If I Told You a Fractal Solution, Could You Change the CEO’s Mind?

6 December, 2009
Business Value of IT
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As the new year approaches, debates over the "value" of IT and business projects intensify; it's not holiday stress, but the excitement of the approaching New [fiscal] Year. Lately, I'm hearing more about the struggle to quantify business value, especially when selecting those few projects that will "make the cut". We will definitely iterate on our scoring framework, adding a cost / benefit template to facilitate more apples-to-apples comparisons between projects (yes, don't scoff - it is possible - more…

Can you, should you, bother Executives with The Details?

In a recent post on Thinking Faster, Phillips expresses concern about the apparent propensity for project sponsors to skim over the details and jump to quick answers. He's talking about [what I believe is] a peer relationship, when external expertise is brought in to develop the solution that they (the sponsors) are responsible for "owning" (vision, design, execution, and ongoing support). I've seen the same sort of thing in multiple organizations, especially when talking with executives about projects and initiatives…

Fractal Business Issues – Katamari Damacy at Work

Business issues / problems are like fractals. You can drill into the details or see things at a high level. The trick is to be able to understand what level you are looking at, and what level other folks may be at, and the relative difference that can contribute to missed communications. Some conversations at work this week have been interesting, and in hindsight I realized that I was seeing priorities / objectives / issues at one level, and my…