This document provides a summary of a book that discusses how to increase the likelihood of IT project success through a process called "Corporate Profiling". The book argues that many IT project failures are due to lack of planning and insight within organizations before projects begin. It introduces Corporate Profiling as a way to provide visibility into an organization's needs and requirements. The summary highlights how Corporate Profiling involves unbundling an organization to understand its components, processes, and stakeholders to properly identify project requirements and set the project up for success.
IT Project Success through Corporate ProfilingITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different categories and layers, profiling core processes, and examining external factors to assess drivers for new IT systems and ensure success.
CIO Advisory Services Guide | White Paper from Brittenford SystemsBrittenford Systems
IT departments are under stress as the need for financial resources becomes overwhelming and technology departments are required to do more with less, using existing IT systems while having to also move or keep systems online. This white paper serves as a guide to CIO advisory services and discusses the current stress on the IT industry.
This document summarizes the key findings of a survey on enterprise project management. It found that only 60% of respondents have a project management office (PMO), and only 30% say IT initiatives almost always deliver value to the business. Effective project management requires addressing multiple factors, including task management, business processes, strategy, and organizational behavior. There is also debate around centralized vs decentralized project management approaches.
A strong communication capability between the business and IT ensures the alignment of business requirements with delivered IT functionality and value. Use this storyboard to understand common barriers to effective requirements management, tactical solutions to overcome these barriers, and how to achieve a high level of project success.
This storyboard will help you:
•Understand the common barriers to effective requirements management
•Learn how organizations have solved these challenges
•Implement your own tactical solutions to enable effective communication of business requirements for IT projects in your organization
•Achieve a high level of project success
Whether an organization develops its own applications or implements packaged solutions, the success of the project depends on the clear communication of business requirements in terms IT can understand and deliver.
Infochimps Survey: What IT Teams Want CIOs to Know About Big Data - Learn the top items that IT team members would like their CIOs to understand concerning their Big Data projects.
The report - CIOs & Big Data: What Your IT Team Wants You to Know - is based on a survey of more than 300 IT department employees, 58% of whom are currently engaged in Big Data projects, and aims to identify pitfalls that implementation teams encounter, and could avoid, if top management had a more complete view.
This document discusses right-sizing disaster recovery capabilities for organizations. It recommends determining an organization's current disaster recovery capabilities, getting business buy-in to establish appropriate priorities, and separating wants from needs. The document outlines a three-phase process for disaster recovery scoping: 1) assess current IT capabilities, 2) establish and validate business wants, and 3) align IT capabilities with business needs. It provides tips for getting business buy-in and measuring the costs and impacts of downtime to help organizations determine appropriate recovery objectives.
Artificial intel impacts on organizational performanceFarooq Omar
1. Artificial intelligence is impacting key areas of product development like project planning, resource allocation, and performance monitoring.
2. AI helps improve project planning through analyzing past project data to better predict challenges and avoid issues.
3. It also helps with resource allocation by objectively evaluating candidates based on skills rather than human biases, and finding qualified resources faster.
4. AI enhances performance monitoring by using data to proactively identify potential barriers or losses and spot opportunities for improvement.
IT Project Success through Corporate ProfilingITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different categories and layers, profiling core processes, and examining external factors to assess drivers for new IT systems and ensure success.
CIO Advisory Services Guide | White Paper from Brittenford SystemsBrittenford Systems
IT departments are under stress as the need for financial resources becomes overwhelming and technology departments are required to do more with less, using existing IT systems while having to also move or keep systems online. This white paper serves as a guide to CIO advisory services and discusses the current stress on the IT industry.
This document summarizes the key findings of a survey on enterprise project management. It found that only 60% of respondents have a project management office (PMO), and only 30% say IT initiatives almost always deliver value to the business. Effective project management requires addressing multiple factors, including task management, business processes, strategy, and organizational behavior. There is also debate around centralized vs decentralized project management approaches.
A strong communication capability between the business and IT ensures the alignment of business requirements with delivered IT functionality and value. Use this storyboard to understand common barriers to effective requirements management, tactical solutions to overcome these barriers, and how to achieve a high level of project success.
This storyboard will help you:
•Understand the common barriers to effective requirements management
•Learn how organizations have solved these challenges
•Implement your own tactical solutions to enable effective communication of business requirements for IT projects in your organization
•Achieve a high level of project success
Whether an organization develops its own applications or implements packaged solutions, the success of the project depends on the clear communication of business requirements in terms IT can understand and deliver.
Infochimps Survey: What IT Teams Want CIOs to Know About Big Data - Learn the top items that IT team members would like their CIOs to understand concerning their Big Data projects.
The report - CIOs & Big Data: What Your IT Team Wants You to Know - is based on a survey of more than 300 IT department employees, 58% of whom are currently engaged in Big Data projects, and aims to identify pitfalls that implementation teams encounter, and could avoid, if top management had a more complete view.
This document discusses right-sizing disaster recovery capabilities for organizations. It recommends determining an organization's current disaster recovery capabilities, getting business buy-in to establish appropriate priorities, and separating wants from needs. The document outlines a three-phase process for disaster recovery scoping: 1) assess current IT capabilities, 2) establish and validate business wants, and 3) align IT capabilities with business needs. It provides tips for getting business buy-in and measuring the costs and impacts of downtime to help organizations determine appropriate recovery objectives.
Artificial intel impacts on organizational performanceFarooq Omar
1. Artificial intelligence is impacting key areas of product development like project planning, resource allocation, and performance monitoring.
2. AI helps improve project planning through analyzing past project data to better predict challenges and avoid issues.
3. It also helps with resource allocation by objectively evaluating candidates based on skills rather than human biases, and finding qualified resources faster.
4. AI enhances performance monitoring by using data to proactively identify potential barriers or losses and spot opportunities for improvement.
Consumer technology is invading the enterprise and IT must embrace it in order to encourage employee productivity and satisfaction. Info-Tech recommends that organizations allow personal mobile devices on their corporate networks. This research addresses the following:
•Understand differences in security and management between the three major platforms – BlackBerry, Apple iOS, and Google Android.
•Evaluate the organization's position on the mobile device security scale and determine if third-party infrastructure is necessary.
•Development and enforcement of a personal mobile acceptable use policy to encourage end-user compliance and foster success.
Embrace consumer technology in the enterprise, and focus on end-user compliance to leverage productivity and maximize the potential for success.
This document discusses how artificial intelligence can help companies better manage complex contracts and associated risks. It makes the following key points:
1) Companies face increasing financial risk due to their inability to manage large amounts of contract data. AI can help interpret complex contracts and interrelated agreements to provide a more comprehensive view of risk.
2) AI-powered collaboration tools and search engines can organize contract data, automate certain tasks, and detect risks earlier, freeing up legal and risk professionals to focus on higher-level work.
3) By returning thousands of hours to risk analysis through automation and organization of data, AI technologies can help reduce legal costs from disputes and better inform negotiations.
Copy of presentation delivered at the CHASS 2015 National Forum in Melbourne (October 2015), The Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia is the peak body supporting more than 75 member organisations in their relationships with Federal and State Government policy makers, Academia and the broader community within Australia.
The document discusses creating an optimal employee experience through technology. It introduces seven experts who provide their perspectives on how to create an employee experience that enables business adaptability while attracting and retaining top talent.
Brian Solis argues that corporate culture is at the heart of transforming employee experience. He states culture must be aligned with business goals, employee empowerment, growth and the technologies that enable work. Executive leadership must articulate a vision for the desired work environment and allow stakeholders to implement that vision. Transformation requires cross-functional teams supported by executives working toward common goals aligned with corporate culture.
Maximising the opportunities offered by emerging technologies within the chan...Livingstone Advisory
The Australian University sector is heading down the path of seemingly inevitable and fundamental change in both its operating model and role within society. The forces at play are numerous and diverse, fueled in part by the capabilities of modern technologies. These include factors such as increasing global competition for tertiary students, the shift towards a self-funded corporate operating model whilst having to retain academic independence and rigor – all in an environment of the increasing commoditisation of knowledge and intellectual property through emerging vehicles such as MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses).
In the midst of these structural changes, how well Australian Universities navigate through the current swathe of emerging and potentially disruptive technologies whilst mitigating the longer term systemic risks associated with their adoption is not necessarily a trivial exercise.
