NA-ME Project Charter,
alias Going in Like Gangbusters
-------------------------------
( C 1996 ) Josie Roberts
1.0 General Charter
1.1 Project Goals and Objectives
1.2 Project Name, Motto, and Theme Songs
1.3 Estimate of Required Resources
2.0 Management Responsibility
2.1 Planning Project Director
2.2 Executive Sponsor and Steering Body
2.3 Review and Approval Authority
3.0 Project Organization
3.1 Primary Project Staff
3.2 Project Support Staff
4.0 Project Scope
4.1 Organization Scope
4.2 Technology Scope
5.0 Planning Approach
5.1 General Approach
5.2 Overview of Planned Activities
5.3 Deliverable Outline
5.4 Germinal Concepts
5.4.1 Foundation Stones for Practice
5.4.2 Diagrams of Simulation Architecture
5.4.3 Career Counseling Process Overview
5.4.4 Hints on Expert System Architecture
6.0 Schedule
6.1 General Project Timeframe
6.2 Alternative completion Scenarios
7.0 Resource Requirements
7.1 Overall staff needs
7.2 Facilities Needed
7.3 Computer and Software
7.4 Training and Outside Consulting
8.0 References
1.0 General Charter
The notation ***TBD*** means TO BE DEFINED.
1.1 Project Goals and Objectives
The overall project goal is to self-teach a group of Christians to encourage their fellow Christians via career counseling. This includes developing and trialing a process for
career counseling and developing computer software to assist in such counseling. Everyone
gets equity interest in the product and a chance to be part of a counseling firm pioneering
use of the product. If project is completed ahead of schedule, bonuses may be given ***TBD***.
Besides a person’s involvement in their career, we may be able to apply our
techniques as well to considerations of the timeliness of dabbling in hobbies, the
development of important relationships, participation in volunteer service, exercize
of spiritual gifts for upbuilding the body of Christians in their community, and finding
appropriate co-workers in these various endeavors. It would be a godsend if this also
could be adapted to considerations involved in taking care of necessary chores.
An auxiliary personal goal for the project leader is to come to understand better the covenant which God makes with the spiritual children of Abraham. This involves among other
things the following so far discovered:
1. Being personally assured, not just intellectually confident, of being saved by
Jesus as Savior
2. Going for Jesus as LORD, i.e. asking what
pleases him and following through on that
commitment
3. Feeling God’s presence ( however fallibly) in
serendipitous coincidences in daily life
4. Coming to have an individual path mapped out
for me as steps toward ambassadorship
for Christ
5. Getting a small glimmer of an idea what it
means to boldly present the gospel to an
outside audience w/o squelching their
humanity.
6. Finding something that I’m happy enough with
to practice what I preach, so that I can
identify what might be called the “gospel
according to Joe C. Roberts”.
The guiding Bible verses for my journey so far are the following, in the order in which
they became personally meaningful: John 13:34-35, Phil 4:8, John 8:31-32, Prov 4:23, Heb 11:6,
John 17:3, James 1:27, Ps 25:14.
1.2 Project Name, Motto, and Theme Songs
The project name is Na-me which stands for people who have been saying “nay-me LORD!” becoming more than no-shows and taking a new name for themselves in the LORD, or acrostically:
Notions of potions, find my desire
A little bit of sugar makes the medicine
go down
Me, myself, and I are all the LORD has
to get this ship on the road.
E nvy not those never born, park your
anger and be not forlorn.
The motto for the project overall is “Take the truth where you find it; God put it there so he won’t mind it.” The theme songs are “I’ll Fly Away” and “Once to Every Man and Nation”.
See section 5.4.2 and 5.4.4 for further mottos for various stages of the software development.
1.3 Estimate of Required Resources
A group of at least 2 is required, one for maturity in the relationship aspects of the
business and one for the computer software development. A group of 6-7 would be nice, and a
group of 12-14 would be heaven because of the reduced workload it would imply.. A larger
group would be unwieldy.
