DISCLAIMER: I’m not a lawyer and this obviously isn’t legal advice. This article is about our experiences on incorporating in the State of Maryland.

A smaller disclaimer: We incorporated Jumptree back in 2007—so the procedures might have changed a bit since then.

Also, we worked on Jumptree Project for a long time before we actually incorporated.

In fact, we already had a working alpha version before we decided to start up. Basically we wanted to be sure there was something tangible and not waste money starting something we couldn’t complete.

1. Decide on a corporate structure

There are several corporate structures to choose from—such as a regular corporation, an LLC, a partnership, etc…

If you have no idea what you’re doing then you really should talk to a lawyer or accountant. Or at the very least get one of those legal books or something.

This article deals with how to start a C corporation.

2. The Maryland Checklist for New Businesses

Every state should have an online resource of what’s needed to incorporate. Here’s the Maryland Checklist for New Businesses.

This will give you a basic overview of the requirements for starting a business in Maryland.

3. Check if the name is available.

The first thing is to see if your domain name is available. If example.com is taken, you could try examplecorp.com or example.net but you’ll probably always be upset that someone has the real domain. So take your time on this and find something memorable.

Once you’re sure, call 410-767-1340 to check if the name is available.

Also be aware that this name check only tells you if the name is available in the State of Maryland. It’s entirely possible that another company has this name in another state.

4. Decide how fast you want to apply

As of March 28, 2008 the total cost to startup in Maryland is $120 (a $100 fee + $20 organization & capitalization fee).

The regular application process takes 7-8 weeks while the expedited service is done within 7 days but costs $50 more. If you’re in a super-hurry you can go in person and get it done that day for $70 more.

If you go in person, be sure to bring checks as that’s the only way to pay. Since we were in a hurry we decided to just go.

5. Prepare the Articles of Incorporation

Go to Maryland’s State Department of Assessments and Taxation Forms and Applications page to download this form:

Articles of Incorporation for Stock Corporation form and instructions

Follow the instructions and fill out the form.

DISCLAIMER AGAIN: Seriously, these tips might not suit your business. So if you’re totally unsure what to do, please consult a lawyer or an accountant.

6. The actual day we went to file the papers

The directions are:

Stuff to bring:

1. Photo ID
2. Checks (or cash) — And just to be safe, bring several checks because you don’t want to mess up and only have one check on hand.

When you get there, you’ll have to first get a name tag by signing in, showing the guard a photo ID, and telling them you’re going to incorporate a business.

Then go to the eighth floor and wait in line to see the receptionist. As I was waiting, I leaned against the wall and accidentally turned off the lights…yeah, that was embarrassing. So just be careful…

Next tell the receptionist what you want to do:

1. Incorporate a business
2. Get a certified copy of the articles of incorporation

The receptionist will then give you some forms to fill and tell you to wait in another line.

One form is the expedited application form and the other is an order form. Both of them ask for the mailing address and who’s applying.

Once you wait your turn, an inspector will examine your Articles of Incorporation and tell you how much you need to pay.

In total we paid:

• Base Fee — $100
• Org. & Cap Fee — $20
• Expedite Fee — $70
• Copy Fee — $22

Total $212

Then you just wait until they call your company’s name. We only waited about 20 minutes and we were done!

So that’s it. Now you’re legally incorporated!

Stay tuned because in my next series of articles I’ll discuss how to open a corporate checking account, applying for your Employer’s Identification Number, and some other stuff that we learned along the way.

I don’t know if I’m just the minority among the ASP.NET developers, but for years, I’ve never had to deal with the Active Directory simply because most projects that I’ve done before were in hosting environments where Active Directory is a luxury to have.

Things are different these days when it comes to support a product like Jumptree Project. Lately, we’ve had quite a few inquires from companies and government agencies where Active Directory authentication is the norm, and such it’s essential for them to link the users in their system with Jumptree together.

So how does a developer—who is not a network admin guru—setup such an environment to develop against Active Directory?

The Hardware

• Machine A Windows 2000 Server — We will setup Active Directory here
• Machine B Windows XP Pro — This will be our client machine where ASP.NET 2.0 will be used to authenticate against the Active Directory
• Router — Connects Machine A and Machine B together.

