Tag: Ryan Ogilvie

Fresh Links Sundae – January 11, 2015 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!

Data preparation and curation is the task that often consumes the majority portion of the data mining effort. Ben Lorica outlines some of the data preparation lessons discussed in the recent Strata + Hadoop World at New York. Lessons from next-generation data wrangling tools (O’Reilly Radar)

Many organizations have high awareness of the need to build analytics capability but understand very little on the how-to. Lana Klein discusses five approaches for getting through the analytics maze. Analytics: Five Rules to Cut Through the Hype (KDnuggets)

While IT may be a prominent service provider within an organization, there are other functions that also provide services to the enterprise. Darroll Buytenhuys talks about how organizations can leverage IT’s service management experience to benefit other shared services teams. Enterprise Service Management – Enabling Value Delivery Outside IT (The ITSM Review)

According to Dennis Drogseth, ITSM will become a critical, enabling element as the role of IT transforming to become a more front-office and customer focus. He discusses the trends he saw in 2014 that will grow in importance in 2015. The Changing Game of IT Service Management (EMA Blogs)

While data mining receives a great deal of attention today, many businesses still operate with rudimentary decision capability that is very apparent through their interactions with the customers. Michael Maoz suggests that, until IT and lines of business are working together, data mining’s impact will continue to be limited. Why data mining resembles handing a child a scalpel (Gartner Blogs)

Some people believe that, because project requirements are often too fluid, formal project planning may not be as critical as actually doing project work. Glen Alleman reminds us what capabilities-based planning is and what it is intended to do. Capabilities Based Planning (Herding Cats)

Many organizations set goals for process improvement at the beginning of the year. However, many of those resolutions fail to follow through as the months go by. Ryan Ogilvie makes suggestions on how to stay motivated and achieve the results you were hoping for. Goal Setting and New Year’s Resolutions – 6 of one Half Dozen of the other (Service Management Journey)

Today’s organizations face attack in the cyberspace by highly organized groups with deep pockets and high levels of know-how. Eddie Schwartz outlines four steps where organizations must take immediately to defend their information assets in today’s landscape. Lessons from the Sony breach: Four things that need to happen now (ISACA Now)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 2, 2014 Edition

Thomas Redman believes that managers should rarely take an important analysis at face value. He explains how data can be interpreted to tell one story but still fail to present the whole picture. When It Comes to Data, Skepticism Matters (Harvard Business Review)

Like all technology implementation efforts, cost benefits analysis should be part of a NoSQL implementation. William Vorhie explains what the two categories of benefit in NoSQL are and how to quantify them. Quantifying the Value of a NoSQL Project (Data Science Central)

Most of us think of taking meeting notes as merely a mundane transcription exercise. Bob Lewis would argue that taking and publishing the meeting notes is one of the most important jobs in a meeting. Notes about notes (IS Survivor Publishing)

Glen Alleman would advocate that, in order to make good decisions, we require good estimates. He explains five decision-making processes and how to incorporate sound estimating effort into those processes. Decision Making Without Estimates? (Herding Cats)

Understand the algorithm is a critical element of leveraging machine learning techniques effectively. Jason Brownlee outlines five ways to study and learn about machine learning algorithms. How to Study Machine Learning Algorithms (Machine Learning Mastery)

Many organizations do not have an organized approach to handling major IT incidents, and, as a result, they compromise their abilities to capture valuable lessons. Ryan Ogilvie discusses the four stages of a major incident handling and what challenges we need to overcome. Not Doing Proper Post Incident Reviews Could Haunt You (Service Management Journey)

Many organizations spend a great deal of effort on IT benchmarking but often get back the results that have little impact. Pearl Zhu discusses how to do benchmarking effectively in order to get the most impactful results from the effort. Is IT Benchmarking valuable or a Waste? (Future of CIO)

With the current and future landscape of tools, technologies, and processes, the IT environment has been changing in a fast and dramatic pace. Chris Riley discusses the challenges IT and Operations will face now and into 2015 and how to address those challenges. 6 Challenges Facing DevOps and Operations Teams in 2015 (logentries)

Fresh Links Sundae – October 19, 2014 Edition from #SMFUSION14

NOTE: This is an abbreviated post from FUSION 14 in Washington. DC. If you are there this week, I appreciate you coming out to support the Chapter and the Conference #SMFUSION14.

