If you are like most business and technology leaders, you have probably lost a few hours of sleep over one or more critical projects during your career. Even when projects seem to be on track, your internal radar might be warning you that all might not be OK on the risk management front.

In my experience leading a $300 million IT portfolio for a Fortune 100 company, two things stood out during our transformation:

1. Virtually all projects had “green” status reports, while feedback suggested the contrary.

2. Daily fire drills indicated actual risk levels were much higher than those being reported.

Sound familiar? If so, where is a good place to start tackling the root causes of project risk? TSI has developed a Project Health-Check methodology to help you regain control.

Here are 9 key focal points for evaluating project risk in your organization today:

1. Sponsorship Required – Obtain the highest level of sponsorship possible (CXO Level). You are about to make some people uncomfortable; you’re going to need the support.
2. Divide and Conquer – Categorize your portfolio (e.g., tactical vs. strategic) and assign ownership to capable portfolio managers (PMs) responsible for mitigating risks.
3. Prioritize –Identify the top 20% of projects that are mission-critical. Prioritize these for quick “Fly-by” Health-checks and follow-up Deep Dives.
4. Set Health-check Guidelines – Assess potential risks across these four key dimensions:
   • Technology Risk: Scalability, user requirements, vendor support, and modern data/system security.
   • Business Risk (Includes people and process): Impact on operations, customer experience, and end-user buy-in.
   • Financial Risk: Failure to achieve the targeted ROI or budget overruns.
   • Legal Risk: Potential disputes or litigation with employees, vendors, or competitors.
5. Integrate – Embed the Health-check process into your Program Management Office (PMO) and align it with your phase gates.
6. Develop Reporting – Use easy-to-understand templates. Utilize stoplights and directional arrows to indicate risk on a summary page, supported by detailed action plans in the appendix.
7. Pilot Phase – Pilot this approach on a handful of projects to demonstrate immediate value and “proof of concept.”
8. Govern the Initiative – Convene an empowered decision-making body to address urgent developments and manage escalations.
9. Talent –Utilize experienced IT and business risk assessment personnel to assure fast and effective results.

A proactive Health-check process makes a massive difference in project outcomes—and in your ability to get a more restful night’s sleep. At TSI, we continue to provide this assistance to a wide range of clients across many different types of projects.

Check out our Project Health Assessment and contact us today to learn more.

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If you are like most business and technology leaders, you have probably lost a few hours of sleep over one or more critical projects during your career. Even when projects seem to be on track, your internal radar might be warning you that all might not be OK on the risk management front.

Earlier in my career, I assumed a sleep impacting IT leadership role at a Fortune 100 company where I was responsible for a major division with a $300 million IT spend, 20,000 users, 90 systems and hundreds of projects. The company was in the midst of a disruptive business transformation effort, and internal stakeholders were making major noise about on-going risks in the area of IT project delivery.

Looking over the vast and deep portfolio of projects, two things immediately stood out:

• Virtually all projects had green status reports (indicating projects were on track to meet delivery expectations) while feedback would suggest the contrary.
• Input from business stakeholders and daily fire drills indicated that actual project risk levels were much higher than those reported by underlying project managers.

Sound familiar?  If so, where is a good place to start tackling the root causes of your project risk induced insomnia?  TSI has developed methodology surrounding the Project Health-check process which will help you manage your project risk.

Here are 9 key focal points when addressing the need to evaluate on-going project risk management in your organization:

