According to Michelle Bowles (1), on the current job market a solid experience is not enough to earn a candidate an interview. To secure the competitive edge, project professionals need to blend their experience with formal education and certifications. Especially it is a proven practice if a project manager is moving beyond implementation roles into director roles. Experienced project mangers without formal education or educated project managers without experience can find themselves unable to advance.
Professional certification like, for example, Project Manager Professional(PMP)credential is an evidence that captures experience, skills and competence of the job candidate. Admission to the rigorous exam for this certification requires on-the-job experience and formal education. The exam itself as a process is a high barrier for the non-experienced candidates. It also validates a high level of knowledge.
The human component of the experience, especially interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence are of the utmost importance. There's no better chance for "negative learning" of the best management lessons than watching horrible managers and learning how not to do things. Being agile and react quickly to problems can be acquired only in the workplace along with the ability to quickly adopt to the critical situation, not overreact, and stay calm and collected.
Being formally educated in project management makes a project manager to go through the process of problem-solving by using collection and observation of facts, reflection and critical enquiry.
The whole package of careful balance of job experience, professional certification, and recent, relevant formal education provides the best chance for happy landing on the great job for a project manager seeking employment.
Resources:
1. Michelle Bowles, The battle of the resumes, PM Network, March 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Effective Virtual Teams
The trend of software development companies to outsource their development oversees and create global teams causes many additional challenges for virtual teams.
To work effectively virtual teams need to overcome different types of barriers: technical and non-technical. Key technology barriers include underdeveloped IT infrastructure and telecommunications services. A number of technical problems range from unreliable systems, traffic congestion on the network during certain time of the day. Virtual team would benefit from the adopting of a full range of real-time multimedia communications and collaborations: voice, data, text, shared whiteboards, etc.
For decades most of equipment and software was design for use in the conventional office. More and more office software providers started to provide collaborative features, but adoption of these versions requires a significant organizational changes and dedicated resources. Additionally, these tools are evolving too and add complication in their adoption. An example is a beta version of Microsoft Office Live Workspace now is becoming Windows Live SkyDrive. A productivity booster can come from the adoption of another Microsoft product - Team Foundation Server (commonly abbreviated to TFS). This product offering source control, data collection, reporting, and project tracking, and is intended for collaborative software development projects. But again, switching from previously used tools requires good planning of the organization change. To increase the virtual team's effectiveness the adequate technological support is a must to have.
Working in virtual teams poses problems not usually encountered when groups of people work in the same building. Compared with the technological barriers, organizational and cultural barriers are probably more serious impediments to effectiveness of the virtual teams. The successful management of the virtual teams requires trust. Developing trust, a shared team culture, and agreed procedures for effective communication - the essential "common ground". Other examples of barriers include constrains and advantages of the time zones, lack of non-verbal cues during communications, and problems of identity. Physical meetings of the team members can provide a better image of identity between people and sometimes help to understand and accept some other differences.
The emergent electronic space significantly increases the complexity of the business environment and the geographical flexibility of organization and individuals. Understanding the challenges and aligning the efforts to help the virtual teams to increase their effectiveness is an essential way of moving an organizational maturity to the higher level.
Resources: Chris Kimble Research paper: Effective Virtual Teams through Community of Practice.
To work effectively virtual teams need to overcome different types of barriers: technical and non-technical. Key technology barriers include underdeveloped IT infrastructure and telecommunications services. A number of technical problems range from unreliable systems, traffic congestion on the network during certain time of the day. Virtual team would benefit from the adopting of a full range of real-time multimedia communications and collaborations: voice, data, text, shared whiteboards, etc.
For decades most of equipment and software was design for use in the conventional office. More and more office software providers started to provide collaborative features, but adoption of these versions requires a significant organizational changes and dedicated resources. Additionally, these tools are evolving too and add complication in their adoption. An example is a beta version of Microsoft Office Live Workspace now is becoming Windows Live SkyDrive. A productivity booster can come from the adoption of another Microsoft product - Team Foundation Server (commonly abbreviated to TFS). This product offering source control, data collection, reporting, and project tracking, and is intended for collaborative software development projects. But again, switching from previously used tools requires good planning of the organization change. To increase the virtual team's effectiveness the adequate technological support is a must to have.
