Mashup Project
IBM discusses example of enterprise mashup project by Boeing that brings data together from multiple sources to support decision making. ...
Labels: boeing, data-analysis, decisions, ibm, mashup
IBM discusses example of enterprise mashup project by Boeing that brings data together from multiple sources to support decision making. ...
Labels: boeing, data-analysis, decisions, ibm, mashup
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 ... " ...
Labels: business-case, decisions, language-of-business, project-proposal, risk-management, value
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. " ...
Labels: benefit-realization, decisions, information-technology, roi
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. " ...
Labels: decisions, funding, influence, innovation, investment, relationships, survey
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. " ...
Labels: cancel, decisions, insights, issues, project-management
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. " ...
Labels: business-project, crm-project, decisions, heineken-ireland, it-project
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.
Labels: course, decisions, governance, portfolio-managment, program-management
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. " ...
Labels: cio-perspective, cpa, decisions, it-governance, it-roi, survey, technology-initiatives, technology-investments
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.
Labels: course, decisions, effective-leader, empathy, leadership, leadership-style, leadership-traits, moral-compass, strategic-intuition
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:
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.
Labels: balance, course, decisions, innovation, it-project, leadership, people, principles, project-manager, security, talent-management, value, value-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. ...

... "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. " ...
Labels: decisions, performance, project-schedule, project-teams, risk-management, software, value, value-management
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."
Labels: action, customer, customer-experience, customer-service, decisions, it-project, leadership, pmo, principles, project-manager, project-schedule, project-teams, service-orientation
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 offers no instant panacea for IT governance, and organizations can't expect to implement an effective framework overnight. " ...
Labels: cio-perspective, decisions, governance, it-governance

... "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. " ...
Labels: agile, decisions, governance, it-governance, portfolio-managment, software

... "In today's world of high energy prices and green awareness, doing so should be a key element of IT governance at any organisation. " ...
Labels: awareness, decisions, governance, green-data-center, information-technology, it-governance, microsoft-project-management
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. " ...
Labels: decisions, it-strategy, plan

... "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. " ...
Labels: accountability, business-results, cio-perspective, decisions, governance, it-governance, it-project, results
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).
Labels: decisions, it-project, leadership, people, plan, project-manager, project-manager-tips, project-plan, project-schedule, project-teams, selection, value, value-management
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. " ...
Labels: bi-projects, business-impact, business-process, compliance, decisions, performance, project-roles, project-teams, sox
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. " ...
Labels: business-process, cio-perspective, decisions, erp-project, governance, it-governance, principles, tools
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.
Very inspiring words.“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
Labels: business-results, change-management, decisions, it-project, learning, people, project-roles, project-teams, results, talent-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.
Labels: cio-perspective, decisions, it-project, portfolio-managment, risk-management
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 " ...
Labels: decisions, enterprise-architecture, governance, it-governance, people, soa-service-oriented-architecture, value
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).
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.
Labels: accountability, asset-management, culture, decisions, it-project, passion, people, project-teams, success-story, training, value, value-management
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.
Labels: balance, business-results, course, decisions, improvement, it-project, managing-conflict, maturity-model, people, principles, project-plan, results
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 ... " ...
Labels: action, business-impact, change-management, cio-perspective, course, culture, decisions, information-technology, it-project, learning, project-cost, return-on-investment-roi, risk-management, training, voip
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. " ...
Labels: business-impact, business-process, cio-perspective, decisions, governance, information-technology, it-governance, it-project, tools, value
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.
Labels: advice, agile, alternative-thinking, customer, decisions, it-project, project-plan, project-planning
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.
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...
Labels: advice, business-results, constraint, course, customer, decisions, it-project, project-cost, project-plan, project-planning, project-schedule, project-teams, results, satisfaction
Project Portfolio Management PPM vendors are increasingly bundling business intelligence components in their offerings, such as Business Engine's collaboration with Cognos. ...
... "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. " ...

Labels: bi-projects, business-results, collaboration, decisions, global, information-technology, it-project, performance, portfolio-managment, project-teams, results, value, value-management