Sunday, January 24, 2010

Lean Partner Teams

The integration of enterprises through global sourcing strategies is a common occurrence today. As part of its sustainability strategy, Nike works with its partners in the value chain to drive principles to the team level and develop an empowered extended workforce. ...

... "Lean principles put the decision making closer to the worker through skill building, teamwork and understanding quality over quantity. HRM builds the factory’s managerial capacity and helps them value an empowered workforce. " ...


Via Nike: Sustainability Strategy

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Sunday, December 06, 2009

Enterprise Architecture Models

Variants of enterprise architecture models are never a perfect fit as we strive to link applications and technology in a useful business context. ...

... "The framework layers the enterprise architecture by three decision-making levels (Enterprise, Domain and System) that are crossed by the four widely accepted architecture dimensions (Business, Information, Systems and Technology). " ...


Via eBizQ: EA Dimensions

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Shampoo or Conditioner, Which is Better

Life is full of dilemmas. And, that's a good thing. Be prepared to achieve the appropriate balance in your innovation portfolio. Try a few scenario plans for good measure. And, get comfortable when these natural tensions present themselves. ...

Innovation challenges and decisions

... "A common mistake is to reduce innovation because you do not have enough R&D resources to develop the ideas. The irony of this dilemma is that you can actually accelerate development by spending more time on ideating. " ...


Via Innovation in Practice: Dilemmas

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Strategy Execution

Executing on your IT vision requires making investment decisions and allocating your human and financial resources to the disciplined pursuit of your key strategies and enabling projects. ...

... "This requires clear decisions with priorities and clear IT resource allocation based on priorities—adjusted to relevant changes as they arise. " ...


Via CIO Insight: Executing IT Strategy

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Document Project Portfolio Moves

Document your project portfolio changes --- in-summary on the portfolio dashboard and in appropriate detail in offline documentation --- so you have a reference to your history. ...

... "At some point in the future, you may find this decision to be called into question. Even if the decision wasn’t yours to make, you may find yourself asked why Project X was ever shut down. " ...


Via Baseline: Pulling the IT Project Plug

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Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Mashup Project

IBM discusses example of enterprise mashup project by Boeing that brings data together from multiple sources to support decision making. ...

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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Project Business Case: Shock and Awe with Value

Enhance your business case with a compelling story and value statements in the language of your business. While the solution is important, keep the technical details to a minimum. ...

... "Decision makers don't want to hear about bits and bytes. IT managers need to talk to them in terms of achieving business value and reducing risk, said John Cash ... " ...


Via IT Business, Canada: Project Approval Process

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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Return on Data

Traditional financial analyses, such as ROI, NPV, are challenging for IT projects. Better information does lead to more informed decision making and ultimately to a better performing business. ...

... "By and large, these are effective in analysing the hoped-for returns from a project or capital asset and for comparing one project with another. But they have little to say about what is probably the most valuable part of an IT project, namely the data. " ...


Via Computer Weekly: Profiting From Technology

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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Innovation: Influence of Relationships Survey

Survey delves into influence of relationships on innovation process. ...

... "Some data suggests that the quality of the relationships with decision-makers in a given organization may influence whether ideas are advanced (e.g., funded for the first time). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether this is indeed the case. " ...


Via Univ of Penn Wharton School: Survey on Idea Advancement for Knowledge

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Cancel Project: Not At Pain Point

Ten insights on dips, or inflection points, and what to do about them. Don't cancel your project when it gets tough. Use your dips wisely. Thanks Guy and Seth. ...

... "What's the worst time to quit? When the pain is the greatest. Decisions made during great pain are rarely good decisions. " ...


Via How to Change the World: The Big Dip

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

IT Project EQ Business Project 4 Heineken

Heineken Ireland implement CRM project successfully with business in the lead. Local IT manager grapples with common IT challenges, such as security, vendor consolidation, outsourcing, etc. ...



... "For Heineken Ireland it was the first real acceptance by the business that something like this wasn't an IT project. It was a business project with a strong piece of IT in it, says Manning, careful to make the distinction. " ...


Via SiliconRepublic: Tech Decisions Pay Off

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Monday, February 12, 2007

Portfolio Management, Program Management, and Governance: A Rational Approach

There's an informative article by Michael Hanford on IBM's website about "Portfolio Management Governance." While it's aligned with IBM's Rational methodology, it provides useful information in general on the topic.

Many people confuse portfolio management, program management, and the relationship of governance to the both domains.

While there's no "right answer" per se, the generally accepted view is that portfolio management focuses on alignment with organizational strategy; setting priorities vs. resource and/or financial constraints; and insuring the right mix of initiatives to meet organizational goals. This is not unlike the management of a financial portfolio.

Program management on the other hand, deals more with execution of a group of related projects, insuring that the interrelationships are managed across them, and leveraging economies of scale (i.e. shared administration, management of benefits, etc.).

More importantly, portfolio management is ongoing and cyclical, while program management is temporary. Of course, some organizations refer to certain "channels" of work as programs, or even refer to mega-projects as programs, but the PMI Standard for Program Management considers these areas in the domain of functional/operational management or project management, respectively.

As for governance, it can work on multiple levels. There can be portfolio management governance, which makes decisions and sets policies at the portfolio level, or program management governance, which acts at the program level. Ideally the two work hand-in hand. For example, an executive council (and sub-councils if need be) can make decisions at the portfolio level (including authorization or termination of programs and projects), while a program oversight committee can govern a specific program, in alignment with the portfolio needs.

For more, here's the IBM article...

Establishing portfolio management governance: Key components

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Thursday, February 08, 2007

CIO Pulse Point: IT Governance in Top 10

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants rank IT governance in the top 10 most important technology initiatives for 2007. ...

... "IT Governance: A structure of relationships and processes that direct and control an organization and help it achieve its goals by adding value while balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes. Includes IT ROI, or the decisions around technology investments and how to optimize related returns. " ...


Via American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA): AICPA 2007 Top Technology Initiatives ... (PDF)

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Sunday, January 28, 2007

Empathy: Lessons from Iwo Jima

I just saw Clint Eastwood's magnificent film, Letters from Iwo Jima, this weekend. Of course, as usual I end up looking at everything through the lense of leadership and project management lessons, which drives my wife crazy.

The film offered numerous contrasting examples of good leadership and poor leadership. The differences weren't hard to spot. Besides strategic intuition, what separated the effective leaders from the rest of the pack (on both the Japanese and American sides) was an undeniable sense of empathy (much like the film's director, Clint Eastwood, did in making the film from the Japanese perspective).

Empathy, a key component of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, is an undervalued trait in leadership. Equally important is the wisdom to know what to do with that empathy. In the film, the leaders who showed empathy and restraint were able to make the right decisions, even in the heat of battle. Their moral compass served them well. Ironically, it was empathy that led them to be able to predict the moves of the enemy as well.

Then there were the less effective leaders who blindly followed rules, thought only of themselves, were obsessed with power, and looked at people as objects to be used. Go see the movie. You'll see leadership styles worthy of emulation, and those to avoid. Ultimately, the film is about human decency and indecency.

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Managing the Grey Areas: Lessons from the Leadership Quadrant Seminar

On November 15th and 16th, I conducted a seminar with productivity consultant Jerome Jewell called The Leadership Quadrant: 4 Ps for Organizational Excellence. The 4 Ps are Principles, People, Productivity, and Process. It was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and we incorporated the museum’s rousing multi-media show, Freedom Rising, into the seminar.

