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Recession-Proof Your Business by Recession-Proofing IT

Whatever the economic realities may be, technology is an integral part of majority of business operations the world over. How do you maintain your tech-reliant operations in the midst of a challenging business climate?

Most global businesses depend on technology and business partners to run their operations smoothly while improving margins. In all economic climates, businesses that engage the specialization of the best technology and service providers are also best positioned to establish their brands and build customer loyalty. In the first place, what they can save on support operations and product development can be re-invested in improving market reach and further innovation.

So how can business leaders maintain their tech-reliant operations going and remain profitable? By recession-proofing their IT operations. Here are some of the steps:

1. Adopt business intelligence smarts. Any enterprise that has a significant IT workforce or is engaged in technology services knows the importance that data consolidation—or metrics—plays in the success of a product, a service, or of the enterprise. These numbers are the most reliable way to look for trends, medians or any deviations from the norm, and upon which big decisions are made. Consolidate your data.  Get a business intelligence system that allows for easier data collection and consolidation, and reports management.

2. Consolidate technologies. Technologies should help the enterprise conduct its business, not get in the way of productivity, and more so, of profitability. Due to the sheer size of their operations, many large enterprises employ multiple applications and systems to conduct almost the same services.  Are you using multiple content management systems when one will be enough to handle firm-wide communications? Do you record your project hours separately from your timekeeping application? Is your ERP system composed of too many modules run by too many vendors? Maybe it’s time to let go of some of your clunky systems that take too much time and effort to maintain, update, and consolidate. Opt for the best solutions that can serve the enterprise’s most important and only necessary computing and communication needs.

3. Go virtual. SaaS, cloud computing, and virtualization are some of the most popular buzzwords this year, thanks to businesses finding new ways to trim IT budgets without necessarily trimming operations and lowering the quality of their services. Barring security breaches, software-as-a-service is the option for small and medium size enterprises because of its speed of implementation and flexibility for small- to medium-scale operations. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a by-product of Web 2.0 practices and excess computing and storage capacity. Lastly, thanks to the global scope of many enterprises, virtualization is not just a buzzword but an operational reality among many project teams, service providers, and even top-level executives.

4. Standardize processes; adopt agile methodologies. Time, money, and your clients’ patience are finite resources.  Work with a service provider that can help you at every stage of product development–from requirements gathering, to product or technical design, to development, to implementation, and to product release. Choose a service provider that specializes on agile development that allows for incorporation of improvements at every release of the product whether it is meant for the outside market or the organization’s internal operations.

5. Outsource, and outsource intelligently. Don’t just engage a service provider, whether offshore or nearshore, based on cost-savings alone. Look for long-term benefits from a combination of cost-savings, technology savvy, methodologies, consulting skills, and management culture of the vendor.

By ExecutiveBrief
More at: www.executivebrief.com

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“We’ll Make It Project Management”

Some time ago I created a list of different styles of project management (I should have added “don’t try that at home” disclaimer there). Anyway, recently I witnessed yet another flavor, which I’ll call: “we’ll make it project management.” Luckily I view the “stunning” details from a safe distance.

The recipe is simple: no matter what happens we’ll make it. We’ve just cut a schedule in half and added a bunch of new features? But we’ll make it. One third of developers have just left? No problem, we’ll make it. Our engineers barely deal with everyday maintenance leaving aside new implementations? Dude, we’ll make it. We’ve just moved every developer from the project to do firefighting in other deals? We’ll make it, we’ll make it. A meteorite is heading right for our headquarters? You already know: We’ll make it.

The strategy is simple – verbally repeat the “we’ll make it” mantra and do nothing to prepare for incoming failure. The great thing about this project management technique is you don’t stress at all. And you have an easy answer to each question from the project team. Yes, you guessed correctly: “we’ll make it.”

A prerequisite to employ this technique is an overgrown ego. A success story from the distant past also helps. It doesn’t really matter that your project was a hundred times easier to complete and that you were a decade younger and it wasn’t really a glowing triumph at all.  Small details.

So, if you’re a part of a project team where we’ll make it project management is used, well, I can only help with that famous quotation: “Run Forrest, Run!” I should have another story documenting usage of the technique shortly. I’ll share it with you for sure. After all it should be a nice story to read.

 

Author: Pawel Brodzinski

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Interview: Warren Peacock from Scoutwest, Inc.

The following text is an interview with Warren Peacock of Scoutwest, Inc.  They are the developers of Standard Time® and Standard Issue® – two leading project management products.  Project Team Blog wanted to hear from an authority regarding the status quo of enterprise project tracking and management, and learn what consulting and manufacturing companies face when attempting detailed time tracking.  We’re talking full-blown project schedules, timesheets to track task status, resource allocation, employee status, detailed reporting services – the whole enchilada.  Are most companies using these tools?  Or, do they attempt to roll their own with little in-house apps and spreadsheets?  Does the economy have a bearing on these choices?  One thing is certain; Warren Peacock has heard it all.  Let’s see what he has to say.

