Tag: Mike Cottmeyer

Fresh Links Sundae – March 2, 2014 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. Often they are from the people whose work I admire or resonate with me. I hope you will find these ideas thought-provoking at the minimum. Even better, I hope these ideas will, over time, help my fellow IT pros make better decisions, be awesome, and kick ass!

Filipa Preston believes that ITAM can play an essential partnering role to the business. She explains how ITAM can add value by demonstrating the bankable savings the project actually delivered while also showing how we can reduce risks to the business in the long-term. How do you convince the CFO? (The ITAM Review)

IT is well positioned to make positive contributions to many aspects of the business operations. Michael Hugos suggests ways that a CIO can help the VP of Sales in the organization. How the CIO Can Help the VP Sales (Enterprise Efficiency)

In today’s organizations, our job often is not to control change, but rather to control the impact of change on the project. Samuel Brown recommends four approaches when dealing with changes in project management. Four Axioms for Controlling Change (Global Knowledge Training Blog)

Many IT organizations are trying to transform themselves from a cost-center role into a value-added role. Pearl Zhu explains what steps IT can take to enhance their value-added approach. How to Run IT as a Better Business Partner (Future of CIO)

To many people, Agile means delivering results with short planning cycles and making adjustments as we go. While speed and schedule are crucial, Mike Cottmeyer reminds us that the ability to plan and to estimate well is critical to all projects. Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Agile (LeadingAgile)

Many Business Continuity Management (BCM) programs need to transform from a reactive, isolated activity to an integrated, solution-driven strategy that adds resiliency for the organization. Patrick Potter explains why the transformation is important and what BCM leaders can do to make more of an impact. Building A Stronger, More Strategic BCM Program (Continuity Insights)

Some product backlogs are unavoidable, but not all backlogs present a negative impact. Len Lagestee outlines eight signs for which the backlogs seem to be ineffective and should be actively managed. 8 Symptoms of an Ineffective Product Backlog (Illustrated Agile)

Business analysts often find themselves given a high-priority project with little time to prepare. Laura Brandenburg explains what a business analyst can do to clarify scope quickly and to put a reasonable timeline estimated in place. How to Create a Business Analyst Timeline (Bridging the Gap)

Many organizations use published corporate values to encourage certain behaviors from their leaders. In reality, Marshall Goldsmith believes that the leaders’ actions often speak much louder than words posted on the office walls. Leaders Make Values Visible (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

For some, public speaking means memorizing the entire speech and delivering it to the audience. Mitch Joel believes that is the wrong way of delivering speech and offer suggestions on how to make your speech add value to your audience’s time. Another Public Speaking Horror Story (Six Pixels of Separation)

Fresh Links Sundae – February 9, 2014 Edition

Successful problem management process requires KPIs and targets that can be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of the IT services. Rob England gives a list of suggested KPIs that can be incorporated into your problem management effort. Measuring problem management (The IT Skeptic)

Many IT organizations have no formalized way of communicating with the business. Thom Salo explains how instituting a Business Relationship Management (BRM) process can help to strengthen the working relationship between IT and business. ITIL’s BRM: How Business Relationship Management Shows the Love (Plexent Blog)

The speed of business change is accelerating, but IT still needs to continue its effort to transform from a cost center to value creator. Pearl Zhu examines the forces behind the changes and suggests how IT can transform itself. How to Run IT as a ‘Digital Horse’? (Future of CIO)

A majority of Software Asset Management (SAM) managers today spend the bulk of their time on inventory-related activities that should have been automated. Sean Robinson believes that is not the best use of SAM manager’s time and advocates other proactive approaches that SAM managers should consider. How do SAM managers spend their time? (The ITAM Review)

When you try to improve your IT services, regular review of certain activities are critical. Ryan Ogilvie recommends some practical examples which we should be reviewing with some regularity. What Happened? Performing Service Management Reviews (Service Management Journey)

Sometimes, there is a significant difference whether your boss is a micromanager, or is micromanaging you. Bob Lewis explains the difference and suggests approaches that can be taken to deal with the situation. Dealing with a micromanaging boss (IS Survivor Publishing)

When designing your organizational processes around agile, a number of structure-related considerations have to be taken into account. Mike Cottmeyer explains what those structural considerations are and shares his experience. How to Structure Your Agile Enterprise (LeadingAgile)

When use cases are not clear, business stakeholders, developers, and testers cannot do an effective job. Laura Brandenburg outlines the most common use case mistakes that can lead to ambiguity. 7 Use Case Mistakes That Confuse Your Stakeholders (Bridging the Gap)

Marshall Goldsmith believes an incorrect assumption of almost all leadership development programs is “if they understand, they will do.” He explains why that assumption is not valid in leadership development and offers recommendations on what changes a leader should consider making. If They Understand, They Will Do (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Many of us set noble goals but often find it difficult to reach them. Jeff Haden suggests that you need to pay more attention to the systems you deploy than simply focusing on the goals themselves. An Almost Foolproof Way to Achieve Every Goal You Set (Inc.com)

Fresh Links Sundae – January 19, 2014 Edition

Many ITSM implementations strive to engage in communication with customers and to establish the foundation for continual improvement. In fact, Doug Tedder advocates that those two points are probably the most essential objectives for any ITSM implementation. Good Enough is Good Enough (HDIConnect)

While HR tells us we can only deal with behavior, not attitude, Bob Lewis disagrees. He explains why attitude is something leaders cannot ignore, especially when it comes to building and driving a culture of effectiveness. Behavior isn’t enough (IS Survivor Publishing)

Leveraging his government IT leadership experience, Matthew Burton discusses the critical aspects of talent and tools when it comes to managing large government IT effort. Lessons learned from my time at the CFPB (O’Reilly Radar)

Patrick Gray believes that reference architecture should provide a blueprint for advancing your business or technology strategy. He goes on to discuss the approaches of coming up with effective designs. Tapping into the real-world value of reference architectures (TechRepublic)

With the initiation of SMCongress, Paul Wilkinson believes it’s time that we must demonstrate the added value of ITSM. He discusses different types of resistance and the issue of “implementing ITSM” in general. SMCongress – Why this initiative? Why now? [Part 1] SMCongress – Why this initiative? Why now? [Part 2] (ITSM Portal)

John Coles advises that organizations should train their employees to recognize the distinction between Personal Information Management (PIM) and Business Information Management (BIM). Without the distinction, we could miss excellent opportunities for sharing and collaborating, create sideway-paths of inefficiencies, or even incur opportunity cost. PIM vs. BIM: Personal Information Management vs. Business Information Management (HDIConnect)

Many ITSM efforts have a significant focus on process/tools implementation. Thom Salo cautions us that ITIL implementation is much more about the culture than simply the processes. Think ITIL Is All About Process? Then You Missed The Point. (Plexent)

A number of organizations implement monitoring for their IT environment but doing it in a silo or non-integrated manner. In order to have an effective event management practice in your organization, Ryan Ogilvie reminds us the importance of understanding what we are monitoring and why. Event Management – Who Sees What (Service Management Journey)

While a number of enterprises have started to adopt Agile, some are still failing with Scrum and struggling extending it into the enterprise. With multi-part posts, Mike Cottmeyer shares and discusses his experience of helping organizations adopt Agile. Are We Solving The Right Problem? What Problems Are Executives Trying To Solve With Agile? Is Your Business Model A Good Fit For Agile? How to Make Commitments in the Face of Uncertainty (LeadingAgile)

While studying the leadership characteristics, Marshall Goldsmith discusses the emerging trends and outlines five new factors that have emerged as clearly more important in the future. Future Leaders (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)