Everday CIO » ICT http://www.everydaycio.com How do you take this ever changing world of technology and apply it pratically to your everyday life to truly improve it and empower yourself and others? Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:56:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 3 Core Components of an Effective ICT Project http://www.everydaycio.com/3-core-components-of-an-effective-ict-project/ http://www.everydaycio.com/3-core-components-of-an-effective-ict-project/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:04:56 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=132 Everyday that goes by technology becomes more and more a part of our daily personal and professional lives.  My mother has been saying for years that I am “technology dependent” and my wife even calls my iPhone my best friend (ok so I’m a lost puppy dog when I don’t have it).  I remember back to the days in high school and even parts of college where it was unheard of to allow a calculator to perform mathematics, but tell that story to the current generation and most of them cannot fathom the idea.  The millennial generation has integrated technology into all aspects of their daily lives, and more of us find that we can’t function without some of the advances that technology has brought us (spell checker anyone?).

I’ve talked in the past on this blog about the challenges the current generation faces from not having sound fundamentals when it comes to technology projects, but another equally important issue is the concept of technology for technology’s sake.  What I mean by this phrase is that we can’t just look at technology as the means to solve all of our problems, and simply throwing technology at a business problem is not going to make it go away.  When I’m mentoring new technologists and even talking to customers about implementing a technology project one of my favorite phrases is “projects are 80% people and 20% technology and the technology part is easy”.  Most of the time the technology part of a project is the easy part, remember at the end of the day it is just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s that tell the computer what to do.  The challenge comes in aligning the people and business to the technology.  I believe all successful technology/ICT projects focus on three core aspects regardless of the technology you are implementing:

  1. Information Architecture
  2. Technical Architecture
  3. Training and Education

Wikipedia defines Information Architecture as the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems.  The English version of this is the flow of information through the technology, business processes, relationship between information, and it’s relevance to the business process.  If we are trying to automate the process of approving a document for public consumption on the public website we might need to go through a formal review and approval process.  This process has people that must be a part of this approval (called actors in UML language), and changes to the document happen throughout the process (revisions).  Information architecture is the process of mapping who is involved in the process and what that process looks like from beginning to end, and any information that needs to be captured throughout the process (who approved the document, who made edits and changes to the document, what edits and changes they made, what kind of information does this document contain, etc.).  This is a critical step in ensuring that the technology solution is delivering business value and provides a roadmap for implementing the technology part of the project.

Business value is the key here, we are not just implementing this technology because it is “cool”.  The question(s) to always ask yourself are:

  1. Is this technology project going to increase our revenue?
  2. Is this technology project going to reduce costs?
  3. Is this technology project going to give us a competitive advantage?

I’m open to hearing more suggestions around questions to ask, but in my experience all well intentioned technology projects can be grouped into one or more of those three questions.  Making sure the project is answering at least one of those questions is the key to ensuring it is delivering business value.

Technical architecture is the 20% technology part of the project, this is selecting the right technology to meet the business needs and implementing it correctly within the business.  Plenty of models and processes exist to ensuring success, but I’d recommend folks take a look into ITIL and the MSF framework as a starting point.  The reason I believe that this stage of the project is the easy part is that if you successfully built a sound information architecture this phase of the project is simply mapping those requirements to the features of the technology, understanding any gaps, and addressing them.

Training and education is in my opinion the most important part of a project and the one overlooked the most.  Even with a sound information architecture and a sound technical architecture and implementation the system will not deliver the value to the business if nobody uses it.  How many times have we been a part of a technology project thinking we delivered the best thing since sliced bread and then nobody used the system?  The primary reason is that we skipped this step of the project or didn’t do it well enough.  Call it end user adoption, end user training, lunch and learns, or whatever, but making sure the users of the system adopt the technology is the only way to make sure you realize the ROI and business value of the project.  This is one of the reasons I’ve embraced and adopted an agile approach with projects, agile doesn’t have to just be focused on projects that have a software development component.  The entire purpose of Agile is to iterate a solution over time, delivering value and more important gaining user feedback EARLY in the process.  This concept can be applied to any project and especially shines doing technology projects.  Constantly gaining and interacting with users during the development process ensures you have correctly understood what they need from the solution, gets them engaged and involved in the project early, and provides the project team with continual feedback.  Gaining that early buy in and including the end users as a part of the project team is key to success.

The key thing to understand in this blog post is about the core ideals of doing successful projects, there are many other components described in depth in many different methodologies and project approaches, but if you look across all of them you will see these three concepts as a recurring theme.  The rest of the project and concepts in these project methodologies revolve around execution and process.  Technologists need to take the above to heart because it is what separates geeks from business savvy geeks!

I’m interested to hear about others peoples experience in delivering successful and unsuccessful technology/ICT projects, can you map the successful ones to containing all of the above components?  Which step was excluded in the unsuccessful ones?

