Mobile Enterprise Transition Goals
Mobile technologies contribute uniquely to the communications revolution by eliminating the need for physical land-based connectivity between people, processes, and entities. However, its success depends heavily on a meticulously planned and executed methodological framework. The Mobile Enterprise Transition (MET) framework provides detailed guidance based on the questions of "why, what, how, and who," thereby facilitating the strategic adoption of mobility by business. The MET framework focuses the goals of the organization on strategic and formal adoption of mobility and, at the same time, ameliorates the risks associated with the transition. This excerpt discusses the goals of Mobile Enterprise Transition and managing the expectations of the business.
How "24x7 Connectivity" Prevents Real Connections
Our obsession with being connected 24x7 has many costs as well. More and more people -- colleagues, family and friends -- abandon in-person interaction in favor of electronic communications. While it might be more efficient, expedient and less "messy" at times, we must question what this trend will mean to our inclination and ability to have the kind of conversations that foster deep connections. This article reflects on the unintended consequences of our growing reliance on electronic communications, and explores some of the conscious choices we need to make as a result.
The Top Trends Shaping Business Analytics
While the practice of collecting and extracting intelligence from business information is not new today's analytic requirements are evolving dramatically. Business managers need answers today or tomorrow, not next month or next year. They need to capture and make sense of massive volumes of data spanning both traditional sources, such as transactional systems, as well as an ever expanding array of data from online and mobile devices. And in an economy that's forcing everyone to do more with less, they need scalable, affordable and simple-to-use solutions. Here are the top trends shaping analytics in 2010 and beyond.
Five Ways to Increase Operational Efficiency with Alert Management
An alert management platform empowers companies to target actionable information from IT applications and systems automatically to the employee who can resolve the issue--escalating as necessary. Effective alert management provides the tools to access internal systems and address events from a mobile workbench as well as resolve issues from any web-enabled mobile device. Process acceleration and service improvements can help resolve incidents an average of 40 percent faster, saving up to millions of dollars annually. There are five ways that implementing alert management can immediately increase operational effectiveness across the enterprise--including process and efficiency improvements in incident, service, and change management--while significantly reducing costs.
Ten Steps to Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
One problem with the implementation of SOX is that it tends to set a standard for compliance that may be inadequate. Meeting SOX standards--i.e., passing 404--does not imply that a firm or an IT department has the processes in place required to manage its business. Nor does it mean that an optimal level of control exists anymore than having a pulse signifies good health. SOX compliance is the minimum standard, not an optimum standard. Regardless of your firm’s current maturity level, you will need to demonstrate SOX compliance efficiently and honestly. This article describes the typical steps required to pass section 404.
Stretching the IT Budget: Look Beyond the Obvious
IT departments willing to look beyond the surface and the obvious can often eliminate apparent tradeoffs without having to choose one side or the other. When faced with a situation that appears to force a tradeoff, try to examine the problem from a different angle. Taking this fresh-thinking perspective can stretch the IT budget to achieve goals that you might otherwise forgo in an environment of severe financial constraints.
The Keys to Intergenerational Harmony
Most of what's been written about multiple generations working side by side has come from those of us who are considerably older and more experienced than our Gen X and Gen Y counterparts. In this article, Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts and Nancy Settle-Murphy sought the perspectives of some of their Gen X and Gen Y colleagues. After all, for all of the wisdom we older generations think we have to offer, the Gen X and Y folks of the world have a lot to teach us, too.
Software Testing Project Execution
In an ideal world, project planning would be the main task and project execution would be like pressing a button to start and finish it. Alas, this is not the case. In many industries execution is still the king. This is because despite all the advances in automation and standardization of processes, executing any plan is still difficult. The road to execution is laden with unimaginable pitfalls and unavoidable circumstances that ensure that execution is a challenge and not a walk in the park.
