking down technical information into
  something usable requires asking the right
  questions and getting all the information.
• Issue resolution
• Process improvements
• Solutions

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Robin Woody United Supermarkets Business
Relationship Manager rwoody_at_unitedtexas.com 806.79
1.8188