The seminar participants came from the healthcare, criminal intelligence, and manufacturing sectors, which led to some fascinating discussion and dynamics. With any seminar, the value to all in attendance is magnified by the contributions of the participants, and this was no exception.

In the seminar, which included sections on principles, emotional intelligence, systemic thinking, talent management, innovation, project management, and more, the collective group highlighted a number of “grey areas” that a manager must frequently weigh when making decisions.

Some questions arose, such as:

"What if someone no longer likes a role they excel at and prefers a role they're poor at?"

"Do people always need to see the big picture?"

"Should one person be expected to serve the role of a manager, leader, and administrator? A strategist and tactician? A generalist?"

"How do you strike a balance between effective time management and remaining available to your staff?"

"Are recurring meetings effective or are they time wasters?"

In line with these questions, below are some of the factors that managers must consider:

  • People’s individual needs vs. organizational goals
  • Big picture inclusiveness vs. security (or the desire to give people narrow focus)
  • Using generalists vs. specialists (and where the specialty should focus – on a functional area or on a particular skill)
  • Effective time management vs. flexibility and being available to your staff’s needs
  • Recurring meetings vs. consideration for people’s time
  • Informing vs. influencing (for deciding whether to email or meet; even then, the decision is not always straightforward)
  • Innovation vs. execution (knowing when to move from ideation to “getting things done”)
  • Systemic (whole view) thinking vs. systematic thinking (routine, repeatable process)
  • Vigilance vs. delegation (how much is safe to delegate, and to whom?)
  • Firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas (should a firm principle ever be bypassed?)

In all of these cases, the group determined that the answer isn’t always black and white, and that each situation requires weighing these items. The trick is to observe, orient, decide and act quickly (referencing Colonel John Boyd’s OODA principle).

On the item of firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas, the group applied lessons from various cases throughout history where the US Constitution was challenged. It was obvious that there was no “one size fits all” answer.

With more recent events, consider OJ Simpson’s book. If you manage a bookstore with a principle of defending freedom of speech, do you carry O.J. Simpson’s new book, even though it is "ethically challenged," to say the least? Most large-chain bookstores creatively tried to satisfy both sides of the equation by donating all of the proceeds to the victims’ families. Of course, in the end, the book was canceled, but for a while, this was a real challenge to bookstores.

All of this reaffirms that management is abstract, not concrete. Managers cannot have all the answers; but they can and must insure that the right questions are considered, and they must have the courage to make decisions.

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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Project Risk Management

Oil production company, Venture Production PLC, uses risk management software to model project scenarios to select optimum schedule while balancing risks, costs, and time performance. This seems a worthwhile approach, when large investment is at stake and time to value is critical. ...

Complex and costly projects may requires advanced risk management software ...

... "Using Pertmaster, Venture's project management team was able to add a risk dimension to plans built in its Primavera P3 scheduling solution. Venture then analysed the schedule-risk of multiple scenario options to look at the most probable outcomes of each, in terms of both timescales and costs. This enabled the best options to be highlighted when considered from both likelihood of risk occurrence and degree of impact and enabled management to take well-informed decisions. " ...

Pertmaster Helps Bring Venture's New Oil Field On Stream ...

Venture Operated Goosander Field On Stream: "Goosander has been developed as a sub-sea tieback to the Venture operated Kittiwake platform utilising two subsea flowline bundles totalling 12 kilometres in length. The bundles were manufactured and installed by Subsea7 from their construction site in Wick and have been designed and engineered to accommodate future production and water injection wells and the potential for re-use on future subsea tie-backs. "

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Monday, July 24, 2006

The Distributed PMO: Lessons From Strange Places

I've read two pieces of information lately that couldn't be more different, and yet they both got me thinking about the benefits of what I call a "distributed PMO."

First, as I mentioned last week, I had read about Ken Kizer's magnificent transformation of the formerly abysmal Veteran's Health Administration (a poorly run group of hospitals mired in government hierarchy and bureaucracy). He established an network of regional "hubs" (what he called Virtual Integrated Services Networks, or VISNs - pronounced "visions"). Each VISN was itself a network of partnerships, associations, alliances, hospitals, etc. that worked together for the good of the customer.

The VISNs had the benefits of standardized quality with local presence. Decision-making was moved from Washington HQ to the VISNs, who were closer to the action than Washington HQ could ever be.

The role of headquarters became one of support, guiding principles, consulting advise, information services, and change leadership. Headquarters drives behaviors that benefit the overall structure.

Forms and approvals were reduced to a bare minimum. A relentless focus on the customer/patient (one of my battle cries, as most of you know) now guides all decisions and research.

If this isn't a good model for a PMO, I don't know what is. If project managers and functional experts (each who rely on one another for success) operated in various "regions" and/or functions (close to the action), and the PMO's role were to provide (and I repeat from above) support, guiding principles, consulting advise, information services, and change leadership, more PMOs would become a valued and integrated part of their organization.

And if the focus were on reducing forms and bureaucracy, helping project teams be successful, and improving the customer experience (as opposed to an internal focus on merely schedule and budget metrics), PMOs might find themselves more popular as well.

Incidentally, this also happens to mirror the Toyota organizational model.

The idea of a distributed, integrated network isn't unique to business. It even happens in nature (here's where the strange part comes in). I was reading about a giant sea creature, larger than a blue whale, called a Giant Siphonophore (Praya sp.). The creature (yes, this is true, folks) runs 130 feet long and is actually made up of many other life forms, each having its own specialized role that works to service the whole entity, yet is unable to exist on its own. In other words, the Giant Siphonophore is a "colonial life form." As I read this, I was again reminded of the concept of a virtual, yet integrated network.

Yes, I actually make these odd connections, but ideas can come from anywhere. By the way, the creature can be seen in the IMAX film, The Living Sea (available on DVD). Here's more info on the colonial nature of the Giant Siphonophore and it mutually dependent parts. Food for thought.

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Off-shelf Governance Is Not Free ...

Even the implementation of open, off-shelf best practice frameworks takes time and committment. Don't let anyone fool you. Structuring an effective governance decision making process, recruiting and staffing governance bodies, and developing the portfolio information to enable governance decisions is an investment. Start now. But, realize that it's a journey. ...

CobiT is an offshelf framework for IT governance ...

... "CobiT offers no instant panacea for IT governance, and organizations can't expect to implement an effective framework overnight. " ...

Via CIO: CobiT Requires Commitment

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Saturday, June 24, 2006

IT Governance Meets Server Virtualization ...

IT governance enables smart decisions, including efficiencies associated with the virtualization of servers ...
Cassatt and NEC combine to deliver portfolio management for virtualization of servers aimed at the financial services industry. ...

... "Cassatt Corp., an innovator in providing enterprise software and services to enable agile IT infrastructures, and NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a premier provider of integrated solutions for the connected enterprise in North America, announced the immediate availability of a fast track IT Portfolio Management solution for server virtualization and consolidation. Express IT Portfolio Management (e-ITPM) is a joint solution from Cassatt and NEC that provides financial services customers with the ability to realize greater costs savings by combining IT governance initiatives with internal IT projects on virtualization and server consolidation. " ...