Working in virtual teams poses problems not usually encountered when groups of people work in the same building. Compared with the technological barriers, organizational and cultural barriers are probably more serious impediments to effectiveness of the virtual teams. The successful management of the virtual teams requires trust. Developing trust, a shared team culture, and agreed procedures for effective communication - the essential "common ground". Other examples of barriers include constrains and advantages of the time zones, lack of non-verbal cues during communications, and problems of identity. Physical meetings of the team members can provide a better image of identity between people and sometimes help to understand and accept some other differences.
The emergent electronic space significantly increases the complexity of the business environment and the geographical flexibility of organization and individuals. Understanding the challenges and aligning the efforts to help the virtual teams to increase their effectiveness is an essential way of moving an organizational maturity to the higher level.
Resources: Chris Kimble Research paper: Effective Virtual Teams through Community of Practice.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Effective Communication
I am preparing for my first speech in the Toastmaster club and was attracted by the title "George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing" in the article http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/george-orwells-5-rules-for-effective-writing. The original Orwell's essay can be found at http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit. Thinking about Orwell's vision presented in his book ‘1984’ regarding the transparency of person's life and today's internet, social media channels, Google maps, makes me think that he was very imaginative and smart. Hopefully whatever he wrote in his book will not become our reality.
Back to the effective communication, I would like to capture 5 rules by this remarkable writer:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
And the cumulative rule:
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
I should definitely use these rules for my speech preparation.
Back to the effective communication, I would like to capture 5 rules by this remarkable writer:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
And the cumulative rule:
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
I should definitely use these rules for my speech preparation.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Enterprise Architecture
Any building to survive big storms needs to have a good building foundation. The same is for any business that wants to survive any economy or competitor's challenges - there should be a good foundation for execution. Companies might have a great strategy in mind but don't have a good foundation. Then a strategy execution becomes a struggle. "A foundation for execution is the IT infrastructure and digitized business processes automating a company's core capabilities". Core capabilities are created by core business processes that company should own and do not outsource. Having a great foundation for execution increases company's agility, improves business discipline, creates business value.
One of the first steps in building the effective foundations for execution is to define an operating model, which will provide the best support for the company's strategy. Integrations and standardization are the two dimensions of the operating model. There are different types of operating models:
1. Diversification
2. Coordination
3. Replication
4. Unification
The choice of the operating model will drive the autonomy level of the business units. Each operating model provides a different way for the business growth; organic growth through expansion of the business or growth through a rip-and-replace approach for acquisition. Depends on the company, business units can apply different operating models to their activities to meet business objectives and satisfy the market reality.
To build a core diagram for an operating model existing templates can be used. The design of the enterprise architecture in many companies is done by IT, but instead it should starts from the senior management. Choosing an operating model by senior managers forces a decision on a general vision. Identifying the key customer types, core processes, shared data and technologies to be standardized and integrated demands a commitment to a particular course of action.
Benefits of Enterprise Architecture: EA maps out important processes, data, and technology enabling desired level of integration and standardization. Each stage of the EA maturity provides a new or expanded technology and business benefits.
Managements practices for realizing value from architecture it maturity: it formalizes organizational learning about how to leverage IT capabilities and adopt business process changes, defines formal roles, and managerial processes.
The evolving role of the CIO: CIO is the key driver of enterprise architecture benefits. As the company’s architecture matures, the CIO role evolves.
IT engagement model is a system of governance mechanisms assuring that business and IT projects achieve both local and company wide objectives. It has 3 ingredients:
- Company wide IT governance
- Project management
- Linking mechanisms
IT governance is about decision rights and accountability framework for encouraging desirable behavior in the use of IT. There are five major decision areas:
IT principles
Enterprise architecture
Business application needs
Prioritization
Investment
Project management is about adopting standardized project methodologies. Disciplined project management processes are a necessary condition for good engagement.