1. Sponsorship Required – Obtain the highest level of sponsorship possible in the organization (CXO Level). You are about to make some people uncomfortable, and you’re going to need the support.
2. Divide and Conquer – Divide your project portfolio into manageable categories (e.g., tactical vs. strategic, lines of business and/or products) and assign ownership of manageable categories to capable portfolio managers (PM’s). The PM’s will be responsible for tracking status and working with cross-functional teams to address and mitigate risks.
3. Prioritize – Collaborate with the business to identify the top 20% of projects that are mission critical and can’t afford to be off track. Prioritize these key projects for initial quick Health-check Assessments and follow-up Deep Dives if significant risks are identified.
4. Set Health-check Guidelines – Develop Health-check assessment templates and guidelines for two scenarios; 1. High-level or “Fly-by” Assessments and, 2. Deep Dive Assessments to address potential risks across the following example key dimensions:
   • Technology Risk
     • System won’t scale or perform.
     • System won’t meet user requirements.
     • Vendor will no longer support solution.
     • Information, data, and system security.
   • Business Risk (Includes people and process)
     • Major adverse impact on operations or customer experience.
     • Lack of involvement and buy-in from key end users and business customers.
     • Loss of productivity or efficiency and/or negative impact on morale.
     • Damage to reputation with public or credibility on Wall Street.
     • Missed opportunities to take competitive advantage in the marketplace.
   • Financial Risk
     • Failure to achieve targeted ROI or expected benefits.
     • Budget overruns and/or negative impact on on-going operating expenses.
   • Legal Risk
     • Potential disputes/litigation with employees, vendors, customers or competitors.
5. Integrate– Integrate the Health-check process into a Program Office and align required Health-check activities with key PMO phase gates.
6. Develop Reporting– Develop easy to understand reporting templates
   1. Use stop lights and directional arrows to indicate risk on a summary page.
   2. Provide more detail in appendix.
   3. Include defined action plans and deadlines to remedy identified risks.
7. Pilot Phase– Pilot the approach on a handful of projects to demonstrate value.
8. Govern the Initiative- Convene an empowered decision-making body to be available on short notice to address sudden or urgent developments (include a defined escalation process for serious risks).
9. Talent– Utilize experienced IT and business risk assessment personnel to assure fast and effective results.

I am happy to report that the process made a huge positive difference in my former workplace as well as on my ability to get a more restful night’s sleep. At TSI, we continue to provide similar assistance to a wide range of clients across many different types of projects. Check out this Project Health Assessment Link and contact us today to learn more.

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1. Project Managers are professionals.

I’ve worked within numerous companies that treated their PMs as cheap (not inexpensive mind you), transferable, commodity-type resources.  In some cases, if you could type on a computer and take notes, you could become a project manager.  However, we must continue to push ourselves out of the habit of relegating PMs to project administrative duties.  I sympathize with project managers who only set up meetings, take copious notes for meeting minutes, and update other’s tasks in a project plan.  If this is what we expect from our PMs is it any wonder that project success rates continue to be so low?

Project managers should be leaders within the organization.  They should be empowered to drive and to deliver what the company expects.  Employee (or even consultant) engagement and enablement are key.  If lowered to the level of project administrator, not even the most experienced PM will be able to succeed.

2. PMs, I don’t need to know your title.

Some organizations have a multi-layered system of project manager job descriptions.  These may be encoded as project manager one to project manager five, or they may mirror the old Big Eight consultant titles of PM: Senior PM, PM Manager, PM Senior Manager, PM Director, and so on.  I have been a national lead, a project manager, a program manager, a program director, and a solution lead.   Do these titles mean anything? Not really. I expect you are more interested in my talents and skills, as opposed to simply my title.

PMs should be ranked by their capabilities, not their titles.  Have you managed a project that lasted more than 12 months?  Have you overseen a team of more than 50?  Are you good at tracking actuals, forecasting, and rationalizing variances?  How good are your team-building skills?  What about collaboration?  The axiom of not judging a project manager by their title seems apropos.  A predefined stair step of title promotions based solely on tenure is not appropriate; individuals should move up they demonstrate the next level of skill.

3. Implementation methods don’t need to impact a PMO

Although Waterfall is still here – and will be for a long time – the world continues to move to Agile. Package application development methods are different than either Agile or Waterfall.  And let’s not forget that product development is not the same either.  The PMO should be adaptable and able to meet the needs of the organization, regardless of the types of delivery methods utilized by the organization. Don’t forget, PMOs oversee non-IT projects and those do not have any application lifecycle management!

PMOs have holistic responsibility for delivery.  They collect details, provide visibility, and drive resolution to problems.  A delay in this process is a delay whether it be waterfall or product development based. Portfolio visibility is across the suite of initiatives, independent of the tools used to manage each. Let’s keep the focus on what a Project Management Office does and not be distracted by delivery methods.