IT Governance Meets Server Virtualization: Via Cassatt Corporation: Cassatt and NEC Expand Partnership to Target Financial Services Customers: Joint solution combines NEC Solutions America IT Governance Practices with Cassatt's Server Virtualization Management and Consolidation Solution ...

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Sunday, June 18, 2006

IT Governance: Green Data Center ...

IT governance can enable decisions that promote energy efficiency ...
The information technology department can enable a green enterprise through smarter use of energy in the data center and on the desktop. Simple things, like Windows power management and double-sided printing, can make a difference. And, server virtualization ensures higher utilization rates and greater efficiency. ...

... "In today's world of high energy prices and green awareness, doing so should be a key element of IT governance at any organisation. " ...

IT Governance: Green Data Center: Via silicon.com: IT power crisis - what can CIOs do? ...

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

IT Strategy: Upgrades Align to Long Term ...

End-of-Life upgrades and capacity increase investments should align with the architectural roadmap generated by the IT strategic plan. Article discusses techniques to support upgrade decisions, postponement tactics, and repair/replace choices. ...

... "Any IT investment--whether it's an upgrade, a purchase or a lease--should support your long-term IT strategy. Otherwise, you're not spending your money wisely. " ...

IT Strategy: Upgrades Align to Long Term: Via Entrepreneur: Upgrading Your IT Equipment

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Sunday, June 04, 2006

IT Governance: Model for Accountability ...

IT govnernance: Who is accountable?
Is the CIO accountable for the decisions in IT governance? Michael Schrage discusses techniques for creating accountability in IT governance --- make governing boards and steering committees accountable to each other and for results. ...

... "That story often comes to mind when I hear the frustrations of IT governance and IT project steering committees designed to better align budgets, schedules, requirements and priorities. " ...

IT Governance: Model for Accountability : Via CIO: The Hammer of Consensus ...

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Monday, March 27, 2006

Recovering Troubled Projects; Seven Steps to Turn it Around

I just read a good case study about rescuing a troubled project, written by Jim Stewart on Chief Project Officer (which, incidentally, has a nice selection of articles).

Here are seven tips Stewart suggests:

1) Don't continue down a failed path. It's never too late to add controls.

2) Don't be afraid to cut your losses and terminate a project that's not generating value.

3) Be sure you have experienced, trained project managers. Keep the good, trainable ones. Reassign the others.

4) Be prepared to make tough decisions. Bypass groups that'll slow you down. Remove troublesome spots (or people).

5) Have adequate and appropriate resources. Allow project managers to focus on project management, not day-to-day technical details or deployment.

6) Don't hesistate to reconsider everyone's role. Avoid redundancy and joint-leadership situations.

7) Re-plan the project with team input. Avoid an unrealistic plan set by management. While management input is valid, only the team knows what's wrong with the project and how long everything should take. Getting team input insures a realistic schedule and garners team buy-in.

Here's the full case study with the lessons...

Chief Project Officer: Case Study: Recovering a Troubled High Tech Project

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Project Management: Virtual Decision Making

Struggling with enabling and sustaining project decisions? Bill Thomas promotes effective decision-making through a process that considers the level of decision-making participation and measures performance. The decision roles of participants should be understood, documented, and monitored (helpful with compliance, such as SOX). Graphical visualization of key measures is recommended, in combination with the appropriate commentary to provide the color and texture of the business context. ...

... "Effective group decision making within performance management has always been a challenge, but traditional decision-making approaches do not consider the speed and complexity of dynamic virtual work teams regularly employed at this time. They also neglect recent compliance regulations that have a direct impact on defining current business processes. Ten years ago, an organization could employ loose guidelines and/or project management techniques because group decision making was less complicated. " ...

Via Business Intelligence Network: Decision Making and Risk within the Performance Management Process ...

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Sunday, February 05, 2006

Business Process Governance: Setting Priorities ...

The convergence of benefits realization from ERP implementations and the drive towards operational excellence have placed IT at the epicenter of business process transformation. Good governance can ensure the leadership committment and focus necessary to achieve real change. Andrew Rowsell-Jones, Gartner, extends the approach for IT governance to the enterprise decisions necessary to drive enterprise transformation. ...

... "Process governance can be defined using the same tools for defining IT governance - but extended to include decisions about process priorities. These additions include the principles used to govern decisions about processes, and benefits realization, where C-level executives and at least one other business group, plus the CIO, have to call the shots. " ...


Business Process Governance: Setting Priorities: Via CIO: Change Is the Name of the Game ...

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Saturday, February 04, 2006

Mining for Talent; Fielding a Good Project Team

Tom Peters has been blogging about a book by Dennis Littky called The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business. Now I can see why. I purchased the book and it's revolutionary. Littky is a pioneer in the education industry and has achieved startling results with his focus on students as individuals. But the book isn't just for those in education, it's for anyone in a leadership role.

Much like the theme of How Full is Your Bucket, the subject of my previous post, it focuses on finding the hidden talents in the individual, and not just basing decisions on grades, scores, or averages. I'm still reading it, so I'm sure I'll be posting more on it in the near future, but so far it's a very enlightening book, and makes so much sense it's scary.

I've always subscribed to this philosophy, as I feel that fielding a good team in business is no different than fielding a good team in sports. You need to find people's desires and areas of talent (nearly everyone has some), encourage them to build on that talent, and put them in the right positions to exercise that talent. Combined with positive reinforcement (which elevates their self-confidence), they will shine as individuals, and if well-matched with others (team dynamics), the team will shine as well.

I recently saw yet another source that supports this theme of "mining for talents." I just subscribed to Leadership Excellence magazine (and in fact have been asked to submit an article to them, which will most likely appear in their April issue). On their website, I saw this quote from leadership guru Warren Bennis...

“It became clear to me that to understand Drucker’s philosophy of management, you need to know his philosophy of education. In fact, they are one and the same: Honor individual differences. Take people as they are. Don’t attempt to change or manipulate them to be like or to become somebody else. There is no one right way. Organizations are as much learning environments as they are socially useful institutions established to produce goods. At their best, they make available sufficient roles where individual strengths can contribute to productivity and where individual weaknesses are irrelevant. There is virtually no such thing as an ineffective worker, only a worker whose areas of competence are inappropriate for a particular role.”

—Warren Bennis, consultant,
Leadership Excellence, January 2006

Very inspiring words.

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Sunday, January 22, 2006

Risk analysis for portfolio management

"CIOs who are serious about portfolio management need to be serious about statistical risk management". This sentence is tucked away soemwhere in the second section of this article, but it summarises the message.
An interesting insight is that many organisations can't or won't quantify project risks. Because there are no risk numbers to be compared with the one hard number that is know - the budget - the tendency is to base portfolio decisions on budget alone.
The articlae discusses a couple of methods for quantifying risk - Decision tree analysis and Monte Carlo.
And the bottom line? It's a question of leadership to ensure that risk is taken into account.
Playing with Fire - Risk Management - importance of quantifying risk; use statistical simulations to map risks and probabilities; Develop risk analysis process - CIO Magazine Jul 1,2003

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

SOA ServiceOriented Architecture Predicted to Increase in New Year ...

IT governance models must evolve to make the best decisions on a service oriented enterprise architecture. Sean Rhody makes some predictions for the new year, including the acceleration of service oriented architectures, SOA. ...

... "Service orientation offers the possibility of real advances in IT - advances that can be coupled strongly to business value. It also requires organizational change and modification to IT governance that many folks have yet to really tackle. It's a lot easier to change the software than it is to change the people who run the software " ...