Top Five Considerations When Retiring Legacy Applications
Due to the tricky nature of retiring legacy systems, managing the retirement of these systems must be completed in stages, and not by adopting an overly simplistic unplug-and-play approach. So how should a legacy application retirement project proceed? While there are in fact no hard and fast rules, here are five general tips for you to consider.
How to Make the Transition to the Collaborative Web 2.0 Work Process
According to research, eighty percent of the future collaborative work approach will be inspired by Web 2.0 technologies. As more companies are turning to cloud-based solutions to business computing needs, it becomes more obvious that Web 2.0 has much to do with the way things are shaping up in enterprise technology. At this point however, the trick is in making the smooth transition from file-based and offline methodologies to the collaborative "always on" approach. Here are five tips to help you make the transition to a collaborative Web 2.0 work process.
7 Steps for Staying Relevant in a Tough Market
This article describes a number of ways you can shore up your knowledge, skills and qualities that are likely to help position you favorably among employers, clients and business colleagues, especially important during these increasingly competitive times.
CIO Core Skills and Career Development
Chief information officers (CIOs) vary in appearance, age, gender, educational background, hobbies, and personality. There is no average CIO. However, successful CIOs have a core set of skills that allow them to succeed in an age of complexity and constantly shifting business requirements. In the same way that a "new" dictionary cannot have all new words (it would be practically useless), we do not present in The Effective CIO a large number of absolutely new ideas and concepts. This piece outlines the skills, challenges, and important management and information technology subject matter to help you with your own career and long-term strategic planning. Every successful person acknowledges the need for discipline - going beyond the "order-taking" mindset and deliberately working toward increased personal productivity, satisfaction, and contribution to the business. The following provides a high-level road map to becoming an effective CIO.
Overview of Software Testing Techniques
Software testing, as a separate process, witnessed vertical growth and received the attention of project stakeholders and business sponsors in the last decade. Various new techniques have been continuously introduced. Apart from the traditional testing techniques, various new techniques necessitated by the complicated business and development logic were realized to make software testing more meaningful and purposeful. This chapter from Software Testing and Continuous Quality Improvement, Third Edition by William Lewis discusses some of the popular testing techniques that have been adopted by the testing community. These techniques are Black-Box Testing (Functional), White-Box Testing (Structural), Gray-Box Testing (Functional and Structural), Manual versus Automated Testing and Static versus Dynamic Testing.
Challenges Observed in System Architecture Engineering Practice
General system architectural engineering challenges are not the only ones faced by system architects. While working on numerous systems development projects, the authors have also observed and experienced the following significant architectural engineering challenges reoccurring repeatedly in practice despite near-heroic efforts made by many dedicated and professional architects. This abstract from The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures provides a more detailed description of each of the above challenges observed in system architecture engineering practice.
Introduction to Computer Ethics
This introduction to computer ethics by Rebecca Herold traces its history, covers regulatory requirements, discusses various topics in computer ethics, highlights common fallacies, codes of conduct, and resources.
Guidelines for Great Global Project Team Virtual Meetings
Thanks to advances in technology, project team members scattered around multiple time zones work together as a matter of routine. However, without a keen understanding of important cultural differences that are most likely to affect collaboration, many virtual global project teams struggle to achieve their goals, or sometimes simply fall apart. This article explores practical tips and techniques for remote leaders of cross-cultural project teams who want to take the best advantage of the diverse talent and perspectives of all team members.
The Secrets for Giving Feedback to Millennials
Managing Millennials may be challenging. But when you take the time to consider reframing your communication, you'll find that your Generation Y employees will respond with enthusiasm and commitment. You may even be surprised at how well this applies to all generations of employees.
How to Deal with the People Factor of Change Management
A 2008 McKinsey survey of 3,199 executives around the world found that only one in three organizational transformation or change projects succeeded. This situation occurred mainly due to the people factor that is involved in any type of any quest for change and the irrational side of human behavior. When changes such as new technologies, new processes, or new groups are introduced to the work environment, workers have counterintuitive ways of interpreting these changes and may act differently than expected. Given that people are usually the most common change obstacles, there are some approaches to manage the human factor of change management.
