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.

The Era of Security Fragility

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.

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

Consider the tsunami in Japan and its impact on supply chains where the same problem happened. That event affected factories, transportation and employees as well as local services around affected facilities. Auto manufactures are still struggling to catch up.

Frequently risk conversations in the enterprise is limited to just the financial risk around the financial systems and their control. Auditors like to focus on access control, segregation of duties and mitigating controls. Audits frequently zoom into huge detail in these areas to prevent and lower risk due to fraud or insider actions.

I’m now thinking the risks in other areas like securing the intellectual property of the company and assuring business continuity due to ‘black swan’ events affecting the supply chain are likely the bigger risks.  Funny thing to me today is that I wrote about this Risk in IT back in 2009. I wrote about IT Hard Problems a few times, but I didn’t include understanding the supply chain risks and mapping dependencies.

More to think about here. Would love to hear your thoughts.

1. Business is changing due to social media. Social media is about everything, not just business.
2. People and machines and companies are intertwined and the lines are blurring. He told funny stories of individuals being upset with a bank’s new policy and fees and starting a grassroots campaign on Facebook critical of the policy and the bank then reverting the policy back.  Unhappy customers in the past could complain but now they can coordinate their campaigns and complaints.
3. This is both a threat and an opportunity!
4. Business needs to understand that in the past communications were between individuals and the company. Now it is between all parties simultaneously. The network and connection possibilities are huge.
5. Access to information has changed in regards to amount, availability, speed and cost.
6. Amateur public speech is now real and powerful.
7. Individuals can network and form groups locally or around the world.

The impact on IT is huge and IT needs to recognize that social networks and media are being dragged and carried into the workplace.  IT needs to figure this out proactively, as many firms are doing. He told the story of the DARPA challenge to find 10 red balloons deployed around the country and how people at MIT solved the problem by attacking it with brillant social network thinking.

The idea of cognitive surplus being harnessed to solve problems was terrific. He told funny stories about blog policies at companies the amount of time spent on wikipedia vs tv and a funny story about a reusable camera sold by a drug store. Good stuff.

He closed by saying the companies can likely find out more about the drinking habits of their employees than their work habits.

Lots to consider. I’ve not read his book yet, but will soon.

Lots to hear while there.

In economics, the Jevons paradox (sometimes Jevons effect) is the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.

While not a direct application of this paradox or effect, it seems to me that a similar effect happens with IT work in a group, department or company.  Namely, no matter how much good work is done in that area, there will be still be a list of additional work to do the next time period. If you manage your portfolio of work by organization, no matter how much you do for that organization in a year, there will be a similar list of work to do the next year. No matter how much you do or how much better the organization gets, there will be a list of improvements to undertake next year.

This ‘infinite’ amount of work is one of the key problems in IT and why always working on improving portfolio management is a critical priority for IT leadership and the business. The IT leadership team has to be constantly working with business partners, customers and suppliers to make the smartest decisions possible about what to work on.  The amount of work is infinite so being busy or having a lot to do is meaningless. What counts is working on the right things.

I’m also thinking that this effect is causing me to pause and re-think some of my ideas or beliefs about how that portfolio management should be done. Perhaps, for parts of the business, you tightly constrain the resources available to work and let the most important or highest ROI type work bubble to the top. Then, divert the large fraction of your resources to work on the truly strategic part of your business. I have to think on this more.

I’d welcome your thoughts on the matter.

1. Mark McDonald is at Garter Group and he wrote a piece called  12 Things Every Business Needs To Know About IT on his blog.
2. There is an article on Forbes CIO Central called The Coming Crisis of IT Management which has a lot of good points.  I might share this with my boss and use this piece and the prior one with my boss as a conversation starter.
3. JD Meier wrote a great piece on Business Scenarios for the Cloud which outlines business reasons why cloud solutions make sense.
4. And finally Bertrand Duperrin always writes great stuff about collaboration and social networking in the enterprise.  He wrote an interesting note called Making the Most of Key Resources in Collaboration about attention, connections and communication.  I’m still thinking about this one.

I recommend watching all their pages too.