The Three-Legged Stool of IT Business Value

Once during a meeting I attended while visiting an affiliate organization in the San Francisco area, the CEO shared his vision of business success as a three-legged stool of margin, sales and net profit. If any of the three legs of this stool are out of balance, revenues suffer and shareholder value declines. In “Principles for Maturing Your System Development Life Cycle: The Ultimate Guide to the SDLC,” I present my own theory of a similar three-legged stool that applies to the business value IT provides to an organization. In my thesis, the three-legged stool of IT business value is comprised of IT Governance, the Program/Project Management Method and the SDLC. The three are inextricably linked and together form a trilogy that are foundational to IT success and the business value IT provides.

 
In the corporate world, a truly effective IT group can help increase revenues, develop and hold market share, gather mission-critical employees, view mission-critical processes and plan niche creation strategies. An ineffective IT Governance crushes an organization. It leaves senior leaders with a bad taste in their mouth. They lose confidence and trust in the IT group to deliver what they’ve promised. A poor project management method leads to project failures, cost overruns and delays. An immature SDLC results in poorer quality products, increased defects and lower customer satisfaction. All three must work in concert and all three must be effective to produce the desired results. Effectiveness is measurable and can be continuously improved. If any one component is out of balance, our projects may topple and fall; and like Humpty-Dumpty, we may not be able to put all the pieces back together again.

Leadership is My Calling

Leadership is my calling. That’s what Mrs. Levi told me when I was about four years old. Mrs. Levi was a neighbor who lived in the same apartment building as us in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Most people don’t remember much from when they were four years old, but I do remember things that people said or did that were impactful. I remember Mrs. Levi as the kindly, gray-haired, stoop shouldered, grandmotherly neighbor who regularly brought my family home-made Gefilte fish and matzo ball soup. Mom crocheted gifts for her to thank her for her kindness. I remember one evening she brought over a jar of her freshly made fish. I was walking around the house barefooted and when she looked at my feet, her eyes opened wide and she said, with a bit of wonder in her voice, “You are a natural-born leader. Your second toe is longer than your big toe and that means leadership.” At that young age, I remember smiling and just taking in what she said. I don’t remember responding, but if I did say something, it was probably something silly.

Now I don’t know if there’s any correlation between the length of our second toe and leadership but I do know that Mrs. Levi’s proclamation that evening stuck with me. It’s something I’ve never forgotten. And as life has turned out, leadership is my calling. I am passionate about leadership development and believe that anyone can learn the skills required to become an effective leader. Doing so however requires an embarkation upon a life-long journey. It’s a journey that is as personal and individual to each of us as is the color of our hair or eyes. It’s a journey filled with hills and valleys. Sometimes the going is smooth. Sometimes, we stumble and fall.

The goal of the journey is to achieve a walk of authentic leadership. When I speak on this topic, I am often asked, “What is ‘authentic’ leadership?” Two of the definitions that we find in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) for authentic are “not false or imitation” and “true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.” Authenticity in leadership is the integration of persona and character. Persona is our outward manifestation. It includes our appearance, manners, verbal ability, revealed competence and titles. Character is our essence. It is the core of who we are. Essence is about our purpose, values, beliefs and visions. When persona and character integrate so as to express our own true personality, spirit or character, this is integrity or authenticity. The journey to authentic leadership is a path finding mission to discover our essence and manifest it through our persona.

Book is Complete, Time to Reenter the Human Race

For the past 3 ½ months I’ve been writing a book called “Principles for Maturing Your System Development Life Cycle: The Ultimate Guide to the SDLC.” It’s a collection of best practices, activities and processes gathered from leading industrial nations and the minds of some of the greatest thought leaders in Information Technology in the latter half of the 20th and the 21st centuries. Its details incorporate a history and comparison of a dozen systems development methods and philosophies, from waterfall through agile, and many of today’s recognized best practices and standards all the way to continuous improvement and performance metrics. Its concepts, principles, practices, disciplines, guidelines and models are demonstrated to help deliver successful Information Technology projects and mature organizational practices from ability to capability.

Many authors say their books are a labor of love, but I’ll only admit to the labor part. Writing a book is an arduous task and one of the hardest projects I’ve ever undertaken. In all, I’ve invested over thirteen months bringing this project to fruition. This includes over ten months researching, reading and studying and about three and half months writing eight to ten hours a day, six days a week; all the while keeping up with family and parental responsibilities and service to the community. Believe me, it is labor! And it’s a labor undertaken with absolutely no assurance of financial reward. So why did I do it? I did it because there is a great need in the Information Technology world for this kind of book. I saw the need and had the availability, wherewithal, passion and drive to fulfill the need; and as far as I can tell, there isn’t anything else like it on the market. And even though it’s a labor, it is a labor well worth the effort and one that provides a deep satisfaction in knowing this is a job well done.

