Managing Complexity

Strategic Planning

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:00:02 -0400

Target - the business direction

Quick, concise, actionable - strategic planning is the foundation to establishing business direction .... and the appropriate information technology - IT that enables the business to drive to their future and succeed in their goals.

Strategic planning does not have to be hard, nor does it have to be time consuming. But the quality of the strategic planning effort is essential to effective business - and for IT to be able to enable that business. Not much happens today in competitive business that is not enhanced by computers. The more effective the information technology environment is, the more effective the business can become.

Linking this together is the holy grail of business; the elusive thing called business-IT alignment. It is not, however, a monolithic approach to a solitary goal, but a structured and variable delivery through the enterprise architecture process, built upon the foundation of solid strategic planning goals.

We can help...

True Enterprise Architecture

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:00:32 -0400

The Roadmap from Chaos to Capability

Contrary to popular belief, Enterprise Architecture is NOT a application or even a technology specific effort - it is a business management process that just happens to assist in managing technology - and process - and people - and organization - and costs.... all at the same time.

Originally developed almost 20 years ago by a Dr. Charles Banning at GE, this pragmatic approach to managing the wide array of items that fall under the control of the CIO, has been refined to a very mature and highly effective level. Simple in presentation, the approach affords a unique and valuable perspective into solving one of the most vexing of information technology problems - and does it consistently in any industry, from healthcare, to manufacturing, to information delivery services, to energy - and everything in between..... and from the largest to the smallest organizations.

Unique to the process is the concept of principles driven architecture. This innovative approach to establishing technology direction excels at creating a consistent decision framework, and leveraging the extensive expertise of the existing staff. Who better to determine the technology and business future than those with a stake in the outcome? Putting this in place facilitates everyone making the same decision for the same reasons, aligned with executive management intent. It is truly amazing to see an organization go through the cultural transformation that this apparently simple process delivers.

Enterprise Architecture is a systems of systems view, solving a business problem. A holistic view of platforms, applications, data, communications, security, operations, people, and process, a solid enterprise architecture can both enable the strategic plan, and typically save between 6% and 30% of IT budgets.

We can help...

Risk Management Understand / eliminate your risks Avoid turning successes into abysmal failures

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:00:46 -0400

Keeping it on the Road

Understanding risk is key to eliminating the roadblocks that restrict your ability to delivery tactical value. Starting with a coverage model - a view that covers the overall scope - we can canvas an organization quickly, discovering areas that can destroy even the best plans.

Our principal consultant co-wrote QEO - Quantifying Expert Opinion - a risk and producibility assessment tool, that automated a manual process. For more than a decade, this has been the standard for assessing all Department of Defense projects. He has performed risk assessments for a variety of companies, offering plans and tactics to mitigate the potential issues before they become critical.

This work has evolved over the years to be a pragmatic and effective quick hit approach to identify and manage risks from overall organizational and cultural aspects, to individual project issues.

We can help minimize your risks, in everything from broad business transformation initiatives, to individual projects ...

Change - Turning the Aircraft Carrier

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:00:59 -0400

• Change is pain. Organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort.
• Behaviorism doesn’t work. Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.
• Humanism is overrated. In practice, the conventional empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage people.
• Focus is power. The act of paying attention creates chemical and physical changes in the brain.
• Expectation shapes reality. People’s preconceptions have a significant impact on what they perceive.
• Attention density shapes identity. Repeated, purposeful, and focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.

from The Neuroscience of Leadership
by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz

Change is hard. Getting the entire organization - or even a part of it - to accept and adopt change is not easy. Not only is there all the complexity of the modern business and technology climate, but cultural change, process, and organizational maturity come to play as well.

Change is probably the most difficult aspect of moving forward. People are comfortable with the status quo, and often don’t know why they should change the things that they have always done that have worked in the past.

This is fine - if you are in an industry with no competition, have a product can never be improved, or a career that has no future.

If you are NOT one of the above, and you are still not experiencing change, you are ignoring the competition - if not the ones you know, then the ones you don’t. Your product is being obsoleted, and your skills are growing stale.

Understanding markets, products, strategy, and customers, are all essential parts of starting cultural change. It is not about product - it is ALL about people.

With all this against making change work, how have we been consistently effective? A compelling and consistent set of decision values, broadly supported, and uniformly applied, and in line with attaining corporate goals. Sounds easy? In some ways it is, but providing an approach to consistent applications of these values is the trick.

We can help with taking your organization through the cultural change required to move forward. Our unique proven approach provides a sustainable process for implementing repeatable change for the long term.