Organization

Have you heard?

In a major national survey conducted by Robert Half (the big employment agency) CIOs are reporting the greatest degree of difficulty ever finding and hiring high-quality IT professionals.

I wonder if these are the same CIOs who recently told CIO.com reporters that it was very hard to keep good staff because “they want ever increasing levels of pay and aren’t willing to accept general industry pay levels.”

Finally … IT professionals (real pros that is) are waking up to their worth and aren’t willing to work for pennies just because the folks who are 10 or 15 years ahead of them did, or worse, still are themselves.

As the economy picks up, I see a big shake up on the horizon for IT pros. Those who really have the chops and smarts to get things done are going to flourish. For the meeting-minded fluffernutters who just want to talk about “the cloud,” “consumerization,” or whatever buzzword happens to be about, expect greater pain and suffering at the hands of stakeholders.

Just a few minutes ago NASA postponed the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour until Monday at the earliest. Bummer.

Could there be a worse launch to postpone?

Not only is the President himself there watching, but the whole country is holding back their tears as Mark Kelly triumphantly charges into space as his wife, Congresswoman Giffords, comes to see him off. Imagine being the project manager that makes that call to the head of NASA. Phew. And you think you have it tough when your project time lines have to be pushed out a bit.

The fact of the matter is that when we deal with complex technology projects, things don’t always go exactly to plan. Despite the very best people and excellent work, sometimes “stuff” just happens. And the mark of a great, and I mean great, project manager, is the one who calls it like he sees it even when the President of the United States and the whole country is looking over his shoulder.

If NASA can do it, so can you. Don’t let the pressure from your user community let you lose sight of the safety of your mission. It may not be launching satellites into space but it’s just as important to your company and stakeholders that you get it right.

This unique ability, to stand up and say what’s the right thing to do (which often translates into standing up and saying what NOT to do) is a hallmark of the world’s most successful and influential IT leaders.

Click here to learn more about the hallmarks of success of the world’s most influential IT leaders

I spend a lot of time talking with IT leaders about their strategy and I am often asked, “how long should the IT strategy be?” My answer is pretty simple and it never fails to provoke a big response at first, followed by a settled calm. So I figured I would share it with you and hear your thoughts on it.

My answer usually goes something like this. “The IT strategy, i.e., the articulation of IT group’s critical objectives, essential means of achievement, and the core focus and direction for the upcoming year, MUST fit nicely on to one singlepage.”

Then, after getting the look that says, what ???, I add, “but if often takes writing a complete strategy of many dozens of pages before you can distill it down to a single succinct and crisp one pager.”

My point: Developing a strategy and getting it on paper sometimes involves a fair amount of work. But once the development is done, the essence of the strategy MUST be able to come out very clearly in one page.

The reason why this is idea is so hard for so many people to accept at first, is that most IT strategies are little more than a high-level technical plan with a list of projects. That’s not a strategy, that’s a todo list.

What seems to help IT leaders focus on articulating the essential IT strategy is using the following template or outline.

Part I – Key challenges / opportunities (optional)

Part II – Goals

Part III – Strategy / Strategic themes

Part IV – Key implications

Here are a few important guidelines to really make this work for you:

1. Start with Part II – Goals. This is the most important section. It grounds the entire strategy and it’s usually what is absent in most IT strategies. And don’t even think about writing “supporting the needs of the business.” That’s the reason you have a job.

2. You may not have one crisp clear strategy for achieving your stated goals. In that case, use the heading strategic themes instead.

3. Restrict yourself to no more than three of four bullets for each part.

4. Leave out Part I unless you have a very targeted and clear strategy, otherwise itwill get in the way and confuse the reader. It’s Parts II – IV that really matter.

5. Write for the CEO. When you craft the words, consider that the CEO is the audience for your one-pager not a technically savvy audience. The value of the one pager is to communicate with senior management.

Give it a shot. You will be surprised what will come out.

How should we be organized? It’s one of the most common questions I hear in the office of the CIO.

For IT leaders, it’s a critical part of how they get close to and provide services to the business of which they are a part.

Over the last 10 years, I have seen a number of instances where IT has been “configured” or “set up” as internal consultants to the business. In other words, these companies seek to apply the principles of the operating model used by consulting firms as the basis for the operating model for the IT group within a larger organization.

Click here to continue reading