Do I Really Need My PMO Director? 12/27/2011
 Have you ever been in a situation where you were reporting to a PMO director and you wonder what value this person brings to the table? You romanticize about how much more productive you would be if you didn’t have to jump through his hoops. Better yet, you consider how much better off you – and all the other PMs - would be if you were running the show. Or at least if you got to handpick his successor. Am I striking a chord here? Of course I am. I’m going to state what I think a good PMO director needs to bring to the table. I’m hoping on the couple of occasions so far where I’ve run the show that I did bring these things to the table. At least I know I tried. And I will say that sometimes the organizational chemistry and process flow doesn’t always allow for the utopia that I’m going to describe. But getting somewhere close would be nice. #1 – Manage the PMO, not a bunch of projects The PMO director really needs to be a leader of people, not projects. I’m so tired of seeing PM’s who are spending most of their time leading the big projects also acting in the role of PMO director. It’s just not right. The PMO director needs to establish processes, identify training needs, knock down barriers, make connections, and fight for the PMO’s presence in the organization. He needs to be putting the proper tools in the hands of the PMs like reusable templates, the proper planning documents and an easy to use project management tool that makes project collaboration easy. It’s how the viability of the PM processes is maintained. You can’t rely on the CEO to suddenly think what you’re doing matters. Not when so many projects fail or have major issues. No, someone must be championing the organization. That’s the director. If he’s leading five projects of his own, he can’t do that. No one can. #2 – Know your organization The PMO director must know the organization. He must know how get information, favors, resources, and support. Unless it’s a startup situation, it’s very difficult to bring in an outsider as the director and have them be immediately useful. It’s better to bring outsiders in as PMs and promote a good leader to this role. #3 – Care about the PM’s, not the politics The PMO director must be ready to fight for the project managers in the PMO like the PMs fight for their customers. I’m sorry, but if I’m being pulled two ways – one way by senior management and one way by the customer – it’s usually going to be the customer’s concerns that I react to first. Likewise, the PMO director should be more concerned about his organization and fighting for it rather than playing a lot of politically games for senior management – unless that is in the best interests of the PMO itself. So many PMOs fail, they need a strong leader fighting to keep it viable. #4 – Communicate well Above all else – just like with any project manager – the PMO director must be a great communicator. Company policies, processes, planning, etc. must all come from this individual. And he must be a good listener because there are lots of project issues that arise that PMs need help with. Their success must be his utmost concern. Conclusion So, can I fire my PMO director? Well, sort of. If the needs of the project managers are not being met and if the PMO is faltering because of a lack of organized, efficient, and effective leadership, then waiting will only mean projects will fail. Customers will be lost. The company bottom line will take a huge hit. And so will careers. Staying quiet is not in anyone’s best interest. If it’s a common feeling (and not just your own grudge) that the PMO leadership is ineffective, it must be taken up the chain of command. And yes, then you can fire your PMO director. It would be your duty to do so. If you or your organization is in need of an affordable, easy to adopt, and fully functional project management and collaboration tool, you should check out Dooster. Go here to try it for free. Add Comment  Click to view the free webinar. Enterprise CIOs are in a bind. On one hand, their organizations are being asked to become more agile and lean. On the other hand, they are being asked to reduce operational costs. Is your path to enhanced business agility and operational efficiency in the cloud? In this highly informative video, VMware, Tier 3 and Equinix provide you insights into:
Virtualization and Private Cloud Growth Underlie Diskeeper Appointment of Jerry Baldwin as New CEO 09/15/2011
