Mar 20, 2009 | blog
I’ve been an IT guy for a darn long time, and as I’ve said before, it was a great career. I’m sure I’ll revisit it from time to time – I’m too much a tech-geek to abandon it completely. One thing I know from experience is that IT is many times a bigger bottleneck than we tend to admit. So as I move into new areas as an advocate for and a professional in social media I understand the issues from both sides of the fence.
Some folks scoff at how IT always seems to pull the security card on attempts to do new, inventive, creative things. It’s but one of many things that corporate IT departments have to consider when someone brings up something new. Other things can range from support costs (obviously) to recovering from disasters. New systems really do consist of much more than just buying and installing software.
Interestingly, it’s not always management in IT that causes the roadblock. In fact, IT leadership is often well equipped to be advocates of change in the organization. Even with tight budgets, IT is almost always looking to help position the company for growth. However, remember they’re biggest responsibility is to maintain existing systems and provide a secure, reliable environment.
So the question is then, how can you get IT to be interested and prioritize your project?
The answer is to get them involved early. Very early. In fact, they should be among your first stops when you’re looking for supporters and stakeholders. What usually happens with many a project is that the technology aspect get’s pulled in way too late for the project’s original timeline. All this does is turn it into another firedrill project with folks working long hours and weekends to make it happen.
However, if you get IT involved at the beginning, they’ll help with estimating real costs. They’ll help figure out realistic timelines. They will be a key part of making your project succeed.
Contrary to what you may think, Information Technology isn’t just about databases, operating systems and all the computers in the office, they too get excited about learning new things. The realization that social media, and new ways of doing business is important to them too.
Photo credit: Great Beyond
Dec 19, 2006 | blog
I’m starting to finally (after several decades) getting past the idea that I need to figure it all out. Every time I try to do something new, I immediately start “diving deep” trying to solve the first puzzle, problem, or question before moving on.
One of the biggest things I’m learning in project management is that I don’t need to do it all. Moreover, that I can’t do it all or shouldn’t even try. In fact I don’t even need to come up with the idea, just be able to implement it – whatever “it” is.
Its a really difficult concept for me – mainly because I’ve been a great problem solver for most of my career. To get my head around this one concept has (surprisingly for some) taken me an enormous amount of thought.
The reason this was important enough for me to blog about is that it is a key pillar to me taking my career to the next level. The hard day-to-day part will be remembering this fact as I do different things that are outside my comfort level and stretch my skills in new ways
So I’m going to be looking for ways to apply this new found idea, mostly how to apply it to my personal benefit. That has always been a stumbling block for me moving forward. I think that will finally be one less thing in my way.
Jun 9, 2006 | blog
So I’ve been getting into project management the last 18 months or so, and its been quite a bit of fun. What surprises me, is that I really enjoy the work – it has been taking more and more of my interest in place of my passion for technology.
The thing that also stuns me, is that I’m actually good at it. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a LOT to learn about project management, methods, tools, tricks, organization, etc… Of course a person really never stops learning. The neat thing about PM work that I’ve found so far is how it streches me in a whole new direction that I’d never had to work towards in just a technology-focused position.
Now with that all said, the project I’m trying to get started and organized at work has me really twisted around. First, until recently it really hasn’t been a project, it has mostly been a skunk-works effort to get it done, and we’ve found as a department that we really need to formalize what we are attempting to do. So what is the project? Our Information Technology Lab Environment.
Of course we have a bit more long-winded name for it, mostly because of the complexity of what we are trying to do. The Lab has many parts, some are actually critical, others simply a support roll in that they’re used for research (obviously).
So what’s so hard you ask? You know, it really shouldn’t be difficult, and maybe its because of the way I’ve approached it. See, our group has worked on this little effort for about 2 years, suffling the responsibilities from one staff member to another. Each generating their own pieces of the puzzle, but not stepping back to look at the whole mosaic. Then we bring about a dozen team members together about 8 to 14 times and generate a ton of additional information.
What I’m babbling about is that I’ve got a ton of information, but have lost sight of the starting point. I’ve taken the group up to the higher levels where we can see how all the pieces fit together, but I’ve now got too much information to go back and actually morph what we’ve got into a true multi-year, multi-phase project plan. A seasoned PM would be able to do it in about half a week I suppose, but I’m still really learning the craft.
What I’m planning on monday, is to start from the beginning, writting the project plan, plugging in time, costs, resources, etc… Taking the wonderful mountain of information, drawings, concepts, and such that we have accumulated and using it as a research tool to answer the basic project questions that our Project Methodology asks. So for the two who ‘put’ the 800lb. gorilla on my back 😉 I think I’ve got it figured out how and where to start.
