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	<title>Eric D. Brown &#187; Project Management</title>
	<atom:link href="http://ericbrown.com/category/project-management/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://ericbrown.com</link>
	<description>Technology, Strategy, People and Projects</description>
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		<title>Certifications in IT &#8211; Worth it or not?</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/certifications-in-it-worth-it-or-not.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/certifications-in-it-worth-it-or-not.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:28:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Certification]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project and Program Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management Professional]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=3059</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My good friend, and partner at CIOEssentials.com,  Gene Delibero asks a few interesting questions in a post titled &#8220;Certification: No Guarantee of Competency – But it Can’t Hurt&#8221; on CIOE.
In this post Gene highlights the pros/cons of IT Certifications and asks these questions:
Do you rely on IT certification when hiring? What has your experience been, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>My good friend, and partner at CIOEssentials.com,  <a href="http://www.genedelibero.com/" target="_blank">Gene Delibero</a> asks a few interesting questions in a post titled &#8220;<a title="CIO Essentials - Certifications" href="http://www.cioessentials.com/2010/03/04/certification-no-guarantee-of-competency-but-it-cant-hurt/" target="_blank">Certification: No Guarantee of Competency – But it Can’t Hurt</a>&#8221; on CIOE.</p>
<p>In this post Gene highlights the pros/cons of IT Certifications and asks these questions:</p>
<blockquote><p>Do you rely on IT certification when hiring? What has your experience been, good or bad, when hiring IT resources with or without certifications? Do you have an IT certification or more than one? Have they been helpful to you in your career as far as being a gate item or helping you get more money?</p></blockquote>
<p>Some interesting questions here that might be worth looking at.</p>
<p>When I&#8217;ve hired folks in the past, I&#8217;ve looked at certifications as part of my overall view of the candidate.  If I&#8217;m hiring for a Database Administrator, a DBA certification helps me understand that this person has knowledge in the area&#8230;but it doesn&#8217;t help me determine their experience or skills in the area.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if I&#8217;m hiring for a Project Manager for a large enterprise implementation, a Project Management Certification like the PMP really doesn&#8217;t do much for me.  The PMP certification tells me that the user has experience in the project management world and has passed a test&#8230;but it doesn&#8217;t tell me anything about that person&#8217;s real abilities.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the certification helps quantify a candidate&#8217;s skill-set but not their abilities and experiences.</p>
<p>The certification is a piece of the puzzle but, in my mind, a small piece.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s your thoughts?  Leave a comment here or jump over to <a title="CIO Essentials - Certifications" href="http://www.cioessentials.com/2010/03/04/certification-no-guarantee-of-competency-but-it-cant-hurt/" target="_blank">Certification:  No Guarantee of Competency – But it Can’t Hurt</a> and leave a comment there.</p>
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		<title>Total CIO &#8211; PMO becomes cornerstone of IT executive leadership</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/total-cio-pmo-becomes-cornerstone-of-it-executive-leadership.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/total-cio-pmo-becomes-cornerstone-of-it-executive-leadership.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Selection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project and Program Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management Office]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2990</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Linda Tucci wrote an interesting article on Total CIO titled &#8220;PMO becomes cornerstone of IT executive leadership&#8221;  that got my attention.  The title is a great one&#8230;and after reading the article, I&#8217;m intrigued.
The article discusses how Ogilvy &#38; Mather&#8217;s Worldwide CTO Yuri Aguiar is using the Project Management Office (PMO) to drive business [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Linda Tucci wrote an interesting article on Total CIO titled &#8220;<a href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/pmo-becomes-cornerstone-of-it-executive-leadership/">PMO becomes cornerstone of IT executive leadership&#8221; </a> that got my attention.  The title is a great one&#8230;and after reading the article, I&#8217;m intrigued.</p>
<p>The article discusses how <a class="zem_slink" title="Ogilvy &amp; Mather" rel="homepage" href="http://www.ogilvy.com/">Ogilvy &amp; Mather</a>&#8217;s Worldwide CTO Yuri Aguiar is using the Project Management Office (PMO) to drive business and IT alignment.  Linda writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The power is not in the PMO, per se, Aguiar said, but in a fundamental change in how projects are funded and managed at Ogilvy. All projects are reviewed by three architects and subjected to a risk mitigation and management (dubbed RM2) metric before approval. Top priority is given to revenue-generating projects. Urgent projects trump “important” projects, and timelines run about 12 to 14 months max. Also, all project managers report directly to Aguiar. “If somebody is running one day late, he or she is knocking on my door,” he said. ”</p></blockquote>
<p>Interesting concepts here.  In many of the PMO&#8217;s I&#8217;ve seen / worked with, they&#8217;ve had a senior leadership team that made decisions on which projects to fund. Aguiar&#8217;s approach seems to be based around a lower level decision making process (which is good) which determines the viability of the project from a usefulness, risk and priority of projects.</p>
<p>Looks like Aguiar might be on to something here with this approach to a Project Management Office.  I do have some questions that might be answered by a more detailed article by Tucci (as she states she&#8217;s planning on writing one), but until I see more, I&#8217;ll voice my questions here for discussion.</p>
<p><strong>Question</strong><strong> &#8211; PMO and PM&#8217;s reporting directly to the CTO/CIO?</strong></p>
<p>I don&#8217;t really have an issue with this if the PMO handles only IT issues. That said,, I have to wonder if this is a viable, long-term approach.  The article says that the Projects Managers report directly to the CIO.  Managing a PMO and PM&#8217;s is a full-time gig&#8230;does today&#8217;s CIO have time for this? <em>Maybe they have to make time?</em> Is this the best method for a CIO to align IT projects with the business?  <em>It might be.<br />
</em></p>
<p><strong>Question</strong><strong> &#8211; How are project priorities determined?</strong></p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t really answered in the article but if the project priority is assigned by the CIO, is there a large voice of users and stakeholder&#8217;s being missed?  Does the organization have a Project Committee that reviews projects to assign priorities?  How should priorities for projects be assigned to ensure proper IT / Business Alignment.</p>
<p><strong>Question &#8211; Who &#8220;approves&#8221; the Projects?</strong></p>
<p>The article states that each project is reviewed by architects and a risk mitigation and management metric is assigned prior to approval but no real description of the approval process.  I&#8217;m just curious as to what the process is here.</p>
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		<title>Do it or Don&#039;t&#8230;.just stop talking about it</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/do-it-or-dont-just-stop-talking-about-it.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/do-it-or-dont-just-stop-talking-about-it.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The New CIO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New CIO]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2955</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve got a few pet peeves.  Linear Thinking is one of them.  Another one is talking about doing something but never doing it.