In this session, Rob Livingstone offered some practical insights into how CIOs of ‘the University of the future’ can play an active part in helping their institutions thrive in the new environment by maximising the upside potential of new and emerging technologies with known cost and risk, whilst simultaneously managing the multiple versions of reality that exist in the new IT environment.
The reflections of a successful corporate intrapreneur, change agent and innovation program manager.
What to do,
What not to do
and of course the results achieved, well they're on my LinkedIn profile
This document discusses managing priorities in complex environments. It suggests determining priorities based on importance rather than urgency, with importance defined by criteria like long-term impact and number of people affected. It recommends creating a plan with important tasks in priority order and time budgeted for each. Interruptions should be prevented unless truly important or from certain sources like one's boss. The document advises against multitasking and provides tips like doing hard tasks first and closing email to focus on one task at a time. Priorities are difficult to manage due to various pressures, but self-control is still possible.
Developing people in a time of digital disruptionJuan Chamorro
La Dra. Jennifer Jordan, Profesora de Liderazgo y Comportamiento Organizacional en la escuela IMD, describe en este artículo las oportunidades y los desafíos que presenta la gestión de personas en la era digital.
El artículo completo, en el que participan Anouk Lavoie Orlick, Lindsay McTeague y Pascal Wicht (fundador de Whispers & Giants), puede leerse en el siguiente enlace:
https://lnkd.in/erbMTiJ
Rasgos y perfiles de los profesionales, enfoques ágiles basados en la tecnología y los comportamientos de algunas de las audiencias de una organización, forman parte del completo análisis reflejado en este artículo. Resulta de interés, por ejemplo, la actitud de los millennials hacia la tecnología, con una relación de afinidad natural con herramientas basadas en la nube, el móvil, o su consideración de la IT corporativa como poco intuitiva y compleja. A medida que se implantan nuevos sistemas , se debe recordar a los Millennials la necesidad de mantener la confidencialidad de los datos, ya que sus conceptos de privacidad difieren de los de las generaciones anteriores.
1) While business intelligence tools provide data for human decision makers, advanced analytics now allow systems to actively interpret data and make decisions without human input.
2) Capturing organizational decision making processes through technologies like KEEL allows decisions to be automated, removing human biases and explaining decisions through influence diagrams.
3) Adopting such technologies now will help organizations continuously improve decision making and stay ahead of competitors, while failing to do so risks falling behind as customers demand the best, most cost-effective products and services.
Only in fairytales are emperors told they are naked3gamma
The document discusses project governance and why it often fails. It provides two approaches to implementing effective project governance - a top-down approach where a small senior board makes decisions, and a bottom-up approach that focuses on common metrics, maturity, and early intervention. Both approaches aim to identify and stop failing projects early. Effective governance requires frank discussion and honest assessment of a project's likelihood of success.
Career implications for the Business Analyst in the age of digital disruptionLivingstone Advisory
The fact that business and societal change is being fueled by innovative, emerging and disruptive information technologies is well known. Its impacts being felt in almost every facet of life. However, the forces driving the evolution and adoption of such technologies are complex, diverse and not always well understood. In addition, the rate of change is accelerating.
Knowledge intensive IT careers, once considered to be at the forefront of information technology developments are being progressively impacted by the new world of IT, shifting customer expectations and business change.
Question is, how will the IT professions - in particular, the BA - be redefined? More importantly what steps should the BA profession consider taking now, to ensure its continued relevance in years to come
Big Data Analytics: The art of the data scientist discusses the evolution of data analytics and roles of data scientists. It explains that while volume is interesting, distinguishing big data requires understanding patterns in incomplete and anonymized data from multiple sources. Effective data science discovers unknown insights, provides business value through predictive models and data products, and builds confidence in decisions through explanation and storytelling.
Intelligence Report: What Works, What Doesn't and How to Fix ItDouglas Bernhardt
The document discusses two key factors for effective intelligence - the disconnect between intelligence and policymakers, and how intelligence products are packaged and delivered. It argues that without strong relationships and mutual understanding between intelligence analysts and decision-makers, intelligence collection and analysis is irrelevant. It also stresses that intelligence products must be tailored to individual decision-makers' preferences and needs in order to be influential.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
The document discusses the need for "NextGen" business intelligence (BI) software that better meets the needs of younger, more tech-savvy employees entering the workforce. Current BI tools are often too difficult to use and not aligned with how newer generations interact with and use technology. NextGen software needs to be highly visual, interactive, collaborative and provide guided experiences for analyzing and sharing information. The document provides ideas for key features of NextGen software, including the ability to create guides to share analytic processes and rapid, seamless data handling and visualization.
Future Tech: How should enterprise avoid the 'success trap' of the next big t...Livingstone Advisory
The rate of business and societal change fuelled by innovative, emerging and disruptive information technologies is well known, with impacts being felt in almost every facet of life. The forces driving the evolution and adoption of such technologies are complex, diverse and not always well understood. How can organisations predict the consequences of future tech? How should they fortify against the chaos of change while taking advantage of innovation?
This public lecture provides a concise perspective on the implications of emerging technologies and offers practical insights on how many enterprises and individuals survive, and also thrive, in a world of rapid technology-induced change.
Minimizing Business Risk in IT ProjectsITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different layers and profiling core processes, the pre-implementation process, and external value chains to understand factors driving new IT investments.
ITPSB Inc. provides online analytical processing (OLAP) reporting tools that allow users to select the level of detail and related data needed for project requirement reports. The tools enable drilling into or slicing and dicing OLAP reports to identify and manage project requirements and other information.
Corporate profiling is a software tool developed by ITPSB Inc. to help business executives ensure the success of IT projects. It provides visibility into an organization's key elements through a proven system accessible via a free cloud service. Only 1 in 3 IT projects are successfully delivered on time and on budget, so this tool promotes accountability, collaboration, and visibility to prevent projects from going over budget or failing. Profiling helps executives make strategic decisions without being IT experts by getting input from throughout the organization.
This document provides an overview of blended learning, including definitions, models, benefits and challenges. It defines blended learning as combining face-to-face instruction with online and mobile learning to provide flexible educational experiences. Case studies from Victorian schools demonstrate blended learning approaches incorporating tools like Skype, blogs, cameras and online content. Research shows benefits for learning outcomes, student engagement and addressing disadvantage when online activities supplement traditional teaching. Effective implementation requires consideration of pedagogy, teacher support and technological challenges to realize strategic advantages for education.
ITPSB Inc. is a technology consulting company located in California that provides a variety of IT services including website development, cybersecurity consulting, and custom software solutions. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown to over 50 employees across its three main offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. ITPSB prides itself on delivering high-quality, customized technology projects for its clients on time and on budget.
Consumer technology is invading the enterprise and IT must embrace it in order to encourage employee productivity and satisfaction. Info-Tech recommends that organizations allow personal mobile devices on their corporate networks. This research addresses the following:
•Understand differences in security and management between the three major platforms – BlackBerry, Apple iOS, and Google Android.
•Evaluate the organization's position on the mobile device security scale and determine if third-party infrastructure is necessary.
•Development and enforcement of a personal mobile acceptable use policy to encourage end-user compliance and foster success.
Embrace consumer technology in the enterprise, and focus on end-user compliance to leverage productivity and maximize the potential for success.
This document discusses how artificial intelligence can help companies better manage complex contracts and associated risks. It makes the following key points:
1) Companies face increasing financial risk due to their inability to manage large amounts of contract data. AI can help interpret complex contracts and interrelated agreements to provide a more comprehensive view of risk.
2) AI-powered collaboration tools and search engines can organize contract data, automate certain tasks, and detect risks earlier, freeing up legal and risk professionals to focus on higher-level work.
3) By returning thousands of hours to risk analysis through automation and organization of data, AI technologies can help reduce legal costs from disputes and better inform negotiations.
Copy of presentation delivered at the CHASS 2015 National Forum in Melbourne (October 2015), The Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia is the peak body supporting more than 75 member organisations in their relationships with Federal and State Government policy makers, Academia and the broader community within Australia.