Setting up Active Directory

Step 1: First you need to configure Active Directory.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, here’s a step-by-step instruction guide by Johannes Helmig that you should follow. Just make sure you reboot the server (Machine A) when you are done.

Step 2: Now to add a user account for our ASP.NET code later to test against. Go to Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers.

Step 3: Next, expand your domain name and then right-click New > User.

Step 4: The next screen will ask for your first name, last name, full name, user logon name and pre-windows 2000 logo name. Simply entering a name like John Smith or whatever suits your taste.

Step 5: The last step is to create the password for this user account.

Just check the checkboxes User cannot change password and Password never expires for simplicity’s sake and click Finish when you are done.

That’s it for as far as setting up Active Directory goes. Let’s move onto our Machine B where the Windows XP Pro is.

Configuring the client machine

Step 1: On Machine B, right-click the My Computer icon, select the Computer Name tab and click the Change button.

Click on the Domain radio box, and enter the Domain name that was mentioned in Step 3. Click OK afterwards.

Now, you should have everything setup. Reboot the machine and when logging on enter the username that you added to the Active Directory using the domain that you setup earlier.

ASP.NET 2.0 Active Directory with Forms Authentication

When it comes down to it, the only tricky part about using forms authentication against Active Directory is about two configuration sections.

1. ConnectionString
2. Membership Configuration

Here is a sample of my configuration and I’ll explain it afterwards:

<configuration>
<appSettings/>
<connectionStrings>
<add
name="ADConnectionString"
connectionString= "LDAP://NEMOHome.com/CN=Users,DC=NEMOHome,DC=com"
/>
</connectionStrings>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="false" />
<membership defaultProvider="MembershipADProvider">
<providers>
<add
name="MembershipADProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
connectionStringName="ADConnectionString"
connectionUsername="NEMOHome.com\liming.xu"
connectionPassword="changeme"
/>
</providers>
</membership>
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms name=".ASPNET" loginUrl="login.aspx" defaultUrl="protected/default.aspx" />
</authentication>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</configuration>

As you can see, the part around the Authentication and Authorization sections are nothing special, however pay attention to

1. connectionStrings

The syntax of Active Directory starts with LDAP:// followed by the domain name that I mentioned earlier in the article. It’s absolutely important for you to get the domain name right.

The second important element is CN= which stands for user container and in my case it’s Users and the rest of the tokens DC are simply substrings of our domain name.

2. Membership

Now in the membership section, first use this provider:

System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider

…then set the connectionStringName to the connectionString.

Also, the connectionUsername and connectionPassword I used is the account I setup earlier. I’ve seen others use a different user for this, but I’m too lazy efficient, so I just used the one I created before.

When the ActiveDirectoryMembership provider connects to Active Directory, it uses the account whose credentials are specified on the connectionUsername property (note the lower-case n, which is different from the connectionStringName property).

If you specify the connectionUsername property, you must also specify the connectionPassword property, otherwise an exception is thrown.

If you do not specify account credentials, Active Directory uses your ASP.NET Web application’s process account.

From MSDN

And that’s it. Go to your login page and log in as usual and you will see, everything works as expected.

Conclusion

Overall, not bad eh? Hope this guide helps those ASP.NET developers who are trying to get started with Active Directory. I’ve attached the test source files here for you, modify as you see fit.

ActiveDirectory.zip (4 KB)

As of now, Jumptree Project Management does not yet support Active Directory authentication. It will be included however in the next v1.2 release.

Back when I was consulting, the one thing that would give me cold sweats at night was expecting to get a call saying the clients wanted some changes to be made.

And I hate changes…well, not actually hate but maybe a really strong dislike…

The main reason is because of all the wasted time that was spent prior to that. All that time spent on negotiating the contract, workflow-ing the specs, drinking Starbucks…and of course let’s not forget hours actually spent working on the original requirements.

Now I don’t blame the client—because that’s what consulting is all about.

As their guide, it’s your job to figure out what they want. But unfortunately a lot of times they aren’t sure either.

That’s why contracts, requirements, specs, and all that stuff should never be considered the Holy Grail.

Of course it’s hard not to get personal because you spend so much time on it that it’s like your baby and someone is telling you, “Um…yeah…something’s wrong with your kid. It’s gotta change!”

Change order forms to the rescue!

There are four important elements of a change order form.

1. Description of Change — explain exactly what’s going to change. Is it a new feature? Is it a change from an existing requirement? If so, are other requirements affected?

2. Reason for Change — you must understand exactly why the client wants something changed. This lets you anticipate any other roadblocks that might occur. It also gives you a better understanding of the business-logic of the project.

3. Time and Cost — the most important thing to remember is the give-and-take nature of the change order process. Changes will come at the expense of either time or cost—and most of the time both.

4. A Signature — a change order is basically an extension to a contract. It must be signed—and preferably by the person who signed the contract.

This will save your butt (or at least your job) if you’re ever questioned about why these changes were made—especially if your client all of a sudden hires a new project manager because the old one was using corporate funds to…um…never mind.

So get it signed!

Here is a sample change order form:

Change Order Form (38 KB)

How we use Jumptree Project to track changes

1. We have a global category called Changes. Anything that’s even remote a change will get selected as such.

2. Next we create a discussion about the changes that want to be made. Here we will discuss with the client how their changes will affect the cost and timeline of the project.

3. Once the client agrees to the changes and the extra time/costs, we then fill out the change order form, upload it, and ask them to sign it.

4. After the client sends it back to us, we delete the original file (in Step 3), and then scan and upload the signed change order form to the first post. We also add [Signed] to the title.

5. We’ll also add all the tasks that need to be made—note that clients can only see published tasks.

That way, your team will know the context of the changes and you’ll be able to better monitor them as well.

6. And finally, when all the tasks are closed, we’ll close the discussion—finalizing the changes.

• SQL Server 2005 support
• Calendar with Date Localization
• Files Management
• Publishing Tasks
• Multilingual Support
• Enhanced Batch Updates
• URL Proxy
• Print Layout
• UI Improvements
• Speed Increases

This is a free upgrade for existing customers, so please login and follow the update instructions.

If you have any problems, please email us at support@jumptree.com or visit our Forum.

In addition to SQL Server 2005 support and Files Management, there is now batch editing for tasks, discussions, and files.

We’re also excited to announce the most requested feature: a Calendar!

Projects, Milestones, and Tasks will each have their own calendars and the Dashboard will have a calendar that displays everything together.

Here’s what the Dashboard Calendar looks like (click to enlarge it):

As for full internationalization, we decided to push it back to a later upgrade as we want to implement support for localized language packs as well.

Jumptree Project v1.1 is a free upgrade for existing users.

Well I’m not sure if we’re considered cool enough, but we choose ASP.NET over Java for a variety of reasons.

ASP.NET is easier to setup and deploy

Since Jumptree Project is download software, we needed to ensure that we could readily support our customer’s installation and deployment process.

Have you ever run into problems deploying a Java application and then having to spend hours going through your configuration files and resolving library conflicts? Fun!

Java may be multi-platform, but there are numerous middleware implementations of J2EE—each with its own quirks. So instead of spending time improving your application, you end up having to answer support calls on why your Tomcat application doesn’t work on IBM Websphere.

With .NET, the environment is pretty much standard—so it’s a lot easier for us to provide support.

It’s easier to develop in ASP.NET because it’s just so RAD

The .NET platform supports a vast array of libraries that makes a developer’s life a whole lot easier compared to traditional ASP and Java.

There are a few Java frameworks that stand out, like JSTL, JSF, Struts, Spring, etc., but to make them work together is a painful and convoluted process.

ASP.NET isn’t that expensive

Yes, Java is free. Java Editor Eclipse is free. Java runtime is free. Apache/Tomcat web/servlet server is free.

Free is good.

And this may be the biggest reason why a lot of startups choose something other than .NET.

However, for US $375 you can join the Microsoft Empower for ISVs program and get a whole lotta software, including Visual Studio, Windows Server, SQL Server, Office, MSDN Premium Subscription…

Of course $375 vs. Free isn’t really much of a fight, but do consider the hidden costs—like how much easier it is to setup a .NET environment.

