News for Wombats: Taming Unreasonable Requirements

I've heard from a couple of friends about some "classic" project requests - dilemmas they have recently faced. These unreasonable requests can be turned into something achievable and, potentially, more relevant / meaningful to the requestor, by approaching the problem from a different direction. Request for Data: the Analytics Project Classic scenario #1 arrives courtesy of the external Experts, analytic genii (sic) promising to reveal secrets of profitability and sources of revenue buried deep within our data sets. Their "simple…

Dueling Collaboration Portals

I noticed an interesting phenomenon this afternoon; we are experimenting with SharePoint as our internal project management / collaboration portal. A nice platform to choose, because it's popularity is growing, and there are a wide selection of add-on products and development partners ready, willing, and able to help us spend our money to make it even better. The interesting part is that we are running into other companies who are also working with SharePoint. Specifically, third-party consulting firms that want…

A Plea for Empathetic Communication

17 November, 2008
Communication
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It's impossible to over-communicate Sounds a bit strong, but if you think through your real-world experiences, this shouldn't surprise anyone. No matter how hard you try, your message will be missed by someone ... Problem: It's all their fault! Rely on Web 2.0, and ... ... they won't subscribe to the RSS feed; they don't understand the concept, and have no other information sources that supply feeds ... they won't sign up for the email notifications; that feature is hidden,…

MS Project, Early and Often

9 November, 2008
Project Management
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99.9% of the project managers I know have at least heard of Microsoft Project (MSP), and all understand it to be a very capable, yet very complex environment for estimating and managing projects. But it's Saturday evening and I'm a bit cynical tonight, so I'll say that 50% of those people don't really understand how it works - and have many reasons why they should not use MSP for this project or that ... ... this is an iterative development…

The Power of Paper in Business Communications

Confucius was wrong - it is good to live in interesting times ... I'm deep-diving into a number of projects at work, while juggling a sudden surge in business travel (the majority of my tweets of late). All of the work involves significant change - different tools & process, or reworking process "traditions" that have ossified over multiple years and a succession of owners. I have developed a stack of notes on a range of topics - excellent blog fodder…

Agile Methods in a Waterfall World: Speaking In Code

Starting up a new project, and I'm definitely having fun with it. At first glance, it looks like a fairly small, departmental application, but it is actually part of a web of disconnected processes and local databases (ie. "a mess") that support some fairly important master data. Also, the folks I'm working with are much more comfortable in a "waterfall world", with formal requirements followed by code, test, and deploy. Lots of opportunity for process coaching and new methods -…

Best Practices for Process Documentation: Use Cases (3 of 3)

21 September, 2008
Knowledge Management, Project Management
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I've been writing about iterative documentation and checklists, and it's easy to see how these are applicable to a number of common IT processes ... Build a server Apply OS patches Move new code into production Initiate a project / programming request Unfortunately, there are plenty of other areas in IT that you think should / could have a definable process ... yet there is always some magic to them, a variable recipe that's difficult to capture in a cookbook…

Best Practices for Process Documentation: Iterations (2 of 3)

Last time, I wrote about checklists, and showed the example of the B-17 preflight. Simple, fits on a single page, and hits all the critical steps, in just the right amount of detail. Plenty of processes in the IT department are made That Much Better if they are accompanied by detailed, effective Process Documentation. Of course, that's all motherhood and apple pie - everyone agrees that the existing checklists are great. But how do you get started? I mean, assuming…

Facilitating Innovation: Establishing an Environment of Possibilities

I'm exchanging email with someone interested in establishing a skunk works, and they are asking some very interesting questions about the nature of innovation and the ingredients for an "environment of possibilities" ... The Current Environment ... things are ... [as they are] because someone already tried unsuccessful alternatives ... [This] begs the question: when it is required, how can rapid innovation be achieved? Rapid innovation comes when the environment allows it and the skill sets enable it. An "environment…

Where to Start? (2 of 2) Metrics & Measurements

Bullet point #1 in your executive-friendly PowerPoint about "Achieving Operational Excellence in IT" covers Process and Procedure; so how do we measure our effectiveness? I'm a big proponent of Metrics and Measurements as well - but often times the biggest challenge is where to start? Measure the Unmeasured In most organizations (especially manufacturers!), the business has plenty of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that tell them how much productivity they are seeing, how much money they are saving, and how they…