At some point, a $2000-$3000 development PC will be required, along with about
$500 - $1000 of software development tools. Eventually a network of PCs will be required to actually commence the practice of career counseling, along with the purchase of license to existing career counseling software.
A 4-drawer file cabinet for storing documentation, correspondence and software.
2.0 Management Responsibility
2.1 Planning Project Director
The original idea of this project and planning direction is the responsibility of
Joe Roberts. This will be re-evaluated 4 months after we have the presence of 4 people on
the project.
2.2 Executive Sponsor and Steering Body
We will seek a sponsor from among computer industry executives, first choice being
one of Joe’s former bosses in the computer industry .
Each group member nominates 3 people to serve on the steering body. We elect a group
of 14 people to serve pro bono.
2.3 Review and Approval Authority
Currently none has been designated.
3.0 Project Organization
3.1 Primary Project Staff
The primary staff positions to be filled are (negotiable) the following:
Director of Customer and Problem Tracking
Discussion Moderator and Coordinator
Director of Standardized Testing and Investor
Relations
Director of Training and Agenda Scheduling
Director of Secrecy Registry and Documentation
Director of Advanced Projects
Project Leader
3.2 Project Support Staff
Graphics artist expertise will be needed for advertising and advise regarding the
computer program look-and-feel.
4..0 Project Scope
4.1 Organization Scope
This is done under the ageiss of Poetic Programming Solutions, a personal proprietorship of Joe Roberts.
This consists of a side-line business conducted by volunteers who probably all have
regular jobs during the week. For a single nite of the week, to be designated, we get together
for 1 ½ -2 hours to discuss career counseling, including having presentations. Each member may
make up his own mind about how much preparation time to get involved with. The equity shares are based on work items completed rather than hours involved, plus some minimal number of discussion meeting months/years requirement to vest.
Three years will be taken to develop a firm career counseling process and software
tools to assist. After that if funding is available for a trial an actual career counseling practice will be setup in Austin, Texas with people participating on a full /
part-time basis as funding and interest will allow. Minimally, at least 2 psychologists and a clerical assistant would be needed, with others volunteering part-time as needed, until the practice is established on a firm footing.
4.2 Technology Scope
All software will be developed on IBM compatible personal computers running windows. Some software development tools will have to be chosen, primarily a programming language or languages and a data base system supporting concurrent access. Several personality theories are being used, chief among them the ENNEAGRAM,
Briggs-Myers, John Holland career types, Whole-Brain Thinking, and Thinking Styles. Eventually two or three others may be employed.
5.0 Planning Approach
5.1 General Approach
The whole project is not plannned out ahead of time. The spirit gives information
a step at a time, enough to proceed. This comes through interaction with people, reading
literature, and the events of daily life. Joe keeps all his notes in his personal journal and a set of manila folders, to which reference may be made in case of his demise.
When some people get involved, the planning will be shared to some degree ***TBD***.
The relationship requirements in entering into this venture are expressed in the ARKANSAS
plan, using those letters as an acrostic for the following:
1. Allowing space for God to be in our
relationship.
2. Reaching high, wanting to score points with
each other unashamedly.
3. Keeping squarely focused on the truth at
every level.
4. Angling to advance the pyramid of others by
supporting their growth in spirituality.
5. Never measuring our problems, just our
results against planned values, to judge by.
6. Sliding smoothly around obstacles by
remaining open and not letting doubts hide
out about motives.
7. Anticipating confusion about roles and being
forthright about desiring changes therein.
8. Seeking God’s face in each other -- mutual
guidance as though heaven sent.
The clientelle to be helped include people with major problems, and so planning
has to provide for a serious work effort. These prospective clients include the following:
1. The downsized -- who can’t understand why
loyalty wasn’t rewarded
2. The downtrodden -- oppressed, out of time to
fill in forms again and again
3. The down-on-luck--can’t postpone punishment
for admitted goofups and
have damaged their reputation
4. The down-and-out--bankrupt, out of cash with
no prospects
5. The downcast -- feel blackballed, hexed,
jinxed
6. The down fallen--fired from a high rank and
can’t get back to comparable position
7. The downhearted--dejected and depressed
5.2 Overview of Planned Activities
There are 3 kinds of activities -- guidance reports, computer software development, and miscellaneous including career counseling process development.
