Posts Tagged ‘project’
Monday, July 14th, 2008
An organizational change discussion was introduced with the following “How many process improvement consultants does it take to change a light bulb? One, but only if the light bulb really wants to change.” The topic’s title included the word “inertia” indicating that change is resisted. So how do you reduce resistance? Regardless of the type of change being implemented, a successful project always requires support from the top of the organization. Management support and directives motivate people.
Even when people are highly motivated, change can be stressful and scary. As we age and move into the over 50, senior citizen ranks, it is more difficult to change. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak or inflexible. People issues have crippled project of all kinds project – whether technology or process, or organizational structure or management. Stress and post implementation distress must be expected and accommodated.
Bottom line: To make an organizational change successful, it has to be well planned, with simple steps that are well communicated.
See the July Newsletter for details about Michael Nearman of AGSI who addressed the June 2008 Atlanta SPIN (Software & Systems Process Improvement Network) meeting.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Tags: Are You Voting For Change, Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, Change Management, Consultant, consulting, Implementation, management, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, project, project management, Sandra Noble, Software, Strategy
Posted in Are You Voting For Change, Business, Change Management, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Senior Citizen / Baby Boomer, Technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Powell Goldstein’s e-Newsletter included the article titled “Businesses and Their Employees Should Reconsider Taking Laptops and PDAs Abroad”. The reason for concern is a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The ruling gives custom’s agents the right to search electronic files without reasonable suspicion.
Currently, there have been no abuses of this ruling. But, businesses should consider the impact of trade secrets and sensitive data being accessed and copied by customs agents and Homeland Security personnel. Should you leave home without your beloved electronic devices? Get POGO’s article.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Tags: Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, consulting, Finance, Homeland Security, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, project, Sandra Noble, Strategy, Technology
Posted in Business, Technology | No Comments »
Friday, May 30th, 2008
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
Tags: application development, Atlanta, blog, Business, business case, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, CIO, consulting, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Process, project, Requirements, Sandra Noble, Strategy, Technology
Posted in Process, Requirements, Strategy, Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
I attended the Atlanta APICS meeting the other day. Juergen Meyer from Step 3 Consulting spoke about Lean in administrative processes. Now APICS, The Association for Operations Management, offers three certification programs, Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), and Certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM). As a result, much of the audience and much of the membership is from the manufacturing arena. I’m a CPIM member of APICS Atlanta. And, I’m a bit of an oddball in the group, since I’ve had a long career in information technology. But, I’ve also earned Six Sigma certification to assist in the process improvement and re-engineering activities that often take place in technology projects. Six Sigma utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and reduce variations in processes and ultimately eliminate defects. More and more, Six Sigma and Lean are spoken of together.
In Juergen’s talk, there was much mention of process improvement, although Six Sigma was not mentioned by name. The goal of Lean is to eliminate waste and non-value added activities. And the byproduct of waste elimination is lower costs resulting in higher profits. The eight types of waste are: over production, waiting, transportation, over-processing, inventory, motion, defects, rework. Parallels were given between manufacturing waste and administrative waste.
And, how to attack the waste? You Define, Measure, Analyze and Improve the process – key steps in the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. Often the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology or its use in projects is considered costly and time consuming. But the principles can be simplified. After all over-processing is a waste. The goal is a Lean Six Sigma.
Bottom line, improving and streamlining processes reduces defects, eliminates waste, decreases costs, improves efficiency, increases profits and provides competitive advantages.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Tags: APICS, Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, CIRM, Consultant, consulting, CPIM, CSCP, defects, DMAIC, Finance, Implementation, Lean, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, re-engineering, Sandra Noble, Six Sigma, Software, Strategy, Technology, waste
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Process Improvement, Strategy, Technology | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2008
I worked for the telecommunications superstar, Lucent Technologies, right before it’s big fall from financial grace. I was fortunate to be in the CIO organization which was lead by a very visionary executive, Earnestine Barnes-Linder. She encouraged us to prepare for the changes that she so wisely foresaw. Earnestine even distributed copies of the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson. I attended a workshop by the author and was less than impressed. But, when I finally took the time to read the book, it was indeed outstanding. Mr. Johnson is an expert on individual and organizational change. The book gave insight into how to recognize that your cheese or goal had moved and provided suggestions on how to work through the feelings and adjust to change. However, there are other books that provide more substance and detail on stress and change management techniques.
Noble & Associates Consulting and its consultants have years of experience with software and technology implementations. The whole point of any new system is to change or improve some process, capability or results. Since there is always change and people are stressed by change, then change management should always be a consideration in project funding, planning and management.
So what’s the cheese?
- For an individual, it might have been owning a home. The current mortgage crisis may be moving that cheese.
- For others, it might be life long employment with a company paid pension. The economy and corporate mergers, acquisitions and downsizing may have changed that cheese.
- For production managers the cheese may be efficient operations and on-time deliveries. Disruptions in the supply chain, broken processes and quality problems may be crumbling that cheese.
- The corporate executive may have thought that the latest and greatest system or technology was the cheese. However, cost overruns, unrealized functionality and out of sync processes could be slicing away at that cheese.
- For the average employee, the cheese may be to feel like they are competent and even expert at doing the job. The introduction of a new system or technology, and the need to learn new ways of doing things, could be the last straw.
In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what caused your cheese to change. Change happens. Stress happens. Deal with it.
Consider implementing stress management and change management programs.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Tags: Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, Change Management, Consultant, consulting, Finance, funding, Implementation, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, project management, re-engineering, Sandra Noble, Software, Strategy, Stress, Stress Management, Technology, telecom
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Requirements, Strategy, Technology | No Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
GOD, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer
In software and technology implementation projects, there needs to be something called “Change Control”. And why is this needed? No matter how thorough the business analysis job or how complete the project plan, there’s always something that needs to be changed or added after the fact. Users and potential users of the system or technology change their minds. Or think of something that they absolutely cannot live without. Then from the technical side, the developers, programmers and implementers discover things that are incorrect or just won’t work. Programmers or testers find things called “bugs” – which is techie talk for errors or system glitches. After all, that’s what quality, quality control and testing is supposed to do – Find things that will cause less than desired results.
Testing and quality is key. And it needs to start at the beginning. Once the technology requirements are finalized, you have the basis for test scripts that can be used throughout the implementation process. There will be change. So, there needs to be an orderly process for incorporating changes and corrections / fixes.
One reason is that it helps insure that everyone on the project is in sync. It avoids duplication of effort. And, it’s less disruptive when there are multiple environments (development / test versus live / production) or multiple release versions. It’s an essential piece of the communications plan. Change control is a recipe for success. And, back to the Serenity Prayer: the introduction of new systems, features or functionality is something that can be controlled. And the smart project manager has the courage to mandate a change control process.
What we cannot change is people and how they react to change. Change, even positive change, creates stress – another thing we can’t change. What we can control is the implementation and use of programs and techniques that ease the pain and stress of change. And that’s called Change Management.
Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC
Tags: blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, Change Management, Consultant, consulting, Finance, Implementation, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, project management, Quality, re-engineering, Requirements, Sandra Noble, Software, Strategy, Tags: Atlanta, Technology, Testing
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Process Improvement, Software, Strategy, Technology | No Comments »