I’ve spoken to other authors who describe the experience as bringing a baby into the world. I’ll never know what it’s like to give birth and can’t compare the two, although I suspect writing a book is much easier. But now the book is done, the baby is born and I can wake up from my long hibernation to move forward on the job search. For the most part, I’m taking today off (okay, so I’m working about half the day). On Monday, I’ll emerge from my man-cave, stretch my legs and and reenter the human race.

Snow, Snow, Nowhere to Go

Growing up in the Northeast teaches you at least one thing, how to get around in the snow. When a good winter nor’easter blows through New Jersey or Connecticut, it could dump several feet of snow on the ground. Of course, just as you finish shoveling out your driveway, the snow plow comes down the street and blocks it right up again. I miss those good ol’ days!

That’s what I thought anyway until we got 5” of snow in Raleigh today. We’ve been living here for 3 years and this is the first time we’ve had any accumulation. We had a light dusting in the past and even in a light dusting, the state virtually shuts down. There are 870 closings and delays listed on www.wral.com, the local news channel website. Almost all of the churches cancelled both services tomorrow. I’ve never seen anything like it.

In New Jersey, I worked outside in blizzards when I was a paramedic. Snow never stopped us. In Connecticut, closing a church on Sunday because of the snow is unheard of, even if the Pastor preaches to an empty congregation.

Here in North Carolina it’s different. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snow plow. I’m sure they have them, but I’ve never seen one. Maintenance crews begin spraying brine to prevent icing on the roads in the face of a winter storm warning. Spraying brine? I’m sure that’s really effective considering most of the roads are iced over.

Listening to the weather report a little while ago, the meteorologist said this mess is going to be with us for a few days. The temperatures are going to warm up Monday and we’re going to have rain on Tuesday. I suppose the hope is that the snow will all wash away.

Applying the Pareto Principle to IT Economics

I almost didn’t write my blog today. I’ve been working on the book since I got up this morning and just put it to bed a few minutes ago. I broke from the writing just to eat my meals and unpack a rolling carrying case that arrived for my laptop. The DV8T is heavy and I’ve been having recurring problems with my shoulders. Actually, I think something is off in my neck and the shoulder pain is a side effect. Carrying a beefy laptop over my shoulder is the last thing I need to do. Hence, the rolling bag. I suppose it’s a privilege of age to pull things around on wheels rather than lugging them.

I’m still working on Chapter 1 – Introduction. I’ve written 17 pages and it’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever written. When people browse in a book store, they usually read through the introduction. If it doesn’t grab their attention, the book goes back on the shelf.

I’ve completed the Basic Introduction and the section on Organizational Change Management and the SDLC. All afternoon, I’ve been tackling IT Governance and the SDLC. I’ll finish that section tomorrow and work on Project Management and the SDLC and the About This Book sections.

I heard from the editor earlier this week. She’s struggling with bandwidth—one of her editors is on maternity leave and her entire program is blowing up. She’s trying to manage a very busy department while trying to publish books too. It is not an ordinary time to be sure.

She said my original proposal needs some refinement. I offered to take care of it this weekend because she’s so busy. I’m doing my best to make the amendments to the proposal and finish chapter 1 so I can send them to her on Monday.

Today’s topic on IT Governance and the SDLC really made me think hard about a few things. I opined on how to apply the Pareto principle to an early iteration of requirements elicitation and analysis, before a project is approved. Let me share a little of what I wrote:

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto[1] was an Italian industrialist, sociologist, economist, and philosopher who was born in Italy in July 1848. He made a number of important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and the analysis of individuals' choices. He introduced the concept of Pareto efficiency and helped develop the field of microeconomics. He also was the first to discover that income follows a Pareto distribution, which is a power law probability distribution. The Pareto Principle was named after him and built on his observations such as that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

What has the Pareto principle got to do with IT economics? If we apply the Pareto principle to investment value and business requirements, the resulting axiom reads, “80% of the business value of an investment comes from 20% of the requirements.”

I’m not sharing any more than those two paragraphs above as this point. If you want to know how I conclude the argument, you’ll have to buy the book when it comes out.

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[1] Source: http://www.wikipedia.com

What was the nature of Adam and Eve’s Relationship Before the Fall?

On our way home from church last night, our nearly 15 year old daughter asked me a thought provoking question she pondered as she was doing her personal devotions at school. She posed the question to her two small group Bible study teachers earlier in the evening during youth group. Both of them were stumped to respond. The question is the title of this post, “What was the nature of Adam and Eve’s relationship before the fall?”

