Down in the trenches, business analysts are the ones tasked with developing business cases for IT application development. And, in the process, smoothing relations among competing parties and moving projects along.
Read the whole ““Why Business Analysts Are So Important for IT and CIOs” article in CIO.com
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Despite the debate about whether there is officially a recession, in 2008 many Americans are suffering. Those in the top income brackets are unaffected. But the fuel prices / crisis is impacting all but the super rich in this country.
It doesn’t help to hear that Europeans and citizens of many other countries have long been faced with high gas prices. Or that, people in many countries are accustomed to spending much higher percentages of their incomes on necessities like food and clothing. Any decrease in standard of living is traumatic. The post World War II American dream was that the standard of living would be higher for our children. But that expectation is changing. All change requires adjustments. And the fear and stress associated with financial downturns can have profound effects on health and emotional well being.
As in software or technology implementations, satisfaction and success comes when the impacted people / users / employees embrace the changes. This is not automatic, especially in large scale implementations and projects. The consultants at Noble & Associates Consulting, Inc have found that change is rarely embraced unless change management programs have been put in place.
Americans who manage to still have adequate disposal incomes, are still vacationing. US travelers to Europe are shocked and disheartened by the lack of buying power of the US dollar. Other Americans are just bemoaning the fact that they either have less spending money or that the money they do have does not go as far.
So how can Europe be of benefit to the United States and it’s de facto recession economy? I saw a Managing Automation blog post about increased interest in procuring good, services and workers from the US. Due to close quarters and limited land mass, small cars have been in vogue in Europe. Our automakers are fighting for survival. As US automakers finally get on the fuel efficient bandwagon, perhaps they can sell more cars domestically and internationally. And, as suggested by the “Manufacturers Set to Take Advantage of the Downturn” article, perhaps the laid off engineer or executive should be floating their resumes overseas.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC