Project Management in IT

I think it is critical for IT to have very high quality project management skills, tools and experiences. We recently completed a very complicated M&A project that was date constrained where we had to have things done by a particular date that we didn’t control. We pulled off that project smoothly and successfully because those involved where applying a disciplined project management approach and were tracking every issue to closure.  It worked because we knew how to manage the project, issues were tracked, communications were crisp and great people were involved.

I’ve seen this before when a large ERP project that was fundamentally out of control. We were able to bring it back in control by putting all issues into a single tracking system and then managing everything from that list. In this case, I wouldn’t even engage in a conversation on an issue unless it was in the database and we were having the conversation there (Lotus Notes was great for this kind of thing). If someone sent me something in email, I’d send it back and say get it on the database!

Over the years, I’ve seen teams take large global projects and by applying a lot of discipline and a little bit of IT to the project we’ve been able to get things done successfully.

One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was when my former boss and the company President made the point that they thought the best PM in the company was being done by the IT team. Over time, they simply didn’t have to worry about the things we were doing.

If you don’t have these skills in your shop, you need to find and grow them. If you do have the skills, nurture them and thank them for all they do.

Fragile Security

Forbes has a short piece by Hugh Thompson on security in information systems that I’ve read in a long time. In the role of CIO, we need to be talking about the ideas that are summarized in his great article. We’ve got to expect people mistakes and system failures, assume your system is being attacked, create safety nets and just have a general security mindset in all our applications and thinking. This article does a nice job at summarizing these thoughts.

The Era of Security Fragility

Spoiled on Integration and Design Thinking

I’ve become spoiled with the smooth polish and tight integration across the iPhone and the Android applications. One can simply select a phone number in an email and the phone recognizes it and dials the number. The phones find new wi-fi networks for connections and can automatically connect if so desired. Pictures can automatically be tagged with location information. Music syncs to/from the cloud with no user intervention. In short everything just works and it works smoothly most of the time.

I recently purchased a new car and it demonstrates the other way of doing things. The car will sync with your phone via bluetooth and it will download your address book to the car for dialing later. However, that address book is not integrated with the navigation address book which is a different list. I can’t use the addresses from my iPhone to load up the destination addresses in my car navigation. However, I can type in addresses to this list one at a time or I can mark a point after I drive there or via a map in the car. Good design thinking would connect these subsystems together in a smooth fashion.

There is a second address book of sites, that can be downloaded via the car’s cellular interface, which are called eDestinations. And, there is third separate list of 5 locations that can be setup for commonly used destinations(like work) which have dedicated buttons on the navigation screen. In fact there is a fourth address book for destinations like McDonalds, Starbucks, and other points of interest.  NONE of these address books are connected together. I can’t select an address from the first book and it make it one of the top 5 destinations for the quick access buttons on the screen. Now, since there are so many places to look, I have to pause and remember where to even look on the car to set a destination. A person could literally appear in this address book mess and phone number mess in 5 different places.

Furthermore, none of the menus work in an objected oriented fashion where you can select the data (an address or phone number) and then select what to do with it. Instead, you have to decide you are going to delete entries first and then select the entry to delete from the list. Very old school, very non-intuitive, very disappointing. Throughout the car electronics, the menus are ancient thinking, poorly designed, not integrated and very frustrating to use.

Like I said, I’m spoiled.

The bar is now very high on user interfaces and their simplicity. Our employees, customers, and suppliers don’t want to find these antiquated ways of getting things done at work(or in their car, DVR, tv, etc.) because they are used to better on their iPhones.

Interviewed by the Financial Times

I was interviewed by the Financial Times a month ago and they posted the material this week. Take a look here.  Fun.

A Few Reading Recommendations

Finally caught up on some reading material. Here are a few great online posts you might check out.

1. A 10 Step Process for Protecting an Organization’s Data
2. A really cool list of Gifts for User Experience Geeks for 2011
3. A good list of books to read about complex problems called Five Must-Reads for Tackling Complex Problems which includes some of my favorites.
4. A finally a great post of the dangers of collaboration entitled Eight Dangers of Collaboration. Great thoughts to actively think about as you are trying to improve collaboration in a team or workplace.

I’ve been behind on posting, but have a stack of ideas I want to write about soon. I leave you with a really great quote:

“One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present.   In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.  When you defend those who are absent, you retain the trust of those present.”

–Stephen Covey