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| Paul Glen > |
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Getting to Done I'm frequently called upon to help figure out what to do with a project that might be in trouble. Of course, determining whether a project is in trouble is often not a trivial problem. We like to talk about troubled projects as if there were a single bit that visibly flipped from one to zero, but unfortunately it's not that easy. While the symptoms presented vary widely, there are a few questions that I always ask to help determine whether the project is indeed in trouble. Some questions are deceptively simple with surprisingly subtle answers. Perhaps the most important is, "How will you know when you're done?"
What We Have to Fear Lately I've had a troubling sense that there is a cancer growing in IT departments these days. No, I'm not talking about constrained budgets, poor alignment, hiring freezes or project failures. I'm not even talking about the growth of outsourcing and offshoring. While these issues are all real, there seems to be something even more toxic eating away at our industry. What could possibly be more threatening to IT staffs than offshoring? Fear of offshoring.
Selecting New IT Leaders One of the great privileges and responsibilities of leadership is identifying and training the next generation of managers and leaders. Somewhere in between crisis management, contract negotiations, internal politics, status monitoring and your myriad other tasks, you should spend a few moments considering the future leadership of your organization.
What Kind of Manager Are You, Anyway? It's often said that there are two types of managers: those who manage things and those who manage people. And a great divide of misunderstanding lies between them, rarely to be crossed or reconciled.
Clawing Through Change Some of the most important lessons I've learned about transforming organizations came from the struggle to shed an unpleasant habit. During high school and most of college, I was a fingernail biter. It's one of those nasty nervous habits that no one feels good about. My jagged, raggedy, nibbled, nubbin nails were a constant source of embarrassment.
First Time Project Managers Need Failures Nothing succeeds like success, except in project management where nothing succeeds like failure.
Embrace politics to enhance IT/Business alignment Every January, we're treated to a plethora of surveys about IT executive priorities for the next year. From year to year, the top one or two items seem to change, but virtually everything below that level stays the same. Beyond the current hot topics, the priorities and problems of IT departments tend to be relatively stable.
Transform the Year-End Planning Ritual Once again, 'tis the season for annual planning, an exercise that fills managers with hope, dread, despair and anticipation. It's a time when we contemplate the future of our organizations, technology and personal fortunes.
Job Satisfaction: It's Highly Overrated Few managers are genuinely surprised when the results of an employee satisfaction survey are revealed. You really don't need the science of statistics to know that people aren't entirely pleased with every aspect of their work lives.
The Training Trap Lots of my clients call me up to ask that I train their staffs in various skills. The concerns usually sound like, "These guys need to learn to communicate" or "They just can't seem to get things done" or "Our customers always seem upset with us."
Stop "Gathering" IT Requirements Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that one of the most destructive notions circulating inside technical groups involves "gathering requirements." For decades, virtually everyone in the industry has accepted that the first phase of every IT project should be to gather requirements from business users. At least in theory, it should be the point of departure for all our efforts. (Of course, it's also the phase of the project that's most often skipped.) So now that our success rate for IT projects has risen to the still-dismal level of about 25%, perhaps we should question some of this time-honored wisdom.
CTOs: Think Like An Archaeologist If you'd like your IT projects and department to run more efficiently and effectively, you probably need to develop a keen appreciation of the work of archeologists. That's right, real archeologists. I'm not talking about the Indiana Jones variety of adventurous grave-robbers, but of those men and women who spend their summers patiently digging in the dirt with trowels, dental picks and paint brushes looking for sticks, stones and bones.
More Ideas for Implementing MSF The Microsoft Solutions Framework is a comprehensive collection of best practices derived from over 20 years of software development and deployment experience at Microsoft. Taken together, it supplies answers to three categories of questions:
5 Steps to Poor Listening: The ordinary professional’s guide The development of non-technical, soft skills represents a significant choice in the career of IT professionals. For those who choose to take the road most traveled, here are a few thoughts on how to ensure poor client and peer relationships, projects that focus on solutions to the wrong problems, and working cross-purposes with your team.
Is Your Project a Real Project? I often hear the phrase "project management" used interchangeably with the word "management." That's ok, since everything that we do is a project…right?
Mind the Vestiges Have you ever tried to drive around Boston? It's nearly impossible to navigate the narrow, winding streets that meet at odd angles, curve back around, and join in traffic circles that you find almost nowhere else in the country. Why would any city knowingly design its streets in a fashion nearly impossible to navigate? Well, there's an old story, perhaps apocryphal, that the streets follow the old cow paths from the days when the Boston Commons was a cow pasture hundreds of years ago.
Should You Euthanize Your Project? You probably haven't thought about inviting Dr. Kevorkian to one of your project meetings, but maybe you should. Although you might not want to join Dr. Kevorkian's well publicized crusade to legalize physician assisted suicide, he has some very valuable lessons to teach us about delivering successful IT projects.
Competing Visions of Corporate IT's Future Speaking at and attending the recent Forbes Magazine CIO Forum meeting, I had the opportunity to explore the emerging trends in the strategies and concerns of the CIOs of corporate America.
Monitoring Project Progress Too often failing projects surprise us. Have you ever had a project that seemed to be going along just fine, and then, when the delivery deadline drew near, suddenly, everyone's two months late?
Aligning Technology Solutions With Business Needs Every consultant dreads this conversation, but eventually we all have it. Invariably, it strikes at moments of great pride.
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