The document discusses creating an optimal employee experience through technology. It introduces seven experts who provide their perspectives on how to create an employee experience that enables business adaptability while attracting and retaining top talent.
Brian Solis argues that corporate culture is at the heart of transforming employee experience. He states culture must be aligned with business goals, employee empowerment, growth and the technologies that enable work. Executive leadership must articulate a vision for the desired work environment and allow stakeholders to implement that vision. Transformation requires cross-functional teams supported by executives working toward common goals aligned with corporate culture.
Maximising the opportunities offered by emerging technologies within the chan...Livingstone Advisory
The Australian University sector is heading down the path of seemingly inevitable and fundamental change in both its operating model and role within society. The forces at play are numerous and diverse, fueled in part by the capabilities of modern technologies. These include factors such as increasing global competition for tertiary students, the shift towards a self-funded corporate operating model whilst having to retain academic independence and rigor – all in an environment of the increasing commoditisation of knowledge and intellectual property through emerging vehicles such as MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses).
In the midst of these structural changes, how well Australian Universities navigate through the current swathe of emerging and potentially disruptive technologies whilst mitigating the longer term systemic risks associated with their adoption is not necessarily a trivial exercise.
In this session, Rob Livingstone offered some practical insights into how CIOs of ‘the University of the future’ can play an active part in helping their institutions thrive in the new environment by maximising the upside potential of new and emerging technologies with known cost and risk, whilst simultaneously managing the multiple versions of reality that exist in the new IT environment.
The reflections of a successful corporate intrapreneur, change agent and innovation program manager.
What to do,
What not to do
and of course the results achieved, well they're on my LinkedIn profile
This document discusses managing priorities in complex environments. It suggests determining priorities based on importance rather than urgency, with importance defined by criteria like long-term impact and number of people affected. It recommends creating a plan with important tasks in priority order and time budgeted for each. Interruptions should be prevented unless truly important or from certain sources like one's boss. The document advises against multitasking and provides tips like doing hard tasks first and closing email to focus on one task at a time. Priorities are difficult to manage due to various pressures, but self-control is still possible.
Developing people in a time of digital disruptionJuan Chamorro
La Dra. Jennifer Jordan, Profesora de Liderazgo y Comportamiento Organizacional en la escuela IMD, describe en este artículo las oportunidades y los desafíos que presenta la gestión de personas en la era digital.
El artículo completo, en el que participan Anouk Lavoie Orlick, Lindsay McTeague y Pascal Wicht (fundador de Whispers & Giants), puede leerse en el siguiente enlace:
https://lnkd.in/erbMTiJ
Rasgos y perfiles de los profesionales, enfoques ágiles basados en la tecnología y los comportamientos de algunas de las audiencias de una organización, forman parte del completo análisis reflejado en este artículo. Resulta de interés, por ejemplo, la actitud de los millennials hacia la tecnología, con una relación de afinidad natural con herramientas basadas en la nube, el móvil, o su consideración de la IT corporativa como poco intuitiva y compleja. A medida que se implantan nuevos sistemas , se debe recordar a los Millennials la necesidad de mantener la confidencialidad de los datos, ya que sus conceptos de privacidad difieren de los de las generaciones anteriores.
1) While business intelligence tools provide data for human decision makers, advanced analytics now allow systems to actively interpret data and make decisions without human input.
2) Capturing organizational decision making processes through technologies like KEEL allows decisions to be automated, removing human biases and explaining decisions through influence diagrams.
3) Adopting such technologies now will help organizations continuously improve decision making and stay ahead of competitors, while failing to do so risks falling behind as customers demand the best, most cost-effective products and services.
Only in fairytales are emperors told they are naked3gamma
The document discusses project governance and why it often fails. It provides two approaches to implementing effective project governance - a top-down approach where a small senior board makes decisions, and a bottom-up approach that focuses on common metrics, maturity, and early intervention. Both approaches aim to identify and stop failing projects early. Effective governance requires frank discussion and honest assessment of a project's likelihood of success.
Career implications for the Business Analyst in the age of digital disruptionLivingstone Advisory
The fact that business and societal change is being fueled by innovative, emerging and disruptive information technologies is well known. Its impacts being felt in almost every facet of life. However, the forces driving the evolution and adoption of such technologies are complex, diverse and not always well understood. In addition, the rate of change is accelerating.
Knowledge intensive IT careers, once considered to be at the forefront of information technology developments are being progressively impacted by the new world of IT, shifting customer expectations and business change.
Question is, how will the IT professions - in particular, the BA - be redefined? More importantly what steps should the BA profession consider taking now, to ensure its continued relevance in years to come
Big Data Analytics: The art of the data scientist discusses the evolution of data analytics and roles of data scientists. It explains that while volume is interesting, distinguishing big data requires understanding patterns in incomplete and anonymized data from multiple sources. Effective data science discovers unknown insights, provides business value through predictive models and data products, and builds confidence in decisions through explanation and storytelling.
Intelligence Report: What Works, What Doesn't and How to Fix ItDouglas Bernhardt
The document discusses two key factors for effective intelligence - the disconnect between intelligence and policymakers, and how intelligence products are packaged and delivered. It argues that without strong relationships and mutual understanding between intelligence analysts and decision-makers, intelligence collection and analysis is irrelevant. It also stresses that intelligence products must be tailored to individual decision-makers' preferences and needs in order to be influential.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
The document discusses the need for "NextGen" business intelligence (BI) software that better meets the needs of younger, more tech-savvy employees entering the workforce. Current BI tools are often too difficult to use and not aligned with how newer generations interact with and use technology. NextGen software needs to be highly visual, interactive, collaborative and provide guided experiences for analyzing and sharing information. The document provides ideas for key features of NextGen software, including the ability to create guides to share analytic processes and rapid, seamless data handling and visualization.
Future Tech: How should enterprise avoid the 'success trap' of the next big t...Livingstone Advisory
The rate of business and societal change fuelled by innovative, emerging and disruptive information technologies is well known, with impacts being felt in almost every facet of life. The forces driving the evolution and adoption of such technologies are complex, diverse and not always well understood. How can organisations predict the consequences of future tech? How should they fortify against the chaos of change while taking advantage of innovation?
This public lecture provides a concise perspective on the implications of emerging technologies and offers practical insights on how many enterprises and individuals survive, and also thrive, in a world of rapid technology-induced change.
Minimizing Business Risk in IT ProjectsITPSB Pty Ltd
Corporate profiling is a process that provides an in-depth blueprint of an organization's structure, technology, people, processes, and relationships with customers. It promotes visibility, collaboration, and accountability to improve decision making for IT projects. The document discusses how corporate profiling involves unbundling an organization into different layers and profiling core processes, the pre-implementation process, and external value chains to understand factors driving new IT investments.
ITPSB Inc. provides online analytical processing (OLAP) reporting tools that allow users to select the level of detail and related data needed for project requirement reports. The tools enable drilling into or slicing and dicing OLAP reports to identify and manage project requirements and other information.
Corporate profiling is a software tool developed by ITPSB Inc. to help business executives ensure the success of IT projects. It provides visibility into an organization's key elements through a proven system accessible via a free cloud service. Only 1 in 3 IT projects are successfully delivered on time and on budget, so this tool promotes accountability, collaboration, and visibility to prevent projects from going over budget or failing. Profiling helps executives make strategic decisions without being IT experts by getting input from throughout the organization.
This document provides an overview of blended learning, including definitions, models, benefits and challenges. It defines blended learning as combining face-to-face instruction with online and mobile learning to provide flexible educational experiences. Case studies from Victorian schools demonstrate blended learning approaches incorporating tools like Skype, blogs, cameras and online content. Research shows benefits for learning outcomes, student engagement and addressing disadvantage when online activities supplement traditional teaching. Effective implementation requires consideration of pedagogy, teacher support and technological challenges to realize strategic advantages for education.
ITPSB Inc. is a technology consulting company located in California that provides a variety of IT services including website development, cybersecurity consulting, and custom software solutions. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown to over 50 employees across its three main offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. ITPSB prides itself on delivering high-quality, customized technology projects for its clients on time and on budget.
