Archive for the 'Process' Category
As I promised in my previous post on this, and along the lines of the “intensely practical” goal of this blog, we’ll now take a look at the financial cost analysis for a specific project. This is only an example, with details changed or obscured, but it is based on a real proposal from a […]
April 10th, 2008 | Posted in Metrics, Financial, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
Let’s talk some more about one of my favorite topics, project portfolio management (PPM). A lot of literature on PPM tends to focus on evaluating risks and returns. An excellent article on IT governance last week in The Wall Street Journal had the following sage advice:
“Create an IT portfolio by evaluating risks and returns. […]
March 19th, 2008 | Posted in Metrics, Financial, Projects, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
As promised, I’m going to follow up on my last post (“Optimism, resilience, stamina: the make-up of the CTO/CIO“), covering the myths IT deals with on a regular basis, by talking about its flip side: the ways that IT itself can unfortunately perpetuate or contribute to some of the myths I’ve been discussing.
Here’s a […]
March 4th, 2008 | Posted in Communication, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
As I wrote last time, a large part of my reason for opposing offshoring is because I’ve rarely, if ever, worked in a company where I felt the necessary prerequisites were in place to be able to even consider offshoring as a viable option. Let’s go into that in more detail now.
I’ve observed before […]
February 19th, 2008 | Posted in Vendor management, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
Of all the numerous cold calls I get, inquiries from potential offshoring partners lead the pack. Their main pitch, of course, is that I can lower my development (or support, or QA) costs by leveraging offshore labor at a third or less of domestic rates. This argument is of course all the more […]
February 14th, 2008 | Posted in Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
I wrote last time about how there are twin truths to the buy vs. build dilemma: outsourcing can be a superb way to leverage external expertise and keep your own team focused on core functions; yet, outsourcing is not an easy or friction-free choice, and it’s easy to simply substitute one set of problems with […]
February 5th, 2008 | Posted in Vendor management, Projects, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
I’ve written before on how the most important thing that a CTO/CIO deals with is the proper allocation of resources. I’ve discussed how doing proper resource allocation isn’t just a matter of deciding exactly what Sam or Mary will work on this week, but actually figuring out the whole project portfolio, including sustainment activity, […]
January 25th, 2008 | Posted in Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments
Trust. It’s important. And a company typically instills a huge amount of trust in its IT department, particularly (as is often the case today) if that IT department is responsible for the operation of systems (such as web sites) that contribute significantly to the bottom line.
I’ve been at the helm of several IT departments […]
January 15th, 2008 | Posted in Communication, Process, Pillars of Purview | No Comments