Monday, October 19, 2009

Project Manager to Police the Street

Nice career move for technology project manager with financial and fraud experience ...

... "Storch has a strong background in technology systems and project management, Khuzami said in a statement. He will help to make us more efficient and nimble, and permit us to put more of our investigators on the front lines to detect and stop fraud ... " ...


Via New York Times: COO of SEC Enforcement

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Project Managers Specialize in the Project Management Lifecycle

US News builds on a NYT article regarding Tim Geithner's role as Treasury Secretary, which got me thinking about parallels to the project management space. ... Should the project manager who started the project in the front-end load part of the lifecycle be the one to finish it? ...

Normally, I would answer this with a firm yes, unless the project was running off the rails. A project manager should experience the full life cycle of the project and finish what they have started. It serves the person well and provides continuity to the project, the team, and ultimately to the enterprise.

However ... I have collaborated with project managers who are great starters, working in the front-end to understand business challenges, consider alternatives and navigate the politics to create a compelling business case that is sponsored for governance. And, I have also worked with project managers that are stellar finishers, who thrive on organizing and driving a concept to reality. Often, these project managers are not the same person. And, each part of the project lifecycle requires different skills to be successful. ... As this article suggests - that Geithner is not our finisher for various reasons ... Should we cultivate great starters and finishers in the project management discipline? organizing them into starters and finishers or openers and closers. ... Or, should we strive to build end-to-end process and people excellence?

What do you think about project manager specialization in the project lifecycle? ...

... "It's not even that Geithner was the wrong man for the job. He wasn't. He's just the wrong person to finish it. " ...


Via US News and World Report: Tim Geithner Should Go

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Monday, April 06, 2009

Measuring Success as Technology Evangelist

I remember Apple introduced a role called the technology evangelist when the Mac was introduced. Later, we collaborated with a technology evangelist from Microsoft who helped us better understand the transition to dot Net development. This non-traditional role has had about 10-20 years to incubate and develop. Here's some insight into the modern-day role. ...

... "Success metrics: Met 7,000 customers in person; Attended nearly 200 conferences (30 per year); Picked up 3,000 followers on Twitter; Maintains regular, personalized contact with about 1,000 people; " ...


Via Church of the Customer: Evangelist

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Multi-Disciplinary Programs

Advice to position yourself for success in 2008. ...

... "Or, if you can, get assigned to a boundary-spanning role, and seek some relief from daily operational duties so you can focus on the big picture. " ...


Via PC World: Career Tips

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Project Management Career Path

Benchmarks for project manager's career path are discussed. ...







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Monday, October 29, 2007

Hybrid Skills for IT Project Success in Europe

European perspective on IT skills highlights need for hybrid skills that blend business and IT. ...

Karen Price, CEO of eSkills

... "Price said the gap in skills could not be plugged by offshoring and outsourcing, due to the importance of proximity to suppliers for IT projects. " ...


Via Business Week: Brains


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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

CIO Career: Vendor Network

Tips for those aspiring to the CIO role, such as use of branding and marketing. Leveraging your external networks, such as vendors, is good advice. ...

... "Your best salespeople are generally well-connected, he says. They typically have better networks than you do and for them, there is nothing better they can do than find an old customer a new home. " ...


Via InterGovWorld: CIO job

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Challenge IT Talent Poaching With Development Strategy

The battle for IT talent rages and is particularly acute in Asia. Consider exciting training programs, career path tracks, and other soft incentives, such as telecommuting to provide some work-life balance. The enterprise that masters talent development is sure to succeed in the future and have fun doing it. ...

... "To provide a continuous supply of IT staff and retain existing IT talent, the company started to establish various initiatives on staff development. " ...


Via MIS: The Asia IT Talent Challenge

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

IT Talent: Business Career Path

The conventional IT career path ladder has faded away to a zig-zag path across business and IT roles. Careers will be much more exciting and business acumen will be natural. ...

... "What really matters, then, is knowing how to apply technology to improve business performance. " ...


Via Computerworld: Link

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