Roll over Dogbert’s Tech Support, the application economy is here by Robert Stroud (CA Technologies)

Your Relationship with Metrics by Mark Dalton (HDIConnect)

Problem Management – The value in not knowing by Ryan Ogilvie (Service Management Journey)

Where Art Thou Hadoop? by Svetlana Sicular (Gartner Blogs)

16 Options To Get Started and Make Progress in Machine Learning and Data Science by Jason Brownlee (Machine Learning Mastery)

How to re-balance a data migration project plan by Dylan Jones (The Data Roundtable)

Project Risk Management, PMBOK, DoD PMBOK and Edmund Conrow’s Book by Glen Alleman (Herding Cats)

What Peter Drucker Knew About 2020 by Rick Wartzman (Harvard Business Review)

Fresh Links Sundae – August 10, 2014 Edition

In many organizations, processing information accurately can have a material impact on the financial bottom line. When the data volume is very large, finding inaccuracy within the data sets can be a big challenge. Thomas Redman recommends a list of steps that managers can use when dealing with such challenge. Even the Tiniest Error Can Cost a Company Millions (Harvard Business Review)

Even after nearly 20 years since the emergence of IT Architecture as a discipline, there is still much confusion surrounding what architects supposed to do. Stephen Lahanas proposes five guidelines to help clarify. The 5 Rules of IT Architecture (Technovation Talks)

Edward De Bono’s six thinking hats have seen many creative uses in disciplines other than just education. Debleena Roy discusses how the six hats can also be applied to be successful in the data science field. Six Thinking Hats and the Life of a Data Scientist (KDnuggets)

Some may hold the belief that IT does not matter because it is a commodity. The digital trend shows that IT does matters more, and companies that lacked the skills to manage IT effectively can suffer compared with competitors that had mastered those skills. Pearl Zhu talks about ways where organizations can manage IT more effectively. Digital Trend: IT Matters More (Future of CIO)

In IT organizations, good quality changes present the right information to the right people to make the right decision. Rob Spencer outlines the common reasons for poor quality in a change request and what actions the change managers can take to improve it. Back to basics: why your change fell at the first hurdle (ITSM Review)

What are the differences between data science, data mining, machine learning, statistics, and so on? Vincent Granville compares several analytic disciplines that overlap and explains the differences and similarities. 16 analytic disciplines compared to data science (Data Science Central)

Some organizations classify break/fix as standard changes, which usually get approved automatically and do not require impact assessment. Ryan Ogilvie explains why such setup is rarely a good idea. Practice Shouldn’t Always Make Perfect – Using Standard Changes for Break/Fix (Service Management Journey)

When taking on a difficult challenge in the organization, some leaders may opt to delegate the responsibility to one of their star direct-reports. While delegating difficult issues is tempting, Susan Cramm believes that it can only lead to disappointment. She discusses an example why strategic, change-oriented initiatives will likely require hands-on leadership by senior executives. Lead by Doing, Not by Delegating (Strategy+Business)

Fresh Links Sundae – July 13, 2014 Edition

Many firms talks about the necessity of transforming themselves and moving towards becoming a “digital enterprise.” Bob Lewis recommends a three-step program to achieve the digital transformation. Is the “digital revolution” revolutionary? (IS Survivor Publishing)

The increasing use of cloud computing has led to IT losing control of some of its enterprise resources. David Linthicum explains how IT can reassert itself and bring oversight back on top of those cloud-based resources. How cloud computing can strengthen IT’s control (InfoWorld)

Often, a process’ deficiency requires us to perform deep analysis in order to discover the linkage. Ryan Ogilvie gives an example of how analyzing the appropriate change and incident metrics can lead to a productive examination of IT service issues. What percentage of ‘suckage’ does your #ITSM processes have? (Service Management Journey)

Business and IT both need to change quickly in order to meet business demand but still keep the risk at a manageable level. Martin Grobisen suggests ways we can use the change management process to improve operations and create an environment that fosters innovation. 8 Quick Tips About Change Management (ITSM Lens)

IT managers often face the unpleasant task of directing computing resources for a business application at the expense of another. Steve Brasen suggests two simple tips of leveraging ITIL to assist with the decision making. Prioritizing Workloads – Deciding What’s Hot and What’s Not (EMA Blog Community)

Working with many complex projects, we have to monitor and manage closely many aspects of the cost, schedule, and quality. Glen Alleman reminds us why maintaining a statistical mindset is crucial for managing today’s projects. Why is Statistical Thinking Hard? (Herding Cats)

Introducing the concept of DevOps to an organization is never easy because DevOps often bring an assortment of cultural changes. Ho Ming Li discuss five potential difficulty areas for this cultural-changing endeavor. 5 Common Barriers When Introducing DevOps (ActiveState)

As the World Cup games wind down, many of us have cheered on the US men national team, especially for goalie Tim Howard. Patrick Potter discusses what parallels we can draw from watching Howard’s solid performance during the tournament. What Does Internal Audit and Team USA goalie Tim Howard Have in Common? (RSA Archer GRC)