 

Q: Warren, would you say most organizations are doing an excellent, poor, or fair job of tracking project status?
A: Based on my experience I would say they are doing a poor-to-fair job, though well intended.

 

Q: What tools are they using now?
A: Some are using actual time tracking tools like Standard Time.  However, most companies are using Excel, shareware, or shabby little in-house programs.

 

Q: Where do you see room for improvement?
A: One word…Efficiency.   Time is our most valuable commodity and success starts with improving our use of it, regardless of the industry.

 

Q: Aside from acquiring better tools for project  tracking, what are the other ongoing costs of tracking projects and employee status?
A: Lost billable hours, unfortunately this is very common.  Also, which employees are most productive?  Standard Time has one simple report that gives you that type of data.  If you need to streamline costs where do you start, what do you cut?  Again, the right tools can give you that detail.  They will show you where you spend time as an organization.  What areas are over, or under allocated.  All of this is just a glimpse of improving efficiencies with project management and associated costs.

 

Q: And the return on investment for these tools?  How do you get there?
A: That sounds complicated, yet is very simple.  Most consultants and business owners I speak with estimate they are losing anywhere from 3%-10% of their billable hours.  Without question a conservative estimate is 1-3 hours per week, per employee.  Multiply that times their billing rate and you quickly realize how fast a time tracking tool like Standard Time pays for itself.  Not to mention the loads of reports and other information available to help guide any number of key decisions, regarding customers, projects and employees.  We don’t think twice about spending money on an employee’s phone, computer and any number of other items.  Time tracking is just as important.

 

Q: Let’s talk low-hanging fruit…  What can a company do to get started cheaply?  Spreadsheets?  Paper time cards?  Smoke signals?
A: Spreadsheets work to a certain point, but again the time spent managing, compiling and crafting reports will eat an employee’s productivity and provide very basic information at best.  Standard Time is less than $150 per user and easy to use.  You can place it on your own computers or we can host it for you.  No installation necessary.  Employees can be shown the basics in 5 minutes, no down time, no compiling spreadsheets and less user error!  Instantly you have more accurate information that will help propel and streamline any organization.

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How service orientation has paved the way for cloud computing

Service orientation is the successful combination of technology, business processes, and methodologies. Service orientation is especially important to outsourcing firms because it allows them to adjust not only the methodologies that they adopt in producing technologies, as well as the way they run operations. Service orientation is a way for these firms to treat both their internal and external partners as customers. It is not merely about producing technology; it also takes into consideration the enterprise culture and the various business processes involved in creating, improving, and delivering services to clients.

In his book Service Oriented Enterprises, Setrag Khoshafian suggests that in building a service-oriented enterprise, it is important to look at a “bottom up, three-layered infrastructure,” namely:

• Service building blocks, where existing applications can be combined as services to form an SOA implementation
• Composition services, which is a combination of existing services to package a new service
• Business process, which involves either service building blocks or composition services

With these three layers in mind, one should easily understand the importance of streamlining processes, such that there is no need to create entirely new products and services. Instead, project teams have to recognize the needs of clients and put together service or product suites from what are already available. The practice ultimately enables delivery teams to avoid overshooting time and resources. Instead, the focus will be on introducing innovative services to both internal and external customer domains. Ultimately, integration is the key in building SOAs, automating processes, and managing technologies.

The best examples of the popularity and success in adopting SOE is found among web-based businesses, such the most popular e-commerce and social sites. AJAX and the “mashing up” of interfaces and APIs created a trend that three years ago came to be known as Web 2.0. From simple brochure-type web sites into programmable web, SOE gained traction not only among technology producers, but more importantly, among technology consumers. However, the real gem that lies in the midst of this revolution in Web technologies is in understanding the needs of businesses (and their processes) and putting together available packets of applications.

Nowadays, cloud computing and software-as-a-service approaches are off-shoots of SOE as initially made popular in the general public’s consciousness. Large IT firms have found inspiration in Web services to integrate business processes and applications.  At this point, the issues that have plagued the outside technology consuming public provide lessons in Web-inspired or Web-based enterprise computing. Always-on reliability, seamless transaction among applications, and data security are some of the measures enterprises need to establish in conducting internal and external businesses.

Overall, deployment of technology in the enterprise and to customers will be a matter of knowing what is in stock, how it applies to the business processes of both parties, and what measures should be put in place to combine and protect the integrity of these applications.  Linking business rules and process execution allow for more realistic performance measures and better project monitoring and management.