Good linking mechanisms ensure that projects incrementally build the company’s foundation and that the design of the company’s foundation is informed by projects.
It is essential to learn that there are 3 types of outsourcing: standard partnership, cosourcing,and transaction. Applying the outsourcing help companies build their foundation for execution.
The benefits of outsourcing capitalize when the right type of outsourcing is implemented to the appropriate stage of the enterprise architecture maturity. Clients and vendors in strategic partnership who refuse to adapt to the strategic needs of their partners will become embroiled in bitter contract battles. Companies managing transaction relationship like strategic partnership incur expensive and unnecessary overhead. Cousourcing that is treated like anything but a team environment is sure to sub-optimize outcomes.
Leveraging the foundation for execution for profitable growth for companies in different stages of development of enterprise architecture makes possible the future of the architecture evolution to 5th stage. The approaches for the acquisition strategies should be done by analyzing the 2 companies architectural stages and prognoses the outcome of different combination. A company’s agility increases through moving their foundation through the different stages of architectural maturity and a company’s operating model dictates the way to architecture maturity evolution.
It is possible to identify the symptoms of an ineffective foundation for execution. Using the key steps in rethinking the foundation of execution and applying the top ten leadership principles can fix the ineffective foundation for execution. While building a healthy foundation for execution it is important to understand the future value of enterprise architecture implementation in regards of customers and competitors demand, regulations, markets changes, and business processes industry-standardization.
Resource: Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy
One of the first steps in building the effective foundations for execution is to define an operating model, which will provide the best support for the company's strategy. Integrations and standardization are the two dimensions of the operating model. There are different types of operating models:
1. Diversification
2. Coordination
3. Replication
4. Unification
The choice of the operating model will drive the autonomy level of the business units. Each operating model provides a different way for the business growth; organic growth through expansion of the business or growth through a rip-and-replace approach for acquisition. Depends on the company, business units can apply different operating models to their activities to meet business objectives and satisfy the market reality.
To build a core diagram for an operating model existing templates can be used. The design of the enterprise architecture in many companies is done by IT, but instead it should starts from the senior management. Choosing an operating model by senior managers forces a decision on a general vision. Identifying the key customer types, core processes, shared data and technologies to be standardized and integrated demands a commitment to a particular course of action.
Benefits of Enterprise Architecture: EA maps out important processes, data, and technology enabling desired level of integration and standardization. Each stage of the EA maturity provides a new or expanded technology and business benefits.
Managements practices for realizing value from architecture it maturity: it formalizes organizational learning about how to leverage IT capabilities and adopt business process changes, defines formal roles, and managerial processes.
The evolving role of the CIO: CIO is the key driver of enterprise architecture benefits. As the company’s architecture matures, the CIO role evolves.
IT engagement model is a system of governance mechanisms assuring that business and IT projects achieve both local and company wide objectives. It has 3 ingredients:
- Company wide IT governance
- Project management
- Linking mechanisms
IT governance is about decision rights and accountability framework for encouraging desirable behavior in the use of IT. There are five major decision areas:
IT principles
Enterprise architecture
Business application needs
Prioritization
Investment
Project management is about adopting standardized project methodologies. Disciplined project management processes are a necessary condition for good engagement.
Good linking mechanisms ensure that projects incrementally build the company’s foundation and that the design of the company’s foundation is informed by projects.
It is essential to learn that there are 3 types of outsourcing: standard partnership, cosourcing,and transaction. Applying the outsourcing help companies build their foundation for execution.
The benefits of outsourcing capitalize when the right type of outsourcing is implemented to the appropriate stage of the enterprise architecture maturity. Clients and vendors in strategic partnership who refuse to adapt to the strategic needs of their partners will become embroiled in bitter contract battles. Companies managing transaction relationship like strategic partnership incur expensive and unnecessary overhead. Cousourcing that is treated like anything but a team environment is sure to sub-optimize outcomes.