SOA ServiceOriented Architecture Predicted to Increase in New Year: Via SysCon: Holiday Wishes ...

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Friday, December 16, 2005

Project Work Packages; The Importance of Delegation

I read this story on Stephen Covey's website about his inspiring interview with a well-respected Naval captain. They key success factors for this captain were his ability to delegate, and his trust in his subordinates. This trust and delegation truly inspired passion and accountability in his people (something we've promoted here at PMThink as well).

It reminded me again of the importance of Work Packages in project management, where we assign deliverable (or group of deliverables) to a work package owner, and give them full accountability of managing the details to "make it so" (as Captain Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation would say).

Here's Stephen Covey's account of this interview:

I was training U.S. Navy officers in leadership during the dot.com era, when someone told me about an exemplary leader named Captain David Marquet, Captain of the U.S.S. Santa Fe, who never lost anyone, in spite of the hellish conditions submarine personnel are required to endure. An opportunity arose, which I jumped at.

I was invited to board Captain Marquet’s sub and interview him. Never before had I observed such empowerment. We stood on the bridge of this multibillion-dollar nuclear submarine with a football field of vessel in front of and behind us. A young officer approached the Captain and said, "Sir, I intend to take this ship down 400 feet." Captain Marquet asked about the sonar and sounding and then instructed this young man to give us another twenty minutes on the bridge before carrying out his intention.

Throughout the day, people approached the captain intending to do this or do that. The Captain would sometimes ask a question or two, but then say, "Very well." He reserved only the top decisions for his own confirmation and empowered others to make the rest. He said he wanted to empower his people as far as he possibly could within the Navy’s confines. He felt if he required them to own the problem and the solution to it, they would begin to view themselves as a vitally important link in the chain of command. He created a culture where those sailors had a real sense of adding value.

Months after my sub ride, Captain Marquet wrote to inform me that the U.S.S. Santa Fe was awarded the Arleigh Burke Trophy for most improved submarine, ship, or aviation squadron in the Pacific.


All in all, a very inspiring reminder to us that we don't need to be managing every last detail of our projects, and instead must have faith in our most valuable asset---our team. This "distributed accountability" approach is a surefire way to encourage and exploit team synergy. Just pick the right people, give them guidelines, and get out of the way.

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Results vs. Process - Revisited

The other day, I posted a blog on results vs process. The conclusion I came to was that for projects (which are by nature of limited duration), it was more important to do what it took to assure good results than to blindly follow process.

Of course, the definition of "good results" must be agreed upon. I also added the caveat that this does not apply to processes that must be observed to assure adequate results.

While I still fully believe this approach is true as a guiding principle for project managers, I've come across two good arguments in defense of process in general:

1) Results are often uncontrollable, while processes (if maintained) can at least assure more consistent results over the long haul. Uncertainty is a given, and good processes will allow for that and plan for that.

2) Conflict should always be expected, and should be used to improve processes rather than be seen as an impediment to results. Conflict is a good thing. Unresolved conflict is not.

My clarification of "results over process" is this:
  • When defining processes, don't make the processes so heavy and bureaucratic that they impede results.
  • Introduce processes slowly. Don't expect overnight results; Follow a maturity model and strive for continuous improvement.
  • Relentlessly search for less invasive ways of accomplishing control.
  • For each potential new process, use the"Five Why's" (asking "why" five times until you determine if the process in question is really needed). If in doubt, don't add it.
  • Allow room for people to make decisions. If a principle will work just fine to help keep people on course, then don't institute an unnecessary process. Not everything can or should be "process-ized." Generally, aim for principles over processes wherever possible.
I do think Toyota has it right. By focusing on long-term results (i.e. continuous improvement) over short term results, continued success is more assured. By we don't want to unnecessarily impede short term results either. We can walk this balance by keeping our processes lean and giving project managers the freedom and confidence to do what is right to successfully deliver a project. People are ultimately our best asset.

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Thursday, December 15, 2005

VOIP Project: Voice-Over-IP ...

The VOIP transformation project is relatively high-risk: newer technology, questionable scalability, increased cultural change, and impact to a critical business function: communications. J. Nicholas Hoover discusses the pitfalls of a voice-over-IP phone project

... "Anyone thinking a switch to a voice-over-IP phone system will be smooth and easy should remember Ruth Harenchar's ruby-red nail polish. At the Hobart West Group, where Harenchar is CIO, the company's VoIP project required tough decisions, like whether to spend money training existing IT staff or hire expensive consultants. It meant learning to live without certain common telecom features in order to get the savings the company wanted. And it involved helping employees through the culture shock of replacing the familiar ... " ...

Via InformationWeek | Voice-Over-IP | VoIP Gotchas ...

VOIP project management requires careful consideration of the business, technical, and cultural risks ...

Here are some relevant references on VOIP implementations:

Via NetworkWorld: The ROI of VoIP: "When it comes to VoIP, most network managers are satisfied that the technology works. The challenge is developing cost analyses: What will the new technology cost to roll out and support, and what benefits can companies expect to reap? "

Via NetIQ: VoIP in Action: "OK, you've moved beyond the deployment stage of your VoIP project. Your first group of VoIP phone users are happy and you've got high levels of availability and call quality. Now what? In the management stage, you need to keep those users happy with consistent availability and high call quality. "

Managing VoIP Implementations Effectively: "Voice over IP (VoIP) is the hottest telephony technology. Consumers and corporations are looking to reduce costs by deploying VoIP systems. The challenge, however, is that the technology is so new that few project managers have expertise in managing VoIP implementation. If you are interested in or responsible for implementing VoIP at your organization, this is the course for you. "

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IT Governance Process: Drive Business Value ...

IT governance seen as hot trend for 2006. CIO's will leverage business leaders to make investment decisions and increase the business value of the IT project portfolio. Summit Strategies publishes its annual list of seven IT high-impact trends in the information technology space. ...

... "CIOs Get Business Value Religion. Leading-edge CIOs will implement sophisticated, business-focused IT governance processes and tools to increase their credibility with internal business sponsors and free up funding to support strategic business/IT initiatives. " ...

Via Tekrati Research: IT Vendors Face Fundamental Changes in 2006, Says Summit Strategies ...

CIO governance trend will increase business value from IT ...

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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Project Planning Tip: Facts are More Important Than Theories

When planning your project or solving a problem, always remember that facts are more important than theories. This means that agile approaches, rolling wave planning, prototyping, etc. should be used where appropriate, in order to base decisions on facts. The alternative is to plan all future phases in detail up front, which is tantamount to basing your decisions on pure theory.

Likewise, the project approach itself should be based on a visit to the customer to see how things are currently done, and get a true understanding of what is needed. Often, what's really needed isn't what is stated in the project request.

In A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock Holmes (by way of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

This is sage advice for project managers as well.

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Project Estimating; Triple Constraint Must Stay Firm

Here's a great article from TechRepublic about project estimating and forecasting. It cautions that one of the worst things to do is to try to force a project to fit within an arbitrary management deadline. That means project managers must defend the right plan or suffer with poor results.

A properly estimated project must be based on planning, and be managed to the triple constraint of scope, time and cost (and of course, at PMThink we've discussed other potential variables, such as quality, risk, customer satisfaction, and more).

