Run to the Bad News
Cut to the chase! An effective style of communication is to "run to the bad news"; for time-starved stakeholders, this approach works by focusing the attention on the critical few decision points and issues.
Why Bother Documenting My Solutions?
Interesting line of conversation around an internal Help Desk project ... "What exactly is the point of my help desk ticketing system?", posits the hardy IT Tech. "I, like so many other IT technicians, am expected to solve end-user problems quickly with my infinite knowledge of every potential PC / software combination, not to mention a dizzying array of specialty printers, alternative input devices, smartphones, and tablets. And I, like so many other IT technicians, realize that the most capable,…
A Simple Pattern to Drive Quality for Projects and Processes
It's not enough to capture Lessons Learned at the end of your projects; build in a process step to review Learnings from the past, to start new projects off right.
You Can’t Ignore This Any Longer
Cloud and open source have been around for some time - long enough for the term "cloud" to [finally] fade away as a differentiator (it's just assumed!). Still, some continue to dismiss these technologies for their corporate solutions - but it's getting tougher to just ignore this stuff ... Scale? Cloud provider Amazon continues to dominate the market, with five times the market share of all of their competitors combined. The breadth, depth, and scale of some of their customers…
How May I Help You? Four Ways IT Can Deliver Value
Classic lament of IT - I just want get involved, be part of the conversation - I want a seat at the table. Classic lament of everyone else - How can IT deliver value to the business? It sounds like two people reaching for each other - but in the dark. They want to connect, but they don't know how. The problem, of course, is that many - from IT and other areas of the business - default to the…
Successful Projects Start with Good Discussions
Even in the overhyped world of technology, these non-technical issues (resources, cost, time, priorities) are often the root cause of project difficulty and failure. Talking things out up front can save a lot of headaches and disappointment later.
Opportunity within End-Of-Year Performance Reviews
I'm working this holiday week to get the majority of the written work completed for my 2013 Performance Reviews; I realize it's something that folks do not enjoy doing, but I see it as an incredibly important effort. I like to think my organization and I are doing a fairly good job of communicating on a regular basis, but the structure and the formality of the annual Review process ensures that we are "on the same page" regarding the critical…
Bootstrap Market Research: Records Retention for Industrial Manufacturers
[Records Retention refers to] the practice of maintaining records for an organization from the time they are created to the time of their disposal. (source: Wikipedia) That last bit is the tricky part; every day at most corporations eMails, spreadsheets, and presentations (collectively: “stuff”) are created, shared, and printed – along with all of the financial and transactional records issuing from the various ERP / accounting systems. Creating stuff is easy – but are we rigorous enough in the “end…
Talking about CyberSecurity with the Board of Directors
Practical, tested suggestions and approaches that will help translate cybersecurity technology and process to concepts that will resonate with the Board.
Marketing and IT Get Together: The Elephants in the Room
Marketing and IT may have strong opinions about each other - but there is value in understanding each other's point of view. Here are a number of hard truths that Marketing and IT have to realize and come together on.