Technology projects rarely go off without a hitch. We all know it, and we all have seen and absorbed an unnecessary amount of stress, blame and headaches from projects gone wrong.

Why do they go wrong? Bad project management? Poor planning? Bad estimation of work scheduling? Missed dependencies? It’s easy to have one throat to choke with a project manager, but often, it’s people management skills rather than any one project plan or scheduling deficiency that make the difference between project success and failure.

While these can all be factors, among the more overlooked aspects of project work are the relationships between internal departments and external teams. Without full cooperation between teams who are focused on the end result, you can expect to have a bumpy ride, says the CIO.com article, “Project Management: How IT and Business Relationships Shape Success.”

One problem the article brings up is that many project managers may be a tad too focused on software, processes and technology solutions rather than onbuilding the relationships that are key to a project’s delivery and ultimate success:

Despite the positive impact good relationships have on project management, IT project managers rely more heavily on software and methodologies than on building relations when they need to improve their delivery. It’s no wonder: Compared to the time it takes to build relationships, software seems like a quick fix. IT project managers are also most comfortable with tools.

“As IT professionals, we’re raised on technology,” says Ouellette & Associates’ Hagerup [Bill Hagerup, a senior consultant with Ouellette & Associates, an IT leadership and project management consultancy]. “Almost all the training we get throughout the years is about tools and processes.”

Consequently, he adds, IT professionals think process and technology [are] the answer to everything, including effective project management. While project management frameworks and tools certainly help, projects are fundamentally people-driven, he says.

“When things go wrong [with a project], it’s people who have done something that didn’t work,” says Hagerup. “Problems start with people and they end with people.”

Yet project management training and certification programs are only just beginning to address the people side of projects Read more…

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Whether you’re a support tech who wants to take on management responsibility or a developer wanting to take a step toward a management position, the best place to start is often in project management. Project management can build your organization and management skills to prepare you for a future role in managing people.

Former CIO Mike Sisco shares his advice for IT pros who have their eyes on a project management position. His advice on laying the groundwork for such a move includes:

Gaining experience while in your current position.
Sharing your goals with your manager.
Working with your manager to develop your skills.
Learning and using the proper project management tools and processes.

Show the desire before there’s a need
Sisco advises that prospective project management candidates start collecting experience and learning the tools before the need arises.

He suggests looking for ways to incorporate project management skills into your current job. For example, if you’re a developer, apply a project management approach to your assigned projects. This might include:

Creating a clear definition of your project or work objectives.
Defining the resources needed to accomplish a goal.
Defining a project’s deliverables before starting it.
Gaining approval of the project’s deliverables before beginning the project.
Providing realistic delivery dates and meeting or exceeding those projections.
Frequently and proactively communicating a project’s status to your manager or the project’s client.
Identifying a project’s problems before being asked to.
Going out of your way to eliminate surprises.
Fulfilling tasks like these for every project you work on provides good project management practice, which will pay off when you apply for such a position.

“As your manager learns of your desire and starts seeing project management attributes being exhibited [in] how you approach your work, you are more likely to get their interest,” said Sisco.

Share your goals with your manager
Sisco also recommends that you share your goals for becoming a project manager with your current manager. “He or she can be very helpful in assisting your efforts to achieve your objective and can ultimately be the person who facilitates a career move for you in your company,” said Sisco. Your manager can point you in the right direction or even provide tips or experience in running and managing projects.

While working with your manager, discuss how you approach your everyday projects and compare that to the way your manager would approach them, suggested Sisco. From a project management perspective, focus on the impact the project will have on the business side of the organization, as well as how long the project Read more…

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The performance, image, exposure model is commonly used to help individuals manage their careers. The same model can also be applied to the IT organization as a whole and can prove quite useful in managing IT’s role in the enterprise.

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I was reminded the other day when reading a career column on mentoring about the P.I.E. model to career success. In a nutshell, the model asserts that your career success is based on your performance, your image, and your exposure. I wish I could tell you who came up with the idea (I was first exposed to it in Grad school) but my research proved inconclusive. Despite my inability to give credit where credit is due, there is a ton of information available on the topic. I do believe in the model and its assertions and it’s valuable when thinking about your career.