Here's TechRepublic's advice to CIO's:

Project managers talk about a project’s “triple constraints” of scope (work), time (schedule), and cost (budget)... For the team to make decisions that are closely aligned to the way you would like them to be made, you must clearly state the project priorities. There’s no such thing as “all three variables are equally important.”
Read on for more details or proper estimating and forecasting...

How to accurately estimate and forecast in project management

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Thursday, December 01, 2005

Project Portfolio Management: Business Intelligence Enables Visualization ...

Project Portfolio Management PPM vendors are increasingly bundling business intelligence components in their offerings, such as Business Engine's collaboration with Cognos. ...

Project Portfolio Management: Business Intelligence Enables Visualization: Via Business Engine: Business Engine Teams with Cognos to Deliver Business Intelligence Tailored to IT and Engineering Organizations: Global 2000 Companies Gain Greater Insight into Project-based Portfolios with Advanced Metrics, Dashboards and Reporting ...

... "BEN Business Intelligence embeds industry-leading business intelligence technology from Cognos, including Cognos ReportNet and Cognos PowerPlay, to provide IT and business users with powerful reporting and OLAP analysis through easy access to timely and accurate information. Business Engine recognizes the strategic importance of business intelligence and corporate performance management in helping enterprises gain greater value from their IT investments, align business goals and ultimately deliver solid results, said Ted Jandl, Area Vice President of Strategic Partners at Cognos. Coupling Cognos with Business Engine's leading Project Portfolio Management solution gives savvy corporate leaders the ability to make informed decisions about their business and technology investment portfolio while helping to drive enterprise agility in the face of a shifting economic landscape. " ...

Business intelligence enables portfolio management visualization through performance management ...

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Sunday, November 20, 2005

Leadership Tip of the Day: How to Inspire Passion and Accountability

Wanna really make people miserable and make them dependent on you to get anything done? Just micromanage them.

But if you want to inspire passion and accountability in people, just give them general guidelines and full support, removing any barriers that stand in their way. This is what true leadership is all about.

Allowing people to own their deliverables, make their own decisions, and be responsible for their results gives them true accountability for their work, and inspires an entrepreneurial spirit as well. Micromanagement on the other hand destroys this spirit, as does second-guessing, manipulating, and finger-pointing.

Passion and accountability are critical for any organization to thrive, and the key to motivating employees. Let's get beyond this pervasive culture of hierarchy, silo-thinking, and micromanagement. Central administration is fine, but let's aim for decentralized decision-making. Spread the word!

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Saturday, November 12, 2005

Implement Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Cheaper with a Hosted Solution

There's no doubt about it. The IT industry is headed toward hosted solutions, with their undeniable ROI due to infrastructure savings. And Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is no exception.

One of the best on the market is ProjectArena, as evident by the awards it has received, including the CIO Decisions Magazine/Nucleus Research ROI Award for 2005. I've already been impressed with ProjectArena's white papers (available free on their site) and their PPM Today Weblog.

If you're starting a PMO or looking to implement a PPM solution, check out ProjectArena's hosted solution below. And while you're at it, explore their white papers...

Project Arena - Hosted Project Portfolio Management

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Peter F. Drucker Management Pioneer ...

Peter F. Drucker Management Pioneer: Via New York Times: Peter F. Drucker, a Pioneer in Social and Management Theory, Is Dead at 95 ...

... "He became internationally renowned for urging corporate leaders to agree with subordinates on objectives and goals and then get out of the way of decisions about how to achieve them. ... " ...

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Sunday, November 06, 2005

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap ...

Measuring the performance of IT governance, the project management office (PMO), and individual projects is critical to understanding your current capability and to chart a future course of action. Shashwat Singhal explores the IT governance roadmap and the use of an IT balanced scorecard (BSC) to ensure that decisions are made in the interests of shareholders. ...

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap: Via Express Computer: Implementing IT governance ...

... "The IT balanced scorecard is an important mechanism for managing and aligning IT. Therefore, step 11 of the implementation road map refers to the establishment of an IT balanced scorecard. " ...


The IT Balanced Scorecard can be used to measure the performance of governance, the PMO, and the IT organization ...

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Thursday, November 03, 2005

IT Outsourcing Failure: Poor Governance and Challenging Culture ...

Poor governance and a resistant culture can sink any project or transformation. James Murray explores the situation with IT at Sainsbury, where its significant IT outsourcing contract with Accenture has failed. ...

IT Outsourcing Failure: Poor Governance and Challenging Culture: Via Computing: Supermarket giant reclaims its IT ...

... "the failure of Sainsbury's outsourcing relationship was more the result of management difficulties than inherent shortcomings of the IT outsourcing model. Sainsbury's made some bad decisions... and there was poor IT governance and internal politics issues where some were resistant to working with an external consultancy, he argued. " ...

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Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Enterprise Architecture: SEC Future State: Troux Metis ...

Troux and ISI partner to drive the enterprise architecture transformation at the SEC over the next few years. ...

Enterprise Architecture: SEC Future State: Troux Metis: Via Troux: SEC Taps Troux Technologies and ISI for Multi-Year Enterprise Architecture Program

... "Troux Technologies, the global leader in IT Governance and Enterprise Architecture (EA) solutions, and Integrated Systems, Inc., a foremost 8(a)-certified systems integrator, announced they have jointly won a multi-year contract from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to implement the SEC's Enterprise Architecture and increase its business value. Under the agreement, Troux and ISI will collaborate to provide the SEC's Office of Information and Technology with consulting expertise in documenting the SEC's current state architecture, and in developing and maintaining future state target architectures. ... Troux's Metis Enterprise is an Enterprise Architecture and planning solution that provides the basis for the transformation from an organization's current state to an optimized future state. It is designed with a highly scalable database that accommodates the volume of enterprise-wide data required for successful organizational transformation. Additionally, Troux's Metis offers a unique analysis capability, leveraging both the current and future EA states. The automated data collection in Metis, from disparate sources across the organization, keeps information timely and relevant. " ...


Troux's Metis will be used to model the future state enterprise architecture at the SEC ...

Integrated Systems, Inc. is dedicated to the development and implementation of high quality technology- and process-based solutions for government and commercial clients. Founded by Indrani Seetharam in 2000, ISI is a Minority Woman-Owned 8(a)-Certified small business, currently providing sophisticated technical solutions to the U.S. Treasury, the Departments of Homeland Security (US VISIT Program), Transportation (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), Energy, Agriculture and Education; the National Archive and Records Administration; the State of Delaware; and the US Navy Space Warfare Center (SPAWAR). ISI's focus areas include Enterprise Architecture, Information Assurance, Information Security, Certification and Accreditation, Independent Validation and Verification and Life-cycle Management. ISI develops practical, affordable, and deliverable solutions of significant value to its clients, on or ahead of schedule.

Troux Technologies (pronounced "true") is a global provider of IT Governance software that accelerates IT and business transformation. Troux's IT Governance solutions enable organizations to strategically plan the enterprise, capture and analyze critical IT and business data and deliver actionable decisions to transform the business. Troux's breakthrough technology provides the enterprise-class information, policies, and analytics critical for IT excellence. With Troux, organizations succeed in breaking the traditional IT silos and effectively aligning IT with core business goals. Based in Austin, Texas, Troux Technologies serves the Global 1000 and government marketplaces.