4. Which software is right for the PMO?

Have you defined all your requirements for a new tool?  What about the requirements of the PMO’s key stakeholders?  Should you use one of the Magic Quadrant tools, leverage SharePoint, or custom build something in Excel?

First, focus on the processes.  A sophisticated status and portfolio tool will not benefit your organization if project managers do not understand appropriate levels of reporting status.  An engineered estimating solution will be less effective if your team does not know how to estimate and does not record actual hours spent. An application for automating portfolio management will not pay off if the organization does not understand the principles of prioritization and trade-offs. It is important to think about getting the organization to work effectively before trying to automate. There are many tools to do this effectively. However, it is essential that you do your prep in terms of roles, processes, and organizational change management. These identifications are important regardless of which tool you choose.

Let’s Connect!

Do you need further help on a program, project, portfolio management, or software evaluation and selection? Contact Us.

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Written by: Alan Baxter

There have been countless articles written about Big Data.  In fact, I don’t believe a day has gone by where I haven’t seen someone’s perspective on Big Data and how it’s going to “change the world” as we know it today.  But do you ever feel like this emphasis on Big Data is like walking into a movie in the middle, being heightened by its climax, yet lacking a true foundational understanding of the plot?

The purpose of this, is to do exactly that.  I’m going to break down the fundamentals Big Data analytics into an article you can read in under 3 minutes.

Simply put, information is the foundation for how decisions are made in today’s business.  As a matter of fact, it has been the foundation for how decisions have been made for years.  However, in the past it was only the elite organizations that could get on the forefront of their data and use it to drive the business.   In 2016, it’s a whole new ballgame; from a technology trend standpoint, there is nothing bigger than Big Data.

In fact, with the highly anticipated migration to the IoT (Internet of Things), the advancement of data collection and data manipulation tools, and the influx of self-service BI software, we are continually becoming more and more advanced in our analytical capabilities.  Readily available technology solutions have provided the means to turn millions of lines of unstructured data into real, business driven results quicker and more accurately than ever before.  Today’s most successful business at all sizes are learning to master their Big Data capabilities.  Big Data driven businesses can be intrusive in industries like hospitality, where Airbnb ($30B) is worth about 30 percent more than the world’s biggest hotel company, Hilton.  How does your business address Big Data?

Through proven methodology and highly experienced consultants, TSI covers the spectrum, helping organizations uncover analytics solutions using the fundamental combination of:

1. Prescriptive: Prescriptive analytics is one of the most powerful analytics methods.  Yet, according to Gartner only 3% of businesses use this method
   (while 13% of businesses use predictive analytics).  Prescriptive analytics reveals suggestions/recommendations based on collected data, indicating what actions should be    For example, Manufacturing Company XYZ has been experiencing monthly fluctuations in its bottom-line and suspects it has to do with raw material price volatility from various vendors.  Prescriptive analytics will help the company identify raw materials with the highest volatility and provide various suggestions/recommendations; e.g., the most cost effective month to buy, best vendors to use with least price volatility, etc.

2. Predictive: More common that prescriptive, predictive analytics provides analysis (or forecasts) of likely scenarios of what might happen based on historical data.  For example, predictive analytics can be used with CRM data throughout the lead to sale-execution process of an organization. This analysis provides the ability to predict the probability of a lead turning into a sales order based on a vast array of data points captured in the CRM.

3. Diagnostic: Diagnostic analytics involves looking at past performance (data sets) and determining what happened and why.  Deliverables usually consist of metrics presented in a dashboard fashion.  For example, Retail Company ABC released a large internet marketing campaign last month that increased sales by 20% from the previous month.  The company can use diagnostic analytics to present the campaigns success factors by analyzing data points; e.g., # of clicks, time on the page, # of shares, etc.

4. Descriptive: Descriptive analytics is most commonly used to provide real-time analysis based on real-time data. For example, major hotel chains use descriptive analytics to understand a particular sites guest room availability in real-time.