By ExecutiveBrief
www.executivebrief.com

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Project Managers: People Don’t Like To Be Led

Project management advice: People don’t like to be led, especially professionals with clear responsibilities.  Nobody likes “a person who knows” to tell them what to do next.  All the time.  It’s demeaning and annoying.  So what’s a project manager to do?

Clearly, project managers and leads need to stay a few steps ahead of team members.  If they don’t, projects go astray.  Why?  Because it takes time to formulate a clear vision, one that won’t break down in the face of life’s challenges.  Only by staying ahead of the team can the leadership maintain that strategic edge.  But it’s when that strategic direction turns into tactical dictatorship that things go badly.

Some managers have such a hard time articulating their vision that they resort to dictating exact tactical steps to achieve it, rather than relying on competent people to pull it off.  See the issue?  It’s a difficult balance.

 

–ray

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Beginning of the End: Defining Project Closure

When undertaking a software development project, an effectively designed closure plan serves as an outline of required tasks that must be carried out appropriately in order to result in successful project delivery, and adequate preparation is one significant element when it comes to ensuring a smooth transition to implementation. The closure plan must be considered at the outset of the project, as the client outlines their specific software requirements. With a detailed description of the desired end result communicated and understood, the expected capabilities and deliverables of the software are established. But as you enter the final stages of a software development project, what can be done in order to ensure that the program is completely suitable and fully primed for implementation?

Key Components
According to Joe Coley, independent software developer and member of Northeast Dataflex Consortium, “Projects that I’ve been involved with…have been very much subject to additional needs and desires of the user community.” In effect, this means that the end deliverable becomes the focus of the closure plan — that is, to ensure a high level of end user satisfaction with the software requested and therefore created. Coley has 20 years of experience in the information technology industry and offers much insight on the subject. When it comes to key components for successful closure plans, he highlights three main aspects to consider:

• Assess the project requirements. In order to determine the best course of action throughout the cycle of a project, it is necessary to first consider the scope of the project. Establishing a clear outlook and complete understanding as to the required deliverables will greatly improve the ability to adequately determine exactly what tasks must be carried out in order to meet these deliverables in an efficient and timely manner.

• Communication. While communication is always essential throughout the cycle of any project or initiative, it is imperative to establish a specific plan for obtaining end-user input, as needed and where feasible. Therefore, a key component to a successful close is establishing and maintaining open lines of communication with the appropriate groups. The end users comprise the group of those who will be utilizing the software in real-time business applications; they have the critical business knowledge as to ways in which the software can be created or functionality that can be incorporated so that the result will be a valuable tool with the capability to enhance their business functions.

• Offer continuing support. When it comes to considering a focus on the continuing support needs of the end-user community, Coley cites a specific reason to do so, “There is always an expectation of continuing support in the form of application tweaks, bug fixes, and enhancements.” By extending continuing support to the end users, they have more confidence in the software program as well as in their chosen developer.

Any components, however, are unique to each project and must be considered on a individual basis; while there may be similarities among projects, what may have worked well during a project in the past might not be best suited for a current project. Establishing and maintaining a plan with the end user in mind makes for a smoother transition and successful close of a software development project.

 

Full text of the interview with Joe Coley is available here: http://www.executivebrief.com/article/the-beginning-of-the-end-defining-project-closure/.

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Climbing Mountains

The company I work for is located in Colorado.  And for recreation, we climb mountains.  While climbing one, it occurred to me that you can’t always see what’s over the next one.  There are plenty of obstacles to block your view.  Maybe the next one will be easy.  Or maybe it will kick your butt.

Running a business is like that.  At startup, you’re anxious and ready to go!  You take each hill with blind ambition.  Nothing seems impossible.  You see a few mountains on the horizon, but feel certain they’ll fall by the time you reach them.  But the things you can’t see nag you.

Business is like a mountain

 

A few years into the endeavor, and you are sure it’s licked.  But you really don’t see anything beyond the nearest hill.  Some of your biggest obstacles are yet to come.  And you don’t even know it.  That’s when you need the real stamina.  And the faith to push up that next hill, however high it may be.

What are some obstacles your fledgling business might encounter?  How about this nasty list:

  1. Well-entrenched competitors
  2. Market changes
  3. Economic downturns (remember the dot-com bust and financial meltdown?)
  4. Personnel loss

They say 80% of all businesses fail within 5 years, and 80% of those remaining fail within the next 5.  Who’s they?  I don’t now, but my little startup is nearing year 9.  Does that make it better than 96% of the rest.  Well maybe, but I still feel like we’re just wandering in the mountains like everybody else.  🙂

–newshirt

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Why is SaaS only popular in small business?