However, during my research I found nothing that talked about the model and its relation to an organizational unit. This surprised me a bit because I think there is a natural extension of the model into management and leadership. Let’s assume that you are head of your IT department and are looking at ways to put together a scorecard on how well your unit is doing as part of the organization. Here’s what using the P.I.E methodology in this case what it might look like:

Performance indicators

There is no lack of research on performance metrics for IT. From service level agreements to measures of uptime, throughput, cost benefit, ROI and more, the list of how and what to measure is extensive. The important thing here is to choose those measures that are meaningful to your organization and make sure they’re quantifiable. Don’t choose too many but make sure the ones you choose get at the core of what your unit does and how it relates to your organization’s strategic plan.

Why is this important? Clearly, if your unit doesn’t perform well it won’t be held in high regard in the organization. People will complain about the work performed and this will eventually make both the unit and management of the unit suffer. Years ago, organizations were forced to put up with bad IT performance. These days, it’s too easy to find an alternative to service provided by IT and the organization is savvy enough to know there are alternatives. In fact, there are vendors telling your senior management daily they can do it better, Read more…

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Joseph Folkman and John Zenger have co-authored a book called The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders. The book is the result of a five-year research project led by Folkman that involved a database of 200,000 360-degree feedback reports pertaining to approximately 20,000 managers within hundreds of companies.

The book takes a look at how leaders are and are not developed. One point the authors make is that too much emphasis is placed on correcting weaknesses in potential managers. They say their research indicated that “lack of weaknesses” was not the distinguishing feature of the best leaders. Most great leaders have shortcomings, but the strengths they possess are profound. In other words, all leaders have some areas where they’re not so strong, but those aren’t a problem if a leader has outstanding strengths that compensate.

However, according to the authors, there are five flaws (”fatal flaws”) that prevent a leader from moving forward if the shortcomings Read more…

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Whether you’re a support tech who wants to take on management responsibility or a developer wanting to take a step toward a management position, the best place to start is often in project management. Project management can build your organization and management skills to prepare you for a future role in managing people.

Former CIO Mike Sisco shares his advice for IT pros who have their eyes on a project management position. His advice on laying the groundwork for such a move includes:

Gaining experience while in your current position.
Sharing your goals with your manager.
Working with your manager to develop your skills.
Learning and using the proper project management tools and processes.

Show the desire before there’s a need
Sisco advises that prospective project management candidates start collecting experience and learning the tools before the need arises.

He suggests looking for ways to incorporate project management skills into your current job. For example, if you’re a developer, apply a project management approach to your assigned projects. This might include:

Creating a clear definition of your project or work objectives.
Defining the resources needed to accomplish a goal.
Defining a project’s deliverables before starting it.
Gaining approval of the project’s deliverables before beginning the project.
Providing realistic delivery dates and meeting or exceeding those projections.
Frequently and proactively communicating a project’s status to your manager or the project’s client.
Identifying a project’s problems before being asked to.
Going out of your way to eliminate surprises.
Fulfilling tasks like these for every project you work on provides good project management practice, which will pay off when you apply for such a position.

“As your manager learns of your desire and starts seeing project management attributes being exhibited [in] how you approach your work, you are more likely to get their interest,” said Sisco.

Share your goals with your manager
Sisco also recommends that you share your goals for becoming a project manager with your current manager. “He or she can be very helpful in assisting your efforts to achieve your objective and can ultimately be the person who facilitates a career move for you in your company,” said Sisco. Your manager can point you in the right direction or even provide tips or experience in running and managing projects.

While working with your manager, discuss how you approach your everyday projects and compare that to the way your manager would approach them, suggested Sisco. From a project management perspective, focus on the impact the project will have on the business side of the organization, as well as how long the project will take Read more…

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I was reminded the other day when reading a career column on mentoring about the P.I.E. model to career success. In a nutshell, the model asserts that your career success is based on your performance, your image, and your exposure. I wish I could tell you who came up with the idea (I was first exposed to it in Grad school) but my research proved inconclusive. Despite my inability to give credit where credit is due, there is a ton of information available on the topic. I do believe in the model and its assertions and it’s valuable when thinking about your career.

