Priorities such as confidence, teamwork, non-confrontational scenarios, as well as openness are generally all the down a moving basis in addition to each society. The actual particular messages actions of a culture represent many connected with these priorities and perhaps…

Industry executives usually come up by using a new extravagant plus irrepressible situation connected with fighting off modification. A good level of resistance in this way might demonstrate per se involving types. Give all of them selected instances that include…

To continue with customer Wants vs Needs – the question being, as an ICT professional which is more important and what do you do in a situation where you would like to supply your customers needs but all the customer…

An important dimension that can differentiate “value” from simple cost-based, ROI assessments is time. When benefits are intangible it is often because they relate to the anticipated returns accumulated over time; the choice can become one of short-term versus long-term…

Since the GFC everyone is waiting for a return to normalcy.  When are we going to get back to 3-5% year on year growth like we, and our parents, enjoyed? Granted there were some slips but since the 1950’s to…

We often assume in business that “if we do X we will obtain Y benefits.” A classic example of this thinking occurs in organizations that install CRM systems at great expense and expect their customer relationships to improve along with…

Businesses are typically organised by function, geography or lines of business. Even where other considerations dominate, each business unit is routinely organized by function. But while grouping resources by specialization is well-intentioned, it makes for inefficient business processes.

You may recall seeing boarded-up construction sites indicating projects that have been put on hold. Less visible is a business project that has been halted but which has created some artefacts of potential value, but which may never be reused….

IT is an integral element of any competent, effective and winning business strategy.  However, what is often forgotten is that business must equally be an integral part of any IT strategy. The two are married however, this coupling can be…

ICT organisations within any enterprise can benefit from a structured approach to understanding business capability of the enterprise.  Business Capability Modelling is an Enterprise Architecture technique that can plays a key role in transforming the relationship between ICT and the…

From market cannibalisation of old media by new media through to the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFI) tagging in aircraft maintenance, businesses know that Information Communication Technology (ICT) can transform operations or make them obsolete. 

We are increasingly aware of the highly-competitive retail sector with the many challenges it faces. But retailing has always been a blood sport where survival depends on growth – and the merchandising cycle in a retail business relies on information…

When business and technology leaders present information technology at board level, they need to convince the directors of the value IT adds to company strategy before addressing budgets, project performance and risk identification and mitigation. Here’s how.

People over-use the adjective ‘disruptive’ but sometime that is the only appropriate word. 2011 has been called a radical year of digital revolution, and we can expect more come! Technology disrupts the way we live our lives (how many Gen-Y’s…

It is staggering that we are still talking about achieving the elusive “technology as an integral element of business strategy” decades after we first realised it needed to happen. Even more so when today’s senior executives and board directors “say”…

There’s a change in the wind.  Questions about the role of IT and how it can help business achieve strategic outcomes is at the forefront of mainstream business press.  Much of this discussion continues to be focused on accountability for…

“Creating business value”, or “adding value” are terms that we frequently hear today, as organizations seek to expand, or even survive in a very competitive and often global environment. Often, a lot of the planned value creation takes the form…

In the first part of our interview with Mark Paulk, Senior Systems Scientist at the Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University, we talked about high maturity, PSP/TSP, culture, measurement and IT services. In this second part of the interview…

Mathematicians have the concept of imaginary numbers. As odd as that may seem to non-mathematicians, it makes one wonder if achieving capability level 5 is similarly artificial and elusive concept for a number of organisations? Mark Paulk, who led the…

Many organisations use numbers or measures as a basis for day to day decision making in the management of their I.T activity. These measures provide the objective information needed to make sensible fact-based decisions. Making sense of all this information,…

There are so many differing metrics potentially used within IT management today that it is challenging not only to decide which metrics to gather and analyze but which metrics to communicate to drive desired outcomes. The old axiom “what gets…

In recent times, managing teams has become progressively more challenging.  It is a well known fact that keeping people focussed and motivated in achieving an organisation’s objectives is a “must” in corporate survival. Happy and motivated employees will help drive…

To be competitive, business executives must draw business insights from the vast pool of raw data that is at their disposal and put those insights into better business use. Enterprises gain greater business values not simply by collecting and archiving…