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Saturday, October 29, 2005

IT Portfolio Management Tools Not a Panacea

There's an excellent article in Computerworld on how IT portfolio management tools alone will not decide which projects get done. Politics, organizational dynamics, and subjective opinion still need to play a role, even with the best of software.

People have this picture in their mind that tools can be used to calculate ROI and magically align projects with strategic need according to a perfect formula. Voila! Automatic project prioritization and selection. The fact is that this is a myth. Tools can absolutely help, and can offer a first pass view of where projects line up. But ultimately, people must make decisions----and whenever people are involved, a myriad of other issues come up, including conflicts that must be resolved.

Here's the article at Computerworld, that rightfully talks about these tools as enablers and not the be-all, end-all ...

What IT portfolio management tools can't do: Stop politics - Computerworld

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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Ten Steps to Project Success

While we're on Top 10 lists, here's a good list of Ten Steps to Project Success, from Jo A. Boettcher at Project KickStart.

About the only thing I'd alter slightly is step #9, which proposes that we gain consensus from all stakeholders before making decisions. I'd alter it to say to gain input from all stakeholders before making decisions.

If we wait for total consensus, we could get derailed. It's critical to solicit input and attempt to cater to the majority, but ultimately we as leaders need to make the final decision (at least with backing from the sponsor). We just need to realize that any decision that goes against the majority must be made with good reason and would be done at a very high risk.

Neal Whitten talks about the need for "input" versus "consensus" in his most recent book, and I have a section on that very thing in my book. I'm in complete agreement with Neal on that point.

Aside from that minor alteration, this is a worthy list of steps.

Ten Steps to Project Success

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Be a Project Manager, Not a Project Reporter; Learn the Subject Matter

There's been some debate as to whether a project manager needs to know the subject matter of the project they're managing. While I agree that a project manager can be effective without knowing the subject matter in depth, they at least need to get a basic understanding of the subject and issues at hand in order to make decisions when needed.

For example, if a project manager is leading an IT development project, it's ideal if they've programmed in the past. But even if they do not have IT expertise, they need to at least read up on the basics and terminology and make sure they understand the issues at hand so they can't be snowed. After all, the project manager is accountable for the success of the project.

Likewise, if an IT project manager is leading a logistics project, they need to get a basic understanding of logistics terminology and process flow, and what the product of the project is intended to do. This is the all-important preliminary research that should go into any project. Furthermore, they need to lead the initiative to collect the business drivers, objectives, and requirements to the point where they understand what the intent of the project is.

Too many IT project managers attempt to lead a project not really understanding what the drivers are, and thus are unable to offer alternative suggestions or really drive the project. Instead they become a project "reporter" and not a project manager.

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Sunday, October 16, 2005

ITIL Process Approach: Federated CMDB ...

ITIL process is an approach to delivering world-class IT services. The ITIL service management framework is supported by a configuration management database, the CMDB. A federated CMDB reference model aggregates the distributed configuration data in today's distributed environments. Tideway partners to integrate ITIL services with automated discovery through a federated CMDB approach ...

Via Tideway Systems: Tideway Partners with Leading BSM Vendors

... "Our partnership with Tideway brings two innovative UK companies together to help our customers deliver world class IT services, based on an ITIL process driven approach. Building on Interlink's strengths of a virtual, federated CMDB driving Business Service Management (BSM), the integration with the Tideway products automates the discovery of configuration and dependency data used to drive our customers real-time and historical Service Views, said Grant Glading, Vice President of Marketing at Interlink Software. The role of business management tools has become critical as IT organisations strive to control cost and deliver reliability to avoid business affecting outages in complex IT environments. Process improvements are at the heart of achieving such business service efficiency, and through the combination of leading, innovative technologies best practice can be achieved. Tideway Systems underpins these business management tools ensuring that all information upon which the infrastructure-affecting decisions are made is completely reliable and up to date. " ...

References on federated CMDB with ITIL process:

Via Computerworld: Taking the Configuration Management Database to the Next Level: The Federated Data Model: This federated approach to a CMDB offers a single, common set of information on each configuration item and its relationships with other configuration items in a manner that can be leveraged by all relevant IT processes -- creating cost-saving synergy among different service management functions.

Via nLayers: Federated CMDB: A configuration management database (CMDB) strategy is central to the IT Service Management framework implementation described in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) documents. ... By adopting a federated CMDB approach, IT organizations can leverage data repositories throughout their environment through integration and utilization of open interfaces to share data.

Via Managed Objects: Business Service Configuration Manager: BSCM resolves the challenges created by today's process model adoption realities by providing a series of capabilities that actually help IT organizations accelerate their adoption of process maturity models like ITIL. ... BSCM enables available sources of configuration data to be mined and/or discovered, their inputs combined, differences reconciled, a service to be mapped, BSVs to be automatically generated and a federated CMDB based on the central point of reference the vCMDB created.


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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Stage Gate vs. Portfolio Management

One of the common debating topics when thinking about Portfolio Management is 'How does this interact with a Stage Gate process?' A Stage Gate process reviews a single project formally at a Gate Meeting and results in a Go/Kill/Hold/Recycle decision. The implication is that a project focused process determines whether a project should continue and can commit resources to doing so. In that case, what would be the role of Portfolio Management which is intended to make broad resource prioritisation decisions about a whole portfolio of potential projects.
This excellent paper from the Product Development Institute discusses the differing approaches and how they can be applied together. Thinking may have moved on a bit since the paper was published in 2001 but the fundamental descriptions and issues are well explained and still appicable.
Portfolio Management Working Paper

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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Systems Thinking for Project Managers

We couldn't call ourselves PMThink if we didn't talk about the importance of thinking now and then, could we?

Much has been made of Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, and its focus on Systems Thinking. Another Senge principle is to create and foster a learning organization. The enlightened organizations that have embraced this approach have discovered its substantial rewards.

One of the best sites I've come across on Systems Thinking (and thinking in general) is the Thinking Page. It offers a wealth of information on Systems Thinking, Creativity, Cybernetics, and more, which can hep us make better decisions and become more well-rounded project managers. The site received a "Top 5% of the Web" award from Lycos. Having read through it, I can see why.

I encourage all PMThinkers to explore this wonderful site, not only to challenge and inspire yourself to new heights, but to inspire others in your organization as well. Spread the word!


Thinking Page: better thinking using systems thinking, creativity, cybernetics, cognition research

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IT Governance: Service Portfolio Management Applications ...

It's raining, it's pouring ... EPM software vendors are accelerating their delivery of new service portfolio management applications in support of IT governance processes. Troux delivers IT Governance software to the marketplace, with a service portfolio management module. ...

IT Governance: Service Portfolio Management Applications: Via Troux: Troux Announces IT Governance Applications ...

... "Services Portfolio Management offers a centralized repository for digital service cataloging, built-in workflow and automated SLA compliance analysis. The application allows IT managers to accelerate IT services planning, delivery and management to better demonstrate the value to the business. " ...


Troux Technologies (pronounced "true") is a global provider of IT Governance software that accelerates IT and business transformation. Troux's IT Governance solutions enable organizations to strategically plan the enterprise, capture and analyze critical IT and business data and deliver actionable decisions to transform the business. Troux's breakthrough technology provides the enterprise-class information, policies, and analytics critical for IT excellence. With Troux, organizations succeed in breaking the traditional IT silos and effectively aligning IT with core business goals. Based in Austin, Texas, Troux Technologies serves the Global 1000 and government marketplaces.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Make Quicker Project Management Decisions with OODA Loops

Colonel John Boyd, one of the most brilliant military strategists known to man, created a warfare strategy known as OODA loops (OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act). Used in air-to-air combat, his method would be to complete the OODA process faster than the enemy, thus throwing the enemy off balance.