Burbank, CA, September 14, 2011 – Diskeeper Corporation today announced the appointment of Jerry Baldwin as its new Chief Executive Officer. Acquiring Mr. Baldwin’s 30-year expertise in the hi-tech industry signals a further expansion of Diskeeper Corporation into the storage performance market where it has maintained a leadership position for decades. “Diskeeper has a very strong technology portfolio,” said Jerry. “It adds critically needed performance and efficiency improvements to the virtualization and data storage fields and because of this, it is in demand across all the channels – e-tailer, reseller, OEM and distribution. There is an upsurge in Diskeeper product demand at every enterprise level by CIOs desperate to drive cost efficiency down in their IT sectors. “We have OEM contracts with two of the largest manufacturers and more have been calling. You have to remember that Diskeeper products are famous for being bullet-proof -- 90% of the Fortune 500, 40 million licenses sold and yet only a handful of tech support calls! That’s unheard of in this business.” Jerry Baldwin comes to Diskeeper with a list of accomplishments, many in CXO leadership roles, including taking Fortune 500 companies to their next level. He has helped companies such as BPI/CA, CompUAdd, DEC, EDS and One eCommerce launch new products, build quality channel programs and accelerate sales. Craig Jensen, Founder and Chairman, said, “We are thrilled to be able to secure someone with the experience and talent of Jerry. As we grow our product family, aggressively build our OEM business and expand our channel and global footprint, we are fortunate to have a leader who has succeeded in each of these areas.” For more information about Diskeeper and their products, contact Colleen Toumayan by email at ctoumayan@diskeeper.com or by phone at 800-829-6468 ext. 5305. Cloud Computing is Not a Mystery 07/02/2011
 Cloud computing. Cloud services. Software as a Service. The cloud is not nearly as mysterious as we all make it out to be. Most of us have been computing in the cloud to some degree for years. Remember Hotmail? The cloud is, basically…the internet. The World Wide Web. Or as my 19 year-old-son likes to joke…the Interweb. Gmail is cloud computing. Yahoo groups is cloud computing. Google docs is cloud computing. Cloud computing means data storage and processing happens in the cloud. If you’re just storing stuff on the web and processing it on your computer, it’s not really cloud computing, it’s just storing it in the cloud. By the way - Apple’s new iCloud product is really not cloud computing. The iCloud is more like streaming media. Storing data in the cloud…er…on the web. And then using it on your computer. I love Apple and I’ve been a die-hard convert since March 2009. But come on. I’m a developer (former developer) so I’m offended along with all the other geeks that Steve Jobs and Apple took the term ‘App’ which was short for application and changed it so it now means mobile application to everyone on the planet. Now he’s changed the meaning of the term cloud by making it his own. Now we have to come up with a new term for the cloud. Shouldn’t be too hard. How about ‘the Fog’? Yes, from now on, we’ll compute in the fog. As the Cloud View Matures, Reality Sets In 09/03/2010
I originally authored this article for Real Deal Technologies. The original posting appears here. The latest and greatest thing is never as clean and clear cut as you’d like it to be. There’s usually a catch, right? Right. In the case of cloud computing, it’s so far been big concerns over data security and the lack of any standardization. News from a recent survey on cloud computing as reported by Art Wittman for Informationweek paints a new picture of concern as reality begins to set in for CIOs everywhere. Now the realization among many CIOs is that what is an up front major savings realized when moving to the cloud can easily mean unwanted expenditures in the out years as it pertains to the applications being moved to the cloud. Indeed, what looks like a good deal in years one of two of moving to the cloud won’t look good in years four and five. Unless the application itself changes, the total cost of moving an application to a service provider will usually increase the overall cost of the application over the long run. Another consideration for CIOs is that the cloud provider may have poorer security or reliability than your own organization thus turning a cost savings into a potential risk-taking nightmare. After all, this is your critical apps and data we’re talking about. Beyond all this, there are integration, configuration, and customization costs to consider. CIOs have matured in their thinking toward cloud computing. While cost savings was once sited as the top reason for considering moving to the cloud, that has been replaced at the top by the ability to roll out business technology quickly to the masses. It is a new, mature and sobering view of cloud computing and it should be viewed as good news as CIOs everywhere are forgoing the pie-in-the-sky view of cloud computing and are thinking forward in reality mode. Defining the Cloud for Our Projects 08/16/2010
This article was original written by me for the PM Tips website and published there on 8/13/10. To view the original article, go here. I was trying to wrap my head around this the other day. The cloud. THE cloud. The Cloud. What does that mean? And more importantly, what does it mean for our projects? Anything in the cloud is basically a software or service being used remotely meaning you’re not running that application or storing that data at your site. You’re using a free or paid service via the internet and you’re saving yourself potentially storage space, cost, energy usage, staff, etc. There are concerns – yes, there are concerns. Main concern – security. Any time you let your data go to outer space there has to be that concern of who can access it and if I have a disaster how fast can I recover? Really, both of these questions have to be directed at