For those of us who have been involved in Organisation Change Management for many years, we can be seduced by our favourite models and acronyms and over-intellectualise organisation change. From this rarefied position we can become divorced from the human…

To understand the Gen Y effect on service management, Alinement interviewed Rocky Scopelliti, here we conclude the interview looking at the internal impact on the organisation. He is the General Manager, Industry Development for Financial Services at Telstra Enterprise &…

 The CEO’s innocent announcement froze all in the room. “We need ISO 20000 certification!… we must demonstrate to our customer that we bring value to their business.” Wait. Did we hear value and certification in the same breath? How were…

My favourite definition of risk management is by Borge who states: “Risk Management means taking deliberate action to shift the odds in your favour – increasing the odds of good outcomes and reducing the odds of bad outcomes”. So with…

Many organisations are seeking to optimise their processes to deliver more functionality, faster AND at a lower cost. However, the objectives of faster delivery and lower costs; may in fact be in contention. Although the IT department responds to change…

To understand what the next generation of our customers might be thinking, Alinement interviewed Rocky Scopelliti, who has done an extensive study on differences in generational experience of ICT service improvement. Rocky, as the General Manager, Industry Development for Financial…

Most business and professional people have at some time completed an assessment on their preferred style of thinking, communicating, organising and relating. We all know that people have different styles. Some people, for example, are introverted. They like to think…

A Chief Information Officer’s ever-present challenge to reduce costs & risk while still maintaining or even increasing service levels is not getting any easier. Ever increasing IT complexity, the drive for continual business expansion, both organic as well as through…

The majority of large projects now involve an amalgam of owners, contractors and employees. As with mergers (the majority of which lose value for the acquiring company), the success of joint ventures rests heavily on the establishment of trust. It…

Economic turbulence tends to encourage short-term gain, often at the cost of the longer-term strategies, and results in increased ambiguity in the definition, communication and execution of business strategies. In these circumstances, Business Analysts can play an even more crucial…

Organisations increasingly recognise that their business processes and associated practices provide them with the necessary foundation for sustainable performance and business agility. These processes, both formal and informal, enable people and technology elements to come together and ensure the organization…

The recent Global Financial Crisis has seen some businesses struggle, or even perish, whilst others flourished.  Some key lessons on operating business in tough times emerged.  These lessons are shared and explored from a practitioner’s viewpoint in this article.

Tiger Wood’s recent problems are not just personal in nature.  For his sponsors, including Accenture and Nike, Tiger’s widely publicized domestic scandal represents a significant risk to their brands; a risk they have mitigated in very different ways. Accenture recognized…

Having some spare time on my hands courtesy of the financial crisis, I decided to log onto Google Earth. It was a strange experience seeing the world from the perspective of an astronaut. With a few mouse clicks I have…

The most difficult aspect of the pragmatic approach to management is its simplicity. It appears blatantly obvious, and for some readers there may be a sense of ‘Your telling me to suck eggs’. Yet, it is keeping this practical perspective…

Pragmatism (prag’ma-tiz’im) is defined as a practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems. It is also one of the most difficult things to achieve when working to promote ‘Best Practice’ and emphasizing the need to…

The Information Systems Audit and Control Foundation (ISACF) created the first edition of the Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies (COBIT) in 1996. The COBIT framework has been evolving since and is now an important, internationally accepted perspective on…

The financial crisis has regulators, governments, and the media focused on economic stimulus. However tough questions will soon be asked about what went wrong. Ineffective governance will be one of the first targets, and it won’t be just the financial…

Effective application control has the ability to track a process as it is executed and inject the appropriate decision-making to influence the outcome. In this article, the promise of real-time application controls is explored as it offers a fundamental shift…

Governance is not a new concept. While it might be fashionable to talk about it now with recent highly publicized corporate failures, the need for management oversight has been around for as long as we moved to a professional management…

Despite the attention given to the subject in both journals and the Internet, major IT projects still go heavily over budget and are delivered very late. More often than not, the CIO is blamed for the problems and the board…

There is little argument that the pace of life and work is ever increasing. Our businesses have to be globally competitive and individuals are stretched to manage keep pace with the demands placed on them. Futurists have heralded the impact…