Business architecture for business specialists and IT professionals wanting I...ITPSB Pty Ltd
This document introduces the Profiling-Pro cloud solution for corporate profiling and IT project planning. It provides an overview of what corporate profiling is, how it helps create a blueprint of an organization, and the benefits it provides for accurate IT project pre-implementation planning. It encourages registering for a free trial of Profiling-Pro or attending an upcoming seminar on using business architecture and corporate profiling to improve IT project success. Key aspects covered include identifying organizational strategies, departments, systems, processes, stakeholders, and requirements to develop a comprehensive business architecture model for planning projects and managing organizational change.
The document outlines the organization of military forces and leadership in the European Theater of World War II from 1942 to 1945. It lists army groups, armies, corps, and divisions under commanders like Montgomery, Clark, Alexander, Patton, Bradley, and Devers that made up the Eastern, Western, and Center Task Forces engaged across campaigns in North Africa, Italy, France, Germany, and beyond.
Stop Blaming The Software - Corporate Profiling for IT Project SuccessITPSB Pty Ltd
This document summarizes a book about increasing the likelihood of IT project success through organizational profiling before implementation. It discusses how senior executives often contribute to project failures by not adequately planning or defining requirements upfront. The book introduces the concept of using insight, foresight, and learning from past experiences (hindsight) to profile an organization's objectives and needs to improve future project outcomes. Vendors and project managers are usually not to blame when failures occur due to lack of proper planning and preparation within the organization itself.
IT Project Success through Profiling-Pro - Business Architecture for Busines...ITPSB Pty Ltd
Instant accessibility to accurate business intelligence and critical business planning information is vital if you want to achieve IT project success. Your decision making for business project planning needs to be based upon factual information from the right information sources, rather than from people who think that they know the answers to business.
Profiling-Pro uses a Business Architecture Tool called Corporate Profiling which creates a simple high level Business Architecture for business professionals. You can filter and report on all of your critical business information. That means no technical information and no minutiae about bottom level specifics that interest the analysts.
For over four decades, IT strategy has been about the alignment of technology with the needs of the “customer,” be it an organization, business, end user, or device. The most important part of system acquisition is deciding what to build or buy, as it is better to deliver no solution at all than it is to deliver the wrong solution. But there are two distinct dimensions to getting requirements and ensuring that they, and the IT solution that results, not only aligns with the business as it is, but is built in such a way that it can sustain that alignment in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Specifically, (1) narrow requirements, which focus on the short-term needs for specific parts, functions, or processes of the business; and, (2) broad requirements, which focus on a comprehensive, enterprise-wide approach with holistic and longer-range objectives like simplicity, suppleness, and total cost of ownership. We typically call these “Systems Analysis and Design” and “Enterprise Architecture” respectively. Ideally, organizations should be able to do both well, and effectively balance the inevitable tradeoffs between them. Sadly, in the vast majority of organizations, that is not yet the case.
Professor Kappelman will present the results of a ground-breaking study from the Society for Information Management (SIM) Enterprise Architecture Working Group that developed and validated measures for these two distinct types of requirements capabilities. Findings include:
• Empirical validation that there is, in fact, a difference between requirement capabilities in a narrow or individual system context (i.e., Systems Analysis and Design within the bounds of a specific development project), and requirements capabilities in a broad or enterprise context (i.e., Enterprise Architecture regarding how those individual systems fit together in an enterprise-wide strategic design).
• Strong evidence that requirements capabilities overall are immature, with narrow activities more mature than the corresponding broad enterprise capabilities.
• Solid evidence, based on fifteen years of studies, that software development capabilities are generally maturing, but are still fairly immature.
This research provides requirements engineers, software designers, software developers, and other IT practitioners with tools to assess their own requirements engineering and software development capabilities. and compare them with those of their peers. Suggestions for improvements are made.
The four horsemen of IT project doom -- kappelmanLeon Kappelman
Based on a in-depth study, this short paper explains how to spot and what to do about the early warning signs of IT project failure and the four horseman of IT project doom. IT project failure is not a technology problem, it's a management problem rooted in people and process weaknesses. Anyone with eyes can see these early warning signs.
This document provides 6 tips for enterprise architects:
1. Create a common requirements vision to define business priorities and IT requirements.
2. Thoroughly evaluate current business and IT environments, including application portfolios and software licensing.
3. Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to improve IT.
4. Select the best enterprise architecture tools that meet minimum requirements and support a variety of needs.
5. Avoid data element bloat and redundancy by modeling data holistically and defining a data repository.
6. Architect for cloud computing as it will fundamentally change IT infrastructure and enable new business models.
7 Steps to Transform Your Enterprise Architecture Practicepenni333
Enterprise architecture has a critical role in driving business success. But enterprise architects often find that they must create a better understanding for IT and business leaders of the function’s place in strategic planning, application rationalization, and business/IT alignment.
In this slidecast, author Beth Bacheldor explains what steps enterprise architects can take to transform their practice and give colleagues a greater appreciation of its value. The result? The business will have a greater opportunity to profit from enterprise architecture as an essential component of its operations.
Originally posted on: http://smartenterpriseexchange.com/groups/smart-architect
The rapid rate of technological change can be overwhelming. Everyone sometimes needs to have a virtual CIO on call.
A virtual CIO can help the CIO, IT director, or business owner evaluate new technology, translate between IT and the business units, motivate and mentor effectively, and keep the big picture in focus. This holistic approach helps to create value, integrate systems, save costs, lower risks, increase innovation and produce successful outcomes.
IT Consultation — Expert, unbiased advice on a breadth of operational and strategic areas. This is tailored to the organization’s need, size, culture, and cost preferences. It may consist of providing a second opinion; briefing on industry best practices (e.g., for disaster recovery); building a support infrastructure (e.g., for mobile device support); or doing the problem analysis, plan, cost justification and presentations to the Board, among other possibilities.
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The picture is indeed meant to startle — he doesn’t like the facts.docxssusera34210
This document discusses the high failure rates of IT projects, citing several studies that found between 40-80% of projects fail to meet objectives. The main reasons for failure are people-based factors like poor communication between parties, lack of focus among team members, and lack of engagement from business stakeholders. To improve success rates, the document recommends strengthening the relationship between technology and business teams through governance, planning, communication, and focusing on people skills.
Forget the A to Z of why it projects fail, here’s the S to L of successful!Stoneseed Ltd
THE TOP TEN WAYS TO KEEP YOUR PROJECT ON TRACK
CREATED BY: DAVID COTGREAVE
A number of articles have either dropped in my Office 365 inbox this week, or on various social media feeds, each of them detailing a list of the reasons why IT Projects fail.
That's a rather negative way to approach it.
The best sports teams didn't build success by checking out why other teams were losing - they focussed on winning. You should too.
You can certainly learn from the mistakes of others (and yourself) but instead of dwelling on the A to Z of failures, how about championing the S to L of what happens when IT projects are SUCCESSFUL.
S - is for Skills
U - is for Understanding
C - is for Communication (and clarity)
C - is for Change Leadership
E - is for Efficient Execution
S - is for Systems
S - is for Supervision
F - is for Fact-Rooted analysis
U - is for User input
L - is for Learn
The S to L of SUCCESSFUL.
If it sounds simple, it's because it is. Sort of.
Except, of course, for the fact that behind each of the ten points above there lies a lot of hard work and hard earned experience - sometimes it's like herding cats - but the gains are there to be won.
Just don't start with a list of why projects fail.
Further details of how Project Management as a Service can help, can be found on our website www.stoneseed.co.uk
13 tips for keeping it projects under control Taringa!
Project managers and experts share 13 tips for keeping IT projects under control: 1) appoint the right project manager, 2) support the project manager with the right team, 3) understand team strengths and weaknesses to manage accordingly. Other tips include prioritizing tasks, actively monitoring projects and teams, using project management software, managing changes, taking a hard line against scope creep, creating and celebrating milestones, and tracking time spent on tasks. Keeping projects on schedule requires the right people, clear priorities, change management, and monitoring progress.
The document discusses communication gaps between project managers and IT staff and provides lessons learned from the author's experience. It outlines how project managers and IT staff have different approaches to problem-solving and priorities. Specific examples are provided of issues that arose from misunderstandings around deadlines, skill sets, training needs, and budget cycles. The key lessons are the importance of understanding each other's perspectives and communicating effectively on goals, skills, priorities and planning.