It’s time to take action and get ahead of the curve when it comes to Big Data and Data Analytics.  TSI can help with the following:

1. Assess where your organization truly is and see what immediate improvements might be close at hand
2. Define your short and long term data analytics needs (and define what business case is associated with this)
3. Suggest and implement data analytics solutions that will move you from a descriptive to a prescriptive organization.

As per all of our engagements, TSI’s knowledgeable and personable consultants will not only collaboratively define what actions need to take place, but they’ll help your organization understand “Why?” while guiding you through the finish line.   Please  contact TSI to get started on your project or to brainstorm ideas with one of TSI’s experienced consultants.

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Internet of things or IoT is massive. And businesses are making the most use of it. Business data operations are being recorded around the world and its making the storage of data quite easy. Anyone can use one of the best electronic design services or any other form of service and track it without every losing even a single MB of the data stored.

For anyone who is not sure what IoT is, essentially, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data.

Imagine, how doctors can better understand the impact of their treatments if wearable technologies (when authorized) can take real time information of a patient and monitors the patient’s health and activity. What if a workplace tool like a work glove or a chair that report a user’s weight/temp/activity level and possibly heart rate to personal fitness software, or for HR personnel to monitor employee well-being. But at the same time, a little mistake in the programming can make life-saving equipments go bonkers, which would in turn endanger the patient’s life. The same can be said just about any software there is, because errors are inevitable. An example is when Cutepdf is throwing a 216; this shows how the most simplest of the softwares like one mentioned exhibit and are made up of errors.

An interesting example I read about recently involved the possibility of your car communicating with a smart traffic grid, which in turn helps identify the best routes for your trip and maximizes traffic patterns for everyone else. Personally, this is an example of a use of IoT that I would be very interested in utilizing to maximize my commute and my trips into downtown Chicago.  However, the flipside of this is the concern of whether the smart grid or other device is recording personal data as they travel through the city, raising significant privacy concerns.

Below are what I feel are The Three Fundamentals Every Technology Leader Should Know regarding this growing technology trend, specific to the IoT:

     1. Connected devices can walk into your organization, and you will not know what data they are collecting. Google Glass was one of the first examples of what IoT can be, as well as the privacy and security concerns this technology brings.  Some organizations have already banned Google Glass from their facilities, and for good reason.  Hospitals, Schools, Theaters, Banks and other public and private organizations have legitimate concerns about the privacy of data and protection of copyrighted material from being recorded/analyzed by someone using this technology.  However, this is such new technology, that laws have not yet caught up and it is still to be determined if there is a legal basis for banning this technology in public areas, and what criminal charges can people face for using this in specific places, although the use of criminal attorneys from www.criminalattorneylongislandny.com/areas-served/long-island/legal-services/ could also help with this. I believe that someday we may see similar placards in public institutions similar to the Concealed Carry placards you see around for devices like Google Glass.

In the meantime, what can you do? Review your organization’s “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy to ensure it is up to date and considerate of connected devices.  The BYOD policy for your organization should define the acceptable use of personal technology, what available support will be available for personal devices, any reimbursement for the devices resulting in business use, the necessary security requirements and finally a statement of the person’s risks, liabilities and disclaimers for the use of personal technology. You can find several examples and templates online.  In fact, if you believe your staff needs some trainings on cyber security, schedule them for cyber security training for beginners.

     2. There is no “silver bullet” solution to manage privacy and data security with IOT devices. While a BYOD policy is a great start, it is very difficult for organizations to manage and enforce the policy without smart solutions that IT Leaders may be able to implement today. Technology leaders need to be aware of this ever-increasing security and privacy risk that employees are bringing into their organization. While there is not a single solution right now for a comprehensive IoT security application, there are steps organizations can take to protect the data and privacy of the organization and the people within it.

Here are five guidelines I have collected from several industry experts to help protect your organization that you can do today:

1. Create several points of unique user identification, authentication along with log off timers
2. Encrypt all of your data during any data transfer activities
3. Assess and control who has access to the data, including access to physical data storage devices
4. Implement a process of reviewing system activity logs
5. Rigorously evaluate the security capabilities/gaps with any new cloud solution being considered for your organization

     3. Finally, be aware of what technology developers are working toward when building IoT enabled devices. Edith Ramirez, Chairwoman of the FTC had the following recommendations regarding security in IoT devices her opening remarks at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Nevada on January 6, 2015.