It certainly worked for him, as he never lost a dogfight. Toyota used OODA loops with great success, shortening their cycle time considerably. For project managers, this approach can lead to quicker decisions, and in some cases bold innovations. Best of all, it can foster greater situational awareness.

For a great essay on OODA loops and how they really apply to business, see Robert Paterson's Radio Weblog.

Also, see MindSim.com's site for Boyd's original briefing slides, and, for a brief overview of Boyd and his principles, see ValueBased Management's site.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Project Portfolio Management PPM: Two Models ...

Project Portfolio Management PPM: Two Models: Via Journyx PM Journal: Yes or No - The Two Models for Implementing Project Portfolio Management ...

PPM models discussed ...

... "The budget alignment model corresponds with an operational environment where the value of projects varies, and project costs are expense overhead. Decisions and behavior are driven by the need to squeeze value out of the available budget. Examples of the budget alignment business model include enterprise IT and product development organizations. " ...

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Process Governance Tool Upcoming ...

Process Governance Tool Upcoming: Via Business Engine: Business Engine Forms New Company, Appoints New CEO: New Company Purchases Assets of Old Company, Announces New Customer Wins and New Product ...

... "Business Engine - has also announced that it will be releasing a new product in October codenamed Cascade. Cascade simplifies process governance, compliance and management decision-making and will be formally unveiled at Business Engine's upcoming Global User Summit in Orlando, FL September 25-27, 2005 " ...

Process Governance Tool to be announced shortly at upcoming summit ...

Established in 1985, Business Engine is a leading provider of enterprise software for 'running the business of IT'. The Business Engine Network allows global IT organizations to manage IT strategy, financial governance and operational execution within a single Web-based solution, creating enterprise transparency that dramatically improves IT investment decisions, business alignment and delivery results. Business Engine serves over 80,000 end-users at global organizations including 20 Fortune 100 customers such as Boeing, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Northrup Grumman, Pfizer, and Siemens.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

IT Governance Common Themes ...

IT Governance Common Themes: Via CIOUpdate: IT Governance: The Solution to IT Anarchy?, Part II

Rick Freedman, Intel Project Management Practice Leader, explores common themes of IT governance ...

... "The question that IT governance asks is how these decisions are made: Are they made in an ad hoc manner, with no formal governance structures and little consistency from one decision to the next, or are they consistent and disciplined, requiring that a measurable business case be made for all IT investments, and that a feedback mechanism be in place for all initiatives so their ultimate business value can be evaluated? " ...

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Monday, September 05, 2005

Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool

Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool: Via Troux: Troux Announces Metis Enterprise 5.0 Technology Availability: Market leader rolls out integrated offering to help improve IT governance through Enterprise Architecture processes ...

Troux converges its product set on visualization and analysis of enterprise architecture data to enable effective centralized IT governance ...

... "Delivering on the successful acquisition of Metis earlier this year, Troux's Metis family of EA products now combines the visualization and analytic capabilities of the Metis modeling tool with Troux's highly scalable repository for automatic capture and management of enterprise IT and business data. This comprehensive offering gives enterprise architects, business analysts, IT planners and other decision-makers in even the largest and most complex organizations a toolset capable of centralizing the management of all IT governance processes. " ...

Centralized IT governance through visibility of the enterprise architecture, enabled by EA modeling tool ...

Troux Technologies (pronounced "true") is a global provider of IT Governance software that accelerates IT and business transformation. Troux's IT Governance solutions enable organizations to strategically plan the enterprise, capture and analyze critical IT and business data and deliver actionable decisions to transform the business. Troux's breakthrough technology provides the enterprise-class information, policies, and analytics critical for IT excellence. With Troux, organizations succeed in breaking the traditional IT silos and effectively aligning IT with core business goals. Based in Austin, Texas, Troux Technologies serves the Global 1000 and government marketplaces.

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

OnDemand Portfolio Management Solution: SMB Market ...

Via 3 Olive Solutions: on-demand project portfolio management solution ...

... "3 Olive Solutions develops Portfolio Intelligence™, the popular on-demand project portfolio management solution. Portfolio Intelligence™ is the solution of choice for mid-sized and small organizations or departments of larger companies such as the project management office (PMO) due to its affordability, quick implementations and easy-to-use methodology. Portfolio Intelligence™ gives executives and managers oversight for groupings of work efforts with its organization, control and decision support capabilities that result in increased business value from projects, better resource utilizations, and lower costs. " ...


Three Olive Solutions, LLC was founded with the mission of developing software solutions that help executives and managers be more effective leaders within their organizations. 3 Olive’s initial application, Portfolio Intelligence™, is an ondemand project portfolio management solution that is ideal for small and mid-sized organizations or departments within larger companies such as the project management office (PMO). Portfolio Intelligence™ is an affordable and easy-to-implement solution that enables executives and managers to organize, control and make better decisions on their work efforts resulting in higher business value, better resource utilizations, and lower costs.

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Why Projects Fail ...

Via IEEE Spection Feature Article: Why Software Fails ...

Robert N. Charette writes about why software projects fail and how we waste billions of dollars each year on preventable mistakes ...

... "Most failures, in fact, can be traced to a combination of technical, project management, and business decisions. Each dimension interacts with the others in complicated ways that exacerbate project risks and problems and increase the likelihood of failure. " ...

Why do software projects fail? ...

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Project Completion Date: When?

Project Completion Date: When?: Via NUCLEUS RESEARCH: Nucleus Research Helps Organizations Avoid Costly IT Mistakes, Potentially Saving Companies Millions ...

When is a project complete? Go-Live? At stabilization? At tipping-point of adoption? At realization of benefits? ... a debated topic. Nucleus Research, in a recent independent study, explores the top five IT mistakes that cost companies dearly ...

... "The end of a project is not when it’s deployed but rather when it’s being effectively used, which can be months or years later. " ...

When is a project complete? ...

Nucleus Research is a global provider of IT advisory and research services that provides CFOs, CIOs and their staffs with the real-world information they need to maximize the business returns from their technology investments. Its analysts blend financial analysis and case-based investigations with comprehensive technology expertise to deliver factual return-on-investment (ROI) data to organizations worldwide. The company uses an uncompromising set of processes and tools to evaluate the financial return on IT assets and is the only firm to gain certification by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Nucleus Research has analyst experts across the entire enterprise software and hardware space and provides clients with ongoing advice to help with both short-term technology decisions and long-term strategic plans.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Gantt Chart Graphics Tool

Gantt Chart Graphics Tool: Via ILOG: ILOG Launches the First Gantt Chart Graphics Tool with Custom Project Management Features for Microsoft .Net

ILOG launches Gantt chart graphics tool for the Microsoft .NET environment, enabling more visual project management applications ...

... "The new Project Management Option in ILOG Gantt for .NET 3.0 provides a comprehensive tool set for designing a visually-rich user interface and a scheduling engine that adds project scheduling capabilities to a Gantt chart. This functionality provides the foundation for a pre-built project management application that can be deployed across the entire enterprise as-is or customized to the organization's own specifications in Visual Basic or C#. It also allows developers to rapidly create and deploy custom project applications in a more cost-effective and time-efficient manner. For example, a developer can easily implement a new way of managing custom calendars for special working hours and days (i.e. vacations, holidays), so that tasks are automatically adjusted and assigned to available people. " ...