I&#8217;m not talking about &#8216;not following through&#8217; on things.  That&#8217;s a performance issue and one that can be addressed with some coaching and basic management skills.
What I&#8217;m talking about are those folks (or [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/iStock_000002891086XSmall1.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2956" title="Do it or don't...just stop talking" src="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/iStock_000002891086XSmall1.jpg" alt="Do it or don't...just stop talking" width="178" height="267" /></a>I&#8217;ve got a few pet peeves.  <a href="http://ericbrown.com/the-problems-with-linear-thinking.htm">Linear Thinking is one of them</a>.  Another one is talking about doing something but never doing it.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not talking about &#8216;not following through&#8217; on things.  That&#8217;s a performance issue and one that can be addressed with some coaching and basic management skills.</p>
<p>What I&#8217;m talking about are those folks (or organizations) that like to tell everyone how something should be done, why it should be done or why it&#8217;s important for the organization to do &#8216;project X&#8217;.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m fine with being told how or why something is important&#8230;everyone has their opinions.  But don&#8217;t tell me the same thing for 6 months without ever taking a step forward and doing something about the project. If you think Project X is so damned important, then <strong>DO IT.  Or Don&#8217;t.  Just stop talking about it.</strong></p>
<p>There are a lot of reasons for people to talk about doing something but not executing. Analysis Paralysis can kill any project before it starts.  Lack of courage is a killer too (you know&#8230;those folks who are scared of making decisions?).   Ego plays a role as well (people like to show how smart they are right?)</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve run into many leaders within organizations that talk about undertaking the big &#8217;strategic&#8217; projects.  And they talk.  And talk.  Talking doesn&#8217;t &#8220;move the needle&#8221; (sorry&#8230;I promised someone I&#8217;d insert &#8220;move the needle&#8221; into this week&#8217;s blog post&#8230;.they&#8217;re playing buzzword bingo and I want them to win!).  Talk without action does little more than frustrate people.</p>
<p><strong>The New CIO has to &#8220;do it or don&#8217;t&#8221;<br />
</strong></p>
<p>We all know  the foreseeable future of an IT group will be one of being understaffed and overworked.  There are a lot of projects that need to get done and a lot of projects that won&#8217;t get done.</p>
<p>The role of the future CIO is one of project executive. The New CIO has to step up as a decision maker and decide (along with the leadership team of the organization) which projects get funded and which don&#8217;t. After the decision is made, communicating that decision down the chain of command has to be done quickly and efficiently so the the entire organization knows what projects are a &#8216;go&#8217; and which aren&#8217;t.</p>
<p>You notice that in the last few paragraphs I never say that the CIO and his/her IT staff should stand around talking about the projects and why they are important. There isn&#8217;t a lot of discussion about why Project X should be done.  A decision is made whether it should be done or not and the team moves on. The New CIO has to take the lead in not talking things to death and just get it done.</p>
<p>Now&#8230;.I&#8217;m not saying you should stop discussing the value of a project or a strategy.  Quite the opposite actually.  You should discuss. You should debate.   That&#8217;s something that must happen.  But&#8230;there is a time when the debate has to end and something has to be done.</p>
<p>The New CIO needs to foster open debate on a subject but quickly make a decision.  With resources as constrained as they are in this economy, talking means wasted time and money.</p>
<p>Discuss, Debate, Decide.  Either DO or DON&#8217;T&#8230;just stop talking about it.</p>
<p><em>The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. Join me next week for another article in the series.</em></p>
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		<title>Links for November 8 2009</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/links-for-november-8-2009.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/links-for-november-8-2009.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:44:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Product Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sunday Links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Change Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chief information officer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CIO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Enterprise social software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zen Habits]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2950</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Intuition vs. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Some Rough Ideas by Bob Sutton on Bob Sutton &#8211; Work Matters
CIO and the Art of Decision Making by Arun Manansingh on A CIO&#8217;s Voice
Before you can truly talk about Change Management, you have to focus on achieving clear vision by Olivier Blanchard on The BrandBuilder Blog
The 5 Secret Characteristics Of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/intuition-vs-datadriven-decisionmaking-some-rough-ideas.html" target="_blank">Intuition vs. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Some Rough Ideas</a> by Bob Sutton on Bob Sutton &#8211; Work Matters</p>
<p><a href="http://arunmanansingh.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/cio-and-the-art-of-decision-making/" target="_blank">CIO and the Art of Decision Making</a> by Arun Manansingh on A CIO&#8217;s Voice</p>