However, during my research I found nothing that talked about the model and its relation to an organizational unit. This surprised me a bit because I think there is a natural extension of the model into management and leadership. Let’s assume that you are head of your IT department and are looking at ways to put together a scorecard on how well your unit is doing as part of the organization. Here’s what using the P.I.E methodology in this case what it might look like:

Performance indicators

There is no lack of research on performance metrics for IT. From service level agreements to measures of uptime, throughput, cost benefit, ROI and more, the list of how and what to measure is extensive. The important thing here is to choose those measures that are meaningful to your organization and make sure they’re quantifiable. Don’t choose too many but make sure the ones you choose get at the core of what your unit does and how it relates to your organization’s strategic plan.

Why is this important? Clearly, if your unit doesn’t perform well it won’t be held in high regard in the organization. People will complain about the work performed and this will eventually make both the unit and management of the unit suffer. Years ago, organizations were forced to put up with bad IT performance. These days, it’s too easy to find an alternative to service provided by IT and the organization is savvy enough to know there are alternatives. In fact, there are vendors telling your senior management daily they can do it better, cheaper, and faster than you can. Thus, it is critical to perform well.

Image indicators

It’s easy to imagine a person and understand what image means, from what they wear to how they speak and their mannerisms and actions as well as a multitude of other factors.

Image for a unit takes a little more thinking about. When it comes to image for a unit I think of branding and perception. Image is about how your unit is perceived as it performs its work. Image is a reflection of staff and management. Is staff that interacts with others in the organization courteous, professional, and positive? I used to tell my staff that three minutes spent in an elevator with the CEO can enhance or destroy months of hard work if one’s behavior is unprofessional.

What about ease of use? Is your IT organization easy to work with or a bureaucratic nightmare? Would people do without rather than have to deal with your unit? Is your unit perceived as an enabler or a discourager? When people think of your IT organization, do they think it is a class act or a circus? Are you viewed as a unit that is constantly improving its product or is falling behind? Keep in mind that performance has a somewhat inverse relation with performance. Poor performance can have a horrendous effect on image, yet perfect performance can have little to no effect. If you are viewed simply as a utility – you have an image problem.

Exposure indicators

Again, this is an issue more easily thought about for an individual than a unit but not impossible. Exposure for a unit equals funding, a seat at the senior management table, and that synergy with business units that IT always seems to be striving for but not always achieving. These are achieved by making the IT unit known. IT has a reputation for Read more…

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Management is a two way street, but the techniques used for managing down are not always the same as those used for managing upward in the organization. As a CIO, I thought I’d outline some of the things that my staff does or can do that make my life easier and, in turn, help the department to meet its myriad of objectives. I’m outlining these items in a first person/second person format. Each of these items comes after reading comments to a multitude of postings on TechRepublic and seeing some commonalities. These might come from the perspective of an idealist, but why not dream big?

Help me help you

In other words, if you have a problem that needs to be solved, bring me some possible solutions to go along with the problem. Yes, my job is to clear hurdles that get in the way of progress, but I’m not (and simply can’t be) solely responsible for solving every single problem that comes through the department!

The flip side. I realize that not every problem has an immediately obvious solution and I also understand that some situations require my involvement. In these circumstances, my door is always open and I want you to come see me so that, together, we can solve the problem. That’s my job; to clear hurdles and make sure that efforts can continue without impediment.

Understand the financial climate

I want you to take initiative and make independent decisions, but when you do, make sure that those decisions keep the budget in mind and keep me out of hot water. I saw a case in another company in which staffers in an IT department tried to spend close to ten thousand dollars on a solution when hundreds of dollars would have sufficed. Fortunately, in that case, the CIO caught the purchase before it was actually placed, but the impact on the budget would have been significant, and so would the political fallout as this was during a particularly difficult financial time.

