Process

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

Tweet 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 [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Getting an IT assessment: pitfalls to watch for

Tweet 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 [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Start simple: a corporate desktop/laptop refresh model

Tweet 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 [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Executive questions, IT answers, pizza parlors, and speed chess

Tweet Let’s mix some metaphors today, and attempt to relate them all to the world of information technology and project management.I have a good friend and colleague, one of the top IT consultants I know.  He’s able to execute crisply at the detail level while keeping the big picture in mind; he’s especially good at [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Why status reports really do matter

Tweet Do a poll: many IT folks regard doing status reports as their least favorite task.  My point here, though, will be that a lot of people, management and workers alike, don’t fully understand the real purpose of status reports, and that status reports should actually be a “must-have” arrow in your management quiver.  How [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Nuts: the biggest trap of all for IT stakeholders

Tweet As I promised last time, there’s one more key way, the biggest way of all, not to get what you want from your IT organization.  This is, in fact, the trap I have seen virtually every entity I’ve ever worked for fall into to some degree, some to the point of actually destroying the [...]

12 comments Read the full article →

How not to get what you want from IT

Tweet As much as any part of your company that supports the key prongs of the corporate mission (deliver product, sell the product, support the product), IT is constantly on the hook to deliver more and more.  As I’ve written before, expectations are deservedly high, and getting higher all the time.  And when expectations are [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Using feedback loops to improve IT department service

Tweet As I’ve written here before, I strongly advocate thinking of IT in general as a service organization to the rest of the business. Any service organization needs one or more forms of “feedback loop” to be able to gauge whether it is successfully accomplishing its mission.  However, I’ve observed relatively few IT organizations that [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →