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The Standish Group and others have reported over the past decade that more than 30% of all software made for users was, in hindsight, never needed or used to accomplish their mission. The project stakeholders discovered this only after the solutions were delivered at more than several thousand projects surveyed to date. Also reported widely, more than 20% of the code related to functionality and/or usability was found to be “missing” or “wrong” after the users had a chance to interact with the software in real-world mission scenarios. In the survey responses, the terms requirements “reworked” and “moved to the next release” are used interchangeable with the terms “missed”, “misunderstood”, and “changed.”
The Federal IT Budget – With the Standish statistics in mind, more than $10 billion dollars of the $70 billion dollar federal IT budget this year is earmarked for software modernization efforts. Most American citizens and government employees know these efforts are long overdue. The opportunity exists to reduce this expenditure by more than 10% or alternatively to get more for the taxpayer dollars invested on projects already in flight. There is a rapidly increasing “expectations gap” by users and acquirers alike as to what “good software” means for individuals and organizations to take care of business and fulfill assigned missions, tasks and goals.
The Government Needs To Innovate – Michael Schrage, a senior adviser to MIT’s Security Studies Programwrites, “Innovation’ isn’t what innovators do….it’s what customers and clients adopt. His research and advisory work explores the role of models, prototypes and simulations as collaborative media for managing innovation and risk. His ongoing work on strategic and “just-in-time” experimentation is at the core of several corporate transformation efforts. His insights into the economics of “hyperinnovation,” “‘iterative capital” and “innovation cross-subsidies” are redefining executive investment criteria for supply chain and customer relationship initiatives.” He is the author of Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate. In the forward provided by Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence; Tom writes, “this is simply the best book written on innovation I’ve ever read.” …. “Read! Act! Now!”, he concludes.
Robert Austin, Harvard Chair of the CIO Executive Program focuses on management of innovative and knowledge intensive activities, especially as applied in creative industries and information technology management. He has written on these issues in Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work (co-authored with Lee Devin) and The Role of IT in Innovation-Based Value Creation; where Rob writes, “it will soon be all too apparent. IT, finally mature enough to think of itself as an old dog, very badly needs a new trick.”
Partnering With The Government – Richard Frost is a Global Director at General Motors where he has responsibility for driving systems development, software engineering, and program management globally, including agile development, streamlined development processes, and requirements visualization. As a senior advisor to the SEI CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), a collaborative effort of GM, DoD and NASA, Rich has helped identify best practices for systems acquisition at GM and is helping incorporate these into a CMMI framework for the customers of technology.
Through innovation and partnerships like GM’s collaboration with SEI, iRise’s expansion into the Federal Market announced last month is tasked with saving the Federal Government a “fistful of cash” and helping accelerate the software modernization efforts over the next several years.
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Do you know any IT Leaders who have made a positive impact on their organization through technology?
Premier 100 IT Leaders are known for:
- Promoting an IT vision that supports the company’s business strategy
- Tying technology and innovation to specific business needs and goals
- Using technology to gain a competitive advantage
- Being viewed as a leader by executive, IT staff and others in the industry
Computerworld has launched its annual search for technology professionals who have demonstrated leadership in their organizations through the use of IT and have the strategic vision to align technology with business goals.
The nomination form is available from this link and the deadline for submitting a nomination form is June 30, 2008.
Check these links for more information:
- Award Overview
- Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2008
- Computerworld IT Leaders Conference – iRise was a Platinum Sponsor for the 2008 conference
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In the March 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review, David Upton and Bradley Staats from the Harvard Business School wrote an article about a radically new approach to developing IT systems called the path-based approach. As the authors state in the opening sentence, “enterprise IT projects continue to be a headache for business leaders.”
The article is a case study of Japan’s Shinsei Bank IT department and how they revolutionized retail banking in Japan. Masamoto Yashiro, the former chairman of Citibank Japan, was brought in as the new CEO in 2000 and he hired Jay Dvivedi, who used to run IT operations for Citibank Japan as his Chief Information Officer. Together, they led the development of a new enterprise IT system using the path-based method of application development. They call it the path-based approach because it focuses on providing a path for the system to be developed instead of attempting to define all of the specifications or requirements for a system before the project is launched. Shinsei succeeded in developing and deploying an entirely new enterprise system in one year at a cost of $55 million.
Traditionally, there are two choices for building a major enterprise system – the “big bang” approach of replacing the current system and processes all at once or the incremental method of improving the existing system one piece at a time. Shinsei did not want the risk of the “big bang” method and did not have the time to implement the incremental method, so they chose a third method called the path-based method. Some of the principles of the path-based method are variations on old themes while others are totally unconventional.
Here are some things they learned:
Don’t just align business and IT strategies – forge them together — Besides having the CIO report to the CEO, Shinsei business managers spend significant amounts of time in learning about IT. In addition, they focus on understanding “foreseeable business objectives” and the interaction between business and IT groups is iterative and continuous.
Strive for extreme simplicity — Shinsei succeeded by employing the simplest possible technologies. There were three keys to their simpler approach, limit the number of standards, create simple re-usable solutions and apply modularity to clearly specify user interfaces.
Give (some) power to the people — Many project failures stem from organized resistance to new systems. When Shinsei rolls out a new system, they start by offering an interface that is similar to the old system – and only after users are comfortable with a new system do they turn off the old screens. Shinsei also created a system for including feedback and requests from employees, customers, business users and technical users. Comments have averaged about 100 requests per day which helps Shinsei continually improve systems and processes.
The conclusion is that “businesses must focus on building IT systems that cannot fail to improve…and adopting the path-based approach will provide flexible systems that can change as the business demands and can shift IT from being a simple platform for existing operations to a launchpad for new functions and brand new businesses.”
Imagine what would happen if you marry path-based method of application development with the visualization capabilities of iRise?
The complete article is a worthwhile read and is currently available for free from the Harvard Business Review website.
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At the World Congress for Business Analysts (WCBA), Cynthia Sniezak from Disney Parks described how Disney Park’s IT Academy “Builds BAs and PMs That Any Business Sponsor Would Fight To Have On Their Project.”
First, I want to point that I love how Disney refers to all of their employees as Cast Members. It clearly demonstrates that everyone is part of the ’show.’
Disney views talent management as a business differentiator and the mission of the IT Academy is to “make our cast wildly successful.” Disney uses an approach they refer to as HILL which is an acronym for:
- Hire the very best
- Invest strategically
- Lease rising skills
- Lease setting skills
Cynthia also shared their “Leadership Framework At a Glance” which is a generic way to view all jobs on a consistent basis. The key elements of the framework are:
- Delivery and Action (delivery, initiative, organizational stewardship)
- Personal Dynamics (flexibility and adaptability, impact and influence, interpersonal understanding, relationship building)
- Managing Others (developing others, team leadership, teamwork)
- Thinking and Solving Problem (analytical thinking, conceptual thinking, technical expertise)
In terms of training, the IT Academy makes sure that their training is consistent for both the project managers (PMs) and business analysts (BAs). Their training is vendor-delivered (ACC Learning), aligned with the PMBOK and BABOK, and aligned with Disney business objectives. The core PM training is 11 days with 6 days of electives which is completed during an employee’s first 12 to 18 months with Disney. The BA training is a subset of the PM training.
Cynthia also shared some of the tips that they use to reinforce training which includes laminated cheat sheets, note cards and resources such as their internal BA group called BALOO and the external Catalyze community.
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