]]> http://www.everydaycio.com/3-core-components-of-an-effective-ict-project/feed/ 0 Add Mind Mapping to your Technology Tool Kit http://www.everydaycio.com/add-mind-mapping-to-your-technology-tool-kit/ http://www.everydaycio.com/add-mind-mapping-to-your-technology-tool-kit/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:25:35 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=128 I was catching up the Twittersphere while watching my Tour de France DVR recordings and I picked up a great link to a website called Hypershifters which discusses visualization mapping for business and specifically technology.

Mind Mapping is a tool I added to my arsenal a few years ago and I can’t live without it now. For organizing concepts and ideas quickly in a visual way goes a long way at being able to organize and dissect a complex idea or to spur creative thought. I’ve used it to organize the hierarchy of SharePoint installations by breaking down farm configurations, site collection architecture, and demonstrate content publishing paths, and for figuring out the site hierarchy of a web site for a client. I started years ago using a product from MindJet called Mind Manager, but have recently messed around with MindMeister and Xmind because of the on-line collaborative component. The next best thing to mind mapping is collaborating with someone else on the mind map! MindJet also has an on-line offering, but they didn’t offer one at the time. I have settled on Xmind because of the functionality of being able to incorporate multiple ideas in one map, the ability to have a desktop version, and the collaboration aspect.

Have you given mind mapping a try? What was your experience? If you’ve tried it what tool do you recommend?

]]> http://www.everydaycio.com/add-mind-mapping-to-your-technology-tool-kit/feed/ 2 The Changing Role of the CIO: New Skills Needed http://www.everydaycio.com/the-changing-role-of-the-cio-new-skills-needed/ http://www.everydaycio.com/the-changing-role-of-the-cio-new-skills-needed/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:00:19 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=119 Keeping with the them of the latest feature article “What Technology Professionals Can Learn from History” INSEAD has a great post, video, and articles around the change role of the CIO and the necessary leadership skills needed. You can check the post and a wealth of other information here.

]]> http://www.everydaycio.com/the-changing-role-of-the-cio-new-skills-needed/feed/ 0 Half-life of Technology Knowledge http://www.everydaycio.com/half-life-of-technology-knowledge/ http://www.everydaycio.com/half-life-of-technology-knowledge/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:03:10 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=100 Throughout my career I have become a broken record around the following quote:

The half-life of knowledge in technology is 6 months. Half of what I know sitting here right now will be obsolete in 6 months, that is the speed at which technology moves and why you can never stop learning.

I’m sure there are some people that are tired of hearing me say that over and over again, especially to new technology professionals. This article got me thinking about it again. The author talks about how we age as human beings and discusses the book “Aging Well” and the process we all experience through life. The thing that caught my attention was towards the end of the post when he stated the following:

So what has all this got to do with Learning and Change? I think it gets to the heart of the matter. Firstly, you need to be adaptable, to change as your context does – as Valliant puts it, ” to make Lemonade from Lemons”. To embrace the changes you are experiencing and to explore the new situation – to learn, to go to the Mountain, don’t wait for it to come to you.

That is so true in today’s uncertain economic times and is preaching to the choir when it comes to technology professionals who deal with constant change throughout our career. We need to embrace this change and exercise some of our leadership skills to help innovate and grow both personally and professionally.

I’m a regular reader of Zen Habits and think Leo’s post for today ties into this topic perfectly, you can read it here. Everyone who has been involved in a technology project knows that nothing ever goes according to plan, and being aware and accepting of that is the key to dealing with the project issues with a positive attitude. As much as we might like you can’t control everything and everyone around you, but you can display leadership and guidance. I loved Harvard Business Review’s management tip of the day as well “Don’t let the Recession Halt Development” in which they encourage leaders to continue to challenge your team and provide them meaningful work.

Sometimes life and circumstances do get us down, but especially for technology professionals we can not let our foot off the gas when it comes to learning and development. As leaders we must strive to constantly provide challenging work for our teams and find ways to help them find some meaningful work, especially today. So what are you going to do right now to better yourself and/or your team? I’d love to hear about it.

]]> http://www.everydaycio.com/half-life-of-technology-knowledge/feed/ 0 UNESCO-Microsoft Task Force on Higher Education and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) http://www.everydaycio.com/unesco-microsoft-task-force-on-higher-education-and-information-and-communication-technology-ict/ http://www.everydaycio.com/unesco-microsoft-task-force-on-higher-education-and-information-and-communication-technology-ict/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:39:42 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=87 Keeping with the education focused theme of the latest feature article I wanted to do a quick post on the announcement I found here about Microsoft and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization teaming up to focus on technology training programs.  Microsoft is contributing $50 million to support the ICT task force focused on training, resources, and certifications.  I know many of us in the technology field have all done some Microsoft bashing over the years, but they are a pretty strong economic force in the education sector.  I worked with a local Intermediate Unit here in Pittsburgh and saw the deep discounts they provided to educational organizations for products and services.  I was just recently discussing the SCORM capabilities within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server with a client and how they could leverage part of that platform to solve some of the internal and external training needs they have.  Microsoft DreamSpark was mentioned in the release as well and was the first time I’ve heard about the program.  Does anybody have any more information on this program?