Leveraging the foundation for execution for profitable growth for companies in different stages of development of enterprise architecture makes possible the future of the architecture evolution to 5th stage. The approaches for the acquisition strategies should be done by analyzing the 2 companies architectural stages and prognoses the outcome of different combination. A company’s agility increases through moving their foundation through the different stages of architectural maturity and a company’s operating model dictates the way to architecture maturity evolution.
It is possible to identify the symptoms of an ineffective foundation for execution. Using the key steps in rethinking the foundation of execution and applying the top ten leadership principles can fix the ineffective foundation for execution. While building a healthy foundation for execution it is important to understand the future value of enterprise architecture implementation in regards of customers and competitors demand, regulations, markets changes, and business processes industry-standardization.
Resource: Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.
In general Cloud computing customers do not own the physical infrastructure, instead avoiding capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider. They consume resources as a service and pay only for resources that they use.
Amazon played a key role in the development of cloud computing by modernizing their data centers after the dot-com bubble. Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging. There is a big battle for customers between Google (Google Apps) and Microsoft (MS Online). Microsoft products on the cloud include Window, Office, SQL Server, SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics CRM.
Here's a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:
1.SaaS – Software as a service
2.Utility computing
3.Web services in the cloud
4.Platform as a service
5.MSP (managed service providers)
6.Service commerce platforms
7.Internet integration
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
http://www.microsoft.com/cloud
http://blogs.technet.com/b/cloudservicesexperts/archive/2010/06/30/two-more-customers-pick-microsoft-over-google.aspx
http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031
http://www.edlconsulting.com/newsdetail.php?id=876&headline=Cloud_computing_success_requires_change_in_operations
In general Cloud computing customers do not own the physical infrastructure, instead avoiding capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider. They consume resources as a service and pay only for resources that they use.
Amazon played a key role in the development of cloud computing by modernizing their data centers after the dot-com bubble. Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging. There is a big battle for customers between Google (Google Apps) and Microsoft (MS Online). Microsoft products on the cloud include Window, Office, SQL Server, SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics CRM.
Here's a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:
1.SaaS – Software as a service
2.Utility computing
3.Web services in the cloud
4.Platform as a service
5.MSP (managed service providers)
6.Service commerce platforms
7.Internet integration
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
http://www.microsoft.com/cloud
http://blogs.technet.com/b/cloudservicesexperts/archive/2010/06/30/two-more-customers-pick-microsoft-over-google.aspx
http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031
http://www.edlconsulting.com/newsdetail.php?id=876&headline=Cloud_computing_success_requires_change_in_operations
Friday, June 4, 2010
Going through the book "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy" by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson, I have found an answer to the question that I had for a while: who is the first: business or IT (egg or chicken) in regards of the product definition. From the personal experience, when choosing/developing a new application, collecting requirements from the business users and implementing it in the product it is not always the best way to go, because business users can be unaware of the industry standards and trends.
Stages of enterprise architecture maturity explain who defines application in organization. It depends on organization's maturity stage. There are 4 stages of maturity: business silos, standardized technology, optimized core, business modularity.
In business silos local business leaders are the decision makers, in standardized technology - IT and business unit leader, in optimized core - senior management and process leaders, and in business modularity - IT, business and industry leaders.
Interesting is that even if IT understands the "nearsightedness" of the business decision makers, there is no much that IT can do to increase the organizational speedup in it's learning towards a higher stage of the architecture maturity. It takes time, educating and learning!
Stages of enterprise architecture maturity explain who defines application in organization. It depends on organization's maturity stage. There are 4 stages of maturity: business silos, standardized technology, optimized core, business modularity.
In business silos local business leaders are the decision makers, in standardized technology - IT and business unit leader, in optimized core - senior management and process leaders, and in business modularity - IT, business and industry leaders.
Interesting is that even if IT understands the "nearsightedness" of the business decision makers, there is no much that IT can do to increase the organizational speedup in it's learning towards a higher stage of the architecture maturity. It takes time, educating and learning!
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