One more thing. Check out my daughter’s fashion and style blog at http://www.laculturecreators.blogspot.com/; you’ll be glad you did!  

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Post from: EveryJoe

Last Post for PM411 For Awhile

I had to laugh at the headline

Focus on Innovation: HP expects restructured labs to produce fewer, more successful projects

MBT went on to say, in an almost sad way, that HP consolidated its research to focus on 20 to 30 large research projects from about 150, with, lo and behold, a strategy focused on five areas.

Those of you who read projectmanagement411 know that the first thing you do when you attempt to control projects is a project inventory. The next is to see if the projects align with strategies of the company. Because, guess what, you aren’t going to execute any of those strategies if you don’t focus on projects that serve them. The result is less projects, better management of resources, and a strategy execution environment.

The article ended with saying that HP returned to it’s roots. I think HP returned to being a well managed company again.

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Post from: EveryJoe

“Fewer, More Successful Projects”: The New HP

The idea of NOT managing innovation is an interesting concept. In the best lean/continual improvement environments supervisors and managers are taught how to monitor and elicit innovation from those who do the process. For example, a machine operator who deals with a piece of machinery day after day can offer many suggestions for improvement if the culture and managers are “listening” in a constructive and helpful way.

I prefer to call this learning how to manage and thus feel that you can manage innovation through cultural change and management techniques. I still agree that the “listening” component done in a way that the listenee perceives as valuable to him or her and the company is a key. My PMO outlook is that an organization can set up “listening” posts targeted outside the company, industry, and even your country to find innovations that can differentiate your company’s business processes.

Has your company incorporated innovation into it’s management approach? Do you feel that innovation can be “managed”?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Innovation Shouldn’t be Managed?

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Mr. Coates: Basically I find that people like to be involved in “strategy stuff” – it’s fun like marketing. I also find that when people get together to “do” strategy they generally come to the table each with their own agenda – they know what the strategy should be and secretly want to convince others that their ideas are the best (for example I rarely meet CEO’s who admit that they really need help with strategy or that they don’t have strategy in place). So, I find that the starting place for good strategy development is with processes I use to identify key issues across the organization and then force prioritization – this tends to bring people together as they can begin to see how their colleagues view the organization. It also lays the foundation for whatever “ideas” are later selected as the prioritized goals – prioritized goals must align with prioritized issues in general – at a minimum.

PM411: The prioritizing-of-issues process sounds very good- mirrors a process at the PMO/governance board level in relation to projects- project portfolio management prioritization. You talk a little about execs learning about each others issues/processes/challenges- the Goldratt Viable Vision process has an executive workshop that was called a “4X4″: 4 days of executives doing nothing but presenting/discussing their respective operations to each other. This way you get a more level field to play on; the next 4 days are spent putting together a strategy tree and prioritizing strategies, tactics, and projects. There are obviously a lot more details in the process- one of them being applying the Theory of Constraints to the process (again, Eli Goldratt).

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What is your strategy development process? Is your CEO unable to admit he or she needs help with it? Is it necessary to first “level the field” by learning about each executive’s organizational issues and challenges?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Barriers to Strategy Development: Admitting You Need Help and Issue Prioritization

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Mr. Coates: I have been working with organizations on an integrated process of strategy development through online software for execution management. I find that, as with some of the other commenters, that – aside from ensuring that strategy itself is of value – the critical problems for organizations is the willingness of management to embed disciplined execution processes into the organization – software and such can help but in the end it’s the discipline of having everyone accountable for consistent tracking and exception-based reporting.

I got involved in all this coming from the perspective of having run and invested in and having been on the Boards of a number of emerging growth and other larger companies and nonprofits. I felt that what was lacking was a truly systemic approach that:

1. Involves Board, Management and lower staff as appropriate,

2. Focuses on the entire process from strategy development to execution – and that cascades the strategy process down into the organization – so that lower level planning follows a “strategic” process (this builds alignment and trust),

3. Uses online software for exception-based tracking (I have created a number of solutions that are very simple for implementation teams compared to large performance management systems)

4. Embeds all the history of the process so that new members of the team/board can understand how the organization got to where it is and

5. Employs an annual audit process so that strategy management is part of the ongoing Board oversight and management reporting rather than a one-time event.

PM411: The “focus on the entire process” and “history of the process” points really jump out for me. As to linking strategies to tactics and then the projects to accomplish the tactics, have you been exposed to Eli Goldratt’s Viable Vision process? I know a little about it and like the strategy tree approach (also called strategy mapping by some). I’ve used a strategy mapping approach (first overall goals that are fed by strategies that are fed by tactics) in selling and scoping large business solution projects- it always seems to be something that executives rarely do and is key to aligning projects with strategies.

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How do you feel about technology enabling the strategy process? Do you agree that the real problem is the discipline to do the process or are some processes just too difficult to do without technology? Why is a standardized strategy development process often overlooked? Is it because it is not considered “operational”? Get involved in the discussion! Share YOUR expertise.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Barriers to Strategy Development: Willingness of Management to Embed Processes

We at b5media experienced a “crisis” of sorts the other day

To what do I credit this seemingly “blase” attitude about a crisis? Well, I’ve been through it before, I’ve raised three daughters, I’ve been laid off three times- hey, there are a lot worse things that can happen. The best thing to do in a crisis is to look forward, see if you can help the people trying to solve it (in this case, the poor tech guys sweating this out), and know that “this too will pass”. It did.

What recent crisis have you weathered? How did you react? Did you help resolve it somehow? Did you contribute or did you wait it out- why?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Crisis Management: How Do You React?

