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gantthead blogs
by - Michael Wood
It's time to rethink the way we approach IT. For too long IT has been allowed to exist dysfunctionally within the enterprise on many levels. From CIO relationships to fundemental understanding on how to plan, build and support the needs of the business IT has been allowed to be more art than science.... What follows are my thoughts on a variety of topics within the IT space.
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Some Things Never Change
Fresh off the presses via IT Business Edge - http://ct.itbusinessedge.com/dm?id=A2987EA1B93526CD8DA0817BF71D53EAEB24383DB858D7B7
"According to a Gartner report, approximately 65% of enterprise executives question the effectiveness of their IT investments in supporting their business goals and objectives. Even more telling is a recent IDC survey that found only 23% of IT professionals think their IT and business operations are in alignment. "
When will CIO's get it!. Alignment isn't about cutting edge technologies, its about understanding the business from its root to its top, communicating, discovering true needs and expectations and then providing the operational and strategic information leveraging tools and technologies needed.
Even now, when I talk to CIO's they don't drive their IT services from the overall business plan down. They still work in silos, fail to take in the big picture except at the most intellectual and obtuse levels, and are still cost not benefit focused.
The numbers speak for themselves... After over 50 years IT is still in denial about its ability to deliver value to the Enterprise. |
The Certification Craze
| Seems to me that there are just too many certifications floating around out there. As a Certified Public Accountant I know what it use to mean to hold a certificate... For CPAs it meant a college degree, a multi-day exam and 2 years of field experience; and then to keep it 40 hours a year of continuing education. Today most certifications consist of passing an exam or even worse, just sitting through some training classes. In IT's quest to legitimize itself as being worthy of joining the professional ranks, it has allowed the certifications to get out of control. By dumbing down the requirements we dumb down the profession..... just my thoughts |
When Should IT Say NO?
When it comes to deciding who should have what technologies and systems it is not IT's place to say no. As a CIO I always maintained that user organizations could have whatever they wanted so long as management approved it, they paid for it and IT could support it.
In my 9 years in the CIO chair I can't remember ever telling someone NO related to a need. Many times, however, I withheld my endorsement which thank God the CEO took very seriously.
IT is not the keep of the authorization, it exists to service the organization's current and future information technology needs. Its ability to deliver productivity and Enterprise Objective leveraging tools into the hands of the workforce should be the prime directive for IT.
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Setting Objectives
Many of us are asked to set goals and objectives for our organizations, departments, teams and selves. Most of us have no idea how to create objectives that add value to our ability to focus and get things done; which after all is the objective of an objective.
When setting an objective keep in mind that it must define an outcome that is observable. It must also result in creating a state that is different from the state you or your organization is currently in. Measurement is vital to every objective. It represents the basis for others as well as yourself to determine whether the objective has been achieved.
To create a great objective start by describing the new state, then describe how you plan to achieve that state. Text book objectives discourage HOW and only want to focus on WHAT. But until HOW is understood the attainability of WHAT can't be assessed. Pure WHAT statements are visions. Just think of the HOW in a tactical sense not a procedural one.
Saying you want to make a car that gets 35 mpg is an objective but has no compelling force to it.
Saying you want to make a car that gets 35 mpg by reducing its weight while increasing its crash durability is more compelling and presents a challenge to those who would need to create it. Adding "within 2 years" even better. |
BPI Opportunities Flow from Enterprise Level Objectives
Seems there is a lot of fuss over how to find high impact Business Process Improvement Opportunities. This really makes my head hurt as they are always contained within the business objectives of the enterprise. So here are the steps to finding perfectly aligned, breakthrough BPI Opportunities.
Step 1 - Read the organization's business objectives
Step 2 - Define those objectives in operational terms - de-intellectualize them - make them measurable
Step 3 - Identify the cross-functional business processes (CFBP) that either contribute to or impede the achievement of those objectives
Step 4 - Identify the knowledge workers / subject matter experts within each CFBP organize them into a focus group and ask them why the objectives can't be achieved right now.
Step 5 - For each reason capture the details and also ask what would have to change to make objective achievement possible; capture that too.
In the GAPS the opportunities are found. How hard was that? |
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