Strategic or Tactical Role: A Choice

Doing tactical technology support is a good place to learn the inner workings of the IT organization and the daily-issues confronted by the business, but shifting focus to value creation through projects is an exciting and rewarding career track. ...

... "In addition to the direct financial costs of late delivery of IT projects, the report suggests that fire-fighting has a negative human impact in terms of IT managers' self-perception and morale. " ...

Via CRN Australia: Fight Fires

Counting the benefits of failure

Anyone who works with clients on setting up Project Management support structures knows that it is essential to have a senior sponsor who 'gets it'. That is, who understands the benefits that come from well managed projects that are delivered successfully - consistently. Sadly, there are many organisations who like the idea of having an established project management capability but balk at the change that is necessary to achieve it.
On the hunt for references that would appeal to the budget minded, I came across this paper from Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester in the UK. Many of the costs of failure he lists would apply to projects in any field, not just eGovernment projects.
The Impact of eGovernment Failure

One intriguing heading in the paper that caught my eye was 'The Potential Benefits of eGovernment Failure'. This turns out to be a list of opportunities based on the principle of learning from one's mistakes. This sounds obvious but, sadly - again, so many organisations are not geared up to capture lessons learned. Which makes it all the more important to share experiences broadly so that there are more people in all organisations who 'get it'.