<p><a href="http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/before-you-can-truly-talk-about-change-management-you-have-to-focus-on-achieving-clear-vision/" target="_blank">Before you can truly talk about Change Management, you have to focus on achieving clear vision</a> by <a class="zem_slink" title="Olivier Blanchard" rel="homepage" href="http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/">Olivier Blanchard</a> on The BrandBuilder Blog</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theaccidentalsuccessfulcio.com/leadership/the-5-secret-characteristics-of-a-truly-great-cio" target="_blank">The 5 Secret Characteristics Of A Truly Great CIO</a> by Dr. Jim Anderson on The Accidental Successful CIO</p>
<p><a href="http://altitudebranding.com/2009/11/where-measurement-falls-short/" target="_blank">Where Measurement Falls Short</a> by <a class="zem_slink" title="Amber Naslund" rel="homepage" href="http://altitudebranding.com/">Amber Naslund</a> on Altitude Branding</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.cutter.com/2009/11/03/it-strategies-for-rising-markets/" target="_blank">IT Strategies for Rising Markets</a> by Vince Kellen on The Cutter Blog</p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/11/04/why-stories-are-an-effective-communication-tool-for-your-blog/" target="_blank">Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog</a> by <a class="zem_slink" title="Darren Rowse" rel="homepage" href="http://friendfeed.com/problogger">Darren Rowse</a> on ProBlogger Blog Tips</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/baldoni/2009/11/use_humility_to_improve_perfor.html" target="_blank">Use Humility to Improve Performance</a> by John Baldoni on HarvardBusiness.org</p>
<p><a href="http://zenhabits.net/2009/11/the-only-way-to-become-amazingly-great-at-something/" target="_blank">The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something</a> from <a class="zem_slink" title="Zen Habits" rel="homepage" href="http://zenhabits.net">Zen Habits</a> by Leo Babauta</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/product_management/2009/11/is-social-product-management-for-real.html" target="_blank">Is &#8220;social product management&#8221; for real?</a> by Tom Grant on The Forrester Blog For Technology Product Management &amp; Marketing Professionals</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2009/11/06/761/" target="_blank">The value of IT exists over time not at a point in time</a> by Mark McDonald on the Gartner Blog Network</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cloudave.com/link/enterprise-2-0-caffeine-debunk-the-non-debate" target="_blank">Enterprise 2.0 Caffeine: Let’s Debunk the Non-Debate</a> by Mark Fidelman on <a class="zem_slink" title="CloudAve" rel="homepage" href="http://www.cloudave.com/">CloudAve</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/11/when-should-you-let-an-employe.html" target="_blank">When Should You Let an Employee Make a Mistake?</a> by Peter Bregman on HarvardBusiness.org</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.mountaingoatsoftware.com/balancing-anticipation-and-adaptation" target="_blank">Balancing Anticipation and Adaptation</a> by Mike Cohn on Mike Cohn&#8217;s Blog &#8211; Succeeding With Agile®</p>
<p><a href="http://www.angelamaiers.com/2009/11/our-words.html" target="_blank">Two Powerful Words: I NOTICE</a> by <a class="zem_slink" title="Angela Maiers" rel="homepage" href="http://www.angelamaiers.com/">Angela Maiers</a> on Angela Maiers Educational Services</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/11/06/the-intersection-of-quality-and-expectations/" target="_blank">The Intersection Of Quality And Expectations</a> by Jono Bacon on jonobacon@home</p>
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		<title>Stories, Projects &amp; Knowledge Management</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/stories-projects-knowledge-management.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/stories-projects-knowledge-management.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:56:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Doctorate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Knowledge Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business and Companies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presentation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SlideShare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vimeo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2949</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s the latest version of my storytelling for knowledge management in projects presentation.  Enjoy!
Recorded Presentation via Vimeo:
Don&#8217;t want to listen to me drone on and on?    You can view just the slides on Slideshare:


]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Here&#8217;s the latest version of my storytelling for knowledge management in projects presentation.  Enjoy!</p>
<p>Recorded Presentation via <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/7473046" target="_blank">Vimeo</a>:</p>
<p><a href="http://ericbrown.com/stories-projects-knowledge-management.htm"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
<p>Don&#8217;t want to listen to me drone on and on? <img src='http://ericbrown.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />   You can view just the slides on <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ericbrown/storytelling-project-knowledge-knowledge-management" target="_blank">Slideshare</a>:</p>
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		<title>The Dangers of Hidden Talent &#8211; New CIO Series</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/the-dangers-of-hidden-talent-new-cio-series.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/the-dangers-of-hidden-talent-new-cio-series.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Human Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2909</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.
Do you know the full capabilities of your team?
Sure&#8230;you know what their resume&#8217;s said.  You think you know their backgrounds and their experience&#8230;but do you really know your team?
