Leading IT Transformation

In November 2008 I was asked to take a look at Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap to Success from Oulette & Associates (O&A) and thought the book sounded interesting…so I agreed and Oulette & Associates sent me a copy of the book to review.

It took a while to get to this book with the holidays and other things on my ‘to do’ list, but I’ve finally gotten around to reading it.

This is a good book, with a lot of relevant information if you are willing to put the time into reading it. The book was written by Dan Roberts, President of O&A, and nine O&A Consultants…and you can tell it was written by consultants.

Don’t get me wrong…I don’t believe ‘written by consultants’ is necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, I like the content of this book and the writing is clear and thorough.  The consultants who wrote the chapters in this book and noted O&A consultants that have been practicing what they preach in consulting engagements and workshops for years.

But (there’s always a but), sometimes we consultants can say much more than we really need to. This is the only complaint I have about this book…each chapter has a lot of extraneous information that isn’t necessary to get the point across.  This is the only flaw I see with the book.

The book has 10 chapters, each with a different topic written by a different person.  The chapters are fairly short but packed with information (and sometimes extraneous info as previously mentioned).

Some sample chapter titles:

• Creating your 21st Century Workforce and Culture
• Transforming your IT Team
• Building a client-focused IT Culture
• Marketing IT’s Value
• Sharpening your political savvy

All interesting chapters written by people who’ve been involved in IT for a while.

So…now that I’ve critiqued the book, let me tell you that, if you are an IT Consultant or IT leader, and you have a chance to pick this book up, you should do it. There’s nothing ‘new’ in this book, but there are some interesting ideas and points of view that make it worth picking up.