Each of the following reports is to be prepared and presented. This information will be
given to potential investors at some point as well as presented to project staff initially. Many of these represent the critical hard cases that have to be considered. The easy cases of handling clients with bright prospects go through as smooth as silk if we can handle these situations.
Career Counseling to 3rd Culture People
( Our Worst Case Scenario)
( 3rd culture includes the homeless
and poor)
Potential Cognitive Therapy Usage in
Career Counseling
Statistical Analysis, Standardized
Testing, and Fates Worse than Death
( the necessary evils thereof)
Ergonomics of Computerized Career
self-help Programs
Evaluating the impact of concrete events
as they occur in real life
Project charter document
What matters, i.e. is important to the
people in our group, a report to me
and others of why people are getting
involved.
How to supply career counseling to
people who hate to read and write.
How to inject humor into career
counseling.
How to approach career counseling with
people that are indecisive.
Even though we will acquire and use existing career counseling software, additional
computer software development effort will be expended at least as follows:
Data entry of career information for
various occupations ( including data
base load from tapes and possible DB
conversions )
Simulation program to evaluate career
ambitions ( to be implemented in 3
phases ) based on questionnaires filled
in by the client about 8 “heartfelt”
things about their career thoughts --
their motives, intentions, ambitions,
decisions, meditations, thoughts,
plans, and reflections.
Artificial intelligence program
( to be implemented in 5 phases )
to be invoked selectively from the
simulation program when satisfactory
results are not being achieved by
standard procedures.
Some miscellaneous efforts are as follows:
1. software development tool training for all
programming staff
2. computer network equipment/software acquisition and maintenance
3. project leadership and guidelines development
4. sponsorship and obtaining financial backing
5. book and magazine and software career tools
acquisitions and monthly reviewing.
6. process development and trial of career
counseling , developing a model
of how to practice career counseling.
7. assessment and consultation regarding the
impact of various stages of maturity of
clients
5.3 Deliverable Outline
Draft copies of each guidance report. Each one should be 10-20 pages in length.
Discussion is the essence of discovery, so hopefully 2-3 people at least will be interested
in each area.
For the computer simulation program:
Requirements analysis document
Functional design/ DB design
Detailed design/test plans
Program coded/clean compile
Unit test completed/test data
entered
Integration test completed in
client/server networked
environment
For the expert system program ***TBD***.
For the career counseling process proposal, a 20-50 page draft report.
5.4 Germinal Concepts
5.4.1 Foundations Stones for Practice
Use the client’s own decision-making process to guide the order of work.
This is applying the rule of relevance.
Raise consciousness of emotions. There are approximately 9-16 emotions that a client should be aware of, and he/she should know which ones are most important to him/her personally.
Computer assistance is a means to a goal, not the goal itself.
Test cases must work or the system is a failure--immediate family and best friends.
There are various “books of lists” already existent which should be consulted for
nitty-gritty details. These are helpful in making predictions.
Personality doesn’t determine whether a person becomes a doctor or not, it determines what specialty will be pursued. Similarly for mathematicians, etc.
Secrets must be shared to develop good judgement. However, this is done best
selectively, as points become germane to the task under consideration.
5.4.2 Diagrams of Simulation Architecture
SEE "Earthly View" under "Career/Hobby/Tutoring Counseling" gallery of photos at fubar for diagram01.
The first diagram is the “earthly view” of our architecture. The upper right arrow and
associated boxes is developed in phase-1 of the simulation. A goal of this view of the career
situation is to develop the client’s intuition, insight, streetwise sense, foresight, premonition
instincts, and ESP. As motivators for a strong mission in life, it is desirable to develop
glee ( open delight or pleasure), passion (fondness, enthusiasm desire), rectitude (rightness of principle or conduct), certitude
( freedom from doubt), complaisance
( inclination to please), conviction (firm belief), ardent longing, and equanimity (composure under tension).