Do you have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><em><a href="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/iStock_000000769859XSmall2.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2911" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="Talent" src="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/iStock_000000769859XSmall-300x198.jpg" alt="Talent" width="300" height="198" /></a>The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.</em></p>
<p>Do you know the full capabilities of your team?</p>
<p>Sure&#8230;you know what their resume&#8217;s said.  You think you know their backgrounds and their experience&#8230;but do you really <strong>know</strong> your team?</p>
<p>Do you have a developer who, in their free time, is extremely active in the blogosphere and the social media world?  Do you have a <a class="zem_slink" title="Project manager" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_manager">project manager</a> who really wants to make a lateral move into <a class="zem_slink" title="Service management" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_management">service management</a>?</p>
<p>Do you really know your team?  If you don&#8217;t, you may be leaving a lot of talent, skills and passion on the table.</p>
<p><strong>Dangers of Hidden Talent</strong></p>
<p>Leaving talent untapped is unforgivable to me and should be unacceptable to you. We live in a world where we&#8217;re expected to do more with less and rely more heavily on people&#8217;s knowledge &amp; skills to make our businesses work.</p>
<p>Knowing this is the case, why do we hire a person, train them (do you train your people?) and then forget about them?  Why do we ignore the idea of <a class="zem_slink" title="Talent management" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_management">talent management</a> and <a class="zem_slink" title="Human capital" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital">human capital?</a> Read more of my thoughts on those topics <a href="http://ericbrown.com/competitive-advantage-the-human-capital-approach.htm">here</a> and <a href="http://ericbrown.com/competitive-advantage-and-the-resource-based-view-of-the-firm.htm">here</a> and if you&#8217;re looking for a great book on Talent &amp; Competitive Advantage, check out <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787998389?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=edbholdings-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0787998389">Talent : Making People Your Competitive Advantage</a><img style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=edbholdings-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0787998389" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> (<em>amazon affiliate link</em>) and/or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422104478?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=edbholdings-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1422104478">Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty</a><img style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=edbholdings-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1422104478" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> (<em>amazon affiliate link</em>).  Both of those books are excellent.</p>
<p>Do you have regular meetings with your team?  Do you talk about their careers?  Do you know that your star programmer is a widely read blogger?  Can you use the talent and passion of that programmer to more than just develop the next application?</p>
<p>Hidden talent doesn&#8217;t just sit within your front-line teams.  Did you know that your Director of Technical Support is working on her Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing?  Are there things she can do to provide more value to the organization than just leading the service desk?</p>
<p>Hidden talent is hidden profit, hidden revenue and hidden advantage.  Hidden talent can also be the death of your team if it isn&#8217;t uncovered.</p>
<p><strong>Uncovering Hidden Talent</strong></p>
<p>Do you know what drives each of your team members? What really gets them excited in the morning?  I&#8217;d bet there are a few people on your team that aren&#8217;t that happy in their current role and who are looking for something else to do.  Rather than lose them to another company, why not help them find something more interesting within your team and/or organization?</p>
<p>What can you do to help them become happier and more engaged? Could you get your programmer / blogger to work on more projects where he can use his writing skills?  What could your Tech Support Director provide to the organization now that you know she&#8217;s extremely interested in creative writing?</p>
<p>Of course you can&#8217;t make everyone 100% happy all the time.  People still have jobs to do&#8230;but if you take some time to talk with your team about the career ambitions and do what you can to help them reach their goals, you&#8217;ll be amazed at the response you&#8217;ll receive from them.</p>
<p>What can you do to uncover hidden talent?  Simple&#8230;talk to your team.  I mean really talk.  Try to understand their aspirations and what drives them.  Look for their hidden passions &amp; skills.  Work with your team to uncover the hidden talents and you&#8217;ll see new vigor from your team.</p>
<p><strong>Finding the Talent &#8211; A New CIO skill</strong></p>
<p>So&#8230;time to add one more skillset to The New CIO&#8217;s job requirements&#8230;that of Talent Miner.  Of course, this role can be fulfilled by any member of the IT staff (and anyone else in the organization), but as the top dog in IT you&#8217;ve got to lead people in this area.</p>
<p>The New CIO needs to get things done with the resources given to them&#8230;but those resources might be able to provide  more value than originally thought&#8230;if you look for the hidden talent. &#8220;Doing more with less&#8221; is the mantra these days&#8230;find those folks on your team who are passionate about something and find ways to let them bring that passion to their job.</p>
<p>Uncover the hidden talent within your team/organization and watch the growth that occurs.  Fail to uncover that talent and you&#8217;ll fail to reach the potential of your people and your team.</p>
<p><em>Join me next week for another article in The New CIO series.</em></p>
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		<title>Agility and The New CIO</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/agility-and-the-new-cio.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/agility-and-the-new-cio.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:31:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The New CIO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chief information officer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2907</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.
Are you agile?
I&#8217;m not talking about the Agile development methodology&#8230;I&#8217;m talking about BEING agile.  Are you able to deliver what your organization needs (with less resources)?
