Execution

Help for the Newly Minted Project Manager

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 21, 2011 ⋅ One comment

Congratulations! Due to the recent [acquisition / divestiture, market expansion / contraction, organizational realignments, other] you have been identified as a Critical Resource for this particular bit of business process change. And, to help us implement these changes, you have been named the Project Manager for this effort. So now you are a Project Manager [...]

Change and the Crop Duster

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 24, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Drive south through the state of Indiana on I-65, and before you hit Indianapolis you will come across an impressively large array of wind turbines, the new vertical symbols of energy self-reliance and innovation. I remember not so long ago, when this section of the road was just miles of cornfields, as far as the [...]

A Nice Knock-Down Argument

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 20, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Sales and the Gantt “Why exactly does he want to meet again?” I could sense the exasperation in Karl’s voice, faintly; the sales manager wasn’t about to slip out of his professional demeanor over some perceived technical triviality. But for the fact that the request was coming from his newly-hired PMI maven, he probably would [...]

Idle Time is a Good Thing for IT

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ March 20, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Lots of good conversations recently about managing IT, Finance, and other constrained resources for projects. We have implemented tools to model available time; when trying to understand what new work can get added to the pile, it helps immeasurably when you understand how much time you have available, plus what else has been committed. This [...]

Chargebacks vs. Allocations – Defining IT’s Relationship with the Business

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 16, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Some IT departments prefer chargebacks, while others do not. My own preference is to allocate IT costs to the business units, based on some reasonable balance of simplicity and accuracy. General services could be allocated by headcount, COGs, or revenues, with each business unit taking their proportional share. Some easily identifiable items might be allocated [...]

Designing for Devices

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 10, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

My last entry on design for a bit – just some thoughts on the added complexity when designing applications for multiple client devices. Fast Changing Device Landscape The “last mile” of user/computer interaction has seen a number of exciting innovations over the past year or so. Phones are getting physically smaller, yet have bulked up [...]

Interface Design Skills for Coders (and vice-versa)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 6, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Like a technical peanut butter cup – two great skill sets that go great together. What really happens when artists and coders mash things up? Intuitive Interactions: Are application developers adept at effective design? I think, as a group, no – witness all of the effort put forth to wrap “user friendly screens” in front [...]

Design and Change Management

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 14, 2010 ⋅ One comment

I have developed a few strongly-held architectural beliefs, and one came up in conversation last week, during a spirited discussion on minimal quality requirements for a[ny] data mart. I hold that the data copied from source to destination must be provably correct and complete with little effort. When agile-ly rolling staged deliverables into production, I [...]

What Really Motivates Us? Insights for your Tech Team

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 14, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Over the last month or so, a large number of authors in my RSS reader called attention to Dan Pink’s ‘Drive’ video … Props to Cool Infographics (home of the Caffeine Poster!) with the post that introduced me to the video. Key insight from Randy Krum: is this a video? A well done presentation? Or [...]

Theory of Constraints in IT: Keeping Busy, but Adding No Value?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 28, 2010 ⋅ One comment

A good conversation this week with some IT folks, talking about how Lean principles apply to IT work. The specific topic was the Theory of Constraints, and the example used was optimization of a production line. To fully optimize the whole line, it’s entirely probable that we will be underutilizing a specific workstation. If we [...]

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