Science

Bootstrap Market Research: Master Data Management (What, Who, How)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 30, 2009 ⋅ One comment

I’ve been asked a lot of questions about “Master Data Management” over the past few weeks – what does it mean, who does it, and what are some tools and metrics that organizations are using to reign in this important aspect of ERP and analytics systems. I started reaching out to the folks in my [...]

Hands-On Project: Offsite Strategy

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 22, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

When I talk about having an “offsite strategy” meeting, I’m looking to get out of the office and have some good, “strategic” conversation over a cup of coffee or a beer. Back when I worked for a software development company, we did our best design work at a hot dog stand in Des Plaines, IL; [...]

Collaboration “in the Wild”: Some Observations

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 15, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

An Enterprise 2.0 dream scenario: implementing a complex project across multiple sites, in two different time zones, with a large team (well over 100). The team was reasonably savvy with collaboration tools; core team members were quite comfortable with Instant Messaging, and we have been relying on SharePoint for many months. A centralized, coordinated document [...]

Introducing … Google Wave

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ October 13, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Thank you for signing up to give us early feedback on Google Wave. We’re happy to give you access to Google Wave and are enlisting your help to improve the product. To accept your invitation, sign into Google Wave at the following link … Well, maybe not the most exciting email I’ve received over the [...]

Training and Learning: A Different POV

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 18, 2009 ⋅ One comment

The topic was training users for an upcoming project rollout, and the debate (as always) roamed back and forth between “traditional” (classroom training, scripts & workbooks) versus “experiential”, pairing existing users with their counterparts (who are new to the system), walking through the basics (screen navigation, terminology, and step-by-step instructions for the most common required [...]

Technical Debt and the Cost/Benefit of Knowledge Retention

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 27, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

A rather rigorous, Financial-sounding title for a high-concept line of thought …Thanks to Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror, for calling my attention to this article by Martin Fowler on Technical Debt: Technical Debt is a wonderful metaphor developed by Ward Cunningham to help us think about this problem. In this metaphor, doing things the quick [...]

Real Business Users and SharePoint

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 14, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Introducing buzzword-compliant technology like a wiki, or integrated collaboration spaces like SharePoint, will typically go well with a motivated audience like your internal IT department. But if you really want to understand how this stuff works, try it with “real people” – line employees in sales and marketing, operations, and finance. Sure, you’ve heard complaints [...]

The Delicate Art of Pushing Back

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 5, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Commiserating a week or so ago with an old friend, struggling mightily with some external consulting firm providing technology talent, developing customer management systems for Big Sales Company. There were some critical dependencies on the server side, and the (internal) project team needed some on-site assistance working through the issues. Ad hoc phone support was [...]

Over / Under Communication for Project Managers

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 29, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

It is often said that you can’t over-communicate, but I’m willing to bet most folks – and especially your project sponsors – underestimate the cost and effort of this critical component of project management. Consider this fair warning – and a good checklist for folks wanting to get into IT, project, or functional management. Media [...]

Who owns Master Data in your company?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 30, 2009 ⋅ One comment

I’ve had to respond to this question, inside and outside of the company, in a number of different conversations over the past few days. It’s interesting, because this is one of those conversations where semantics mean a lot – what people say is just as important as what people don’t say. I only mean that [...]

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