management
What Are Important Business Requirements for a Business Process Management Tool?
Submitted by Hans Lodder on Sat, 18/07/2009 - 06:35In my previous blog I presented you some context and benefits of Business Process Management (BPM). BPM is a methodology, and methodologies can use some help from tools in order to organize information and present it properly. In this blog I will discuss some business requirements for a BPM tool.
Walking down memory lane: agile application development
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Fri, 03/07/2009 - 12:18I‘m an old information engineering (IE) fan, having worked for the father of software engineering Dr. James Martin, and spending time as developer of supporting IE planning models and training modules. Since the nineties I was involved in the sales and implementation of the supporting tools created by TI Software. We were early adopters of Rapid Application Design (RAD) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts (at that time called Component Based Development [CBD]) and sometimes too early for the market. Luckily we have successors using agile concepts and more powerful tooling to keep the information engineering school alive.
IT resourcing during the recession: call for tough choices
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 20/06/2009 - 15:23As part of the discussion on Cleaning out the IT-department and some additions, I got into an interesting discussion regarding HR-matters: fire for pure economic reasoning or stick to your scarce resources. Looking from the perspective of non-IT companies, these are some observations I made.
Checklist to clean up your IT-department: some additions
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sun, 14/06/2009 - 07:34The checklist I described in my last blog on how I would clean up an IT department, triggered some nice discussions, both on the content of my suggestions as well as to its completeness. There a few “infrastructural” elements I would also take in consideration when executing the topics of the checklist. When addressed properly, they might prove to be a big bonus, not only to enhance the results of your clean up but potentially also delivering structural improvements.
Checklist to clean up your IT-department
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Mon, 01/06/2009 - 07:53Since the start of the financial crisis last summer, I observed some distinct approaches IT management used in their response to the changed situation. In an earlier blog I described already the “Alibi behavior” whereby the crisis is used to correct personnel unbalances build up over the last years. I could write about the widely spread “Ostrich behavior” of taken no decisions at all but I rather give you my favorite checklist you can apply to really clean your IT-shop.
The CIO-wonder pill for government
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Fri, 15/05/2009 - 08:10In a world where budget constraints are the talk of the day, also IT-projects at public organizations get more attention. The disaster stories on project failures and budget black holes around often very large and countrywide development projects are known for some years now. As a result the Dutch government decided to introduce a mandatory CIO-role in public organizations. Although the idea is logical, in practice it opens up another can of worms.
How to Beat the Master Data Implementation Challenge
Submitted by Hans Lodder on Fri, 08/05/2009 - 08:30The challenge of a Master Data Management (MDM) implementation is not the IT aspects, but the organizational side. MD affects every business unit, large and small. Take Client as an example. Involved are Sales and Marketing, Operational departments like Production and Delivery, and Finance. Thus the MD project starts with the business case and finding the sponsor, and resizing the project to bring it down to manageable proportions: Clear goal, clear mile stones, and a clear start and end date. Some call that rightsizing…
Master Data: Business Asset or Cash-flow Burner?
Submitted by Hans Lodder on Mon, 04/05/2009 - 07:09This week I visited a company where the executives were heavily discussing the merits of master data management. Their dispute started out with the fact that it took the company 3 weeks to add a new customer. And this was caused by master data (MD). I asked some questions like: What is master data management, why does it help you, and how are you going to earn money with it. Let me share my experience with you.
Data Governance for Dummies: Part 2 (The Replica Data Security Solution)
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Wed, 29/04/2009 - 08:30In my last blog I explored the Data Governance world and was surprised about the rather “inside out” look by most of the published theory focusing on the structured corporate data contained in enterprise systems. Since the majority of the corporate information is not-structured and is free floating on portable appliances, I looked for interesting solutions that are emerging to resolve this high risk.
"Where Did I Go Wrong and Mess-up My Project?"
Submitted by Hans Lodder on Sat, 07/02/2009 - 17:53Were you ever involved in a project which started brilliantly? And then, all of a sudden, things go out of control? The project breaks down, and control never returns to you. And you ask your self the question: How did I get here, in this situation? And, where did I go wrong?