Graphics tool for gantt charts enables visually powerful project management applications ...

ILOG delivers software and services that empower customers to make better decisions faster and manage change and complexity. Over 2,500 global corporations and more than 465 leading software vendors rely on ILOG's market-leading business rule management system (BRMS), optimization and visualization software components, to achieve dramatic returns on investment, create market-defining products and services, and sharpen their competitive edge. ILOG was founded in 1987 and employs more than 650 people worldwide.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

IT Project Options Thinking

IT Project Options Thinking: Via Manufacturing Insights: Manufacturing Insights Recommends Options Thinking RFID Strategy to Achieve Maximum Long-Term ROI

When dealing with emerging technology, such as RFID, and the risk associated with it, Manufacturing Insights collaborated with academia to leverage an options-thinking IT investment strategy, which involves ...

... "Value the Options: Companies must place a systematic, accepted value on each identified option. Extract Value From IT Project Options: Companies need to establish checkpoints to manage the options approach successfully. " ...


Manufacturing Insights, an IDC Company, provides business and IT decision-makers with fact-based research and analysis to inform and support critical business decisions. The global independent research and advisory firm closely follows processes associated with the design, development and distribution of goods across markets including Discrete Manufacturing, Process Manufacturing, High Tech/Electronics Manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail. Manufacturing Insights’ research and analysis is critical for end-users, as well as hardware and software vendors, service providers, and purveyors of IT outsourcing. Founded in January 2005, Manufacturing Insights is headquartered in Framingham, Mass.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

The Project Manager's Ethical Dilemma

As anyone who took the PMP exam knows, the most difficult decisions in project management are not technical-related decisions, not are they process-related. They are usually political or ethical issues, especially when dealing with unfamiliar international situations.

This article by Janet Williams on the Business Improvement Architects website offers concise, sage advice when dealing with ethical dilemmas, especially when working internationally.

The Project Manager's Ethical Dilemma

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

PMO Role: Align Business and IT ...

PMO Role: Align Business and IT: Via eyeforpharma: IT Portfolio Management: Managing your investments ...

Helen Oram discusses research report "IT Portfolio Management – Making Technology Investments Pay Off" by AMR Research ...

... "The role of the PMO is to be the central governing body that is made up of representatives from different parts of the company, focusing on making strategic decisions that will better align business and IT priorities. The PMO has the responsibility to ensure that considerations and constraints are viewed as part of the portfolio management process, such as budget constraints, opportunity analysis, risk assessment, resource capacity, and demand management. " ...

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Thursday, August 18, 2005

Project Steering Teams; A Grand Jury Approach?

Ever have a project sponsor hand-pick a steering team that they know will support all their decisions, even if it's not the best solution for the enterprise? To avoid this, consider a "grand jury" approach, where a select group of managers "serve time" on a common steering team to address whatever critical projects come up during that time (let's say 6 months), with the goal of making enterprise decisions for each project that comes their way.

Like a real grand jury, this team wouldn't sit every day; they'd meet at a set interval (either weekly or less frequently as needed). This would be different than a traditional governance council in that this team would operate more at a tactical level as opposed to project and stage gate approval. Just something to think about.

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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Advanced Software Project Estimation: Parametric Algorithms Knowledge Bases

Advanced Software Project Estimation: Parametric Algorithms Knowledge Bases: Galorath Incorporated: Booz Allen Hamilton Case Study ...

Galorath Inc offers advanced parametric techniques to software project estimation that leverage sophisticated knowledge bases ...

... "A similar approach is used to estimate software development costs. The first step is to gather information about the project, such as the software development process, the use of object oriented or structured analysis development methods, the staff experience levels, the software module sizes (lines of code or function point count), and the schedule and price constraints. Again, Booz Allen estimators work with software engineers to begin building the SEER-SEM model by characterizing the software system and its modules using various technical and programmatic parameters. " ...


SEER-PPMC enables project managers to use software project plans for accurate tracking and forecasting. Because it is fully integrated with SEER-SEM™, users can create and track project plans in a single, easy to understand environment. Included with the SEER-SEM Project Manager Edition bundle, PPMC expands the SEER functionality to provide a complete solution for project managers and decision makers. SEER-PPMC is currently available from Galorath Incorporated. For more than 25 years, engineers, project managers and cost estimators throughout the world have turned to Galorath Incorporated for the industry’s most comprehensive set of decision-support and process management tools. Combined with extensive consulting and support services, Galorath’s SEER estimation and analysis tools derive cost, schedule and staffing estimates by assessing the interaction and impact of product, organizational and even operational variables. This parametric methodology, coupled with the industry’s most comprehensive knowledge bases, creates a rapid and powerful view of the critical factors driving program decisions and success from early concepts through upgrade and maintenance phases.

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Saturday, August 13, 2005

Integrated Solution vs. Best-of-Breed Software - Study finds ERP no panacea

Check out this interesting study of ERP vs. Best-of-Breed software. While the study focuses on supply chain software, the same issues apply to software in general.

Although we're in a consolidating market, this study (the most comprehensive of its kind) shows that Best-of-Breed still rates substantially higher in terms of value and quality, and that "integration" issues are sometimes overblown. Of course, in some application areas, integration issues can still come back to haunt you, so proceed cautiously.

They key is to determine who owns the integration. If one vendor commits to full ownership of all aspects of the integration, or you can support the integration in-house, it may be less of an issue.

Groundbreaking Research on ERP vs Best-of-Breed Supply Chain Software Finds Flawed Corporate Decisions Processes, Users Looking for Improvements from Both Types of Vendors

For more help on selecting Best-of-Breed vs. an integrated solution, see this excellent writeup.

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Sunday, August 07, 2005

Does Architecture Visualization Enable ITGovernance?

Does Architecture Visualization Enable ITGovernance: Via Troux:Troux Announces Metis Enterprise 5.0 Technology Availability ...

Having a documented as-is IT architecture is important. How important will visualization tools, such as Troux Metis, be in enabling a quality IT governance process? Certainly, it should help with end-of-life IT investments. Can it really play a role in transformative IT investments ...

... "Troux Technologies, the global leader in IT Governance and Enterprise Architecture (EA) solutions, announced the general availability of Metis Enterprise 5.0, an industry-leading Enterprise Architecture Modeling and Repository offering for Global 1000 companies and the government market. Delivering on the successful acquisition of Metis earlier this year, Troux's Metis family of EA products now combines the visualization and analytic capabilities of the Metis modeling tool with Troux's highly scalable repository for automatic capture and management of enterprise IT and business data. This comprehensive offering gives enterprise architects, business analysts, IT planners and other decision-makers in even the largest and most complex organizations a toolset capable of centralizing the management of all IT governance processes. " ...


Troux Technologies (pronounced "true") is a global provider of IT Governance software that accelerates IT and business transformation. Troux's IT Governance solutions enable organizations to strategically plan the enterprise, capture and analyze critical IT and business data and deliver actionable decisions to transform the business. Troux's breakthrough technology provides the enterprise-class information, policies, and analytics critical for IT excellence. With Troux, organizations succeed in breaking the traditional IT silos and effectively aligning IT with core business goals.

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