The Important Essentials
Yesterday I was in New York for a CIO Event at Times Square. When attending things like this, I aim for at least one good take-away to make the time commitment worthwhile. This event provided several…
Category Archives: Management
5 Steps to IT Excellence – Step 5: Implementation
Welcome to the LAST of our 5 step plan. Our last post covered how to take a project from idea to definition. Now we’re ready to DO the work! We’ve already performed an assessment, identified our top priorities, and delegated “low hanging fruit” (easy win) projects to staff. This last post will highlight implementation of a larger IT… Read More »
5 Steps to IT Excellence – Step 4: Project Definition
In our last post, we covered a quick/easy way to establish budgetary costs and identify the “low hanging fruit” IT projects – those projects that have HIGH value but relatively low cost and/or easy implementation. Now we’re going to tackle that one HIGH value project that was more complex – Enhance Customer Ordering.
5 Steps to IT Excellence – Step 3: Cost & Low Hanging Fruit
In our last post, we identified our top priority projects, based on likelihood and business impact. Remember, these projects started from our own assessment, combined with firsthand feedback from department heads, IT staff, vendors – anyone possible.
Now we’ll attach estimated costs to each possible solution, keeping in mind that costs may go through several iterations. Think of this initial step as a BUDGETING step – not necessarily the fixed cost for the absolutely-best solution to each problem.
5 Steps to IT Excellence – Step 2: Risk & Impact
In our last post, we covered the Overall Assessment, which is largely a data gathering step. By now we should have a spreadsheet of potential projects, along with a WHOLE LOT more knowledge about the overall IT environment. We should understand the general flow of data, primary systems and integration points, overall network layout, and any existing policies. We should also have a good general understanding of vendor and staff skillsets. Next, we’ll build out the risk/impact prioritization – starting with the spreadsheet we created in our first step.
5 Steps to IT Excellence – Step 1: Assessment
One of the benefits of entering an existing (but leaderless) IT environment is the fresh perspective we can apply while establishing the organization’s technology goals. When starting with a blank sheet of paper, you can’t take anything for granted. Sometimes this clean start can be helpful — even in strong IT environments. Every now and then, it’s good to question the status quo, reassess risk, and confirm past decisions. Why wait until things get bad?
The Gutsy Side of Integrity
For the past several weeks, I’ve been fortunate to attend Sandler sales training. The Sandler training program includes a bunch of keywords, pictures, and techniques designed to shift sales people from the stereotypical used-car-salesman-type to a trusted and professional advisor. Whether or not you are in sales, as a working professional you will probably find yourself selling something to someone (ideas, projects, opinions, decisions, budgets, etc).
Signs of Intelligence
My current Masters class is Decision Support Systems and Business Intelligence. This week’s chapter is Artificial Intelligence. Buried in the chapter was a list of “Signs of Intelligence” from an AI point of view. Most of the signs were common sense, but there were three that caught my attention:
IT Leadership in an Imperfect World
It takes more than great network uptime and rock-star development teams to get IT right. The IT leader has an increasingly important role in directing the “big picture” properly, so that the company can quickly adapt to ever-changing business objectives and technology.
Can ITSM Help IT Succeed?
This article on ITSM is taken from a research paper completed as a requirement in a Master’s class taken Fall 2012. It outlines the use of ITSM to improve the traditional process where the development group builds systems that are thrown “over the wall” to another group who struggles to support them.