The article illustrates the key vital elements of artificial Intelligence impacts and effects on the corporate domain in perspective. It contemplates the issues and problems and also suggestive solutions in brief..
It serves as a guideline to the corporate mangers to get the insights into the latest research findings
7 factors responsible for the failure of it projects converted (1)RutujaJagtap19
The document discusses 7 factors that are responsible for the failure of IT projects. These factors include: lack of alignment across the organization, not truly embracing agile frameworks, implementing systems in silos rather than focusing on outcomes, inability to scale as business needs change, lack of IT skills and leadership, not investing in automation, and taking on projects that are too large in scope. Addressing these factors can help organizations avoid IT project failures and better deliver anticipated business value.
Hello. My name is, Social Business Design.James Dellow
A quick introduction to the Dachis Group/Headshift Social Business Design framework, prepositioned with a historical view of organisational design and its relationship to the history of technology. And remember, its just about behaving decently. Note: These slides contain images licensed under CC license and those images are used here under the same conditions. However, other material remains (c)2010 Dachis Group/Headshift.
Tomorrow Never Dies - The Future of ICT Staff.Tapio Järvenpää
Somewhat provocative lecture in itSMF Finland Conference on the 2.10.2014 about future trends to wake/shake up the audience. According to studies almost half of the features of new systems are never used i.e. half of the effort is wasted. Based on my experience this phenomena is caused by unclear vision and targets when developing business systems e.g. ERP, CRM, ... Most of the unnecessary features are inherited from legacy systems and thereby it is fair to say that legacy systems are not gone by the day when they’re replaced but halved – like radioactive materials have halving times so do legacy systems.
Old habits and paradigms dictate the way we work. Digital transformation is only in the beginning and unless we learn how to break free from legacy thinking the digital transfor- mation will not leap forward and competition will take over our businesses. Let’s thinkabout Finnish web shops. Our nation kind of missed the nature of Internet and instead of targeting customers world wide we started to build web shops that’ll serve the existing local clientele. And made space for international competition.
What if we misinterpret the Internet of Things in similar manner? Is the way we think about ICT and ICT governance adaptable and agile enough to respond to future?
It is obvious, and also reality already, that one-size-fits-all policies are not sufficient anymore e.g. in single development program co-existing different technical platforms, one suitable for continuous integration and the other for integration once in a quarter. Likewise the developers prefer different methodologies: old school waterfall and more modern scrum.
Chief HR Officers have more to say to mobile strategy than CIO because mobility is more about working ergonomics and employee satisfaction than technical stuff.
Ability to code is becoming equally important as literacy. Eventually everyone will un- derstand code like foreign languages. People will more and more start to write their own apps. What will be the role of the central ICT? Will it cease to exist?
How do the working preferences of Z and / generations differ from baby boomers? Are the traditional, established organizations ready to absorb the latest trends of development and also experiences gained by young people who are advancing parallel careers?
More and more of the traditional ICT products and services are becoming commodity and even infrastructure like electricity. What'll be the future of CIT Staff?
1) Capturing and sharing lessons learned from past projects is challenging with traditional methods. Lessons are often lost once projects end and teams disperse to new work.
2) An AI/ML system could automatically capture and codify lessons from project data to provide knowledge continuity across projects. This helps prevent the same problems from reoccurring.
3) Providing easy access to insights from past similar projects could help project managers address challenges more effectively than relying only on their own experience.
A Guide to IT Consulting- Business.comBusiness.com
An IT consultant can provide advice and expertise on implementing and managing IT technologies to help businesses achieve their objectives. Key trends in IT consulting include advising clients on cloud computing, analyzing big data, and determining whether to outsource or offshore certain IT functions. When choosing an IT consultant, businesses should write a request for proposal, conduct interviews of potential consultants, and firmly establish pricing and deliverables.
End-to-End OT SecOps Transforming from Good to Greataccenture
Building and growing an OT SecOps program takes vision, buy-in and budget. This track explores how to take your program to the next level. The discussions are intended to spark conversation and this guide highlights key takeaways on what works, what doesn’t and what’s next. https://accntu.re/3tz7wGY
Creating Environments for Innovation to Flourish discusses key principles for fostering innovation. It outlines a 5 step guide: [1] become a learning organization by solving problems; [2] retain intrinsically motivated employees through slack and bottom-up ownership; [3] implement community architecture using open source principles; [4] have a clear executive vision through techniques like vision sessions; and [5] use user stories to articulate requirements. The document emphasizes that innovation emerges from diverse, self-organizing teams when given autonomy, motivation, and opportunities to learn and improve.
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Ellen Burstyn: From Detroit Dreamer to Hollywood Legend | CIO Women MagazineCIOWomenMagazine
In this article, we will dive into the extraordinary life of Ellen Burstyn, where the curtains rise on a story that's far more attractive than any script.
Cover Story - China's Investment Leader - Dr. Alyce SUmsthrill
In World Expo 2010 Shanghai – the most visited Expo in the World History
https://www.britannica.com/event/Expo-Shanghai-2010
China’s official organizer of the Expo, CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade https://en.ccpit.org/) has chosen Dr. Alyce Su as the Cover Person with Cover Story, in the Expo’s official magazine distributed throughout the Expo, showcasing China’s New Generation of Leaders to the World.
𝐔𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄’𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
Explore the details in our newly released product manual, which showcases NEWNTIDE's advanced heat pump technologies. Delve into our energy-efficient and eco-friendly solutions tailored for diverse global markets.
Prescriptive analytics BA4206 Anna University PPTFreelance
Business analysis - Prescriptive analytics Introduction to Prescriptive analytics
Prescriptive Modeling
Non Linear Optimization
Demonstrating Business Performance Improvement
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The Role of White Label Bookkeeping Services in Supporting the Growth and Sca...YourLegal Accounting
Effective financial management is important for expansion and scalability in the ever-changing US business environment. White Label Bookkeeping services is an innovative solution that is becoming more and more popular among businesses. These services provide a special method for managing financial duties effectively, freeing up companies to concentrate on their main operations and growth plans. We’ll look at how White Label Bookkeeping can help US firms expand and develop in this blog.
Efficient PHP Development Solutions for Dynamic Web ApplicationsHarwinder Singh
Unlock the full potential of your web projects with our expert PHP development solutions. From robust backend systems to dynamic front-end interfaces, we deliver scalable, secure, and high-performance applications tailored to your needs. Trust our skilled team to transform your ideas into reality with custom PHP programming, ensuring seamless functionality and a superior user experience.
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The Steadfast and Reliable Bull: Taurus Zodiac Signmy Pandit
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Unlocking WhatsApp Marketing with HubSpot: Integrating Messaging into Your Ma...Niswey
50 million companies worldwide leverage WhatsApp as a key marketing channel. You may have considered adding it to your marketing mix, or probably already driving impressive conversions with WhatsApp.
But wait. What happens when you fully integrate your WhatsApp campaigns with HubSpot?
That's exactly what we explored in this session.
We take a look at everything that you need to know in order to deploy effective WhatsApp marketing strategies, and integrate it with your buyer journey in HubSpot. From technical requirements to innovative campaign strategies, to advanced campaign reporting - we discuss all that and more, to leverage WhatsApp for maximum impact. Check out more details about the event here https://events.hubspot.com/events/details/hubspot-new-delhi-presents-unlocking-whatsapp-marketing-with-hubspot-integrating-messaging-into-your-marketing-strategy/
2. Preface
“public relations people seem better than ever at helping to hide massively
screwed-up corporate and governmental programming projects from
stockholders and citizens”
Stephen Manes commenting on changes he’s observed over the past 25 years.
Full Disclosure, Stephen Manes, PCWorld, December 2008.
Contents:
“My approach to the research into this book comes from the perspective of pre-
implementation planning analysis rather than the technical aspects of IT project
implementation. It identifies what needs to be done within the organization pre-
implementation to increase a project’s probability of success.”
1
1 The Global Landscape of Failed IT Projects
“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please
everybody”
Bill Cosby
Purpose:
The first chapter sets the scene for failed IT projects and their impact on
organizations and the economy in general.
Contents:
Organizations undertake IT projects for one or a combination of the following
reasons: “Market Changes”, “Competitive Factors”, “Profitability Drivers” and
“Customer Demand”.
