Randy Young ::: Adopting and Adapting : Strategy

Some great training on IT Governance, Risk, and Portfolio Mgmt

Randy_Young — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:54:48 GMT

I had the great pleasure of attending training this week at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). I attended the summer session at CISR which comprised classes on:

IT Portfolios and Business Agility
Enterprise Architecture as Strategy
IT Risk and Oversight
IT Governance and Leadership
IT-Enabled Change: The Human Dimension

For those with an IT governance focus, these classes are a must. It is by far the best training, from an IT mgmt perspective, that I have attended. The classes were very well structured with pertinent and dynamic guest speakers including:

Jeff Sampler, Oxford University
Rob Cohen, Vice President of Information Systems & Chief Information Officer, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
James Cash, Board Member, GE, Microsoft, Wal-Mart
Pat Hewlett, Chief Information Officer, Exxon Mobil
Omar Baig, Senior Information Officer, International Finance Corporation
Martin Curley, Director, IT Innovation, Intel Corporation
John Petrey, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, TD Banknorth
John Cross, Former Group CIO, British Petroleum

In addition to the guest speakers, there is a wealth of information presented by:

Peter Weill, Director, CISR & Senior Research Scientist
Jeanne Ross, Principle Research Scientist
George Westerman, Research Scientist

Kudos to Peter, Jeanne, and George. They provided some excellent information that I highly recommend. I will be summarizing and posting more on specific learnings in future posts.

New book available soon on the Solutions Framework

Randy_Young — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 21:04:49 GMT

Mike Turner has an MS Press book coming out soon on the Microsoft Solutions Framework. I encourage you all to get a copy when it is available. Mike has long been an expert on MSF and his learnings will provide some great insight into understanding and adopting the framework.

“Get the hands-on guidance you need to understand how to work with the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), Version 4. MSF is a deliberate and disciplined approach to technology projects based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, guidelines, and proven practices from Microsoft. MSF has a long history of helping teams and organizations become more successful in delivering business-driven technology solutions to their customers.”

Does IT investment alone improve performance?

Randy_Young — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:08:00 GMT

There was a very good article recently at McKinseyQuarterly.com entitled, “Does IT improve performance?” The premise of the article was that the productivity increase resulting from IT spending was only experienced in companies with sound IT governance practices in place. Those companies in the 75th percentile and above in their management practices score AND in the 75th percentile and above in Intensity of IT deployment yielded at least a 20% increase in total factor productivity.

The abstract to the article can be found here. This report was based on a study of 100 companies in France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States. This is very strong independent information for those needing to justify an IT governance or service improvement projects within your company.

Abstract on Execution Plain and Simple

Randy_Young — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 04:29:00 GMT

I came across another good abstract from getAbstract.com. This book is called Execution Plain and Simple, Twelve Steps to Achieving Any Goal on Time and on Budget by Robert A. Neiman. If you are embarking on a service improvement project, in particular one that is more prescriptive with MOF, then follow the Microsoft Solutions Framework to manage the project and take the advice in this book for the “people” and “motivational” help.

It focuses on the following:

Setting well defined goals
Personal responsibility can never be replaced by tools
Communicate assignments clearly to the project team
Selecting the right balance and personnel for a core project team is critical
Build momentum with quick wins
Document and honestly review your successes and failures

This book helps you understand how to follow a 12–step strategy for getting big tasks done, how to target untapped reservoirs in an organization, and how to strategize and accomplish projects.

Comments on Gathering Requirements for ITIL

Randy_Young — Mon, 23 May 2005 22:54:00 GMT

Scott posts a very thought provoking article today about ITIL requirements gathering. It references a Harvard Business Online publication which details the need for a “persuasion campaign”. In past MOF implementations I have been involved in, this has been called an “awareness campaign”. I tend to think “awareness” denotes a more positive approach than “persuasion” but this would depend on the business environment.

At any rate, the purpose of an awareness campaign should be to ensure clear focus on the objectives and goals of all the process improvement efforts undertaken. Through various presentations, intranet portal information / announcements, lunch n learns, etc, to educate as well as gain buy-in from the various areas affected by these changes, improvement efforts can go more smoothly. At a level above this, IMHO, is executive sponsorship. Having CxO level support, very active support, will make or break the project. The awareness campaign should reflect the level of commitment from executive sponsorship to ensure that the goals of the improvements are well understood, share a common vision, and take in valuable feedback from the organization.

Any service management improvement project will meet resistance and changes will be received differently by various org levels. The preconceived notion about “another” change in processes will prevail unless visibility is given, from a high level, to the benefits that will be realized by individuals at those various levels.

Abstract on Project Execution Strategy

Randy_Young — Wed, 11 May 2005 19:18:00 GMT

If you are like me, you do not have as much time as you would like to read through books at your leisure. Even books that contain valuable information to your job. I joined getAbstract recently which has over 2500 book abstracts available. I signed up for an included service where they email me once a week 1 or 2 abstracts that match my criteria. They are typically 5 pages in length and are available in PDF or MS Reader format. There are topics you can subscribe to on Leadership and Management, Strategy, Sales and Marketing, Finance, Industry specific, Self Development, and others. You can of course browse the titles as you choose but who has time for that.

The latest one I received is titled “Execution Plain and Simple”, a book by Robert Neiman. Twelve steps to achieving any goal on time and on budget. It was very good information. You can find this abstract here and search on the title. The content would be very valuable to any project but in particular to anything involving service mgmt improvement projects.