Build it&#8230;.or they will
Do you have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><em>The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.</em></p>
<p>Are you agile?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not talking about the <a class="zem_slink" title="Agile software development" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development">Agile development</a> methodology&#8230;I&#8217;m talking about BEING agile.  Are you able to deliver what your organization needs (with less resources)?</p>
<p><strong>Build it&#8230;.or they will</strong></p>
<p>Do you have a <a href="http://ericbrown.com/shadow-it-aka-doing-what-it-wontcant.htm">Shadow IT</a> group or groups in your organization?  If you said no, I&#8217;d bet you&#8217;d be wrong.   There are always Shadow groups within organizations&#8230;.the difference between your organization and others has to do with the governance and <a class="zem_slink" title="Network security" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_security">network security</a>.  Perhaps you don&#8217;t have a full-blown shadow IT group with non-supported applications and and/or hardware, but I&#8217;d put money on the fact that there is a person within your company that has purchased access to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product.</p>
<p>Why would someone go outside your IT organization?  That&#8217;s an easy answer&#8230;.because you can&#8217;t get things done for them.</p>
<p>Forget that <a class="zem_slink" title="Information technology governance" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology_governance">IT governance</a>, security and processes have to be followed&#8230;the end-user can&#8217;t get what they need from you so they go out and find something on their own.  If you&#8217;re lucky, all they&#8217;ve done is purchase a SaaS application. If you&#8217;re unlucky they&#8217;ve gone out and procured a third-party platform that they want to integrate with the rest of your IT systems.</p>
<p><strong>Why does Shadow IT exist?</strong></p>
<p>There&#8217;s a ton of reasons that these types of things occur, but most simply, Shadow IT arises because people don&#8217;t feel they are getting what they need from the IT group.</p>
<p>They feel like it&#8217;s too difficult to work with IT.  It takes too long to get things done.  There are too many restrictions placed upon them from IT.</p>
<p>You know what? They&#8217;re right!  At least from their perspective, they are.  Think about it.  Should it take a year to get a new <a class="zem_slink" title="Project management" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management">project management</a> tool setup for your Marketing group?  Should your Finance group really have to care about the technical restrictions?  I say no.</p>
<p><strong>How do you fix it?</strong></p>
<p>While I believe the real answer is a difficult and deep one but the place to start to looking for answers is a simple one: Be agile.</p>
<p>Make it easier for your organization to get things done. Make it easy for your Marketing group to implement a PM tool.  Take the restrictions out of the equation when talking to Finance about a new platform.  Understand their needs first and then you and your IT staff figure out how to deliver the system that they need.</p>
<p>The New CIO will have to be agile and build an agile team. Agility can mean many thinks but it doesn&#8217;t mean you have to ignore IT governance, security or your processes&#8230;just don&#8217;t use them as excuses for not getting things done.</p>
<p><em>Join me next week for another article in The New CIO series.</em></p>
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		<title>Project Success and Failure and The New CIO</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/project-success-and-failure-and-the-new-cio.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/project-success-and-failure-and-the-new-cio.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[The New CIO]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ericbrown.com/?p=2880</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.
Earlier this week, I listened to an interesting webinar hosted by Michael Krigsman and led by Chris Curran.  The topic of the webinar was the CIO&#8217;s role in success or failure [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><em>The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/iStock_000005275485XSmall1.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2881" title="The CIO's role in Project Success and/or Failure" src="http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/iStock_000005275485XSmall1.jpg" alt="The CIO's role in Project Success and/or Failure" width="341" height="226" /></a>Earlier this week, I listened to an interesting webinar hosted by<a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/" target="_blank"> Michael Krigsman</a> and led by <a href="http://www.diamondconsultants.com/PublicSite/people/team/?topic=Technology%20Strategy%20and%20Transformation&amp;name=Chris%20Curran" target="_blank">Chris Curran</a>.  The topic of the webinar was the CIO&#8217;s role in success or failure of IT projects. Great webinar with some excellent folks. Both Michael and Chris provided after-action blog posts about webinar&#8230;you can jump over and read them at:</p>
<ul>
<li><a title="Chief Information Officer's role in Project Success / failure" href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=4879" target="_blank">IT failures town hall recap: Exploring the CIO&#8217;s role</a> &#8211; Michael Krigsman</li>
<li><a title="Chief Information Officer's role in Project Success / failure" href="http://www.ciodashboard.com/leadership/cio-role-influence-control/" target="_blank">The CIO Role: One of Influence or Control?</a> &#8211; Chris Curran</li>
</ul>
<p>Chris has a few great points on his post (did you read it? Please do).  Basically, he asks whether the CIO&#8217;s role is one of Influence or Control.</p>
<p>Great question&#8230;because it gets to the heart of the issues we see today in organizations &amp; how The New CIO can influence the organizations to succeed (or fail) in the projects that are undertaken.</p>
<p><strong>Command &amp; Control &#8211; The Old Model<br />
</strong></p>
<p>IT groups (and organizations) have historically been run in the command and control mentality with the CIO being the one that commanded IT and taking orders from the CFO, COO or CEO.</p>
<p>This worked well in the old days of legacy systems,  centralized application &amp; centralized IT.  Those days are leaving quickly with users quickly adopting web applications to get their jobs done quicker.</p>
