Connect The Dots

I have just finished reading Chris Anderson's (Editor of Wired) excellent book - "The Long Tail" and it really opened my mind to the profound change in economics that is taking place online and how this will affect main stream business. The Long Tail premise is that the 80/20 rule no longer holds because some businesses may sell more individual or "one off" products in TOTAL than the usual top sellers -ie the top 20% of items sold (the hits)account for less than all the one off items. In this case a very large number of people buy a small amount of unique products. Anderson's premise is that when there is unlimited choice this is the ...

The following tip on project management is important both for senior managers and executives and for those in the business of execution. However to explain it requires a bit of technical discussion about the feature and the software concerned. The explanation below also relates to the common computing model framework which is the subject of my research. So I recently downloaded a very cool new feature in Microsoft Visio called "WBS Modeller Add In". This enables a Microsoft Project Plan to be imported into Visio as a set of objects that retain their hierarchical linkages/relationships. In other words an automated import tool to view a project plan as a picture like everything else in Visio. Now ...

(University of Toronto) then its good enough to practically apply to I.T.! Roger Martin's excellent, recently published book "The Opposable Mind" is all about integrative thinking and how this capability fosters successful leadership. His argument revolves around the concept of our different mental models and how differences in interpretation lead to varied outcomes. By being able to appreciate your own mental model but also others - new ideas and innovative solutions become more possible. There is a different but strong parallel here for IT. In the research we have done to date with Ivey on developing a common computing framework - we are building the argument around the same premise as Martin. Martin gives an interesting example where two managers go on ...

Someone once said (and I forget who it was) that the downside of great project management is that it can simply accelerate disaster. The point of this comment is not that there is anything wrong with project management, (in fact of course its indispensable) its that if the end product is flawed or poorly defined - project management isn't going to be a panacea. I think that there is a lot of faith put into PMI style rigor and discipline - almost as though constant attention to detail will enable the team to see and act with great wisdom - with method as the "saviour". Indeed I have seen via constant, in fact daily, conference call meetings - teams finally realize ...

After some time away from my blog I think the best way to report on progress with the common frames of reference project is to basically summarize results and plans and to invite comment from those interested in the project. The common frames of reference project including a recommended approach to improving IT processes, is explained in more detail in the file here that you can download. Draft Report - The Value of Common Framework Thinking in IT A bunch of interviews have been done, taped and reviewed. A key challenge is how to move the project forward and the next step is very likely going to be a survey ...