SEE "Middle soulish view"
under "Career/Hobby/Tutoring Counseling" gallery of photos at fubar for diagram02
The second diagram is the “middle soulish” view. The upper left arrow and
associated boxes is developed in phase-2 of the simulation. The labels and Bible references in this diagram are from Richard Roberts’s book Faith to Try Again. The purpose of the diagram elements are to measure the person’s:
1. Receptivity to suggestion for improvement
in attitude
2. Discerning of purpose and will of God
3. Modernness in outlook toward professional
life
4. Moderation in claims of goodness
5. Courage in following Bible teaching
6. Thoughtfulness and consideration,
anticipating the needs and wants of others
7. Equitableness in judgement as to how much
self and others can be trusted
8. Joyousness in sharing the fruit of your
labor
SEE "Heavenly View" under "Career/Hobby/Tutoring Counseling" gallery photos at fubar for diagram03.
The third diagram is the “heavenly view” perhaps seldom discussed, but overarching and guiding. The lower 2 arrows and associated box are developed in phase-3 of the simulation.
PURPOSES/BENEFITS OF EACH PHASE:
Phase-1 will cover motives, intentions, and ambitions and is primarily concerned with “getting confident”. Featured in this is a 28 question questionairre of predictions about
ambitions in various environmental situations. This phase corresponds most closely with
existing career counseling software. This phase is to establish the body of evidence as to what
the client is trying to accomplish in his or her life. The motto for this phase is “The map is
not the territory”. A “map” of the territory of ambitions will be made, but it is only an
approximation. Hopefully we will rightly divide the word of truth ( 2 Tim 2:15).
Phase-2 will cover meditations and decisions and is concerned with the client
“getting inspired” at their level of maturity. It declares the soul witness as to what
forces are driving your existence. The motto for this phase is “Take the truth where
you find it; God put it there so he won’t mind it.” A 30-step path for becoming an
ambassador for Christ will be evaluated and perhaps generalized to further identify
strengths and weaknesses in seeking various ambitions.
Phase-3 will cover thoughts, plans, and reflections and is concerned with the client
“getting in sync with reality”. Phase-3's heavenly visions may have been experienced in
situations of peak grounded experience, altered states of consciousness, the unconscious
becoming conscious, states of exhilaration, or moments of astounding insight or mystical
emotional upheaval. This phase floods the client’s consciousness with the Spirit of truth as to how earnestly he is seeking God. The motto for this phase is “Shit in heaven is used to
plug holes in hell.” Things we experience even in our throes of sickness can be inspired of God. Also, one man’s garbage is another man’s gems of delight.
The following poem indicates some of the background motivation for the usage of these diagrams in our architecture. It is
called “Friends for Resolving Your Quandries”
and is about the roles that other Christians play in our lives and the way truth comes in.
A fisher of men wants to save your soul;
Use the Spirit of truth as counselor to make you
whole.
With being a disciple as a relevant motive,
He’s guided to do some Bible quoting.
A pillar of the church wants to help you expand,
Speaking the truth in love to help you plan
How to express your important intentions.
It’s confidential and there’s some facts that we
won’t mention.
Called, chosen, and faithful people bring
liberation--
Know the truth and be set free from hesitation.
Their way, truth and life is a heavenly truth
scout
Leading you in your faith to erase all doubt.
Ambassadors for Christ are here to correct you
So you worship in Spirit and truth, God’s due.
Repentance leading to knowledge of truth
Improves your ambitious predictions and who
knows what might ensue.
God’s reconciling fellow workers are here to
encourage;
The Spirit of truth guides with a gentle urging.
Accurate meditations on the Bible will train
your instincts--
Choose love and life, not law and death, to be
your drink.
Firm believers in the new covenant come to heal.