My findings from interviews with organizations that have undertaken IT
projects that either failed or were challenged are described.
“Small, medium and large organization alike lamented their “short-falls” that with
hindsight became glaringly obvious. They all concurred that foresight into these
areas could have been achieved if corporate profiling, as I described it to them,
had been undertaken prior to them spending their hard earned money.”
3. 7
2 The IT Project Crisis that Won’t Go Away
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our
humanity”
Albert Einstein
Purpose:
To create awareness of the many causes of failed IT projects and to introduce
the concept of Corporate Profiling as a remedy.
Content:
The futile and mostly wildly incorrect blame that is leveled at those who are
involved “after” investment decisions are made.
“Ask yourself. How can there be so many vendors out there that are so
incompetent in their areas of expertise? And why are there so many
inadequate software packages? The answers are that they are not and
there is not. QED. Although it’s easy to blame the software, in my
studies and interviews with many companies that have suffered IT
project failures, not once was the software itself to blame. And rarely if
ever was the vendor incompetent. They were merely delivering what
their customers, asked for.”
How IT project disasters can be avoided once the leaders of organizations
understand how they themselves in fact contribute to such failures.
“Why do executives abdicate from their critical project decisions and
responsibilities? You will be amazed at how many IT project disasters
have come about simply because of what one or two people insisted was
the correct course of action or who deemed their requirements to be
accurate and comprehensive.”
There is no point appointing the best project team to manage something that has
not been adequately planned or if the organization is unprepared for the change.
“Project Managers then become the project “fire fighters”. Project Managers do
what they have been tasked to do by the organization.”
4. 15
3 Insight, Foresight and Hindsight
“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success”
Henry Ford
Purpose:
To outline how senior executives themselves actually contribute to IT project
failures.
To introduce the concept that insight and foresight can significantly increase an
IT project’s probability of success rather than being left with hard-won
hindsight knowledge on the completion of a project when it is too late.
Content:
The following headers: “Starting with a Vision”, “That Dreaded Feeling” and
“The Big Aha!” and the associated text should strike a cord with most readers.
When the leaders of affected organizations finally realize the poor state of
health of their IT projects, they tend to rationalize and blame their vendors or
the software.
Executive roles in bringing about IT project failures are emphasized.
“In truth, the responsibility for under-delivered and over-budget IT
projects lies predominantly with C-Level and senior executives,
presidents and managers themselves.”
“Top level decision makers who at their projects outset failed to profile
their organizations in order to correctly identify organizational
objectives, business needs, and sources for user and project
requirements …”
“Because the roles of senior executives are strategic and not operational,
they simply do not have the necessary insight into the …”
How insight, foresight and hindsight can increase the probability of an IT
project’s success.
“Organizational insight as well as hindsight from previous projects will provide
the foresight for future implementations to be undertaken by the organization.
Hindsight is only good provided people can learn from it.”
5. 25
4 Scapegoating
“A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem”
Author unknown
Purpose:
To discusss how and who will be the likely scapegoat candidates, and how
organizations and vendors often set themselves up for IT project failures.
Content:
On the one hand organizations assume that all of their project requirements
have been accurately and extensively collected and documented, and on the
other hand vendors also assume that what their customer has documented fully
describes what is required of the system.
“Frequently both parties find out later rather than sooner that their
project requirements are incomplete or incorrect. In the final analysis,
irrespective of how failed projects are rationalized, heads will roll and
scapegoats will be found.”
Why organizations need scapegoats.
“Someone or some third party (or parties) will be forced to shoulder the
blame for corporate accountability to the organization and its
stakeholders.”
6. 35
5 Where and How IT Project Problems Begin
“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems –- not people; to focus your
energies on answers –- not excuses”
William Arthur Ward
Purpose:
To analyze at what point in an IT implementation problems begin, what the
contributing factors are and how these factors compound IT implementation
problems.
Content:
An analysis of the causes for IT project failures indicates that poor pre-
investment and pre-implementation decision making and planning are at the top
of the list.
“To understand the many possible reasons for IT implementations going
askew, we need to review events at the inception of IT projects rather
than analyzing problematic outcomes.”
Decision making and accountability
“If the pre-implementation decision making process is either not
established or lacks structure and rigor, these decisions will be
insubstantial with a lack of accountability for outcomes.”
Requirements and input
“The other major cause of IT implementation problems is incomplete
business requirements and user input.”
Compounding the Problem
This discusses how IT project problems are compounded after organizations
appoint their vendors and commence the implementation process. This often
occurs without sufficient planning or requirements scoping.
“The problem is compounded when vendors and service providers win
the business.”
“Project scope-creep is synonymous with over-budget and over-time
7. and if unchecked can result in a runaway project. This is usually an
indication of either inadequately sourced business or user requirements,
an IT driven rather than a business driven project or incrementalism.”
8. 47
6 Factors Contributing to IT Project Failures
“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in
trying to solve them”
Henry Ford
Purpose:
To identify the factors, decisions and processes within an organization, how
they contribute to IT project failures and what can be done to increase the
probability of an IT project’s success.
Content:
Identify categories, disciplines and causal factors.
“A common contributing factor for IT project failures is often due to
disparate processes between an organization’s functions or departments
and fragmented communications between executives, managers and the
rest of the organization.”
Organizational and Leadership factors that will increase the probability of an IT
project’s success.
“The majority of these causal factors indicate the absence of rigor in an
organization’s pre-implementation decision making processes. These
causal factors also reflect the lack of strategic project decisions being
made by senior executives.”
9. 55
7 Corporate Profiling
“The beginning is the most important part of the work”
Plato
Purpose:
To introduce the Corporate Profiling concept and how it benefits organizations,
what its purpose is, what it identifies, what it can achieve and how it can
significantly increase the chance of IT project success.
Content:
The three key principles of Corporate Profiling and why they are critical to the
success of an IT project.
“The three key principles of profiling, visibility, collaboration and
accountability help to ensure that profiling accomplishes the following
outcomes.”
The purpose of Corporate Profiling.
“Profiling will dramatically reduce the risk of an IT failure at the outset
because it establishes a solid foundation of qualified, objective,
comprehensive and accurate organizational information from the
appropriate sources.”
When should organizations undertake Corporate Profiling?
“Corporate profiling is a relatively straightforward yet comprehensive
process and is the first step to be undertaken before an organization even
contemplates investing in an IT system.”
How Corporate Profiling works and its role in helping to identify project
requirements.
“Unbundles an organization to provide visibility of all of its functions,
departments and processes as well as its customers and suppliers that will
impact, effect or need to be involved in the IT implementation.”
10. 65
8 Unbundling the Organization
“While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to
complicate the simple”
Gerald W. Grumet
ote: At this point the reader will have gained sufficient knowledge to start
work on creating a corporate profile.
Purpose:
The purpose of this chapter is to begin the top down process of unbundling an
organization into categories, functions, processes, the external value chain and
also unbundling the pre-implementation process into disciplines.
This is the first chapter that contains pivotal questions that will tease out the all
important information that will deliver a complete corporate profile.
Subsequent chapters further build on the corporate profile using this question
and answer approach.
Content:
To begin the unbundling process, firstly the three major components of an
organization must be identified.
“Once an organization’s main components have been identified, it is
easier to identify and understand the connectedness between an
organization, management and IT. By further separating these
components and their influencing factors, the many levels of complexity
are also recognizable as well as the influence and impact that these
components have on one another.”
Following further unbundling of functions and processes, the reader starts to
gain insight and visibility into the interconnected relationships and operations
of an organization.
“With visibility as to where and how departments, functions, processes
11. and people are interconnected, an organization’s links and relationships
will become apparent.”
The reader can clearly see how corporate profiling delivers insight into and
understanding of an organization for project requirements and information
sources.
“This will allow them to understand precisely how they will be
impacted and what they need to do to adapt to the change. It will also
assist with identifying precisely where their user requirements are to be
obtained from.”
12. 87
9 Decision Making
“Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then
blaming others for inadequate results”
Scott Adams
Purpose:
To bring order to the organization’s IT investment decision making process by
enforcing accountability on appropriate parties.
Content:
I start by explaining the flaws and pitfalls of unstructured and under-analyzed
decision making.
