Published: February 08 2010, 02:46 PM | no comments
by Steve Romero

How are the processes in your organization? Do people follow them? Do they work well?

Many if not most of the companies I visit struggle when it comes to process. Process continues to be a four-letter-word. Processes are viewed as bureaucratic, cumbersome, overly-complex and slow. In most cases, these views are indeed warranted.

I recently spent the evening with two senior IT leaders from a major technology company. They work in what I call a "loose" IT environment. They have little or no governance and very little formal process. Their teams are comprised of people who have worked together for many years and "just get the work done."

This model has served them in the past, quite successfully. But the company has recently experienced incredible success and growth and the work is coming at a much faster rate while staffing levels remain the same. Yes, the work is still getting done, but these two Senior IT Leaders see disaster looming on the horizon. The pain and negative residue has greatly increased from the chaos and aftermath of informal and ad hoc work processes. They anticipate a day of reckoning if they don't take action.

The actions they are investigating are governance and process, and they do so at their own peril. Their company views these disciplines in a very negative light. These two Leaders recognize they have a tough row to hoe ahead and we spent the evening discussing their challenge and sharing ideas.

My time with them inspired me to post a list of very high-level recommendations for introducing governance and process to an organization that is dead-set against these conventions.

1. Ensure you have an acute understanding of customer needs and your business objectives
2. Uncover and reveal the problems associated with meeting those needs and objectives
3. Recognize and learn to empathize with those who feel the most pain from these problems
4. Identify an Executive Sponsor and/or enlist a legion of rank-and-file supporters
5. Quantify the cost of the problems
6. Ascertain the potential solutions to the problems
7. Quantify the cost of the solutions
8. Recognize and listen to the people that are against your solutions or just anti-process
9. Do not take a prescriptive approach to any proposed solution
10. Know there is no one-size-that-fits-all
11. Select the correct "flavor" of the solution - dictated by the specific problems to be solved and influenced by the current culture, capacity, and capability of the organization
12. Thoughtfully implement the solution - in multiple iterative phases that produce measurable improvements quickly
13. Take what you learn from previous process implementation phases and apply that knowledge to improving subsequent phases
14. Constantly strike the balance between too much and too little process and between too complex and too simple
15. Take a sympathetic position with everyone who hates your process and gain an understanding of what incents them to avoid, undermine or destroy your process
16. Measure results and respond accordingly

Yes, this is a very high-level and minimal list, but I think it's a good start. I could expand on any of these points to an enormous degree but I want to keep this post simple. I would love to hear what you think of the list and if you have anything to add. I, like the two IT Leaders taking on the process challenge, can always use the help.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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Published: February 02 2010, 02:48 PM | no comments
by Steve Romero

How are your business partner relationships? Are they working for you? Are you doing all you can so they do work for you? In other words, are you governing your business partner relationships?

First, the term "business partner" can mean many things. I am referring to external or extended business relationships. These are the folks with whom you partner to enhance revenues through licensing and/or distribution agreements, supplement internal resources or provide capability outside of your core competencies.

I list "Outsourcing Services" as an essential Governance process. This process:

• Facilitates the decision that services are better provided externally
• Oversees Vendor and contract management
• Enables fact-based price comparisons
• Sets clear expectations for provider performance
• Ensures architectural fit

These processes are necessary to ensure an enterprise gets its monies-worth from these partnerships. In addition to managing this economic risk, the services listed above help you to ensure your partners do not damage your good name and reputation. Governance of your business partners is just as critical as governing your own organization (if not more so).

I suggest there enterprises need to do more to realize maximum value from your business partne relationships. I want to supplement good governance with practices and behaviors that establish empathy and trust between both parties. I was exposed to this idea while working at one of my former companies and again during my recent visit to Prague.

In a previous position, I worked for a CIO who believed in establishing what he called "Social Contracts" with our business partners. These contracts had no legal standing whatsoever and were never intended to replace those that did. Instead, the agreements were meant to establish a mutual understanding and appreciation of each party's vision and mission with the hope of fostering a relationship of trust and shared interest.

I was reminded of this approach when I visited Prague last week. Eastern Europe has a wealth of emerging markets. Numerous businesses have established a presence in many of these countries. Given the infancy of many of these markets, many companies rely on partnering with other businesses to establish their presence. This creates a plethora of global market challenges and increases the need to thoughtfully address the care-and-feeding of these relationships.

I spent the morning delivering my PPM presentation to some customers and prospects. I then delivered the same presentation to a group of Partners in the afternoon which was followed by an evening of dining and continued knowledge-sharing. The goal of my visit was to increase their understanding of governance and PPM while introducing them to my role and opening the door for continued interaction and assistance. I spent an amazing evening with Partners from Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Warsaw, Istanbul, Bratislava and Bucharest. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot from each other. It was a great experience and I am certain our very personal time together has set the stage to do great things jointly in the future.