<p><strong>The New CIO &#8211; Influence First<br />
</strong></p>
<p>As Chris <a href="http://www.ciodashboard.com/leadership/cio-role-influence-control/" target="_blank">suggests</a>,  the CIO&#8217;s role in the future will be that of influencer in large organizations and influencer and controller in medium and small organizations.</p>
<p>I believe The New CIO will have to be an influencer first and foremost. The New CIO will need to influence both upward (to the CEO), sideways (CFO, COO,CMO, etc) and downward to their teams.  She&#8217;ll  have to find ways to build consensus on the &#8220;<a title="The Right Technology Strategy - Defining Right" href="http://ericbrown.com/defining-right-the-new-cio-series.htm" target="_blank">right strategy</a>&#8221; while keeping an eye on how to <a title="Technology Strategy Implementation - Minding the gap between Strategy &amp; Tactics" href="http://ericbrown.com/minding-the-gap-between-strategy-and-tactics-the-new-cio-series.htm" target="_blank">implement that strategy</a> and continuously building the best the she can.</p>
<p><strong>The New CIO &amp; Projects &#8211; Influencing Success<br />
</strong></p>
<p>There are a lot of things you can do to improve project success, but the most important method to improve things are often the most overlooked. Those overlooked items can be addressed via Influence&#8230;either by influence others in the leadership team, influencing the organization&#8217;s project selection or influencing the ability to deliver.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a few examples of what The New CIO can do to influence project outcomes:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Influence others within the organization</em> &#8211; This helps ensure that the projects undertaken by the organization fit the organizational strategy as well as the technology strategy for the company.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Build relationships with the other CxO&#8217;s &amp; VP&#8217;s</em> &#8211; CIO&#8217;s have been notorious for not have good networking and relationship building skills.  Work on that. The better you understand your peers, the better you can understand what their needs will be.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Clearly communicate what success /failure means</em> &#8211; Does your team / organization understand what a successful project looks like?  Do you have people who think that a successful project means one with zero problems?   You need to let the organization know what success looks like.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Build your project management team</em> &#8211; Project Manager&#8217;s are a dime a dozen.  Certified Project Manager&#8217;s are too.  But GREAT project managers are hard to find.  Go find one, hire them, pay them well, give them the ability to lead your project team(s) and watch out.  BTW &#8211; Project Management Certification does NOT equal good project manager.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Build your project delivery team</em> &#8211; How many times has a project slipped because of manpower?  If you have the ability, dedicate some of your staff to be project delivery staff&#8230;take them away from the busy work that most IT folks find themselves buried in.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Improve your relationship(s) with your vendor(s)</em> &#8211; You need your vendors. You need them to make money and you need them to be happy.  Don&#8217;t treat them like second class citizens.  Your vendors can make or break your project.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Improve the lives of your contractors</em> &#8211; Do you use contractors for most of your projects?  Then you need to see above.  You need your contractors to be happy too.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Stay Involved</em> &#8211; A CIO that doesn&#8217;t say involved in projects is setting themselves up for failure.  Staying involved doesn&#8217;t mean you need micromanage or be in every project meeting, you The New CIO needs to stay close to the projects to be sure to see any problems that might pop up.</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other things (feel free to share your thoughts in the comments) but as you can see, project success / failure hinges on the soft skills&#8230;those pesky people skills.</p>
<p><strong>On that topic &#8211; People Skills + Analytical Skills</strong></p>
<p>While analytics and metrics (project schedules, % complete, etc) are necessary, you need to be able to talk about your projects with your team &amp; with the organization.  Engage in discussion early and often to see what&#8217;s  happening in the project(s) and what can be done to address any issues.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t wait for someone to bring you a problem&#8230;talk to folks and find the problems before they come up.  Have meaningful conversations about the project(s) and even take time to debate the issues to find solutions.  Add this rhetorical skill set to your project team&#8217;s skills, and you&#8217;ll see an increase in the success rate of your projects.</p>
<p><strong>The New CIO &#8211; Project Manager in disguise?</strong></p>
<p>Kind of. Perhaps project manager is the wrong term but you will need to be a Project Leader.  On top of the other items on the plate of The New CIO, you&#8217;ll need to do everything in your power to ensure project success.</p>
<p>Help the organization pick the right projects, make sure you can implement those projects by building a great delivery team and stay involved in the projects as much as you can (do <strong>not</strong> micromange&#8230;just stay involved).</p>
<p>Any other suggestions for The New CIO to take help influence projects along the road to success?</p>
<p><em>Join me next week for another The New CIO article.</em></p>
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		<title>Sitecore Implementation Notes</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/sitecore-implementation-notes.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/sitecore-implementation-notes.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:24:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Content management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[



Image by Frédéric Harper via Flickr



I&#8217;m coming up on 2 years of working with Sitecore, a .NET Content Management System (see my post titled &#8220;Some Thoughts on Sitecore CMS&#8221; for previous thoughts on the subject).  These two years have been interesting, challenging and exciting and educational.