whatever service you’re utilizing as part of your cloud service provider. And that needs to be spelled out up front. Ask the tough questions – because no one cares about your needs or your data more than you. If your third party cloud provider doesn’t have a good plan documented for your data’s security or how to get you back up and running quickly in the event of a disaster – run fast the other way and find another one. Don’t wait for the disaster to happen. But back to my original question – what does the cloud mean right now for our projects? What do we – as project managers – need to know? What do we need to be offering in terms of cloud services to our clients? We’re all interested, right? Here’s the thing. I sat at an Interop session a couple of months ago and listened to five executives from five different companies talk about their lessons learned and difficulties moving software and services to the cloud and a funny thing happened. I realized that not one of them really had the same interpretation of what the cloud meant. And they all had issues with their implementations – some issues that they were still reeling from and having issues with now months later. My take is – unless you’re an independent consultant guiding a client toward a project solution that involves cloud services – then you really must rely on your own IT department. If you’re hosting a customer solution then there may be some ways to utilize the cloud for data storage or software services. Or you may see – after fully understanding the customer’s internal processes – ways you can help them utilize the cloud for their internal needs. But cloud usage on projects you undertake must be guided by your own corporate IT mission and directives. Because, in reality, what ‘using the cloud’ means can be different from organization to organization and obviously from executive to executive. The concept of using the cloud as a solution in IT is still maturing and the concept what it means to everyone is still evolving and likely will be for some time to come. Summary As project managers, we can stay current and on top of the latest technology – that’s a good thing and we should do that. However, we must rely on our IT departments to guide how we utilize available cloud services – if we utilize them at all. On a basic level we can utilize web-based software to keep our projects in check – like Seavus’ Project Planner or Project Viewer. Beyond that, take the issues to IT and work through them for the best benefit of your organization and your customer. This article was originally authored by me for the Real Deal Technologies website and published there on 8/20/09. Go here to view the original article. At first thought, cloud computing reminds me of the old concept of a flow chart that would have this big box that said “and something happens here” when no one could figure out the right process to show or how to solve the problem. Defining Cloud Computing Cloud computing isn’t quite like that…it isn’t something that just happens…but done right it IS basically something that sort of “just happens.” Like the internet…you turn your computer on and there it is and your connected to information, networks, servers somewhere else, a remote printer, etc. You don’t really worry about it, it’s there. And that’s the concept of cloud computing. Cloud means Internet. The computing takes place on the Internet – in place of the software you use executing on your desktop pc, it’s hosted on the Internet on a server installed in a data centre usually staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is sometimes called “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS). I was watching an online video the other day where some IT industry experts were asked what cloud computing meant to them. You can view that video here. It’s funny how it means something a little different to everyone and some of them were at a loss of words to describe which gives you an idea of how new it still is to everyone…and yet how simple the concept really is. And that’s mostly what it is…a concept. After all, the cloud idea came from the image used to display the concept of the Internet in diagrams. Like a big cloud that we connect to not caring really what is in that cloud and how we get information and services from it. Back to the video I was watching…one individual described it simply as…”if you need more than your laptop and an Internet connection, then it’s not cloud computing." Cloud Computing and the Small Business So what does cloud computing mean to small businesses? What does it mean for their? At a minimum, this is what I believe it means to me as a project manager when considering the small businesses and startups that I’ve worked with:
To me, as a Project Manager, cloud computing means a more green, less costly, and more carefree processing environment for the customer. Does this mean a more carefree and less costly implementation? Possibly less costly, but from and implementation or project manager perspective I don’t believe it’s any more carefree. Everything must still be tested, everything still must work upon deployment, and everything must still be supported. |         Click to set custom HTML
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