The flip side. I promise to do my best to keep the IT staff current on what’s going on with the organization’s budget so that a clear picture is always available, providing a good decision framework. I’ve learned over time that the annual budget is simply a starting point for the fiscal year. Even if you have budgetary authority for a chunk of the IT budget, circumstances can change during the year, so it’s important that I keep you current.

Understand the political climate and organizational priorities (i.e., the big picture)

I hate having to play favorites just as much as you do but that’s life. When the CEO calls, you probably better jump unless there is something darn important keeping you away. When she calls me, I jump, too. Further, when the people from the most profitable project in the company call and need something reasonable, that’s a priority! Make sure to understand where we are, where we’re going and understand more than just what’s happening with, for example, the network infrastructure, servers, etc.

The flip side. I will always keep you up to date with what’s important and make sure the whole staff knows the company’s priorities. If you had to decline support for a company priority and there was a good reason (i.e. the entire sales network was down, for example, and you needed to fix that in order to maintain the revenue stream), I’ll back you every time. Why? That shows an understanding and appreciation of the big picture.

Handle the routine things without my involvement

This is related to helping me help you, but a little more specific. Don’t wait for me to be around to handle the routine things; handle them yourself. If you have a question about how something should be handled, consider the task in the context of the larger priorities and with an understanding of any possible budgetary implications. I’ve seen a lot of people afraid to make decisions because they’re worried that the boss won’t like it; this is often the result of conditioning (poor management) somewhere along the line and it’s a bad practice for management to get into. All it does it demotivate and demoralize people. I’ve also seen a lot of people push even the most minor decisions back to the boss just because it was the path of least resistance.

The flip side. Make the call for routine things and get me involved if it gets “too big” or when I really do need to make a call. If you make a decision that I don’t like, I won’t bite your head off. I may tell you what I would have done differently, but will make every possible attempt to do so in a positive, constructive way that doesn’t make you feel “wrong” but that might help the next time around.

Argue your side of a debate or project – vehemently, if necessary

Contrary to popular belief by some, I want to hear your side of a debate and get your thoughts, concerns and insights on issues and projects. The IT staff is the group closest to IT’s operations and initiatives and your insight is invaluable and incredibly important. Make sure you keep your tone and comments constructive and respectful and professional and I’ll be all ears. I’ll listen to you and process your information to make sure that an ultimate decision, whenever possible, includes your thoughts and addresses as many of your concerns as possible. Bu incorporating as much positive feedback as possible, we can achieve outstanding results.

The flip side. You have to listen to my reasons and thoughts on issues, too, and make an attempt to see things from my perspective. I might approach things from a different place. You probably expect (rightly) that I’ll listen to you and appreciate your insight, but it goes both ways. Just like you, I know when I’m being passively ignored and, like you, I don’t like it either. Make sure you appreciate my thoughts as much as you want yours valued.

Once I make a decision, get on board

This one can be the easiest or the hardest, depending on the outcome of the previous point. At some point in every effort, a decision has to be made and, ultimately, it’s my responsibility to make decisions and the “final call” on things. As long as I have listened to your feedback and truly considered it, get on board with the decision that’s been made and support it to the best of your efforts. Just because I make a decision that you don’t agree with doesn’t mean that it’s a bad decision.

You should not blindly follow a leader that is making poor decisions. However, there is a difference between a poor decision and a decision with which you don’t agree. If you believe that every decision with which you don’t agree must be poor, there is more at play than simple disagreement. I know for a fact that I don’t agree with every decision made by my CEO, but I also respect his right to make the decision — and to face any blowback that could result.

Don’t follow blindly… but there does come a point at which you need to decide if a particular issue is worth falling on your sword. If you really, really, really hate Exchange, for example, and wouldn’t be able to stand to see it implemented and it’s going to happen anyway, it’s time to move on.

I should be able to expect that, once a decision is made, best efforts will be undertaken to support that decision to a successful conclusion. Personally, as a CIO – and as a subordinate to my CEO – I wouldn’t be able to, not should I have to, accept less from my staff and neither should my CEO expect less from me.

My advice: Choose your battles wisely.

