Question: How do I objectively
evaluate the readiness of my organization to support emerging business
requirements?
Our advice:
A readiness assessment should be prepared in steps. First, make sure that you
have an intimate understanding of your company's challenges, opportunities, and
objectives. Don't just assume that you know them; get out of your office and
confirm your perspective with your management peers. If IT leaders did more of
this, they'd improve their job security.
Second, prepare a comprehensive inventory of your current installed base, both
hardware and software. This includes release levels as well as current capacity
loads.
Third, get a benchmark study to give you a clear picture of how you stack up
against similar companies. This should help you identify your strengths and
weaknesses. (TAC offers this service at
www.tacadvisory.com
.) This serves as a baseline for your assessment.
Fourth, map out the priorities for the coming year. These include potential
projects as well as those expectations, stated or unstated, of your
organization by the company. This map will help you establish required service
levels based on the business's expectations rather than on your own--an
important point.
Fifth, I strongly suggest that you engage an expert to assist you. Such work
shouldn't require more than a two- or three-day engagement, ensures that you've
covered all the bases, and gives your study more credibility. Even the
brightest doctors refer to specialists for advice.
Finally, prepare a concise plan outlining your challenges, opportunities, and
requirements. Engage your management (non-IT) peers as you prepare it to get
their support and validation. Tie everything to a business metric from the
company business plan. Make sure that it's short and easy to read. Then, as you
execute the plan, prepare a monthly report on your progress, outlining the
challenges and opportunities, and distribute it to the entire management team.
--Alan Guibord
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productive tasks an IT leader can focus on?
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management team and build a high-performance organization?
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around, what IT skills will be most in demand this year?
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Several weeks ago, you wrote
about when a project-management office makes business sense. What is the
appropriate design for a PMO?
The economy seems to be picking
up. Looking ahead, how do I retain good IT people in the face of an improving
IT market while my budget remains under pressure?
What IT skills will be most in
demand this year?
How do I objectively
evaluate the readiness of my organization to support emerging business
requirements?
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Management Institute help us effectively manage real-life IT projects to ensure
success?
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communications proactive, rather than only getting to them when there's a
crisis?
What are the critical
success factors to achieve and maintain strategic alignment?
How can we develop an enterprise architecture across disparate business units?
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long-term information-technology plan when my company doesn't have a strategic
plan?
What attributes and
features should we consider when selecting IT asset-management software?
As an overworked IT manager,
what can I do to reduce my workload while maintaining high availability and
good security?
We're under management pressure to
outsource application development and to cut staff, but I'd rather get more
value from our existing staff, who know our business. How can I broaden their
skills?
As business picks up, what should I do to rebuild my organization, tactical
plan, and internal-management processes?
We have a strong team that
I'd like to make stronger. How do I instill more leadership qualities and
skills into my team?
What organizational structure would be most effective for
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process ownership within our IT organization?
What organizational,
people, and process issues should we consider when setting up a telecommuting
program?
We've cut staff so much
in the last four years that I'm wondering if I can afford (from a work
perspective) to take vacation this summer. What can I do to reduce the chance
of something unraveling catastrophically while I'm away?
A few weeks ago, writing
about creating a vision statement, you said "seek expert facilitation to reach
a vision supported by all." Where can we get this expertise?
We know that we could
save money by consolidating servers currently scattered across business units.
How should we address the political issues around getting the business units to
give up their servers?
What level of IT spending is appropriate for a midsize to large financial
organization?
How should we assess our
IT organizational structure and processes?
How can we retain good IT people
in the face of an improving IT job market?
How should we determine the
appropriate network-support staffing level for a 10,000-node network?
What strategies are most
successful in a "political" organization?
How can one reduce
behaviors that are wasteful of IT resources?
How can we raise the IT knowledge of non-IT employees?
I'd like to establish a
management mentoring program within my organization. How should I start?
How should we deal with
the cultural and skill-set changes needed when moving from mainframe-based
applications to client/server and Web-based applications?
We're considering setting up
our own IT-abuse investigations group. What issues should we consider in making
this decision?
How should we assess and set priorities for our IT project portfolio?
What features should we
consider when selecting portfolio-management dashboard software?
How do we minimize the
negative impact of project cancellations on IT staff morale?
After three years in my current CIO position, I still find myself out of the
loop when it comes to strategic business decisions. What can I do about this?
Many large companies have a
project management office responsible for portfolio and program management.
When does a PMO make business sense?
After the extended economic downturn, we need to create a new vision for the
organization. How do we do that?
What technical and
security issues should we consider when setting up a telecommuting program?
How do we change IT from
reactive to proactive in a change-resistant corporate culture?
How can the CIO shift
the IT organization's mindset from service delivery to value creation?
What criteria should be included in the due-diligence assessment of IT at an
acquisition candidate?
How do I establish my
credibility with the CEO, chief operating officer, and CFO?
How do I motivate my
technical staff to cooperate with staff from our offshore outsourcing vendor?
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