From the category archives:

Process

The CIO and the fine art of vendor negotiation

December 10, 2009

“Don’t write about that,” I’ve been told by several colleagues, when I’ve mentioned that I was working on a post about how best, as the senior technology executive, to negotiate with vendors.  “You’ll give away all your tricks!” they’ve said.
Well, actually, no.  Here’s the main trick: this particular CIO doesn’t have any “tricks”, if by tricks [...]

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IT transparency is good. But how transparent should you be?

November 24, 2009

A few years back, I had an extremely surprising and unpleasant experience as CTO. The director of my Program Management Office ran a weekly status meeting for project stakeholders, where we’d all methodically go through the current project portfolio, in order to communicate on issues, gather necessary feedback, and align everyone’s expectations. I typically attended [...]

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The Practical CIO: Difficulties in project prioritization & selection, part 2

August 14, 2009

OK, let’s assume you’ve gotten great at picking the right projects to do to benefit the company. How do you know you can actually accomplish the ones you’ve picked with the resources you have? If you’re like most companies I’ve seen, it’s done on a wing and a prayer. But there’s a better way.
Last time, [...]

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The Practical CIO: Difficulties in project prioritization & selection, part 1

July 31, 2009

How does your company pick which projects to undertake?  Demand outstrips available resources: nearly always, there are far more “good ideas” for things to do than can actually be done in a given time period.  So how do you decide which ones you take on?
If you research this general topic, you’ll find a lot of [...]

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A rational CapEx purchase and tracking process for IT

May 19, 2009

How often does someone in your company (often the CIO, or the CTO, or the head of infrastructure) end up running through the halls, waving a purchase order that “has” to be signed off that very day, or else key systems will allegedly go dark? Maybe you’re in the fortunate situation of being in a [...]

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Mantra for IT: “Participate in the process rather than confront results”

November 4, 2008

Let’s sail into a stretch of a metaphor this time. You probably know by now how much I embrace metaphors as a way to impart, often via a concrete example, ideas and concepts that are hard to grasp. So let’s go way back and talk about a metaphorical influence from long ago.
When I was in [...]

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Getting an IT assessment: pitfalls to watch for

July 21, 2008

One key ongoing goal of mine is that I constantly strive to pay attention. In this case, specifically, through web logging reports, I can see the Google searches that drive people to this blog every day.  One of the most common of these, it turns out, is people searching on the phrase “how to improve [...]

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Start simple: a corporate desktop/laptop refresh model

May 29, 2008

Here’s a topic that frankly shouldn’t even merit a post — it’s that much of a no-brainer if you think about it.Yet, in the real world, I’ve found that it’s anything but a no-brainer, at both small and large companies.  What I’m referring to is the need for organizations to track their laptops and desktops.Shockingly, [...]

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