CIO - on Demand

To BE or Not to BE.

All Business executives live this question when it comes to making decisions involving Information Technology and/or Information systems.

It is the balance between Business and Technology that throws Business Owners and Managers out of the window. For business executives - the investment decisions for the IT always 'occur' as walking in the air where there is a failure to see several quantifiable justifications which is possible in other investment decisions.

Specifically for SMEs, who can not afford to have dedicated IT strategist - and they run their business through internal IT staff of one or two techies, should consider using the services of IT strategist who can work with their business from long term perspective and partner the 'boss' in ensuring that sound IT investment strategy is in place. ALL on the basis of needs without full time commitment on Payroll.

This way - SMEs can gain huge advantages generally available to Large enterprises with the availability of CIO. It would almost be like having a part time dedicated CIO available on demand. The concept of 'CIO-on Demand' will pick up as more and more SMEs realise the benefits of sound IT strategy in place for their business.

Every Business Owner/Manager knows the results of the investments without strategy in place. Much strategy prevails over little strategy. IT is no different from this general rule of life. Having a sound IT strategy in place will allow sound IT investment decisions and return on the capital invested in IT resources.

We have identified following benefits of using 'CIO-on Demand'.

1. Have a CIO only when you need it and only for the time you need it.

2. Have a benefit of a full-time IT executive without the cost of in-house IT Executive (and yes they are expensive!!!)

3. Determine which technological investments will pay off is like looking in to crystal ball – having a 'CIO-on Demand' can resolve this crystal ball question.

4. Use appropriate and skilled resource to train/mentor potential in-house staff in developing strategic vision and objectives for the IT and so develop future IT leadership capability in-house.

5. Risk management of Systems that are critical to your business and are locked in the proprietary technology with the vendor who does not meet your current or strategic objectives but it is too expensive to walk away.

6. Get someone on your side to negotiate large investment projects and contracts with the vendors who generally are looking after their self interest and may 'rip you off'.

7. Have a confidence in your IT investment decisions which are backed by sound advise based on the good strategy aligned with the core business objectives.

There are several other benefits that I can discuss but these are the core areas where a major value can be gained by Small and Medium Enterprises by using the services of someone who is IT Strategist and willing to work as 'CIO-on Demand'.

Any inquiries, Questions, Request for assistance & your thoughts - most welcome.

Lessons Learned from IT Projects

At the end of every project, there is a Project Closure Report that needs to be submitted to PGC and that has a section called Lessons Learned.

After every Project, the Team including PM obtains a rich experience into not only a particular technology platform but also the domain expertise and client relationships along with what worked and did not worked in the project.
I guess, what gets documented as lessons learned is the area where something went wrong and its like a hindsight. But there would be lot that never gets shared or used again in the future. Few questions that organisations can consider for themselves are…

1. Whatever lessons are documented are they utilised before the start of the next project?
2. What can organisations do to so that rich experience does not get lost?
3. Is knowledge Management in place? Can it be afforded? What aspects of this knowledge management can be applied directly to the current and future projects without investing arms and legs in any Knowledge Management system?
4. Is there any repository where these lessons learned are combined and available for use in the future?
5. Do team members have any platform to share their experiences with other members of the organisation?
6. How these lessons learned can be spread and made available to all the members of the organisations?

It is of no point to attempt to answer these question, but ongoingly look at if this is in place and fulfiling its objective?

Lot of Software development companies have very good processes in place with the use of appropriate Project Management methodologies. As a part of these processes, one of the task Project Managers do is write/submit Project closure report. This report contains a section on Lessons Learned during the project.

I really wonder what happens to the submited reports over time? What is done to the lessons learned section? Companies that I have worked with so far seems to have very little if at all anything in place to use this collectively.

How many times, lessons learned are shared beyond the core project team. How many organisations have taken proactive actions on using these lessons learned data?

After every Project, the Team including Project Manager obtains a rich experience into not only a particular technology platform but also the domain expertise and client relationships along with what worked and did not worked in the project.

I have observed, what gets documented as "lessons learned" is the area where something went wrong and its like a hindsight. But there would be lot that may not get documented.

The question I have is, whatever lessons are documented, are they utilised before the start of the next project by another project manager? Is there any repository where these lessons learned are combined and available for use in the future?

Software Estimation-Simple or Complex?

It is the simplicity that adds value to estimation rather than complexity.

One of the common focus of the software development teams even in most advanced and largest companies is to develop "accurate estimates" of the software in order to get accurate cost/schedule "estimates".

I find the word "accurate estimates" very contradictory and ironical. If it is accurate - it can not be called "estimates".

The word "estimate" is defined as "to form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size, weight, etc., of; calculate approximately:" on dictionary.com. The very fact that it is an approximate tells us that the notion of "accurate estimate" is absurd.

I find it radiculous when I hear these words "We should have made accurate estimates of the effort and than it would have been easy to control the project and deliver the results". How many times have you heard these words after a software project has failed or delayed?

I call this ignorance. Only if they knew the foundations, how easy life would be for them?

Software Project Estimation Methods

Is there a crystal ball to software development cycle and project estimation method? How do you know that you are providing/working with realistic time and cost model in software development. After soo much research and development in software estimation methodology by the industry, why software projects fail? I found this great article and it is worth reading.

I like the views of Steve McConnell who is CEO and chief software engineer at Construx Software, but you're more likely to recognize his name as the author of Code Complete. His interview with CIO highlights the factors that he stresses upon and are in line with what I have seen in several projects.

I am going to continue my research in this area.

Welcome to Thinking Room

Welcome to my BLOG,

I have been thinking about this "Thinking room" for a while and there is always a starting point so here it is. Keep visiting this blog regularly, I promise you interesting time and a journey.