She’s reading the book of Genesis and got to chapter 3 verse 16 which says,

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”—(Genesis 3:16)

This struck her like lightening as she considered what she had always been taught in school, Sunday school class, from the pulpit and at home, that the dad is the head of the home. But after meditating on Genesis 3:16, she questioned whether the familial hierarchy we understand today was always God’s design for the family.

She went back to Genesis 2:18 and read,

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”—(Genesis 2:18)

The term “help meet” is defined in the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon as “one who is a companion and helper especially: wife.” When God formed Eve out of Adam’s rib, he created a companion, friend, and spouse. But nowhere beyond Eve’s creation does the Bible indicate a hierarchical relationship until after the fall of man. The hierarchical relationship was established by God as part of the curse pronounced upon mankind because of our disobedience to Him.

Since the Bible doesn’t specify, I’ve personally come to believe that Adam and Eve were created as co-equals, but I really don’t know for sure. What I do know for sure is that I am proud of my daughter for studying God’s Word so thoughtfully and sharing her insight with others.

Side Effect of the Job Loss, New HP DV8T Laptop.

One of the side effects of losing my job is that I also lost the use of a laptop. I've been in IT for 25 years and have never owned my own laptop.  My daughter has one. It’s a small ASUS EEE PC that she uses for school work. But I‘ve I never had my own personal laptop until yesterday.  As a writer and public speaker, I need the flexibility of a laptop so that I can capture my thoughts as soon as possible. It’s difficult going to events and making speeches and presentations without one. Two weeks ago, I ordered a DV8T from Hewlett Packard. It isn’t top of the line, but it is spec’d out pretty nicely. The computer shipped last Friday.  It made its way from Shanghai China to Raleigh North Carolina by way of Anchorage Alaska, Newark New Jersey, and Memphis Tennessee. It arrived at my home yesterday afternoon, no worse for the wear. When I first saw the box, I did have some concern for it’s health. The corner of the box was crushed pretty badly. It looked like it had taken a pretty good jolt. I began filming an unboxing video to document its condition. I wanted to make sure that if there was anything wrong with the computer, I had a record of it. I may post the unboxing video on YouTube later this week.

The computer has an Intel Core i7-820QM processor operating at 1.73GHz with TurboBoost capability up to 3.06GHz.  It has 8Gb of memory and 1Tb of disk space. The video processor is a little lightweight. That’s a Nvidia GT 230M with 48 Cuda cores. I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit as the operating system. For those of you who think I just spoke in Latin, let me translate. It’s pretty fast and can store a lot of data.

The screen is huge. It’s an 18.4” 1920 x 1080p high definition display. It comes with a blu-ray drive and two earphone receptacles. I am so looking forward to watching videos with my wife or daughter. Before I forget, it has a built-in high-def digital TV tuner. It is really a nice computer. I even have it lo-jacked in case someone decides to walk off with it when I’m not looking. In the unlikely event that it does get stolen, the first time the thief attempts to turn it on and connect to the net, law enforcement will be notified of their location. Lo-jack is built into the BIOS and cannot be circumvented.

I was up until 2am last night setting it up the way I want it. Like most companies, HP loads their laptop with bloat-ware, partner sales information and software that you never wanted or will never buy. I took all of that garbage off. When I was finished, I made the recovery disk set. I’m blogging from the laptop right now.

As nice as it is, it does have some quirks, but what PC doesn’t? Prior to making my decision for this machine, I spent a lot of time reading the posts from other DV8T owners on http://forum.notebookreview.com in the Official HP DV8 Owner’s Lounge. The forum has over 2,100 posts. I read a lot of complaints about the video drivers. The video drivers that come native on the laptop are buggy. They frequently stop working. The screen goes black for a moment as they reload into memory. It happened to me within 10 minutes of opening the box. If you go to the Nvidia site and download the latest drivers, they won’t install on the computer. This is because HP modified the original Nvidia drivers to work with their sleep button. The owners forum describes a little hack on page 161 that allows you to work around the Nvidia install issues. I performed that hack last night and the newest drivers installed without consequence. I have had no problem since. You will have problems if you use sleep mode, which I don’t. The real Nvidia drivers don’t have HP’s customization.

HP’s tech support denies there’s a problem with the video drivers even though the issue has been reported since the computer first came out last October. It’s hard to understand how a company of the size and reputation of HP can deploy a machine with faulty drivers. Maybe it’s going to take someone filing a class action law suit to drive a better quality assurance process.