Process Improvement

Tue, May 22, 2012 - No matter how detailed and complete a project plan may be, confusion or omission of participant roles and responsibilities will cause major problems. IT management coach and consultant Bob Kantor outlines the simplest and most effective approach to define and document project roles and responsibilities, and improve project outcomes -- the RACI model.

Mon, May 21, 2012 - The concept of lean software traces its origins to lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System. Building software is much different than building a car, but lessons about reducing waste and achieving continuous improvement apply nonetheless.

Mon, May 21, 2012 - Unless you want to build a software system that quickly becomes a fossil (or a monster), you should avoid doing these five things that usually seem like a good idea at the time.

Fri, May 18, 2012 - Despite all the changes to application lifecycle management (ALM), IT organizations are doing just fine when it comes to core development processes. It is the "bookend" processes of requirements management and release management that need help.

Fri, May 11, 2012 - Things that won't die are great for the movies, but bad ideas that won't go away can really hurt cloud projects. Unfortunately, management likes classic, counterproductive waterfall project management and binary go-live deployments for cloud projects.

Wed, May 09, 2012 - If the dynamics of code inspections have changed in the past three decades, how should we inspect now? Matt Heusser suggests that pair programming principles could provide some, but not all, of the answers.

Mon, May 07, 2012 - Lotus F1's IT team made a technology pit stop and changed from a traditional application development strategy to an agile approach. Why shift gears? The pit crew and car designer wanted better data faster -- and IT wasn't about to pass on the opportunity.

Wed, May 02, 2012 - There is never a good time for downtime, even planned downtime. As companies become more global, with employees, customers, partners, and suppliers spread across every time zone, it becomes increasingly difficult to schedule times when no one is affected. There is no "easy button" when it comes to running always-on, always-available services. Here are three steps to get you on the path to building and running an always-on, always-available enterprise.

Wed, May 02, 2012 - Zombies and vampires are great for the movies, but life-sucking ideas that won't go away are bad for IT projects. Problem is, clients really encourage bid to win behaviors -- even in cloud projects where they are counterproductive.

Fri, April 20, 2012 - Analysis of IT and business process outsourcing transactions in the first quarter reveals a sharp decrease in number and value of contracts signed. As deals get smaller and shorter, contract restructuring and expirations now dominate the IT service provider landscape.

Fri, April 20, 2012 - If your organization operates its own servers and switches, it's likely that a percentage of them are zombies--steadily gobbling up resources but doing no work. Cleaning up a zombie server infestation takes good management and stringent documentation.

Tue, April 10, 2012 - Virtualization and cloud computing offer the promise of cost savings, efficiency and flexibility, but organizations must plan their transitions carefully or risk finding themselves stuck with a bundle of sunk costs and no path forward.

Mon, April 09, 2012 - With the surging popularity of Joomla, it's no surprise hackers are drawn to it as well. Don't panic, however. There are a number of things you can do to strengthen your security and turn your Joomla website into a fortress. Read along as we show you how to guard against the most common exploits and hacks that this open source CMS faces.

Tue, April 03, 2012 - Facing ongoing budget pressure, federal CIOs are being prodded to do more with less as they seek to improve services, consolidate data centers and eliminate overlapping or outdated programs. In a keynote address at the FOSE government IT conference, U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel said that federal CIOs must reassess their approach to new technology deployments.