After a fantastic dinner and some local beverages, one of my fellow employees from Budapest told this joke that I believe captures the spirit of this post:

It was a bitter winter, even by Siberia standards. A pack of wolves was near death due to starvation, with only a few able to muster the strength to hunt. As they wandered the frozen wasteland, they came upon a single emaciated rabbit.  Before they could attack, the rabbit screamed, "Wait! I can help you!" The wolves paused and the rabbit explained, "I am but one scrawny, starving rabbit. Eating me won't save even one of you, let alone your whole pack. But if you spare me, I can tell you where a heard of deer are hiding. You can eat enough to survive this brutal winter."

With no discussion, the wolves agreed and the rabbit quickly described the location of the herd. As soon as he finished the wolves pounced on the helpless bunny and devoured him. After all, they were wolves.

The wolves then followed the rabbit's directions and indeed came upon the hidden herd. They attacked and were able to kill and eat their fill. After they finished gorging themselves, one wolf paused to reflect on their broken promise. "You know," the wolf said, "That rabbit saved our lives. We should go back and pay our respects and give him a proper burial." The rest of the pack agreed, found the few bones left scattered in the snow, and buried them in the frozen tundra.

As they stood over the burial site, one of the wolves suggested that one of them should say some last words. After a period a befuddled silence, one of the wolves offered, "He was a good friend." The others wolves disagreed because they hardly knew the rabbit. Another wolf suggested, "He was a good enemy." The pack did not like this either because after all, the rabbit did save their lives. Finally, one wolf shouted, "I know! He was a good partner."

I will close with the hope that in your business partnerships, you are neither the rabbit nor the wolf.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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Published: January 22 2010, 11:42 AM | 1 Comment(s)
by Steve Romero

My last post covered some of the key highlights from the latest CIO Magazine "State of the CIO 2010." I want to cover a couple of the items I found most interesting in their latest CIO survey.

First, I am very encouraged by the increased focus on how IT can improve products and connect with customers. This gets to the heart of my ideas about IT/Biz Alignment. IT Governance is key to fostering this alignment - which brings me to a portion of the survey that drives me nuts.

Let's take another look at the top priorities for CIOs in 2010 cited in the survey:

• Aligning IT and business goals
• Controlling IT costs
• IT Governance and portfolio Management
• Business process redesign
• Leadership development/staff training
• Marketing IT's business contribution
• Rationalizing or centralizing the application portfolio
• Protecting customer data privacy
• Scaling IT globally

Note the first and third items listed: Aligning IT and business goals and IT Governance and Portfolio Management (PPM). They are listed as separate priorities. As I noted above, IT Governance (and PPM) is key to fostering IT/Biz Alignment, but Biz/IT Alignment is the #1 priority and Governance is #3. Yes, they are both high priorities, but having them listed separately continues to support my belief that many organizations do not fully understand and appreciate the connection between the two. (I have discussed how IT Governance fosters IT/Biz Alignment in previous posts so I won't repeat it here.)

In spite of my misgivings, I am trying to see the bright side of the survey by focusing on the fact they are both very high priorities. I am hopeful the increased exposure will help reveal the direct-connections between them and CIOs will subsequently view IT Governance as their highest priority.

Which circles me back to the beginning of this post and the primary point of the CIO Magazine Survey results, the increased focus on IT's influence on products and customers. The statement on the cover reads: "Our annual State of the CIO research reveals sharper commercial focus as IT reinvents business alignment." I love the sharper commercial focus, but I wince at the suggestion this is a reinvention of business alignment. I wish they had said that IT finally understands the concept of IT/Biz alignment and that CIOs are now taking accountability for showing a direct correlation between IT and the commercial success of their enterprises.

Given my passion for IT/Biz Alignment, it was encouraging to find nearly two-thirds of CIOs surveyed have responsibility for a business area outside of the IT organization. This should foster increased IT understanding of the business they serve. And though only 43% of CIOs report to the CEO, it was wonderful to hear that 70% of them have a seat at the business leadership table. This puts them in a great position to address the highest priorities cited in the study.

Once again, here is a link to the CIO survey which is well worth a look. http://www.cio.com/article/511240/2010_State_of_the_CIO_Today_s_Focus_for_IT_Departments_Business_Opportunities_

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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Published: January 13 2010, 07:58 AM | 1 Comment(s)
by Steve Romero

I just read CIO Magazine's "The State of the CIO 2010" survey as I fly to Chicago on the way to Lansing. I will be sure to share an opinion or two in upcoming posts, but today I'll just cover some highlights.

