War Stories from the Change Management front
Stories make our ideas real and relevant, and are helpful tools when introducing change. This article has a few examples of stories - all around the topic of introducing change.
Three Best TLAs of all time, the hegemony of Excel, and the Intuitive Front End
Everybody jokes about TLAs and the proliferation of consultant-speak. My favorites to date include: SPOC - Single Point of Contact: During integration meetings between two merging IT organizations, SPOCs were…
Thoughts on Why Tech Folks Hate Documentation
I've had some flashes of insight on why technical folks don't like to document stuff. Currently, I'm thrashing thru a skunkworks project that is evolving into something that will need…
Guidelines for Success with your Skunk Works project
I've been hearing the term skunk works a lot lately, in reference to off-plan projects that are moving forward in all that "free time" people have in the IT department.…
Strategies for Malware in Consulting Engagements
Last in a series on some practical legal mumbo jumbo (disclaimer: IANAL) for your Master Consulting Agreements (MCA). This one was particularly interesting to put in; it's really interesting to…
Subtle Anarchy
In any organization - if you've been there for a while or are brand new - there aren't many ways you can get away with introducing some change, shaking things…
How Fun – Timesheets
In the early part of the year, we tracked our time as a group using timesheets. We don't use these to justify our payroll or anything, just an exercise to…
Components, IT Responsiveness, and the Rosemont Horizon
Technical people are often engineers at heart, and really want to see controlled processes in and around their computer systems. We see source code control, configuration management, and process documentation…
Customer DNA – A Different Take on Understanding Markets and Networks
My blogroll includes tech-focused blogs as well as general business sites (along with some humor). It's an interesting cross section, that allows me to see a wide variety of reactions…
Challenges when demoing / training / pitching complex systems
Over the last few days, I've been in a few vendor demos, trading partner reviews, product pitches, and project discussions, all reviewing complex systems or processes, and tools / software…