Monday, October 6, 2008 1:58:47 PM EDT Michael Wood http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/ 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. http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/465/ 07/23/2007 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 objec... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/428/ 06/19/2007 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 contin... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/420/ 06/07/2007 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 ... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/418/ 06/05/2007 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... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/413/ 06/02/2007 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.Ste... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/396/ 05/19/2007  I just got back from a workshop on creative problem solving mostly attended by Six Sigma green and black belts. It was quite worrisome to hear questions posed to the workshop leader on issues related to getting buy-in, getting improvement pilots approved and such.  So, for those of you out there f... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/386/ 05/14/2007 Why is it that after almost 50 years of evolution IT hasn't really evolved all that much? Oh sure, the bells-n-whistles have improved, and we do have the Internet but that is all on the technology side of the equation. What I am talking about is the IT organization. I guess, maybe it's because tech... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/380/ 05/09/2007 There seems to be a lot of discussion as to which PM method works best. Sometimes I worry that project managers get all wrapped up in their own PM worlds losing sight of the end game, which is delivering outcomes that meet explicit and implicit expectation on time and on budget or better. The meth... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/373/ 05/05/2007 All too often, we find ourselves trying to grind the best deal we can from vendors that are critical to our success.  In short, this is a very bad idea.  When the chips are down and you need the vendor in your corner 24x7 the last thing you want is that bad taste you left if their mouth last time ... http://www.gantthead.com/blog/Just-My-Thoughts/371/ 05/04/2007 One shortfall with IT Governance is that it begs bureaucratsto move in and kill progress. ITgovernance is the process of insuring that the information assets of an organizationare properly protected. This impactsmany areas of IT but mostly change management and security. When the paperwork and appr...