Rightly divide the word of truth and feel the
Spirit seal.
Receive the promise of new confidence
As your recurring thoughts shape events.
More than conquerors brings a blessing when you
meet;
Desiring truth in the inner parts, you both sit
at Jesus’ feet.
Jesus testifies to truth, listen to the story--
All your solemn plans emerge on the road to
glory.
Children and co-heirs of the living God are here
to confirm
You’ve been saved through belief in truth
personally learned.
Your immediate reflection or judgement may be
tough to follow
But when in sync with recurring thoughts, the
results are not hollow.
When life has you in a quandry of sorts
Ask God to be a good sport
And send one of these folks across your path
today
So you can syncopate with the heavenly way.
Return the favor when you’ve got the chance
To participate in God’s love dance.
Learn each role and react with glee--
Emulating Jesus the truthfinder is an ecstasy.
When you thus learn to relate
And let the serendipity do its syncopate,
Your innocent wish will get astounding results--
You can enter the kingdom even as a flerking
putzing klutz.
5.4.3 Career Counseling Process Overview
Any process of career counseling must satisfy the following criteria:
1. Enhancement of the client’s motivation
2. Accuracy and balance of presentation
3. Processing of the client’s experience
4. Timeliness of presentation
5. Appropriate amount and complexity of content
6. Provide a facilitative context
7. Provide the appropriate amount of assistance.
Hopefully a client’s decision-making style can guide the order in which various factors are brought out and discussed. This desire to accomodate the client will depend on actual practice in the field to identify a list of simple questions to ask which will clarify such an ordering arrangement.
Below are some of the factors to be considered in client counseling.
Aspects of the client’s life style which should be considered include:
1. Leisure activities
2. Personal and social behavior
3. Social responsibility (citizenship)
4. Education
5. Occupation background
6. Ability to learn how to learn
If it is possible to do so, consideration should be given to the preferred learning mode of the client, whether it be:
1. Demonstrations in a study group context
2. Discussions perhaps with experienced
co-journeyiers
3. Hands-on experiences
4. Lectures by experts
5. Programmed materials
6. Iconic displays
Also a preference of interest is from among the following:
1. Knowing the instructor
2. Working with peers
3. Having authoritative guidance
4. Having organization
5. Attention to detail
6. Working alone
Things to measure about the client are:
1. Interests
2. Maturity
3. Achievements
4. Skills
5. Values
6. Aptitudes
7. Personality characteristics
Obstacles to be overcome and associated tasks are:
1. Unaware of abilities, interests, and
skills -- self-assessment of career relevant
attributes
2. Lack of systematic career decision
skills -- obtain career decision skills
3. Lack of job seeking skills -- obtain job
seeking skills
4. Wealth of occupational info -- obtain info
gathering and analyzing skills
5. Uncertain priorities and values -- clarify
values
6. Inaccurate info or maladaptive beliefs --
cognitive restructuring
Job characteristics to consider are:
1. Requirements
2. Function
3. Salary
4. Employment outlook
5. Conditions of work
6. Related occupations
In an ideal scenario, the following would all be provided ( it would take a very mature practice to provide all of them), based on the SOLUTIONS acrostic:
1. Saying what the hell, lets give it a try and
plunging forward with enthusiasm
2. Obtaining the support of a sponsor to get you
over the rough spots
3. Laboring at a voluntary position for 2 weeks
to get a feel for the requirements in
skill and attitude
4. Undertaking to inquire of best friends as to
what your limits are and deciding if you’re
willing to change
5. Teaching yourself how to behave by
interviewing with people already in the field
6. Inspecting your motives to be sure it’s your
own interests, not some outside influence,
to pursue this goal
7. Objectively comparing your background,
skills, and attitudes with heroic figures in
this kind of position
8. Noticing at what point you’ve failed in past
job trials and seeing if this is a rerun of
the same scenario
9. Spending some time alone just pondering your
various options.