Since I&#8217;ve written about Sitecore in the past, I wanted [...]]]></description>
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<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33267933@N03/3529839942"><img title="Le kiosque de Sitecore" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/3529839942_fa8b97c4f5_m.jpg" alt="Le kiosque de Sitecore" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33267933@N03/3529839942">Frédéric Harper</a> via Flickr</dd>
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<p>I&#8217;m coming up on 2 years of working with <a class="zem_slink" title="Sitecore" rel="homepage" href="http://www.sitecore.net">Sitecore</a>, a .NET Content Management System (see my post titled &#8220;<a href="http://ericbrown.com/some-thoughts-on-sitecore-cms.htm">Some Thoughts on Sitecore CMS</a>&#8221; for previous thoughts on the subject).  These two years have been interesting, challenging and exciting and educational.</p>
<p>Since I&#8217;ve written about Sitecore in the past, I wanted to take some time to circle back around and share some additional thoughts on Sitecore CMS implemention.  While my experience has been with Sitecore, these are general types of CMS questions, thoughts and strategies and could be applied to any other platform.</p>
<p>Before I get into Sitecore, let&#8217;s look at CMS implementations in general.</p>
<p><strong>CMS Implementation &#8211; 4 questions<br />
</strong></p>
<p>For a few minutes, forget about the technology.  Don&#8217;t even think about tthat until you can answer these questions:</p>
<p><em>1.) Why do you want or need a CMS? </em></p>
<p>This seems like a simple question&#8230;but if your answer is to &#8216;manage web content&#8217;, you haven&#8217;t completely thought through the strengths of a CMS. Content Management Systems provide much more than just content management; they provide a means to push content ownership out to the subject matter experts.  This holds true for all CMS platforms, whether <a href="http://sitecore.net/en/Products/Sitecore-CMS.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore</a>, <a href="http://www.ektron.com/" target="_blank">Ektron</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Umbraco" rel="homepage" href="http://umbraco.org/">Umbraco</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Interwoven" rel="homepage" href="http://www.interwoven.com">Interwoven</a>, <a href="http://drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://wordpress.org" target="_blank">Wordpress</a> (yes..it is a great CMS) or one of the many others.</p>
<p><em>2.) How will you allow content owners to actually own the content?</em></p>
<p>When you get your CMS in place, how will your organization push out ownership of the content? What processes can you put in place to allow you to open your CMS to the all content owners. And&#8230;yes&#8230;i used the word &#8216;process&#8217;.  Don&#8217;t overdo it though!  <img src='http://ericbrown.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><em>3.) Who &#8220;owns&#8221; the CMS?</em></p>
<p>This is a loaded question.  While the CMS is a content platform, is it owned by the IT group?   Sure, the platform itself is an IT platform and needs IT services to keep it running, but should the IT group &#8216;own&#8217; the platform?   {My answer: No &#8211; the business unit(s) should}</p>
<p><em>4.) Do you have a web &amp; marketing strategy?  Who &#8220;owns&#8221; this strategy?</em></p>
<p>This is one of the questions that seem easy..but it isn&#8217;t.  Does your marketing department own the web?  IT?  PR?  Who sets your web strategy?  Do you have a strategy?  How does your CMS driven web fit into your marketing strategy?</p>
<p>Answer these questions before you move into your CMS implementation program and you&#8217;ll save yourself a lot of trouble.  I&#8217;m working on another article that addresses these questions (and others) that should be part of an organizaiton&#8217;s technology selection strategy plan&#8230;look for that article in the future.</p>
<p><strong>Sitecore CMS Implementation Thoughts</strong></p>
<p>Now, its time to look at the technology. For those that don&#8217;t know, Sitecore CMS is a <a class="zem_slink" title=".NET Framework" rel="homepage" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/">.NET platform</a>.  If your organization is a <a class="zem_slink" title="Microsoft" rel="homepage" href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a> shop, Sitecore is a great fit for you.  You do have other options (<a href="http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Sharepoint</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Open Text Corporation" rel="homepage" href="http://www.opentext.com/">OpenText</a>, etc) but my experience has me recommending Sitecore over all others in the .NET world.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pre-implementation </span><strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p>Prior to selecting Sitecore (or any CMS), you&#8217;ve got to take some time to think about your processes &amp; workflows.  Determine who will have the &#8216;final word&#8217; on how content is published and where it lives.  Set some web standards (if you don&#8217;t have them already) and determine your content architecture &amp; strategy.  Will you be reorganizing your content?  How about a new design?  Easy decisions right? <img src='http://ericbrown.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>You&#8217;ve answered the four questions above and figured out the high-level stuff&#8230;that was easy right?  Not really&#8230;its harder than it seems but determining this stuff up front will help tremendously once you start implementing Sitecore CMS as it will driving your implementation strategy and plan.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve got the budget, <a href="http://ericbrown.com/about-eric">hire an outside consultant</a> to help you with this step in the project.  If you bring in the right consultant, they could also act as the overall CMS Program Manager (more on this later).</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Implementation</span></p>
<p>Now that you&#8217;ve worked through the pre-implementation phase, what now?  Time to get your Sitecore CMS platform implemented.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s the first step?  Grab your development staff  and get some <a href="http://sitecore.net/en/Training/Course-Overview.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore Training</a> to get certified.  This certification is much more than just a piece of paper&#8230;it gets your team to a point where they can understand the Sitecore terminology and best practices. This often overlooked step in CMS implementations tends to come back around and haunt the organization at a later date.  Spend the money up front and you&#8217;ll save money in the long run.</p>
<p>Implementing the basic Sitecore CMS system is a fairly straightforward process.  The hardware requirements are well documented and installation is straightforward.  Sounds easy right?  So far, it is.</p>
<p>You&#8217;ve found the hardware, configured it and run the Sitecore CMS installation program. Now it&#8217;s time to look at splitting your CMS implementation efforts into three parts: Development, Content &amp; Training</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Development</strong> &#8211; Developing for Sitecore CMS platform isn&#8217;t too different than any other .NET development effort. Using .NET best practices, development isn&#8217;t too difficult, but the architecture of the platform is extremely important.  Take some time to think about your content and IT infrastructure at this point.</li>