“This step profiles the IT investment decision by identifying common
reasons why organizations initiate IT Projects, how these decisions are
made and who and what drives the decision making process.”
I continue by describing how good decision making processes can be
implemented to avoid these pitfalls.
“By appointing a single person to be accountable for the overall
decision, the quality of their input and analysis of the situation is more
likely to be comprehensive and conclusive. This ensures that the final
decision will be sound having been made objectively based on hard
facts.”
Decision making situations and common issues, which readers can easily relate
to, reinforce the important concepts that are discussed and outlined here.
“During the IT Investment decision making process, the Organization, Business
and IT categories can easily become entangled and bogged down in a not-too-
subtle tug-of-war with each hoping to improve their own position. This is a
normal response and identifying each entity’s motivations and individual wants is
critical to maintaining a common perspective during the vital strategic investment
decision process.”
13. 101
10 IT Risk and Governance
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them”
Ronald Reagan
Purpose:
To make the reader aware that IT risk and governance issues must be addressed
prior to making an IT investment decision. Even if an organization has
implemented an IT governance framework, if it is not properly administered
and managed then the IT project will remain at risk of failing.
To create an ongoing robust framework for maintaining a constant vigil over
current and future IT projects.
Content:
To discuss the concept of IT governance and risk, why it is essential when
undertaking IT projects and how if it is correctly managed it will support the IT
implementation.
“IT Risk and governance is a multi-faceted and extensive process or
framework around which organizations link IT and business strategies.
It ensures that due process achieves the desired organizational goals and
objectives and that appropriate success metrics are applied to ensure that
IT projects achieve their stated business objectives.”
Creating awareness of the importance of these measures.
“IT risk and governance measures need to be rigorously applied so that
they are permanently indoctrinated as part of an organization’s culture
thereby making IT risk management a formal day to day function rather
than an ad-hoc occurrence.”
The impact of mismanaged or underutilized IT governance frameworks and risk
mitigation measures are discussed.
“It is surprising to find that many large organizations and government
bodies that claim to have stringent IT Governance frameworks still have
rogue, run-away or failed IT projects. These are just a few examples of
14. such organizations and references to their rogue projects.”
The book contains many examples and references to case studies that illustrate
the issues and topics discussed.
“Nevertheless, when Sydney Water’s IT implementation went over
budget by more than $80 million their response was to euthanize the
project. Even so, the Vendor did not consider it a failed project but a
“cancelled project” because at the time of cancellation the project was
on track for delivery (totally ignoring the matter of the budget blow-
out).”
15. 115
11 Strategy and Success Metrics
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results”
Winston Churchill
Purpose:
Just as in the scientific method used for experimentation, it is equally important
for IT project success measures to be established at the outset with clearly
defined methods for interpreting outcomes that support an organizations
strategy.
Content:
This is where the abovementioned purpose is emphasized.
“As much as an organization’s strategy and objectives need to be clearly
understood and articulated, so too do the success metrics that are
applied to the IT implementation.”
Project success metrics need to be decided at a project’s outset and aligned with
a corporation and its business strategies.
“A project’s success cannot be measured without first identifying what
the primary target or objectives are. Before executing an IT investment
decision an organization needs to decide on the metrics that the success
of the IT project will be measured against.”
Before commencing a project, organizations needs to decide and agree what (if
any) project over-runs are justifiable in terms of budget and time, and to
appoint an appropriate person as the “Project Euthanizer” who will be
authorized to direct parties to execute that decision if and when the time comes.
“Different people will also have differing views of what is an acceptable
project over run. Therefore, organizations need to decide on these
parameters at the outset and be prepared to take action for specific
legitimate reasons to renegotiate the parameters.”
16. 129
12 Communications and Gathering Requirements
“Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees,
motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't
miss”
Lee Iacocca
Purpose:
Communicating and gathering accurate requirements from the correct sources
may appear to be an obvious and straightforward process. However, this aspect
of an IT project is probably the highest single contributing factor to IT project
failures. The purpose of this chapter therefore is to provide the reader with a
comprehensive formal approach to ensuring that rigor and accuracy is enforced
when gathering requirements and communicating project information.
Content:
This is where the abovementioned purpose is described.
“A common misconception about IT project failures is that they are
primarily due to IT mismanagement, poor hardware and software
selection or poor project management skills. This is seldom the case.
With very few exceptions, the major cause of IT project failures is
attributable to a lack of effective communications between senior
executives, IT and the rest of the organization.”
The parties to be involved in project communications need to be carefully
identified and their responsibilities made clear at the outset.
“To ensure that the organization is well prepared for its proposed IT
implementation, it must ensure that effective, open, honest and multi-
directional communications takes place between the critical components
that have causal interconnected relationships with the respective
parties.”
This section of the chapter brings the reader’s attention to situations that can
arise if communication channels, project information and requirement sources
17. are not correctly identified at the outset.
“It then becomes highly probable that critical project information will
be hidden because key informal or indirect sources of information that
can contribute a wealth of input to the project are not identified.”
This illustrates the importance of peer-level communications to ensure that
support for the IT investment decision and the project itself is secured and
maintained.
“A lack of sideways (peer-level) communications and collaboration
between these parties will cause support for the project to wane. Where
people feel isolated or are excluded from the project’s decisions, they
will turn their attention elsewhere and their support will be lost.”
Through the organizations corporate profile, pertinent parties are identified who
will become the primary communication sources and to accurately identify who
needs to receive what information.
“Having profiled the organizations top level decision makers and
primary sources for project communications, the second task is to
identify the recipients of these communications.”
The section deals with external parties that may impact or be affected by the
project. They are often inadvertently excluded from project communications
and requirements sourcing and the final production system is therefore at risk of
not satisfying their needs and business requirements.
“These external parties need to be profiled for user and project
requirements and to also be included in project communications since
they could impact the outcome of a project in terms of requirements or
support.”
Excluding employees based on inferior or subordinate positions can cost the
project dearly.
“This is the reason why an organization must establish clear, honest and
open communications with its employees encouraging their input and
feedback. Users at the grassroots level of an organization are often
closer to its customers than is assumed.”
18. Formal communication channels are vital to ensure that communications,
actions and decisions are recorded and are carried out as intended.
“The departments, functions, executives and users that will be impacted
by the change need to be identified for specific communications in order
to obtain their input. Project communications at this level needs to be
top-down and bottom-up with an effective formal mechanism in place to
give, receive and manage feedback and also to solicit input.”
19. 153
13 Gaining Support for the Project
quot;Lead, follow, or get out of the wayquot;
Thomas Paine
Purpose:
To highlight the importance and the impact of securing and sustaining
executive, stakeholder and user support for the IT investment decision and for
the project. The critical role of managements factors and how they influence
user support and adoption of the final production system.
Content:
The importance of gaining organization-wide support for the investment
decision and the project.
“The decision to invest in a new IT system must have full executive,
management and stakeholder support as well as the support of the entire
organization and users that will be affected.”
When management and project decisions are made in isolation they will often
not be fully supported by the parties that will be impacted.
“As correct as it may be for senior management to make IT investment
decisions, they still need to ensure that they have the full support of
their management teams and staff. Therefore, before making the final
investment decision, all appropriate managers need to be identified to
ensure that they do in fact support the project.”
The critical role that user involvement plays in supporting the project is
emphasized.
“Soliciting and including user input to formulate system requirements at
the project’s inception will therefore ensure that a user-friendly and
fully functional system that satisfies their requirements is delivered. It
will also ensure that “user ownership” is established early on in the
project”
20. Highlights once again the point that full executive and management support
must be secured and that the relevant parties need to be involved in the decision
making process. If users perceive that management does not support the project
then their support will also be lost.
“If users “perceive” that management’s attitude and support for the
system is weak, or if management fails to secure their involvement at
the outset, end user support for the system will diminish as will their
desire to utilize and fully adopt the system.”
21. 165
14 Managing Change
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress”
Charles Kettering
Purpose:
Idenfiying and overcoming various types of organizational resistance that can
occur with IT change and how to manage and minimize resistance. To
introduce basic change frameworks and processes.
Content:
Executives don’t always factor in the significant role that resistance to change
can have on their projects and organizations because their decision process
excludes critical parties and people.