While SaaS has been gaining popularity recently, it is remarkably noticeable that its popularity is still limited mostly to small and medium-size businesses. Larger enterprises are still reluctant to embrace hosted application for their IT needs.

According to a recent Forrester Research paper, “The Truth about Software as a Service,” which is a result of a late 2007 survey of IT decision-makers from North America and Europe, only 16 percent of respondents are using SaaS applications. On the other hand, 80 percent are still reluctant to adopt SaaS. Of the 80 percent, only 47 percent expressed interest, while 37 percent were “not interested at all.”

If SaaS has been gaining popularity recently, the gap between big-business IT decision-makers who were interested in it and those who were either partially interested or totally uninterested is too wide.  As if to counter the SaaS advantages that were cited in the previous blog, researchers and tech workers in big enterprises cite various reasons why it is not being widely adopted outside the realm of SMBs. 

One of the top reasons why big businesses are reluctant to adopt SaaS is business continuity. Put simply, the market’s atmosphere is fraught with uncertainty that SaaS vendors could just shut their doors easily. When it happens, where do the hosted data go? What alternatives are immediately available to end-users?

Next to business continuity, data security, vendor lock-in, and accountability are some of the issues that clients — both large and small or medium-size businesses — raise most of the time. Because many large enterprises are sensitive about their company data, they are reluctant to hand company information to third parties. In terms of accountability, there have been complaints about vendors’ dishonesty about real downtime rates and the speed with which they address it. If a service is suddenly cut off, IT departments ask how long it takes for the service to be available again and what kind of assurances are provided to address such issues.

SaaS are typically fit-for-all, so customization is another nagging issue. Maybe small businesses’ IT needs are not complex, that is why they are more willing to sign up with SaaS vendors. On the other hand, enterprises that provide more than one type of service, sell more than one product, are present in different locations, and employ thousands of employees have IT needs that are as complex as their multinational presence and multiple businesses. That most vendors do not offer customizable services to match big businesses’ needs is one of the signs that it is still in its infancy.

Related to downtimes is the issue of scalability. Can a hosted service support thousands of users who access the application simultaneously? If it cannot, can a business enlist the help of another vendor? This is where the issue of interoperability and portability also come in. In most cases, transferring data from one SaaS provider to another takes time and considerable effort.

That SaaS became popular among SMBs means it is promising. However, this promise does not translate well in big business so far.

By ExecutiveBrief
www.executivebrief.com

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International Project Management Day

Yes, there’s actually a “day” for project managers: November 6th, 2008.  See the link below for more information.  Here’s a little teaser quote from the web site.

http://www.internationalpmday.org/

The international project management day is intended to encourage project based organizations worldwide or organizations who utilize project management methodologies to schedule some type of recognition event within their organizations or coordinated locally with others to truly demonstrate appreciation for the achievements of project managers and their teams.

 

My job is more than just project management.  I oversee operations and projects.  I perform project planning, and do lots of project management.  I even write a little code from time to time.  My gut feeling is that most folks wear several hats these days.  Project management is only one of many.  But those many things can lead to distraction and bad projects.

An organization like this pulls us back into the discipline.  Back into the bedrock rules that make all successful projects work.  That’s a good thing.  If you haven’t registered for allPM’s webinar, here’s a link to do it!  http://www.iil.com/ipmday2008/webcast.asp

 

–newshirt

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CIO Insight: How to Retain Top IT Workers

CIO Insight did an article listing the top 10 ways to retain IT workers.  The link to that article and results are listed below.  It’s pretty interesting, but appeals strictly to the least-common-denominator or employment.  The results could apply to a landscaping firm.

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Management/How-to-Retain-Top-IT-Workers/

 

They rated each criteria from 1 to 3, with 1 being the lowest, and 3 being the highest.  Notice that the results have little to do with IT workers.

    Lowest                                                       Highest
        1                               2                                3

    1. Salary: 2.82
    2. Training: 2.47
    3. Incentive pay: 2.40
    4. Paid Time Off: 2.38
    5. Flex Schedule: 2.36
    6. Work Facilities: 2.26
    7. Insurance Benefits: 2.26
    8. Retirement: 2.13
    9. Work at Home: 2.06
    10. Social Environment: 1.99

I’d like to add an intagible criteria to the list: “IT Imortality.”  And I’m wondering where you would place it.  A 1 or a 3?  Send in your comments.

IT Imortality is the chance to rise above your peers in a significant way, building products that change the industry.  It involves working with the brightest and most motivated individuals on the planet.  It means leading (or participating in) a product development team that makes a true impact on your generation.

Although I cannot say I’ve achieved such a lofty status, the lure has certainly been there for every company I’ve worked for.  And, at least a few of my projects have impacted individuals around the world.  That’s offers a sense of achievement that no cubical job can.  I rate that somewhere near 3.

–newshirt