Understanding how to make money became a higher priority for many CIOs. Included in this year's list of most critical competencies:

• Meeting or beating business goals: 30%, up 12% from 2009
• Identifying and seizing on commercial opportunities: 22%, a near four-fold increase
• External customer focus: 18%, double from last year

9 out of 10 "Expected Accomplishments" increased in importance (providing further evidence that IT is expected to contribute more while budgets remain flat). The product and customer focused contributions had some of the greatest gains:

• Improve quality of products and/or processes, from 35% to 53%
• Manage customer relationships, from 18% to 34%
• Acquire and retain customers, from 18% to 25%

Nearly two-thirds of CIOs surveyed have responsibility for a business area outside of the IT organization.

Only 43% of CIOs report to the CEO, but 70% of them have a seat at the business leadership table.

The Top Priorities for 2010:

• Aligning IT and business goals
• Controlling IT costs
• IT Governance and portfolio Management
• Business process redesign
• Leadership development/staff training
• Marketing IT's business contribution
• Rationalizing or centralizing the application portfolio
• Protecting customer data privacy
• Scaling IT globally
• Regulatory compliance

As I said, I will have a few things to say about the results, but for now, I urge you to pick up a copy of the December 15 / January 1 issue of CIO Magazine, "Acting on Opportunity." As usual, their "State of the CIO Survey" provides great data and interesting insights. http://www.cio.com/article/511240/2010_State_of_the_CIO_Today_s_Focus_for_IT_Departments_Business_Opportunities_

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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Published: January 06 2010, 12:50 PM | no comments
by Steve Romero

Are your investments and associated initiatives directly connected to your enterprise strategies and goals? Are you confident in the decision-making processes that determine not only if a project should be approved, but if you have the resources to see it to successful completion? Is Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) part of your enterprise's vernacular?

If your answer to any of the above questions was "no", then make 2010 the year to advance the cause of the most strategically significant governance process, PPM.

Though our economy continues to inch its way out of the most momentous recession in over half a century, many companies and organizations continue to struggle greatly. For each of these enterprises, PPM is the key to achieve the best possible decisions about their project and programs in these most challenging of times.

So if you find yourself still trying to champion the value of PPM, here is list of potential benefits likely to resonate with your colleagues and foster their interest and participation in your advocacy:

PPM is essential to identify the projects that are most worthwhile when dollars are scarce

Reduced or stagnant budgets in the face of unchanged and likely increasing demand provide a great case for PPM. Few enterprises have the thresholds and tolerances for investment misfires they have enjoyed in the past. Projects and programs must have rock-solid business cases if they are to be allocated the scant funds available in most coffers today. PPM provides the means for identifying, approving and executing the most advantageous efforts.

PPM provides Executive Leadership accurate and timely information to make the best decisions

For many organizations, project and programs are initiated and approved in a haphazard fashion. This irregular approach leads to a convolution of effort inflicted on over-allocated workers. This practice spells doom in a down economy. PPM provides the catalyst and foundation for assigning the appropriate decision rights and accountability for approving requests and ensuring they deliver appropriate value. PPM also provides the fundamental mechanisms to identify, collect, analyze and disseminate the essential data critical to creating reasoned and rational investment portfolios. The result is providing leadership with the information to enable an enterprise to determine if a project should be done and if that project can be done.

PPM ensures the enterprise can focus on bottom line activities

PPM provides the framework to define and categorize investments based on the specific goals and strategy of an enterprise. Though these categories can vary widely from one organization to the next, one common category is those investments that "keep the lights on." In an economic downturn, every organization must ensure these essential investments are addressed while carefully determining what new investments they dare to undertake.

PPM is indispensable in making the enterprise vision and strategy accessible to everyone - fostering a culture of collaboration

Very few enterprises have everyone on the org chart on the same page. Through its constructs, PPM fosters:

• The articulation of goals and strategy
• The mechanisms for identifying and considering investment options
• The criteria for determining investment alignment to strategy and its priority
• The infrastructure to disseminate the information required to steer investments to successful conclusion

In fostering activities described above, PPM makes the information vital to understanding business goals and intentions available to everyone in the enterprise. This common understanding promotes a shared sense of purpose and direction which in turn cultivates higher levels of team collaboration and performance.

PPM to make the right decisions!

PPM is one if not the most significant of the Governance processes, and governance is all about the processes and relationships that lead to reasoned decision-making. PPM enables an organization to:

• Determine what investment decisions need to be made
• Determine who is accountable for making investment decisions
• Determine how will investment decisions be made

If ever there was a time to make the right decisions, it is in a down economy - when the wrong decisions can be fatal to an enterprise.

Hopefully, one or more of these potential benefits will set your organization on the path to success that Project and Portfolio Management provides. I wish you the best of luck in making 2010 the year to establish or advance good governance and sound PPM practices.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist

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