“They reason that there should be no resistance to its execution because
the benefits that the new IT system will deliver to the organization, its
employees and users far outweigh any temporary discomfort that may
be experienced during the transition.”
There are good and bad approaches to managing resistance to change, each of
which is explained.
“If resistance to change persists, an organization can “command” the
change. However, it is better to firstly secure support from the majority
of the organization or to ensure that some of the change resisters have
been converted into change supporters.”
Identifying the informal power plays that can occur within an organization and
the roles that they have in identifying resistance and support for change.
“Even though these supportive individuals are reliant on those self-
appointed parties in order to function, they do not enjoy or benefit from
the social transaction. They will therefore welcome the opportunity to
be released from such dependencies. In fact they are likely to relish the
demise of these self-appointed power holders.”
22. The reader will recognize the list of symptoms such as the example below.
“Dead Wood – these are people who have been with an organization for
many years and perform their tasks extremely well. They are reluctant to
share their hard-won knowledge fearing a loss of power, control and
security when their power-base of knowledge becomes obsolete.”
Managing change and the science of Change Management require specific
skills. This function must be managed by a vigilant expert or team of experts.
“Being proficient and diligent at administering change frameworks and
processes requires a high level of expertise and hands-on experience that
not all organizations possess, (let alone managers having sufficient time
to ensure that the change process is properly adhered to and
monitored).”
Popular change models and processes and how they can be adapted to suit
various situations are discussed.
“Lewin’s “Unfreezing, Moving, Refreezing” model starts off by
unfreezing the organization for the changes ahead. This is done by
unfreezing the current situation or status quo and identifying change
resistance components. This is based upon the notion that the two
opposing force fields, (a) resistance and (b) support for change, need to
be identified and addressed.”
23. 183
15 Solution and Vendor Selection Framework
quot;Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignoredquot;
Aldous Huxley
Purpose:
To understand that vendor and solution selection is another critical decision
process requiring management’s full attention. Considering that vendors and
their solutions will reamain part of the organization into the future,
organizations need to be rigorous about their needs being based on the
organizations full requirements rather than what a few people decide is needed.
Content:
Vendor selection can be complicated by over-zealous sales people and the high
stakes involved. The reader’s attention is drawn to objective business-oriented
factors to be considered in ther selection process.
“A vendor must always be selected based on their core business being in
the system, service or technology that they are proposing.”
There are many common strategies for vendor selection and some of the
potential pitfalls are highlighted.
“Mandating a single source supplier to minimize the number of vendor
relationships an organization needs to manage is a common practice but
it can also be a costly mistake.”
A real world example of the unfortunate consequences of an incorrect vendor
selection is analyzed. Throughout the book the reader is presented with
examples and case studies that they can easily relate to.
“During my interview with a large telecommunications organization it
became apparent that incorrect vendor selection, lack of
communications and inaccurate requirements were prevalent in one of
their IT projects”
Necessary and much needed vendor supplied system training can be
24. inadvertently omitted from the full cost of a solution. The long term benefits of
wise investments in vendor training is highlighted.
“Although training may appear to be excessively expensive, training
users to operate and use the system proficiently will pay dividends when
it comes to user adoption.”
All too often a vendor’s superior knowledge in their IT product category causes
organizations to delegate responsibilities and decisions to them. These decision
must remain in-house otherwise the vendor will have control of the project.
“The following caveats need to be established and rigorously adhered to
in order to ensure that an organization manages its project and vendors
and not the other way around.”
The reader may not be aware of the benefits of appointing a VMO to assist in
vendor selection and management.
“Alternatively if the budget allows, one may appoint a VMO (Vendor
Management Organization) to manage and control vendors and to assist
with the IT investment decision. Considering that VMO’s interact with
IT vendors regularly and have a strong current knowledge of vendors
and their solutions, they are often better placed to negotiate pricing,
quality, vendor commitment, expertise and to select a solution that’s
aligned with business initiatives.”
The reader needs to be aware of the changing vendor landscape which (through
acquisitions) may cause vendors’ capabilities to alter dramatically in a very
short time-frame.
“Since many vendors have diversified their product and service
offerings by bundling consulting services with hardware and software,
(for example HP’s merger with EDS), a more thorough knowledge of
technology to address an organization’s requirements is required when
making an IT investment.”
25. 197
16 Training and Development
“Folklore and rumor are inadequate means of spreading information about
how to use a computer system”
John Gustafson
Purpose:
The critical role of adequate system and process training and development and
how it impacts on successful user adoption of the sytem.
Content:
The importance of training gap analysis, adequate training investment and
follow-up confirmation of training outcomes is emphasised.
“In order to increase the probability of an IT implementation
succeeding, these three critical training issues must be fully addressed:”
An unfortunate and all too common result of inadequate training is poor user
adoption of a perfectly good system.
“These are critical factors that can result in a lack of user adoption
thereby creating a technology mismatch whereby the new system is
viewed as a ‘white elephant’.”
The reader will relate to examples given that underscore the issues that are
explained.
“As an example the telecommunications organization mentioned earlier,
implemented a sales system but omitted to provide their staff with cross
selling and up-selling sales skills resulting in them not achieving the
results that they expected from the system.”
26. 205
17 Succeeding at Corporate Profiling
“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't
get you anywhere”
Lee Iacocca
Purpose:
The framework and processes are summarized and clarified.
Content:
The diagram below and the contents of this chapter should be referred to prior
to initiating a project which is the moment that contracts are signed and
commitments made.
“This final chapter summarized the profiling concepts that have been
covered to create a conceptual framework for an organization’s current
and future IT projects”
The following is the essence of corporate profiling.
“The three key principles of corporate profiling, Visibility,
Collaboration and Accountability underpin the three integral elements
of the Pre-investment IT Project Framework namely Dissect
27. (unbundling), Analyze (Announce, Ask and Answer), Decide
(Document and Do).
Hopefully the reader will see the “common sense” approach in the many
examples that I use to illustrate the points that I make.
“For example, deciding on which vendors will be requested to submit
proposals is more likely to be correct where those accountable for
gathering the requirements at the outset are made accountable for this
task”
28. 213
18 otable IT Project Failures
“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead,
failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day”
Jim Rohn
Purpose:
Two well documented project failures that the reader is likely to relate to.
Content:
Microsoft Windows® Vista is a highly controversial example of a failed project
“Microsoft’s dominance with Windows Vista and its successor versions
of Windows is unlikely to falter. Any other project that did not have
such support or so much at stake would almost certainly have been
euthanized because of (a) the massive budget blow-out, (b) repeated
missed deadlines and most importantly (c) not meeting customer
expectations.”
Palm Inc. over-committed and did not deliver on promises made. In fact they
actually have finally surprised the pundits with their recent announcement of
their Web/OS and the Palm Pre. The big question is whether Palm will survive
and speculation of a takeover is rife in the industry.
“The project that was conceived to deliver Cobalt was intended to
maintain PalmOne’s market leadership position through the support of
this community. This external value chain of software developers was
vital to their success and had they profiled and disciplined their
organization to not only heed but support this value chain their fortunes
may not have waned as they have.”
29. 223
19 Epilogue
“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who
try to do nothing and succeed”
Lloyd Jones
Purpose:
A discussion on the status quo and why the changes that I recommend are
needed in order to minimize the incidence of IT project failures.
Content:
The consequence of not applying Corporate profiling.
“Even with proven project management methodologies in use, it’s sad to
see that there is no end in sight to failed corporate IT projects and the
extraordinary waste of time, money and resources mostly with
disastrous outcomes. The careers of good people fall by the wayside and
the reputations of sound companies are tarnished not to mention the
losses to shareholders”
Reminding the reader of the root causes of IT Project failures.
“The key issue that is at the heart of IT project failures is simply a lack
of accountability by chief or senior executives for their IT investment
and pre-implementation planning process decisions.”
Thinking outside the scope of the book to impress on the reader the broad scope
of similar issues in other types of projects.
“Consider the Airbus 380 that experienced major holdups because
wiring looms did not fit correctly. It then becomes immediately clear
that project failures are not the exclusive domain of IT and that projects
of any description can suffer from the same fate for the same common
reasons when corporate profiling is not undertaken”
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Index