Factors in job satisfaction for various clients include:
1. Opportunity for promotion
2. Pay
3. Communication
4. Social integration
5. Routinization
6. Concentration of power
7. Quantitative work overload
8. Worker “professionalism”
9. The degree to which rewards and punishments
are related to performance
Other aspects of relevance are:
1. Amount of travel
2. Economic security
3. Income
4. Variety
5. Indoors v.s. outdoors
6. Working hours
7. Professional advancement
8. Authoritativeness
9. Length of training required
10. Prestige
11. Flexibility of working hours
12. Responsibility/independence
5.4.4 Hints on Expert System Architecture
The emotions that we experience are very unruly and distracting. It is desirable to
get each in balance. A list of 9-12 emotions are identified for study. The purpose of each
phase of the expert system program is to help in that balancing for a specific emotion,
5 out of 10 having been chosen in a particular sequence for implementation. Only the
first one, “passionate longing for God and mate” is considered to be of paramount
importance in order of resolution. This is based partially on the ENNEAGRAM theory
of personality, but the sequence of growth in maturity specified therein is not particularly
followed here.
The project mottos for the 5 phases of expert system program are as follows along with
the corresponding ENNEAGRAM type number and emotion-like characteristic:
1. Never say never; say can can can.
Type number 4.
Develop passionate longing for rest in
arms of God and soulmate
2. Truth is the scout, Jesus is the hunter
Type number 1.
Question to analyze and discover new
trends and agendas
3. Jesus is the bounty hunter; truth is the veil
torn asunder
Type number 5.
Be curious about mysteries of life and
the universe
4. Co-heir, balance and live
Type number 2
Have peace/thanks in passing along a
heritage
5. A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go
down
Type number 3.
Be furious about expressing basic
instincts
6.0 Schedule
6.1 General Project Time frame
The clock started ticking August 1, 1996.
A draft of each guidance report should be available at the end of the 1st year. The
3rd culture and cognitive therapy papers are critical and hopefully can be available in draft
in 6 months.
A draft of the functional design for the simulation program -- phase 1 and 2 -- and
phase 1 of the expert systems program should be available at the end of the 1st year. The
prototype ( unit tested ) version of this much should be available at the end of the 2nd year.
A draft of the process for career counseling proposal should be available at 1 ½ years.
Other products should be completed by the end of the 3rd year, except that the trial for the career process takes place perhaps in the 4th year after funding has been acquired for 1 year of business.
6.2 Alternative completion Scenarios
If no other staff comes forth to volunteer for involvement, then Joe will attempt to concentrate on the computer software functional design until that is firmed up and in parallel with that working on the cognitive therapy report, then work on the career counseling process report, then the other individual reports.
If more than 7 people are involved, perhaps we can complete our work in 2 years
instead of 3.
7.0 Resource Requirements
7.1 Overall staff needs
A group of 4 people, 2 programmers and 2 psychologists, is required to avoid having a large burden and to have good feedback. Other size impacts are detailed above in sections
1.3 and 6.2 .
7.2 Facilities Needed
A place to meet one night a week for 1 ½ -2 hours, say from 7-9 P.M.
Access to PCs for documentation editing.
Access to PCs for software development
at some point.
7.3 Computer and Software
An IBM compatible computer running
windows.
Wordperfect word processing software..
Perhaps the DELPHI-2 RAD (Rapid
Application Development) software for
Object Pascal software development. OR
Microsoft C#.
7.4 Training and Outside Consulting
Training in whatever RAD environment or programming languages is required, for
programmers who don’t already know them.
Education in the psychology theories is necessary to understand the concepts employed by the computer software.
Some outside consulting may be sought from the firm in Berkeley whose founder co-wrote the book “Thinking Styles”. In fact, it is desirable to establish an ongoing relationship for them to provide research for us in exchange for a share in our effort.
8.0 References
Nancy K. Schlossberg, Counseling Adults in Transition
Everett L. Worthington, Jr., When Someone Asks for Help
Joan Sturkie and Gordon R. Beard, Christian Peer Counseling
