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Posts Tagged 'business-strategy'

A Whole Lot of Heart: Properly Aligned Employees and Teams

Vince Kellen, Ph.D. | Nov 29, 2011 5 Responses

Nov 292011

A Whole Lot of Heart: Properly Aligned Employees and Teams

For several years now, so many pundits, experts, and concerned citizens of the IT world have prattled on about IT alignment with the business. So much so that whenever you hear any phrase that starts with “IT must be aligned with the business,” you already know what’s coming next. Yawn. What we often don’t talk about — and really should — is how each employee has (or has not) aligned him or herself with their own skills and interests and their current role. I contend it is here that most organizations struggle at every level, from the top executives on down. Which is worse: misaligned people or misaligned IT organizations? Is there a difference? When …

Why We Need to Market IT Operations

Bill Keyworth | Oct 18, 2011 2 Responses

Oct 182011

IT organizations devote significant attention to delivering the technology and processes that ensure the achievement of business objectives. It’s what we do in IT. It’s the recognition that drives our actions. It’s our purpose for existing. Yet is it sufficient to simply deliver value without any executive recognition for that contribution? IT best practices require that we not only deliver on the promise of IT, but that we also take the necessary steps toward recognition of that value so that the business “buys IT.” This marketing-style approach allows IT to remain adequately funded, gain support for technology investments, obtain backing for critical IT initiatives, and ensure responsiveness to our dependencies. Marketing IT Is Not a …

Strategic IT Planning: Get the Business of IT Right

Bob Benson | Oct 4, 2011 3 Responses

Oct 042011

Strategic IT planning is central to establishing the IT vision and, more importantly, the vision of how IT will propel the business (or government agency) forward. It’s one of the seven basic competencies every CIO and IT organization should master to bring value to the business. However, mention “strategic” to IT professionals and the conversation will mostly turn to security, cloud, business intelligence, and various platform and network developments. Sure, IT’s roles in the business underlie the conversation, particularly in issues such as flexibility, enhanced user experience, competitiveness, and the like. The truth, though, is that most of this “strategic” conversation is about issues of IT “supply” — how the IT organization will effectively develop …

Understand the Value Equation

Mike Rosen | Feb 22, 2011 1 Response

Feb 222011

Architects face many challenges in their jobs. Among them are creating architecture and applying architecture. I’ve said many times that creating architecture alone does not create value. Rather, the value from architecture comes when it is applied. In other words, value is delivered when architecture is used to influence the outcome of decision making, analysis, design, or implementation. Yet another challenge is that architects are often not the people who are responsible for doing the applying. So we face a conundrum: we don’t create value until someone else uses the architecture. That begs the obvious question of how to get other people to use the architecture. The equation itself is really quite simple: if you …

Identifying the Right Sourcing Strategy for Your Business

Stephen Andriole | Jul 27, 2010 1 Response

Jul 272010

The trends are clear. There will be more and more outsourcing as we proceed through the 21st century. On-demand, “pay-by-the-drink,” and related models will dominate technology delivery for the foreseeable future — and very likely permanently. Lack of expertise in the US is accelerating this trend. So where does this leave us? With a new requirement: vendor management. Vendor management is a broad area. Let’s explore the strategic highlights. First, you need a comprehensive sourcing strategy and inevitably a strategy driven by the results of a core competency assessment. (Yes, you have to do this again.) The essential questions here revolve around the core/noncore relationship between technology and your business models and processes. Put another …

Breaking It Down to Avoid a Breakup: Estimating vs. Decomposing

Vince Kellen, Ph.D. | May 18, 2010 4 Responses

May 182010

Everyone knows estimating work in IT can be difficult. Whenever you ask an IT expert for an estimate, the sequence of events can look like this: Requester asks, “How long do you think that will take?” The expert pauses, silent, eyes looking up. You can see the wheels spinning. After a few moments, the expert responds: “It depends.” The expert and the requester begin a new round of conversations, further specifying what “it” is and what “depends” means. Estimating isn’t really estimating at all. It is a process of understanding with greater specificity, breaking the work down in greater detail and nailing down unstated or less clear choices. Once all the details are known and …

Is overconfidence a necessary part of IT?

Vince Kellen, Ph.D. | Feb 28, 2010 3 Responses

Feb 282010

“I don’t hire older CIOs. I like them young.” So barked an experienced and grizzled CEO in a conversation we had a decade ago. Why? Because they don’t know any better, he said. They overestimate their abilities, underestimate the problem, but work hard enough and are smart enough to pull it off. I hope I don’t work for him, I distinctly remember thinking. While overconfidence continues to be a consistent problem in IT, so does too much experience. Those experienced IT folks who may sandbag their estimates (partially out of painful memories from prior battles, partially out of CYA self-protection) constantly run into technology neophytes and amateurs who are deeply convinced that they can move …

Making the Case: Discovering the Business Value in a Potential IT Infrastructure Project

Dave Higgins | Feb 9, 2010 2 Responses

Feb 092010

The shift in power from the CIO/CTO to the CFO for technology project justification is a fact of life that all of us in the technology industry are familiar with. We no longer have to sell the techies on the value of new IT projects, we have to sell to the financial part of the organization: the business. It seems a common belief that cost-justifying technology projects is difficult, if not impossible, especially if those projects represent infrastructure upgrades rather than improvements to business processes. Too often in technology we get caught up in the “gadget culture.” Most of us who have gravitated to IT have done so because deep down we are technophiles. In …

You read their insights. Now hear them live.

Anne Mullaney | Apr 8, 2009 No Responses

Apr 082009

Cutter’s annual Summit conference is upon us! Our keynoters, panelists, roundtable facilitators and seminar leaders are truly amazing. It’s an inspiring — and inspired — group of people. And at the Summit, you get to spend time with these folks. I’m not talking about taking up space in the same room; I’m talking real, quality time. Want to discuss your particular challenge with Rob Austin? Go ahead, sit together at lunch. Hang out during the 30-minute break. Curious about techniques to protect your personally identifiable information? Mark Seiden will give you incredible tips during the coffee break. Are you wondering if some of your staff could deliver greater value in a different role? Talk with …

Reinventing McDonald’s, Again

Robert Charette | Feb 18, 2009 No Responses

Feb 182009

I am sitting here, sipping my free cup of coffee at McDonald’s, looking across the parking lot at the huge going-out-of-business banners strung across the entrance to my local Circuit City store. “I wonder,” I joke with the McDonald’s manager, who I know pretty well, “if they had to pay for those banners up front and in cash?” A couple of years ago, I wrote about Circuit City’s inability to manage its enterprise risks: I wouldn’t be surprised to see the company sold in a few years, or at the very least, its top management replaced. At the time I wrote that Circuit City had decided that it would replace its higher-paid employees with lower-paid …

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Posts Tagged 'business-strategy'

A Whole Lot of Heart: Properly Aligned Employees and Teams

Why We Need to Market IT Operations

Strategic IT Planning: Get the Business of IT Right

Understand the Value Equation

Identifying the Right Sourcing Strategy for Your Business

Breaking It Down to Avoid a Breakup: Estimating vs. Decomposing

Is overconfidence a necessary part of IT?

Making the Case: Discovering the Business Value in a Potential IT Infrastructure Project

You read their insights. Now hear them live.

Reinventing McDonald’s, Again

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