...Never call a project an IT Project. Or, do, and continue to annoy the rest of your organisation. So, every project in your company is a company project, and if it happens to be started within IT, and owned by an IT leader, that IT leader is owning it as a business person first and foremost. And if they are owning only the IT element of it, there must be a non IT equivalent owner, and the two must form a close, trusted relationship...
Also, all projects within IT including Software upgrades must offer a real tangible value to the organisation - in money received, money saved, stakeholder value, customer experience, company reputation or in morale and inspiration of people. Those are pretty much the only reason to do anything in both the private and puiblic sectors...
PS
How do you find a seat on a busy train? Head for the very front or the very back - people tend to congragate in the middle carriages, and will often stand there while there are seats at both ends!...
Comments (2)
sorry David, but there ARE pure IT projects, e.g. infrastructure renewal and data re-engineering.
Both of these regularly arise when an organisation is compelled to migrate to a new platform, due to the withdrawal of vendor support for the installed platform.
These are pure-play IT projects and should not be dressed up as business initiatives, although I have seen many attempts to do just that. The only business initiative is that of vendors who need to keep the platform moving ahead - for technology's sake, of course, rather than reasons of revenue protection...
Posted by Colin Beveridge | June 8, 2007 9:56 AM
Posted on June 8, 2007 09:56
Thanks Colin - CEOs and business leaders would not agree with you. Business exists to be in business, not in IT, and everything a business does must be measurable in financial terms, or don't do it. CEOs are really unhappy with money wasted on "IT projects" - monetise everything IT does and IT will arrive at the top tables of influence, don't and you won't. Your choice. What do other people do - not think - do - please share your real-life, practical experiences here so others can put them into action...
Posted by David Taylor | June 10, 2007 1:08 PM
Posted on June 10, 2007 13:08