Rules of Thumb - Process

Maybe it's just the companies I've worked in as CIO but process often gets a bad name in the context of IT governance. Even companies such as FedEx with a very strong process culture within the Operations environment were initially reluctant (put mildly) to put a structured governance process in place. A Sr. VP there, when I first introduced a resource management process, told me that she didn't appreciate being "second-guessed".

The issue I think almost always comes down to a perception that IT process is meant to put up roadblocks. Process management should be the way to streamline everything from resource allocation and prioritization to delivering the products that the organization needs. Process provides not only a way to measure, manage and improve but to make the goings-on within IT transparent. Transparency is very often the one key ingredient that's missing. It provides management with the insight and confidence needed to determine the resources are being invested wisely.

Even developers can be reluctant to embrace process discipline. This can be as simple as check-in/check-out discipline to appropriate testing to time tracking. Time tracking is one I'm particularly sensitive to because I don't like feeling like someone's looking over my shoulder any more than anyone else. That said, I look at time tracking from the perspective of figuring out where we're spending our resources. The goal is two-fold (at a minimum): first you can't improve estimation without tracking and comparing actuals vs estimate; second the only way to ensure we're working on the right priorities is to track time. I don't mean every minute. For most efforts, measuring in increments less than 1/2 a day is too fine-grained to matter very much.

At every turn, process remains the way out of the chaos that often seems to envelope the high demand IT environment.

IT Strategy or How I Put a Mission Statement to Work

Earlier I wrote about Mission Statements and got enough comment that I thought I'd follow that up with a some thoughts on strategy. To me, strategy is the instantiation (isn't that a great word? Anyone other than geeks use it?) of your mission. It's the game plan for carrying out the organization's mission. How long is a strategy timeframe? I have a hard time thinking about a technology strategy that has a horizon of more than 2 years. Two years is an eternity in the technology world. Two years is about as long as the business side of the company can wait for the benefits. Have a time line longer than 2 years and you'll end up with multi-year projects and your chances of success drop significantly. That's a topic for another day.

So what should frame that strategy? Well at the risk of over-simplifying things, I think there are three pillars to build on; three key tenets to keep in mind as you formulate your strategy. All can be defined around the basic life blood of the company.

IT work has to either reduce costs, avoid costs, or increase revenue (and occasionally serve some truly regulatory requirements). What no focus on people????? Those of you who've worked for me know that I think and talk often about People and I'll be writing about that in the future as well. Treat your people poorly and you'll fail. As leadership, our job is to get the tools in place, including strategy, then knock down roadblocks for those that actually do something.

Look at your company's cost of goods sold (or equivalent for services companies). Look at what drives that number and begin to dig into the signficant components. For manufacturing companies, inventory is a high leverage target for reducing costs. Improving visibility to inbound materials can reduce the need for WIP, safety stock etc. For a commercial vehicle manufacturer I worked for, our ability to improve visibility to what was inbound resulted in millions in savings in inventory, which increased capacity by freeing up work space and reduced excess and obsolete charges. Do you think the CFO and CEO were interested?? As a result how hard was it to sell the next IT investment?

The successful CIO has to be able to think like a business-person. In many ways, we need to act like the COO, searching for opportunities to improve operations at every turn, whether through process, technology or people.