What good is analyzing trends? Well, first of all you can determine whether you agree with them. Then decide if they will impact you

First a summary of the STRATEGY and MANAGEMENT trends from CIO Insight’s list of Top IT Trends in 2008 in as brief a format as I dare:

Economic slowdown, customer e-service demands, m-commerce opportunities, technology enabled process improvement, change in world markets and resources, changes in CIO’s role and IT management, IT grad/resource shortages, new innovation sources, and focus on data management.

Refer to these previous posts, and/or the CIO Insight list , if you need more details:

STRATEGY Sum Up, detail posts 1 and 2

MANAGEMENT Sum Up, detail posts 1 and 2

Then my summary of the prescriptive, cautionary remarks related to the trends:

Make sure projects fit with strategies first, before ROI and staff analysis,

Don’t underestimate size, complexity, and on-going nature, of customer-facing projects related to E-Service and M-Commerce,

Use a PMO to research business process innovation outside the company, industry and country.

Pay attention to changes in “growing market” living standards and IT maturity when partnering, acquiring, and resource offshoring/outsourcing.

Focus first on centralizing non-IT executive control and awareness of ALL (IT and non-IT) projects, then possibly on expanding the CIO’s role.

Harness current data and systems for innovative decision-making through Master Data Management.

I’ve attempted to deal with these significant trends in a general way resulting in a response to the trends. Hopefully, you see the value of this process in relation to generating company-specific prescriptive measures.

How do you analyze trends? What sources and processes do you use? Did my trend analysis process inspire you to take a look at trends and how they are impacting you? Is this part of your strategy development process? How does trend analysis impact your project priorities?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Trend Analysis Results in Prescriptions and Cautions

My sum up to CIO Insight’s Top IT Trends in 2008 related to MANAGEMENT reveals a need to focus on centralizing non-IT executive control vs. expanding the CIO role, and cleaning up and innovatively using data already out there for decision-making.

The CIO Insight MANAGEMENT trends of 1. No downturn for CIO role, 2. CIO role becoming more demanding, 3. IT metamorphosis continuing, 4. IT grad shortage changing the face of IT, 5. IT outsiders providing inspiration, and 6. Master Data Management expanding, caused these reactions in my two posts related to MANAGEMENT:

• Focus on centralizing non-IT executive control and awareness of IT and non-IT projects, NOT on expanding the CIO’s role.
• Conduct research for innovations outside the company, industry and country.
• Harness current data and systems for innovative decision-making through Master Data Management.

How do you feel about the MANAGEMENT trends and my reactions to them? Do you think the CIO role should be expanded? Why or why isn’t such expansion necessary?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Top IT Trends in MANAGEMENT Drive Projects: Sum Up

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CIO Insight: IT grad shortage changes the face of IT- CIOs expect fewer young people to enter the IT profession and say half of those that graduate with IT and computer science degrees aren’t well prepared.

PM411: I’m not as tuned in to this “shortage” of talent. Should companies expect IT graduates to be prepared properly? I’m jaded by my MBA experience years ago where there was a huge lag in including technology innovations in the curriculum. Is this getting better? Are fewer younger people entering IT? Chime in.

CIO Insight: IT outsiders provide inspiration- innovative IT organizations look to consumers, youth and leading users for new ideas.

PM411: “New” is often found in other companies, industries and countries. Better to have a great research arm looking for these innovations as they occur and efficiently evaluate and apply them to your company.

CIO Insight: Master Data Management expands- data integration remains a top priority, with data quality one of its most enduring obstacles.

PM411: Data quality is probably the most important management challenge. The emphasis should be on how to harness the data and systems that are already out there to innovate the decision-making processes of a company.

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Are colleges providing computer science degrees that are useful? How important is data quality as a challenge?

My MANAGEMENT trend sum up of CIO Insight’s trends follows in my next post.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Top IT Trends in MANAGEMENT Drive Projects: Grad Shortage, Source of Inspiration, and Master Data Management

CIO Insight’s Top IT Trends for 2008 were particularly interesting in the STRATEGY and MANAGEMENT areas. My last three posts dealt with STRATEGY. Now I’ll react to the MANAGEMENT trends . First up are the trends related to the role of the CIO and the metamorphosis of IT:

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CIO Insight: No downturn for CIO role- the CIO role will become more important and the IT function will grow more centralized.

PM411: This “prediction” has been talked about for 20 years- the problem is not solved by CIO role expansion, but by executive governance boards taking the responsibility for which projects should be done, supported by a PMO-like organization that considers ALL projects, both IT and non-IT.

CIO Insight: CIO role becomes more demanding- CIOs have to excel at strategy and operations, particularly in building high-performance IT organizations.

PM411: This again is a bit misguided especially as it relates to strategy and operations. Centralization and expertise must increase among different NON-IT parts of the organization related to project priorities and control, and THEIR understanding of IT.

CIO Insight: IT metamorphosis continues- IT organizations keep undergoing major changes but they aren’t all changing in the same way.

PM411: Changes happens constantly in different ways to different organizations and different people? What else is new?

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I expect my view of the CIO role to be in the minority. Asking the CIO to be the CEO is ridiculous- rather, project management centralization that includes support for innovation and strategy needs to occur. Without this type of thinking, the “IT metamorphosis” will create a monster.

What do you think? I want to be challenged especially by those of you who are actively managing IT, operations, strategy, innovation, and project management functions- you often know better how these trends can play out.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Top IT Trends in MANAGEMENT Drive Projects: CIO Role and IT Metamorphosis