Governance & Planning

At the conclusion of a course on ‘Selling Ideas’, in which I was an instructor, one of the participants was an Enterprise Architect in a large bank. He stated that he now planned to be a ‘political animal’. His management team when told, and unaware of his identity, were both alarmed and delighted.

Organisations that may be at risk of a discovery action should have strategies to minimise the impact of eDiscovery requests. They should have agreed processes in place and have implemented a comprehensive information and records management system that will enable rapid responses and minimise cost when responding to such requests. Poor electronic information management, particularly in the a...

Contract management is the longest activity in the procurement lifecycle. As an example, this activity may run for well over five years with an outsourcing contract. The potential for this activity to have a major impact on contract outcomes means that buying organisations must ensure that they apply an optimum mix of resources and executive overview to this activity.

CIOs and IT operations managers must avoid the risk of succumbing to green fatigue. Greenwashing is rampant, with every IT vendor promoting its products as “green.” Most IT publications have at least one Green IT focused section. At the same time organisations are continuing their focus on cost reduction, often with IT under the magnifying glass. In these circumstances, it is easy for Gr...

When establishing or enhancing an IT governance framework, one size does not fit all. For full effect, governance practices need to reflect an organisation’s ethos. Time can be the enemy of good governance practice; what works well at the outset may need to be tailored and progressively refined to suit evolving organisational maturity, changes in personnel and the interest of executives i...

Astute CIOs know that to be successful they must assume, or act out, many roles. One role they must not overlook is that of engaging stakeholders during the budget or planning cycle and helping them identify ways to maximise the benefits of existing IT investment and canvass ways to exploit emerging technologies.

The structure of the IT function will more often than not be influenced by the structure of the organisation it serves. There is no one right way to organise IT within an organisation. Rather there are a variety of models, each with their own benefits and disadvantages. Whatever model is implemented however, it is important to ensure that decisions on the optimum structure for IT are drive...

At IBRS, we get to see our fair share of IT project failures. We often get called in at the last minute to explain why or how some project is going FUBAR and to suggest remediation tactics. What never ceases to amaze me is that so many of these project failures are identical.

All organisations are involved, at one time or another, in procurement. This is either through the sourcing of goods and services, or the supply of their products and/or services to buying organisations. Despite the importance of procurement many managers in IT do not fully understand the process and as a result do not take advantage of the opportunities that a well- planned procurement proj...

Organisations with immature IT governance processes push many of the decisions that need to be made by the business, back to IT. This creates a downward spiral, often characterised by IT making poor decisions about business/IT investments (due to insufficient business context), consequential failure by IT to deliver business value, then loss of confidence in the IT function, sometimes resul...