The flip side. You win some and you lose some. As stated in the previous point, I will commit to truly listening to and appreciating any and all feedback provided to me from any source – IT staff, other executives, people in other departments, customers and others. I will always clearly explain the reasons for my decisions so that everyone knows exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing. You don’t always have to agree, but you do need to support.

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My wife has started keeping a list. She’s documenting every time I ask her something she just told me, or I look for something where it was kept years ago, or I fail to notice some “obvious” change she’s made. I think it’s all part of a secret plan to have me committed.

But like I tell her, I’ve always been this way. I’m absentminded by nature. It’s not that my brain is deteriorating — it’s just always thinking about something else. I’m not alone — this tendency is so prevalent among us geeks that the character of the absentminded professor has become almost archetypal. Absentmindedness affects us geeks more than the general population for at least two reasons:

Hyperfocus: When we’re thinking about a problem, we tune out everything else. This trance-like state often accompanies us when we leave our desks to perform other mundane activities; we can’t concentrate on those activities while we’re hyperfocused on something else, so we rely on unconscious habits. When those habits become disrupted because somebody moved the toothpaste to a new drawer (even if it was six months ago), then we’re comically (in everyone else’s eyes) confused until we can shift our focus to the utterly unnecessary problem at hand and locate said toothbrush.
Filtering: We have so many mental tasks to perform every day that we often ignore issues that seem unworthy of our attention. It might be something that we consider trivial, or that we have mentally stamped “handled.” Other people can get pretty angry over their inability to distinguish between these two reasons for our filtering. When I don’t remember what time my wife is leaving to take our child to the doctor, she may think that I don’t care about his condition; I do, but since that task has been delegated to her, I don’t let its details consume my precious CPU cycles.
To test the depth of your ability to concentrate, watch this video and count the number of times a basketball is passed from one person to another.

While it’s often inconvenient for our loved ones and even sometimes for ourselves, absentmindedness has its benefits. Besides enabling us to concentrate deeply on technical problems, it also keeps us from overloading our brains with mundane details. For instance, I didn’t see the gorilla in the video, did you? Now that I’ve pointed it out, you won’t miss it again — but it’s also a lot harder to concentrate on counting the passes now.

Get focused by asking “big picture” questions

IT consulting is not all about solving technical problems — people and business issues frequently require our attention. Lots of gorillas cross our field of vision, and if we don’t notice them and give them a banana, they’re likely to get vicious. We need to respond quickly to our clients and to new opportunities and vulnerabilities, and we need to be sensitive to people’s feelings (which control their business decisions more than they realize).

To be successful as a consultant requires a hybrid between the hyperfocus of the geek and the “big picture” thinking of the business owner. It may not be possible to do both at the same time, so I advise setting aside some time each day to ask yourself a few “big picture” questions:

What’s important to each of my clients right now?
How is my business plan working out?
Am I missing any opportunities?
Is something about to bite me in the you-know-what?
What else am I forgetting?

Stay organized with SOPs, apps, and software

The “big picture” questions could easily consume all of your time, so again, you need to lean on habitual behavior to enable your “zone” periods. Besides setting aside time for the global view, a number of other standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help you stay organized with less thought required. Here are three SOPs that have been helpful to me:

Put reminders on a calendar, and give the reminder enough lead time but not too much (so you don’t forget it again after the reminder).
Keep a task list with everything you need to remember to do.
Every day, make a daily task list. This not only forces you to review your overall task list, but it also tells Read more…

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Let’s be honest. Times are tough. If you have a job, chances are it could be in jeopardy. Downsizing and layoffs are running rampant.
Of course, there are no guarantees anywhere, but by following these four tips you greatly enhance your ability to hang onto your job.

1. Become Indispensable

You want to be the “go to” person. Find something that’s important to your company and latch onto it. If it comes to layoffs you want them to say, “We can’t fire Lindsey, she’s the new business person.” Or, “We can’t fire Connor, he’s the logistics guy.” It’s even better if you become the all-star in an area that makes the company a lot of money.

2. Take on More Work

Here’s what happens during layoffs. Departments of 15 become departments of five, but none of the work goes away. When management is deciding who will make the cut, they look Read more…

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