change management

Ensuring project success

Sun, 06 May 2007 20:01:36 -0400

IT projects have a better chance of succeeding if the company has dedicated a project manager to coordinating them. The project manager is charged with making sure expenses don't run amok, that time spent on the project is within reasonable limits, and that the delivered product meets customers' quality expectations. Other responsibilities include risk and change management and contingency planning. A successful project manager is adept at leadership, communication, negotiation and planning. To choose the right person for this critical job, make sure internal customers have a say.

Read more about the importance of project management:
- read the article at ComputerWeekly

ALSO: read this on the value of project management

Engineering positive change

Wed, 02 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Great CIOs anticipate and drive change; they are experts at change management. But change isn't easy, and realistically, not every CIO is good at it. The prevailing notion is that change doesn't happen without significant fallout. Poor management of change virtually guarantees failure, including employee resistance. Past experience with failure can also undermine current change initiatives and can shape stakeholder expectations. That's why smart CIOs prepare for large-scale change and carve projects into deliverable chunks. True transformation is not about technology or economic factors, but about how to get self-interested individuals to work together. Understanding the human dimension of change is the key to success. And often, it's not change that people resist, it's transition. If you can manage the transition, a successful change often follows. To engineer change, never go it alone, and never introduce change suddenly. Don't obsess over metrics, but find ways to measure change.

Learn more about effecting positive change:
- read the article at CIO Decisions

ALSO:
- read this on being a strategic change leader
- this on the CIO's role in bringing about change
- and this for the need for controls in good change management

BPO: Sometimes, it's a matter of survival

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Outsourcing core business processes may not be pleasant, but sometimes it's necessary for the survival of the company. It can help with the problem of filling IT jobs, can lessen labor costs, and can increase a company's ability to bid for contracts competitively. But change is hard, and successful business process outsourcing means constantly refining the scope of the agreement and ensuring that existing employees don't feel threatened. Don't underestimate the impact of change management.

Learn more about the benefits of BPO:
- read the article at SearchCIO

ALSO: read this on how good BPO is tied to data quality

ITIL: Not ready for prime time in the midmarket?

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Although the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)--a sort of roadmap of best practices that helps IT departments adopt more efficient service management--is making great strides in the enterprise, some say that smaller companies won't get the benefits, at least not yet. Implementing ITIL requires making some big changes in infrastructure and working style, and it can be expensive and time-consuming. If you are set on it, though, try service management-specific solution providers like Pink Elephant, Service-now.com, Getronics and TraverseIT LLC, which help companies implement ITIL. Ultimately, however, ITIL will make inroads in the midmarket, and will make IT services more efficient in these companies. By mastering five processes that make up ITIL--incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management and release management--companies can minimize the time to identify and resolve service incidents.

Learn more about ITIL in the midmarket:
- read the article at CIO Decisions

ALSO:
- read this on the ROI of ITIL
- and this on putting business ahead of technology

Creating processes for innovation

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Companies create processes for innovation in different ways, but the unifying thread is that they all focus first on creating a process. Process is important because it provides a structured way to choose ideas and take them to execution. Innovation processes can take different forms, such as this one divided into six phases:

Discovery, or the search for opportunities and design
Design, where concepts turn into prototypes
Qualification, where ideas are validated
Readiness, or preparing for launch
Launch
Leverage, which helps market and maximize adoption of IT solutions.

Once the process is in place, the IT team can understand an innovation's risk. The most difficult aspect of the innovation process often is the launch, when an IT innovation is 'commercialized,' or adopted by customers. But even if you develop something that's good, people are slow to adopt new things. IT must talk about what it's done in a way that will excite users and compel them to change their behavior. Change management is another difficult part; change takes a lot of commitment and leadership from the CIO.

To learn more about processes for innovation:
- read the article at CIO Canada

Related Articles:
What innovation is really all about. Report
Why innovation has to start with a better business model. Report
Spearheading innovation through IT. Report
Innovation means success for CIOs. Report

The need for controls in good change management

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:01:37 -0500

As one IT expert acknowledges, change is always painful and so is the process of change management. But there are some best practices that CIOs can follow to ease the hurt, at least a little bit. The first is identifying and enforcing "process commandments" and the second is understanding how unauthorized changes impact the organization and why auditing such changes is key to getting good processes in place. It's all about having control.

For more on making change management less painful:
- read the column at CIO

SPOTLIGHT: 10 tips to effective change management

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:01:34 -0400

Bringing about change is a constant action in most IT enterprises, but change management still remains a huge headache. There are 10 best practices that CIOs and IT leaders can use to ease the transition for everyone from the user down to the tech team. Article

The CIO's role in bringing about change

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:01:36 -0400

Robert Reich, the former U.S. Labor Secretary, is calling on tech leaders to take an active change management role in their organization's business aspirations--claiming that without IT's efforts, companies won't be able to adapt and move as quickly as needed in today's global business environment. The economy, he says, is tied to technological change, so there's no group better than today's IT leaders to take up the globalization and operations charge.

For more on IT's role according to Reich:
- check out this article at SearchCIO

C&L: Emotion is the heart of change

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:01:31 -0400

There's an article at CIO Magazine that every tech leader and future business leader needs to read. It's not your typical 'how to make IT work,' but an interesting take on what really fosters IT success--the ability to change. Change as a leader, and propelling change among staff, is key to any business endeavor. You'll likely be as surprised as I was to find that emotion is a huge factor in having change accepted and, more importantly, endorsed. Here's a great snippet from the piece: "CIOs, typically steeped in analytical training, are even more apt to follow this pattern and overlook the emotional element of change. Although analyzing and thinking are important, we found that seeing and feeling must be present in order to impel people to change their behaviors." You'll very likely come away with a very different perspective than what you had about change and change management prior to reading the piece.

In the meantime, here are some recent career announcements about colleagues taking on new leadership roles:

William Oates has been taped at Boston's CIO, a mayoral cabinet role that oversees technology initiatives including the deployment of wireless connectivity citywide.

Donald Donahue, former CIO of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, is now the company's president and CEO.

Dana Deasy has been named CIO at GM North America.

ALSO NOTED: UK IT managers getting better pay raises; Subscriber tracking an issue in SF WiFi plan; and much more...

Sun, 21 May 2006 20:01:33 -0400

> U.K. IT managers getting better pay raises. Article

> Subscriber tracking an issue in San Francisco WiFi plan. Article

> Feds move away from Lenovo machines over political issue. Article

> A quest to get organized. Article

> A growing concern about Internet addiction. Article

> The good, and bad, of change management experience. Article

And Finally... Apes show capacity to plan for future. Article