]]> http://www.everydaycio.com/unesco-microsoft-task-force-on-higher-education-and-information-and-communication-technology-ict/feed/ 0 Why Technology Education is Failing the Millennial Generation http://www.everydaycio.com/why-technology-education-is-failing-the-millennial-generation/ http://www.everydaycio.com/why-technology-education-is-failing-the-millennial-generation/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:33:28 +0000 ianrudy http://www.everydaycio.com/?p=71 So the topic of this post first started during my morning cup of coffee while wading through my Google Alerts on relevant topics, and continued a few days later with a lunch conversation with a former co-worker and friend.  The first link that caught my interest was an article from a web site in Zimbabwe titled “Give ICT teaching top priority” and the quote in the article from Mr. Brian Sedze “It should be an agreed fact to all of us here that without ICT our children fail to access better paying jobs, investment possibilities and opportunities to use technology as a tool to deliver better standards of living”.  The very next link I clicked on was an article from South Africa titled “Is the education system on the wrong side of the digital divide?” which described the current situation of technology education in South Africa.  These articles stuck with me for a few days because I have often struggled with the right way to begin to introduce my 2 girls (age 4 and almost 3) to technology and what “Daddy does”.  A good portion of my technology days were spent in Information Security and I’ve been exposed to the very nasty side of the Internet and I guess as a typical Generation X parent have been very protective of introducing the Internet and computers to my girls.

The reason why this event took shape into a blog post, however, was the conversation that happened between my friend and I over lunch a couple days later.  We got talking about how the current generation of technology professionals lacked the fundamental skills we had been taught early in our technology career.  The banter went back and forth around not understanding what an nslookup was, or what ipconfig /flushdns did, or why the new crop of technologists never looked at the Event Log on the server.  The decision we both arrived at was that there is a huge lack in critical thinking and troubleshooting skills in current millennial generation of technology professions.  Sure they can come out of school writing apps for the iPhone, but troubleshooting simple network and DNS issues confound them.

The more I considered these events the more I realized that things I learned early on have given me that foundation.  Scientific method anyone?  I have through out my career seen a very strong tie between engineering training and and successful IT/ICT professionals.  Understanding how and why things work is just as important as making them work, sure we have all waved our magic IT guy wand and made problems disappear but we always wonder why (at least I do).  Now don’t get me wrong I am not taking a shot at teachers (especially because the wife is a former teacher!), because teaching is one of the best ways to reinforce knowledge and promote learning, but the move away from teaching fundamentals and more of a focus on mainstream technology “solutions”.  Think about it if you have a good sound knowledge base around software development it is pretty easy to pick up and learn a new language.  The language is just a tool, but the architecture, requirements, business analysis, approaches and methodologies are the key to long term success.  What are you going to do in say 10 years when a new hot language comes out that everyone starts using?  Wait this is technology.. forget 10 years.. try 6 months (the half life of knowledge in this profession).

I have always said that I can teach technology to anybody that has a desire to learn, constantly asks “why?”, and understands the fundamentals of problem solving.  At the end it reminds me of the last time I built a computer, I spent days researching the technology  understanding which motherboard type, processor, memory speed, hard drive interfaces, video cards I wanted.  The specific purpose of this new computer was to run my new media center reality and digitize my DVD movie collection.  I didn’t open any of the boxes until all the components had arrived, I cleaned my entire workspace so I had enough room to work, installed extra lighting, organized my tools, and read all the documentation I could about the components I had purchased.  I spent days assembling the computer (yes I know it doesn’t have to take that long but I wanted it PERFECT) and make sure every connection was made well, the case was well ventilated, the CPU thermal paste was applied properly, and wore a wire around my wrist the whole time (grounding to the case).  All this work and effort and I go to power the computer on for the first time and.. NOTHING.  Yep all that work and it didn’t even post.. recheck all my connections, power, everything still won’t post.  Two hours on the Asus motherboard forum and I discovered my problem, the memory I had installed couldn’t be installed right out of the gate.  I needed to install slower memory in the computer for the first post so that I could get into the BIOS and configure the motherboard to accept my newer, faster memory.  I grabbed some older memory I had out of another system, installed it into the new system, and presto it posted like a champ.  Reconfigured the BIOS, shut the computer down, installed the faster memory and I was in business.  Fundamental training, troubleshooting, Internet research, and a don’t quit spirit where the recipes for success.  Every time I tell that story someone always says.. “Dude why didn’t you just buy a Dell”, and I answer “Passion to learn and build things”.  I guess I should start answering that question with the following “Just wanted to exercise my fundamentals”.

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