“Companies should prioritize security and build security into their devices from the outset. Specifically, companies should:

• Conduct a privacy or security risk assessment as part of the design process;
• Test security measures before products launch;
• Use smart defaults – such as requiring consumers to change default passwords in the set-up process;
• Consider encryption, particularly for the storage and transmission of sensitive information, such as health data; and
• Monitor products throughout their life cycle and, to the extent possible, patch known vulnerabilities.

In addition, companies should implement technical and administrative measures to ensure reasonable security, including designating people responsible for security in the organization, conducting security training for employees, and taking steps to ensure service providers protect consumer data.”

Chairwoman Ramirez made additional recommendations in her opening remarks to minimize the amount of data collected to only what is necessary and communicate to consumers any data collection changes along with the ability for consumers to choose what they want to have collected.  By collaborating with IOT device developers or reading the newest developments in this space, you can better understand what the risks and benefits are for implementing IOT devices in your organization.

The Internet of Things services are only going to expand and the potential benefits of this trend in technology may be immense and have tremendous benefit to society. However, security concerns need to be at the forefront of every IT and Technology leaders mind especially during this nascent time of experimentation, growth, and maturation within business and society. TSI has proven experience helping IT/Technology Leaders assessing their technology and defining an IT strategy while answering the questions “How prepared is our organization for upcoming technology trends, and what is our next step? Contact TSI today to discuss your technology strategy and assessment needs.

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Cloud computing is changing how companies are doing business. At TSI, we make recommendations to our clients on how they can take advantage of cloud computing. This allows a virtual office and provides the flexibility of connecting to your business anywhere at any time. With the growing number of web enabled devices used today in business, access to your data is even easier.

I have focused on five main benefits of cloud computing for our clients:

1. Collaboration efficiency

Collaboration in a cloud environment gives your business the ability to communicate and easily share information outside of traditional methods. At TSI we use cloud collaboration when we work on projects at multiple locations, client sites, and home. Cloud collaboration allows for a more efficient way for our employees to collaborate seamlessly.

2. Business continuity

Cloud storage will protect your data and systems, which is an important part of business continuity planning. The providers of cloud applications have advanced strategies that take into account natural disasters, power failures, or other crisis to ensure that your data is backed up and protected in a secure and safe location. Cloud storage gives the ability to conduct business that minimizes downtime and loss of productivity. TSI leverages Google drive, which stores mission critical data in a safe and secure off-site location. You may come up with performance indicators by using business intelligence software for your clients.

3. Flexibility of business practices

Flexibility of cloud computing allows employees to be more flexible in their business practices. Employees need to access data from multiple offices, at home, commuting to and from work, and while traveling during business meetings. If you need to access data when you are off-site, you can connect to your virtual office quickly and easily.

4. Lower IT costs

Rather than learning and purchasing expensive equipment and systems to manage your business, you can lower your IT costs by using the resources of the cloud service provider. Cost of paying wages of expert staff, software upgrades, and lower utility costs will be reduced rather than providing these services at your company’s location.

One of our clients signed a software contract with their vendor on a Friday and by Monday morning development could start and 4 environments had already been established. Reduction of the time it takes to setup infrastructure can save several weeks to months in the project delivery cycle..

5. Scalability

Your company can scale IT environments based on the business evolution. Instead of purchasing and installing expensive applications, your cloud provider can handle this for your business. If there is a demand to increase or decrease you applications need for additional system performance, this can be performed more effectively to scale as your business changes. Using the cloud services will allow you to move forward on with executing your business and not worry about system applications.

I have worked with financial firms where their scalability needs can fluctuate due to market conditions. Leveraging cloud services has efficiently allowed the dynamic flexibility for their company to adjust IT scalability to be in alignment to their business needs.

If you want to tap into cloud computing and experience the benefits for your company, contact TSI for their expert experience.

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