GovernIT

Are you working on some statistical analysis on your data for identifying variation or for process improvement? Here is a common mistake that many beginners (and even experienced ones!) make when analyzing data during software development – variations have multiple special causes for the same effect!

Remember that manufacturing processes and software development have some major differences. Inputs are not constant, skill/knowledge required to complete 2 "similar" activities are different, people performing the task are different due to the need to use more intellect in day to day work than on the shop floor, standardization has a limit (however far you take that limit).

Don’t make this mistake. Do you know of any other such traps in using concepts/techniques from other industries? Talk to me.

Image courtesy of http://www.thadguy.com/

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A long title, but that is because I couldn’t find a shorter and apt one.

In this blog by forrester research (posted on CIO.com, by the way), CIOs have identified a few things they would like to see in their organizations in 2010.

I’ll summarize the basic points here, while you can read the rest of the article(rather small, actually) here – CIOs spoke, We listened. The basic idea is to improve Business-IT relationship, which as we know is being tried since IT was considered an industry.

How do we get closer to the Business? Lets try some of these:

1. Future trends in IT:  How the next generation of technologies can change the way people interact in and with our business using technology. The Cloud (that sounds like a horror movie), social media, knowledge management etc are the areas which can rock the boat – the boat being Enterprise Architecture in this case.

2. Talent Management – Every industry is grappling with this question – How to find the best people and keep them. Of course, it is heartening to note that IT is slowly realizing that IT is still about people and not about technology.

3. Where do we stand on the scale – Like it or not, humans have reference frames which they use to judge things around them. Corporations are no different. Every senior manager wants to know how he is doing vis-a-vis the competition. This could be in terms of people, services, products etc.

4. IT Governance – Phew! I was afraid this would not be listed. Nothing need be said here, except to note that IT Governance is still considered IT’s headache. Let me reiterate, IT Governance is the Business’ Governance of IT. IT Management is what CIOs do.

5. Communicate value – Everyone needs to market their contributions and value-adds or risk being outsourced. IT still has to do better job in communicating business value, which will come only when IT is one way of doing business, which will come when business realizes the true value and potential of IT and… You get the point.

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I recently read an article on IT measurement titled, “IT Metrics: Feast or Famine.” It is an interesting piece, emphasizing that metrics should exist for a reason and it makes sense to periodically check if that reason is itself still valid!

As a long time designer of measurement systems, I have a few observations on IT Metrics, which I share with you below.  Some of them are humorously written, but true nevertheless:

• A useful set of metrics cannot be defined in one go. It takes a minimum of n² iterations to arrive at a stable set of metrics, n being the number of stakeholders who will report the metrics
• Metrics that measure the positive side of a transaction are more easily accepted. For example, instead of the number of test failures, the number of tests passed stands a better chance of being accepted
• The reporting format is usually the most debated part of a framework. Since this is what everyone will finally see, there will be much angst on how the information is represented. In many cases, the success or failure of a measurement system is measured by the reporting framework
• A basket of metrics, with freedom for managers to select different metrics goes down better than a small set of core metrics that are inflexible
• Senior management always want comparison – between projects, projects in other departments and against industry standards (specifically in the same type of business). Without this “referential”, no metrics program will be accepted, even though everyone tells you to start small
• Someone will invariably ask for traffic light colors in your reporting, even though you stress a thousand times that no metric should be looked at in isolation
• Someone will invariably ask for a “Dashboard”, no matter the contents

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