Great community support

There are a lot of great .NET blogs and resources such as The Code Project, 4 Guys From Rolla, NetFx3, and CodePlex—a site hosting open source projects.

And if you run into any problems, just check out the asp.net forum where Microsoft actually has employees answering your questions! Gotta love it when a multi-billion dollar company is trying to promote something…

One platform, multi-language

What happens if your C# developer decides to leave halfway through a project?

Don’t worry because you can just as readily hire a VB.NET developer to continue the work because the .NET platform can interpret both languages.

And if you don’t like C# or VB.NET go ahead and try Ruby or Python.

The whole product

In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore describes the concept of the whole product:

The concept is very straightforward: There is a gap between the marketing promise made to the customer—the compelling value proposition—and the ability of the shipped product to fulfill that promise. For that gap to be overcome, the product must be augmented by a variety of services and ancillary products to become the whole product.

Page 108, 2002 Edition

Essentially, the whole product is the sum of the product plus anything else that might benefit the customer, such as technical support, add-ons, and system integration.

So by choosing .NET, we can leverage all the work that Microsoft has done to promote it. And when the time comes, we can more easily integrate our project management software with popular Microsoft products, like Outlook, Excel, and SharePoint.

What are you good at?

Ultimately, you should choose a language that you are familiar with and good at. I could have spent time learning Ruby on Rails, PHP or any of the other trendy languages, but I just needed to get started.

And so when I had to choose between Java and .NET—well…that was an easy choice.

Our goal is to release the v1.1 update in November 2007. The big 3 fixes and enhancements will be:

1. SQL Server 2005 support
2. Internationalization
3. Files Management

Other than that there are a few bugs and GUI issues that we’ll work on as well.

We thank all our customers and trial users! Stay tuned, we have a lot more to come!

So here it is!

Introducing the 10 User License Pack and the 100 User License Pack.

The 10 User License Pack has a 10% discount while the 100 User License Pack has a 15% discount.

So if you want to buy 25 User Licenses, then you would get:
2 Ten Packs + 5 Single User Licenses = 25 User Licenses

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Please let us know if you have any other recommendations and suggestions. We’re listening!

For existing BETA users who are purchasing v1, here’s how you update without losing your data.

1. Back up your database (just to be safe)

2. Delete everything in the BETA directory EXCEPT the config files

• PMAppSettings.config
• PMDDBConnection.config
• PMEmailSMTP.config
• web.config

and the

• App_Data folder

3. Unzip Jumptree Project v1 and upload everything except the config files and the App_Data folder.

4. In the App_Data folder, open up CivionLicense.xml and enter in the information from the purchase email.

If you have any problems, please email us at support@jumptree.com or visit our Forum.

Also, check out the Jumptree Project Support Manual for further reference.

We’re almost ready for a v1 release. There are just a few more things to iron out.

We fixed a bunch of bugs and UI issues during this time:

• Installer UI and workflow was corrected. In addition, read/write permission is auto-detected prior to installation and you will be notified if you failed to grant ASPNET/Network Services the proper permissions.
• Application Errors section now reports every possible system error.
• The Task ID (along with Task Title) is now displayed for related tasks in the Milestone Overview page and in the Discussion posts.
• Clicking the File name will allow you to download the file (before you had to click the file icon).
• An error message will appear if you select a Task Status of Duplicate and leave the Task ID field blank.
• In the discussions, Published discussions and milestones are clearly labeled with a Published Tag.
• In the discussions, Closed milestones are clearly labeled with a Closed Tag.
• Lock/Unlock fixed for Client Contacts and Users (A client contact or user is locked out of the system for 1 hours after 5 unsuccessful login attempts.)
• Various other GUI improvements here and there.
• Fixed a bunch of spelling mistakes.

We have a few more things left to do:

• Fix the grammar and spelling for error and warning messages.
• Correct the UI in a few more places.
• Hook up credit card transaction and payment system.
• Finalize the CRM Portal.
• Complete the documentation.

Most of this should be done very soon. Thanks again for all your support! We’re almost there!