strategy – Page 2 – In Search Of

The Right Position for Product Organizations

Posted on July 25, 2013Leave a comment

What is the purpose of a product organization? Thinking generally, it is to increase the value of a product “in the eyes” of the customers, consumers, or users of the product. It doesn’t matter whether the product is toilet paper or software.

The product manager has decision rights over what the product will become.

The product organization manages a portfolio of products, and the purpose of portfolio management is usually maximize the value of the portfolio. How they do this job depends largely on the products and the organization that sponsors them.Continue Reading

IT Staffing Strategy Terminology

Posted on July 23, 2013Leave a comment

I am thinking about IT staffing strategy. In order to share my thoughts, I need to define some aspects of that strategy, and perhaps explain why I think they are important. I am not an OD guy, nor do I play one on TV. I have, however, observed and participated in management and leadership in information technology for over twenty years.

Earlier posts on IT Strategy including Goal Strategy Policy and Vision, Strategy, Policy are the beginnings of where these thoughts come from.

What are you leading?

Posted on July 16, 2013Leave a comment

Differences Between Classes of Leadership

What are the essential differences between the act of leading an initiative and the act of leading a staff, a team, or an organization.

Hypothesis: the differences center around the goal against which that leadership is expressed.Continue Reading

IT Patterns and Practices

Posted on May 2, 2013Leave a comment

In my prior post ( ITStrategyInternals ) I explained a little about patterns and practices. Patterns and Practices within IT go hand in hand, in that we have an established solution, and a body of knowledge and expertise around that solution.

I think that we sometimes think that by selecting a tool, we have defined a pattern. So let me say, that patterns are at a higher level of abstraction than a tool. A pattern may require some tooling, but it should not be specific to a tool. The body of expertise around implementing a pattern with/through a specific tool is a practice. So ORACLE DBMS is not a pattern, but a data warehouse may be. Likewise, MQ Series is not a pattern, but a message bus may be. We may have a practice around implementing a message bus using MQ Series, or TIBCO, or Tellurian sockets or Oracle SOA Suite.

Tools are really only valuable, in that they enable the delivery of patterns. Tools can be anything from an integrated development environment (IDE) to a component library to an operating system. Programming languages are not tools, but editors and compilers are. Programming languages are patterns. SQL is not a tool, but MySQL is. SQL is a programming language that is a common part of a relational database pattern. We have come to expect that any tool that enables a relational database pattern implements some version of the SQL programming language.

Those of us who have been in this industry for a few years, realize that the players (tools) change pretty frequently. As a new pattern emerges and is perceived as valuable, it disrupts the market for a while, then the tools supporting the new pattern prosper, and the others diminish and sputter towards irrelevancy.Continue Reading

What I Have Done

Posted on February 4, 2012Leave a comment

Recently I have had to look back on my career and remind myself what I have done. I am leading a challenging project, and at times it feels like I have team members and customers projecting their expectations for how the work will be executed. Sometimes amid the cacophony of voices, I have to remind myself that I am capable of bringing the team to consensus around strategic decisions. Continue Reading

[Curation #3] Competency, Principles, Hiring, PM101

Posted on October 14, 2011Leave a comment

Want to be strategic? Be competent first | Adventures in IT – InfoWorld

Provocative post about walking before you run. If you can’t execute, your strategy will not help.

Agile Complexification Inverter: What are the Principles?

I like this way of thinking – principles first, because it helps us stay out of “methodology” land. Too often, we are looking for a “prescription”, rather than ways of thinking that help us solve problems that are impeding our progress.

How to Change the World: What I Learned From Steve Jobs

Best bit: A players hire A+ players…. – Avoid the bozo explosion.

Herding Cats: Are We There Yet?

Project management 101 from Glen Alleman.