2013

By Bob Lewis | May 20, 2013
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

KJRSpeak: All business is personal.

By way of “Tony Barrett’s dad,” or so Tony tells us (also, I’m told, the Godfather, not that there’s any connection).

And, of course, it is.

IT’s critical success factors – the series finale

By Bob Lewis | May 20, 2013
Topics: Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness | No Comments »

IT’s critical success factors end as they began – with relationships. This time it’s the relationships within each team, the relationship between teams, and the importance of everyone inside IT owning the relationship with everyone outside IT.

Great Quotation, 5/13/2013

By Bob Lewis | May 13, 2013
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

- Sherlock Holmes, Valley of Fear, 1915, and thanks to Jack Kastorff for calling it to our attention.

Three more IT critical success factors, and they’re all about leadership

By Bob Lewis | May 13, 2013
Topics: Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness | 2 Comments »

In IT, technology isn’t a critical success factor because it’s an output. IT’s CSFs are what let it create its outputs, and three of the most important factors are all related to leadership and how to go about providing it.

ManagementSpeak, 5/6/2013

By Bob Lewis | May 6, 2013
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

“I thought my razor was dull until I heard his speech.”

- Groucho Marx

IT critical success factor #Lucky 13: Not just enterprise technical architecture management, but …

By Bob Lewis | May 6, 2013
Topics: Architecture, Organizational Effectiveness | No Comments »

It isn’t enough for IT to have an enterprise technical architecture management practice. For ETAM to work, it has to be integrated into IT’s delivery methodologies. If it isn’t, good architecture either won’t happen or won’t stay happened.

ManagementSpeak, 4/29/2013

By Bob Lewis | April 29, 2013
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: Please update the documentation so we do not encounter this issue in the future.

Translation: Somebody really ought to do this. I don’t know who that is, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t me, and I’m completely certain it will never happen.

If our list of ManagementSpeaks is documentation, this week’s contributor just updated it.

IT critical success factors #11 and #12: What’s needed for architecture, and why the service desk matters so much.

By Bob Lewis | April 29, 2013
Topics: Architecture, Organizational Effectiveness | 4 Comments »

A strong technical architecture requires a culture of architecture, and not just in IT. To get it, the rest of the business has to like and trust IT. They won’t without a competent and likable service desk. It’s a strange connection, but a very real one.

ManagementSpeak, 4/22/2013

By Bob Lewis | April 23, 2013
Topics: ManagementSpeak | Comments Off

ManagementSpeak: We must execute flawlessly.

Translation: I want none of these nasty users to bother me. If they do it’s going to be difficult for you.

There … spotting a ManagementSpeak and sending it isn’t so difficult, is it?

IT critical success factors #9 and #10 are boring but still critical

By Bob Lewis | April 23, 2013
Topics: Organizational Effectiveness, Policies and Procedures | Comments Off

#9 is change control, where developers collide with (as they often see it, at least) a pile of bureaucratic molasses. #10 is making sure information security is driven by policy – a CSF because the only alternative is play-it-way-too-safe lock-’em-down-ism.