<li><strong>Content</strong> &#8211; You&#8217;ve got a Content Management System (or at least one that is being implemented). Time to start implementing your content architecture plans and filling your sitecore tree with content.  This initial Content work should be done by a single content team&#8230;do not leave this work to your content owners.  Take this opportunity to reorganize your content as necessary.</li>
<li><strong>Training</strong> &#8211; In addition to developing out your website, applications and content, you&#8217;ve got to start introducing Sitecore CMS to your organizations&#8217; users.    This means lots of meetings, training and discussions of what the CMS is and how it can help them.  One of the often overlooked pieces of a CMS implementation is end-user training.  Not only do you need to train the organization in the use of the platform, but also in the organizations web &amp; content strategy.</li>
</ol>
<p>As you can see, implementing a CMS platform like Sitecore is quite a large undertaking even for a smaller organization, but with proper planning and knowledge of Sitecore CMS, you&#8217;ll do fine.</p>
<p><strong>Managing the Implementation</strong></p>
<p>CMS implementations are much more than a &#8216;project&#8217;&#8230;you&#8217;ve got a Program here.  From my experience, an implementation in a medium to large organization requires a Program Manager to lead the different projects with project managers heading up each of the main thrusts of the project (Hardware, Development, Content, Training).</p>
<p>There are many different pieces to an implementation. You&#8217;ve got to worry about IT Infrastructure,  Software development, web design, web content and other topics. Spend the money upfront to get a good Program Manager (use an external consultant if needed) and Project Managers (you could use internal PM&#8217;s for this). If you approach this right (and have the budget), you can bring in a consultant to help throughout the project (from technology selection through final implementation).</p>
<p>While a CMS implementation is a large undertaking, it&#8217;s fairly straightforward if you have some knowledge in web strategy, technology, content, marketing and Sitecore CMS.  While there are a lot of technical issues to work through, the most difficult part of a CMS implementation is really the content strategy, user education and user adoption aspects&#8230;this is where experience and thought leadership comes into play.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re looking to implement a CMS (Sitecore or otherwise), forget about the technical aspects of the CMS when you start out&#8230;look at the business first to make sure it is capable of  sustaining your web &amp; content strategy.  Understand the business needs first then find your CMS and implement the proper workflow and content architecture to meet the current and future needs of the organization.  This is a common sense stuff, but often overlooked when it comes to CMS projects.</p>
<p><em>There are many people &amp; organizations  that can help&#8230;I know many of them and would be happy to help you find the right person or organization to help with your Sitecore (or other platform) implementation.  Give me a call or email and I&#8217;ll do what I can to help.</em><em><br />
</em></p>
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		<title>Using Stories to share knowledge</title>
		<link>http://ericbrown.com/using-stories-to-share-knowledge.htm</link>
		<comments>http://ericbrown.com/using-stories-to-share-knowledge.htm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:11:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric D. Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Doctorate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Knowledge Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Project Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glenn Whitfield]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Knowledge sharing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Storytelling]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[As part of a research project for my doctorate work I&#8217;ve been looking at the use of storytelling for knowledge sharing in project teams.  I&#8217;ve found the topic extremely interesting and perhaps even something I can find a dissertation topic out of.
While looking through my RSS Reader last week I ran across Glenn Whitfield&#8217;s post [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>As part of a <a class="zem_slink" title="Research" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research">research project</a> for my doctorate work I&#8217;ve been looking at the use of <a class="zem_slink" title="Storytelling" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling">storytelling</a> for <a class="zem_slink" title="Knowledge sharing" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_sharing">knowledge sharing</a> in project teams.  I&#8217;ve found the topic extremely interesting and perhaps even something I can find a dissertation topic out of.</p>
<p>While looking through my RSS Reader last week I ran across <a class="zem_slink" title="Glenn Whitfield" rel="blog" href="http://itbusinessalignment.wordpress.com/">Glenn Whitfield</a>&#8217;s post titled &#8216;<a href="http://itbusinessalignment.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/when-thinking-isn%E2%80%99t-an-option-tell-a-story/">When thinking isn&#8217;t an option &#8211; tell a story</a>&#8216; and felt a sense of deja vu&#8230;.Glenn was talking about the very subject I&#8217;ve been researching.</p>
<p>The last two paragraphs of Glenn&#8217;s post are:</p>
<blockquote><p>So how do you get your point across when people don&#8217;t want to think?</p>
<p>Just tell a story.  For thousands of years, human beings have learned many life lessons from stories or fables (remember Aesop&#8217;s Fables).  So why not use them to get your point across?  In just a few paragraphs, you can tell someone about a problem (the issue), provide a plausible explanation (impact of the issue), and teach a lesson (the solution to the issue).  Nice and neat, and everyone is satisfied. By using the facts and information you have and molding it into a story that the audience can relate to, you will have their attention, and you can make your point effectively.  Yes, you will have to really think about how to put your facts into a story your audience can relate to, but remember, you want to make sure that your issue is clearly understood.</p>
<p>As much as we may want to get people to think more, when it&#8217;s clear your audience is not up for it, telling a story is a very effective way to get your point across and get what you want.  Remember, we all like a good story.</p></blockquote>
<p>Great introduction in the use of stories to get your point across.</p>
<p>Stories have been used to pass down wisdom and knowledge from the beginning of time.   Every culture has had its own stories and storytelling techniques so it makes sense that using stories to transfer and share knowledge within project teams might prove worth researching.  I&#8217;m currently researching this topic and will be working a paper that I hope to get published later this year.</p>
<p>In the meantime, If you&#8217;re interested in learning more about storytelling applications in <a class="zem_slink" title="Knowledge Management" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Management">knowledge management</a>, take a look / listen to the  presentation I put together for one of my courses on the topic of storytelling and knowledge management.  You can view the <a href="http://ericbrown.com/infs838/StorytellingandKM.pdf">PDF</a> here or watch/listen to the <a href="http://ericbrown.com/infs838/StorytellingandKM.mov">quicktime presentation here</a>. You can download <a href="http://ericbrown.com/infs838/storytellingandkm.zip"> the Quicktime video (in Zip format) here</a>.</p>
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