Top 5 Ways to Incorporate CMMI with Agile Methods
There is a common misconception that CMMI and Agile are polar opposites. One relies on institutionalization and documentation of processes and methodologies, while the other emphasizes interaction among workers and "working software over comprehensive documentation" (Agile Manifesto). So where do IT managers find the common ground? Here are several ways to institutionalize Agile methods with CMMI through at the adoption of generic practices associated with Maturity Levels 2 and 3.
7 Things You Need to Know About Development Project Estimations
There are various aspects that affect project estimates, such as team skills and experience levels, available technology, use of full-time or part-time resources, project quality management, risks, iteration, development environment, requirements, and most of all, the level of commitment of all project members. Moreover, project estimations do not need to be too complicated. Here is a list of seven tools, methodologies, and best practices that can help project management teams, from sponsors to project managers, agree on estimates and push development efforts forward.
Applying Active and Effective Listening
Listening is an attribute that, everyone agrees, is important, yet few people, including project managers, actually practice it. Two closely related sets of listening skills exist: active and effective. Active listening occurs when the listener attempts to understand as clearly as possible what the speaker says. Effective listening is attempting to understand the perspective of the speaker and empathize, not sympathize, with him. As a project manager you must exercise both skills because you have to interact and communicate with many stakeholders. Both skills enable you to understand the interests of each stakeholder and how to align those interests to achieve the goals and objectives of their projects.
Small Projects Management: 7 Tactics That Pay-Off Big!
If you're a software project manager, challenging projects and difficult clients can make your job quite stressful. From budget constraints to unrealistic expectations, small to mid-size projects can be difficult to manage. Addressing key problem issues faced by many project managers responsible for smaller projects, this article provides a workable framework for planning and monitoring. Guarantee the success of your next small project using the seven sure-fire strategies found here.
Magic Numbers for Successful Teamwork
People often ask, "What's the ideal number of people to have on any given team to produce the best results?" Nancy Settle-Murphy's answer, "It depends." Several factors go into coming up with that magic number. Here are some ideas for optimum participant numbers, based on meeting types and objectives. While the focus here is more on virtual teams, many of the responses would be similar for co-located teams.
Devising a Workable IT Planning Strategy
Effective decisions are elusive without good planning abilities and good decisions about how IT should be deployed and managed are no different. Consistent decision-making requires a defined framework, methodology or, in short, a process. So if IT planning consists of all of the activities that support consistent decision-making, then the IT planning discipline has to be made up of activities performed in a process that is repeatable, has defined responsibilities, has a defined order to the activities and is auditable. As this article explains, to make quality decisions, the process should provoke the right questions and supply the information that can support the decision-making.
5 Technologies that Matter in a Slow Economy
As the world gets on with the current crisis, technology is responding at rapid speed to manage the needs of individual and enterprise tech buyers everywhere. Here's a short list of technologies that actually matter in this climate.
Reaching the Peak of CMMI: How Fast Can You Climb?
This article chronicles the incredible speed at which an international giant achieved the pinnacle of CMMI ratings and explains how your organization can follow in its footsteps.
Success Factors in Knowledge Management
To be successful, knowledge management programs require more than simply conducting training sessions or transferring knowledge. Practitioners must always remember that KM's explicit end-goal is profitability - while KM's implicit purpose is to empower participants by providing them with the intellectual platforms and processes that promote learning and practical knowledge. This article discusses factors that contribute to successful knowledge management initiatives.
CMMI Benefits Now Extended
The benefits of process improvement are no longer reserved exclusively for members of the software industry. Learn how SEI expanded the CMMI model to accommodate the needs of additional markets.
Managing Hidden Project Costs for Better ROI
A competitive business environment typically requires higher return on investment, and there is nothing more that CFOs look for in any outsourcing venture or project than a positive ROI. While projects have measurable ROIs, such as quality control and supply chain, there are aspects that remain in the gray areas. To properly measure--and control--a project's metrics, there are certain considerations outside the scope of usual reports when an audit for return on investment comes around. Sure, a project manager can assign numbers to productive hours, headcounts, and quality, but how does one factor in hidden costs, such as training, project changes, and communication, among others?
