When you ask for advice from an IT specialist, often the response is too technical, too closely tied to a commercial product, or simply off the mark because the underlying problems are management problems. Who can you turn to for useful and practical advice?
What generates energy for your team?
June 25, 2012
How do you evaluate how well a team is functioning? A key indicator is energy. Energy is a quality of the interactions going on in the room the team is working in, a quality that you feel when you’re in the room with them. There are a variety of types of energy. A team may […]
Risk Management in IT
April 25, 2012
Risk management is a key area for financial leaders. When we look at IT development projects, we’re usually focused on opportunities rather than risks. But IT investments have risks beyond security and privacy issues. Project failure can lead to losses even beyond the intended investment. Here are seven ways to look at IT development projects from a risk management point of view.
Success always looks easy
March 13, 2012
With all the news about IT projects that go bad, you would think that we’d hear more news about projects that go well. Then we could just copy down the “best practices” that led to the success and – voilà – our projects would come out perfectly every time. But life is not so simple. […]
Metrics of Success in Development – Part 3
January 26, 2008
Today we’ll finish the list of ten questions that can give you a quick measure of your development group or department. The purpose is two-fold: to let you see how you measure up compared to other similar departments, and to suggest ways in which you can think about the stresses in your department. Let’s launch […]
Metrics of success in development – Part 2
January 26, 2008
Last time we listed the first three questions of a self-assessment questionnaire for Development managers. Those first three related to project completion, staff turnover, and how well the initial functional or feature list was met. If you are having problems delivering products, most likely you will experience problems in one or more of these initial […]
Metrics of success in development – Part 1
January 26, 2008
How do you find out if your development organization is functioning well? Naturally, if you are getting products out on time, consistently, and the world around you is happy with the results, you have nothing to worry about. But what if there ARE complaints? Can you determine whether you’re hearing gripes that have little to […]