IT Doesn't Matter...Really?

What Carr is talking about is the IT that is infrastructural technology not proprietary technology. Carr is stating that many organizations confuse infrastructural technology as proprietary technology, especially during the years of the build-out phase which install the greatest amount of this infrastructural technology such as desktop computers, enterprise software, LAN's and the Internet. This build-out leads to standardization, falling prices and greater accessibility, but not strategic advantage for organizations.

Carr states that this trend mirrored the buildup of other types of infrastructure such as highways, railroads and power grids. IT has become a commodity just like these early technologies, although the early adopters initially gained the first mover advantage in the marketplace, these opportunities are largely gone since most of the technologies are available to all the players just like the power grid and the Internet.

Carr is not saying that proprietary IT does not matter to modern companies, only the infrastructural technology which is available to the entire market. I think that the catchy title was his way of getting every one's attention. Proprietary IT such as Apple's iTunes's store or Google's search system are a key differentiating element of their success and Carr is not talking about this type of IT investment. Carr also uses Dell and Wal-Mart as an example of companies that let others invest in the new systems that hold promise as well as risk, and invest when standardization, best practices and lower costs have taken effect.

I agree with Carr's major idea, that IT investment has been over emphasized and too much has been spent in new technologies that really don't improve the profitability or strategic position of the company. Too much investment can actually be bad as witnessed during the dot-com and real estate bubbles of recent years. I especially agree with the new rules for IT managers, spend less (even more important now), follow, don't lead (leading is expensive and risky), and focus on vulnerabilities not opportunities (your bank website being down for several days).

Harvard's endowment plunges nearly 30 percent

Is this the best our esteemed national university could do?

"In navigating the past year's storm, we developed greater financial flexibility, strengthened our investment team, sharpened our focus and positioned both HMC and the endowment to be robust, steady and, importantly, poised to benefit from growth in the world's economies," Mendillo said in a statement.

Translation:

"As we were caught up in the group think of the investment world which left us overexposed, we got rid of bad investments and bought new investments at a higher price taking a huge loss, fired 275 people to save money, panicked about the ugly balance sheet and reacted by placing too much of our portfolio in riskier global stocks to try and make up our losses."

I love corporate doublespeak.

IT project management

Do you think organizations should develop their own information technology project management methodologies? Why? Why can't they just follow a book or already developed methodology?



Yes at some level. I believe many organizations must design and develop their own ITPMM to align the project management processes and activities support the unique capabilities and strategy that each organization possesses. However, there exists a general set of core methodologies and standards in the PMBOK guide in which the organization can utilize as a foundation for developing customized project management methods that specifically address the needs of the organization. The level of customization needs varies between organizations. No two organizations are exactly alike and they use different methods to accomplish goals, so GM can use ITPMM designed by Toyota but ultimately the methodologies will need to be customized at some level to GM's specific needs, processes and capabilities. Rational Unified Process (RUP) from IBM is a process product that tries to address these needs by integrating project management best practices with customizable processes.

The Other Side of Outsourcing

An excellent look at outsourcing from the other side of the world. It will challenge you to think about the global economy and how the nature and geography of the workforce has fundamentally changed.

Systems view of a project and project management

What does it mean to take a systems view of a project? How does taking a systems view of a project apply to project management?


To view a project with a systems perspective is to see the whole internal and external operational landscape in which the project will be functioning. An example of a system is the cardiovascular process of the human body. To only see the heart and arteries without considering the interdependent support mechanisms that the heart system needs to function fails to consider the implications that any changes to the heart system will also cause variations, potentially fatal, in the interdependent systems of the body that rely on the heart. The reverse is also true.

Similarly, to develop and implement a project without considering the holistic view of the organization, the systems approach, will likely fail to bring the proposed benefits to the organization because the complete, possibly unintended impact of the project has not been fully considered on the entire system. Also, the project may actually hinder the organizational goals and cause real losses. For example, to develop a advertising project for a single product without considering the impact the campaign may have on other product lines within the company, whether or not the price is in conformity with the market position, cannibalization of exiting products, image of the company, and other similar issues must be addressed during the planning and design phase of the project.

Often, projects are designed myopically due to organizational arrangement and culture within a company, such as business units, departments, competitive aspects, and/or geographic regions. Great care must be taken to include the overall goals and perspectives of the organization to ensure the project displays goal congruence and the end result adds value to the whole organization.

W. Edwards Deming 14 Points

How many organizations today employ this philosophy?

The 14 points apply anywhere, to small organizations as well as to large ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing. They apply to a division within a company.

The 14 points.

Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.

Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.

Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost.

Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.

Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.

Institute training on the job.

Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.

Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company (see Ch. 3).

Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.

Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.

Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.

Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals.

Substitute leadership.

Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.

Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective (see Ch. 3).

Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.