Improving Performance in Troubled Times through Distance Learning
This article maps out several important steps to creating a successful multifaceted distance learning program. Our starting premise: Simply throwing a slide presentation onto a website, while it may be fast and inexpensive, almost never achieves the intended results. Instead, it's a thoughtfully-created program that encompasses a variety of learning activities that can cultivate skills and accelerate time to practical application.
Predicting the ROI of Change
Process Simulation Modeling (PSIM) can provide real business value to organizations that are trying to change processes. When companies use the appropriate software simulation, designed for their industry to evaluate process performance, these organizations can improve their operations and achieve higher levels of process maturity with the integration of CMMI. This article explains how Process Simulation Modeling (PSIM) can help you zero-in on the changes that will deliver a positive ROI.
Managing the IT Procurement Process
This chapter from IS Management Handbook, Eighth Edition presents a model of the IT procurement process that was developed by the SIM Working Group to provide a framework for studying IT procurement.
Organizational Communications Audit as Foundation of Successful Campaign
This article outlines the steps for a comprehensive communications audit that can help organizations focus time, energy and resources on the communications methods and tools most likely to reach and engage employees during times of change. Such an audit may also be used for other types of communications campaigns as well.
The Key Success Factors in Aligning IT with Business
Because business needs help set IT's priorities, how IT departments align their solutions with business objectives hinge on a number of success factors. At the end of the day, most of the work rest on the shoulders of CIOs, being the key figures that understand the business side of things and have the ability to translate business needs into technology solutions.
Accelerate On-the-Job Learning with Virtual Peer Roundtables
If you're like many of our clients and colleagues, you work some distance away from your key colleagues. This may mean that you rarely get the chance to brainstorm ideas, share lessons learned, or explore difficult issues with your peers. With technology as an enabler, virtual roundtables can be an effective way to exchange ideas and pick up new tips and tools. To succeed, they need a thoughtful structure, and agreed-upon ground rules and operating norms. In this article, Penny Pullan and Nancy Settle-Murhpy map out some practical steps you can take to assemble a virtual roundtable of peers. You can use these guidelines to set up other kinds of virtual roundtables too, perhaps with clients, partners or industry experts. They use examples from a mastermind group for leaders of virtual teams.
Project Management Tools
Here's an overview of some of the quantitative tools you can use to manage your projects better.
ERP for IT
In trying to align IT with business goals, organizations often find that IT landscapes consisting of processes, information, technology and people have taken on a life of their own and are not easily managed. Because of this, CIOs find it nearly impossible to answer important questions. This article introduces IT planning, which supports effective and consistent decision-making about how IT should be deployed and managed. IT planning’s reason for being is to facilitate decision-making. In particular, it provides support for effective decisions and ensures that decision-making is performed in a consistent way suggesting a framework, methodology or process.
Using Scrum for Project Management
Scrum is an agile software approach to getting project tasks done. This approach hyper focuses upon software development and testing task execution. This same approach can be easily adapted to general project management. The scrum approach is an evolutionary approach to project management with few down-sides and a substantial payoff.
Program Management: For Wonders Great and Small
Program management's power lies in its ability to deliver success not only in the short term but in the long term. While it helps to make the quarterly objectives, more importantly it guides long-term viability. To realize these benefits of program management, an organization does not have to be tasked with building another Wonder of the World like the pyramids. The truth is that organizations of any size can productively apply program management.
Organize Critical Team Documents to Save Time and Waste
Regardless of the size of your team, chances are you routinely squander time trying to find critical documents that you know exist somewhere, editing a document for hours only to find that you've been working on an old version, or trying to piece together elements of several documents that use different structures or formats. So why don't more teams take the time to set up a consistent system right up front for documenting and organizing shared work products? The answer: It takes making tough trade-offs, a good deal of discipline and a lot of time. This article provides several useful tips for improving results, in far less time, through better organization of documents, messages and schedules, for both teams and individuals.
Which Kind of System? The Make, Buy, or Rent Decision
This article illustrates the three main system options for organizations seeking to upgrade their systems and the pros and cons of each. Having made the decision to upgrade its systems, the next step that an organization needs to take involves the classic "make or buy" question: Is the organization going to build its own system from scratch or purchase a "mature" system that tens, hundreds, or even thousands of organizations currently use? Note that the traditional make or buy decision has been complicated somewhat in recent years by the advent of SaaS. Vendors like Workday and salesforce.com provide a third option for organizations that want to "rent" software."
Ranking Risks: Rare to Certain, Negligible to Catastrophic
Risks your project or business are exposed to may be worth reviewing now more than ever to see which ones need more attention than others. This article presents a risk matrix, which is a risk assessment tool that exposes aspects of risks that could be subjected to some form of ranking. A risk matrix shows you and other decision makers a clearer view of what the risk is, what is involved, and what amount of time can be afforded given the severity and probability of the risk event. It can help you visualize, in an organized manner, the risks you face in quantitative and qualitative terms and plan and make a more informed decision when the situation arises.
Coalescing a New Team: Creating Ties That Bind
Maybe you've inherited new team members from another group within your company as a result of recent reorganization. Or perhaps your company has merged with another, giving you a whole new group to manage. Whatever the reason, you need to pull a new team together, including people who have been working together all along and those who are just coming on board. What actions can you, as a team leader, take to create an environment of collaboration and trust in the short-term and in the long-run? What can team members do to get connected as quickly as possible to other team members? This article provides some practical tips for finding the right "glue" to bring a new team together, even when working from afar.
CMMI and Agile: Opposites Attract
The myths surrounding the compatibility of CMMI and Agile have recently been debunked by SEI. Despite the perception that CMMI best practices and Agile development methods are at odds with each other, new research suggests just the opposite train of thought. In fact, CMMI and Agile champions can benefit from using both methods within organizations - with the potential to dramatically improve business performance. This article explains how these seemingly opposing strategies can be paired to foster dramatic improvements in business performance.
Six Management Practices That Don't Cut It in a Virtual World
Do you think that just because you're a successful manager of traditional teams that you'll automatically be a hotshot manager in the virtual world? Maybe not. In fact, it's often those managers who assume their leadership skills are eminently transportable to a virtual team are those who struggle the most. Why? They haven't taken the time to understand how vastly different virtual team dynamics can be for both leaders and team members, and thus, are less likely to find ways to accommodate those differences. In this article Nancy Settle-Murphy explores some of the "traditional" management tenets that are most likely to backfire in a virtual world, and offer some alternatives that will yield better results when leading teams who work remotely.
Traditional or Milestone Consulting: Which is Best?
Many organizations may recognize the need for consultants but remain unsure about how to use them. This article compares two of the different consulting alternatives--traditional and milestone--and the pros and cons of each.
How BPM Can Benefit Quality Programs
In Business Process Management Systems: Strategy and Implementation, James Chang discusses business management practices and the technology that enables them, with a focus on strategy and implementation. He analyzes the history of process management practices and demonstrates that BPM practices are a synthesis of radical change and continuous change practices. It provides an integrated view on how various management practices merge into BPM and describes the many technologies that converge to form a Business Process Management System (BPMS), illustrating its standards and service-oriented architecture. The excerpt looks at how BPM can benefit quality programs.
Drive Out Distractions and Reclaim Your Time
This article explores ways that anyone can gain back valuable working time each day by changing habits and behaviors. Some may find some of these recommendations too extreme, especially those who are hard-wired to multitask constantly. Make one or two changes at first, if you must. If you're part of an ongoing team, choose one change you can all agree to. Once you've discovered how much more time you now have to get work done, take another step.
