7 Tips For Successful Projects
At times Project Management can seem like an art more than a science. IT projects can be particularly challenging. So how do you choose a project and what are the essential criteria to ensure a successful project?
While there is no magical formula, here are seven tips to keep in mind for a successful IT project.
1. How to Choose Projects
You should choose projects that are important to the organization. Not just in the present, but in the future as well. They should fill an important need such as a new service or the expansion of a present service.
The project should be in alignment with the business needs. This is a huge factor. No matter how good the idea, if it does not align with the business it is doomed or worse the project will be revised to death. Align with the business needs from the start.
2. Resources
Once you have chosen a project you must ensure that all of the appropriate resources are available. These include the budget to fund the project, the people, equipment, space and anything else needed for the project.
Nothing can derail your project faster than a lack of resources. Upper management must be committed to providing the resources needed to get the job done. By the time an idea reaches the project status, failure is not an option. Be SURE you have all of the resources you need from the start.
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Leadership Skills - Leaders Drive Change
In this continuing series of articles on leadership, we are going to look at why leaders need to drive change within their organization.
A leader must be the one to stand up and say this needs to change and this is how we are going to do it. They should lead the strategy, planning, development and implementation of change.
Why Change Is Needed
Change is vital to growth and expansion. It gives your company a competitive edge and gives your departments and reports a spark of energy. Without change it is impossible to grow. To grow one must improve. To improve one must change.
As an example let’s look at Jack Welsh. He took GE and turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world. One of the key elements to his success was to drive change in the organization. He encouraged his colleagues to never stop thinking about the need for change. He advised his managers to make whatever changes were necessary to improve and to constantly re-examine and rewrite their agendas.
As a leader you must understand how important change is and how you can drive change. You must learn how to manage change so it is effective, positive and beneficial to your company, your departments and your people.
Change Is Normal and an Opportunity
Change is a normal part of business and can happen over a period of years or even hours. We must get everyone to understand that change is normal and it must happen. Change is necessary to grow your business. Change will happen with or without you. It is better for you to control the change, rather than have change forced on to you.
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5S System Step 5 - The Sustain Step
The fifth and final step in a 5S System is Sustain. In this step you will instill the self-discipline and culture that will sustain the program. Over time a 5S System may become less effective due to complacency. To sustain a 5S System you must change the culture of employees and sometimes the company.
Self-Discipline
To instill the self-discipline needed to sustain a 5S System is to get everyone to understand that 5S is here to stay. By nature people are resistant to change. After a while they may fall out of the habits of 5S. Consider 5S to be part of the required work. If needed use disciplinary actions to make sure it is done.
Reinforce the 5S System by holding regular meetings and keeping employees updated on improvements. Solicit their involvement for suggestions or ideas to improve the 5S System. Many employees will appreciate a cleaner and safer work environment and will be willing to make the extra effort.
Evaluate the 5S System
As part of the continuous improvement of your 5S System you should regularly evaluate it. When you started the program you had a goal. Has that goal been reached? Are you getting all of the benefits of a 5S System? If not you need to examine why and put changes in place to achieve the desired results.
Kaizen is a philosophy of which continuous improvement is a major part. You should look at Kaizen methods to improve your 5S System. Use Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) cycles to make sure improvements are properly added to the 5S System. Examine each step in the process and determine if the step is needed, can it be improved upon or should it be removed.
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Structured Social Networking for Your ITIL CMDB
Managed Objects has introduced myCMDB. A mixture of social networking and Web 2.0 to help business customers get more out of their configuration management databases (CMDB).
With more IT departments using ITIL based CMDBs to manage their IT infrastructure, Managed Objects has put a new face on an often complex system. The web based application uses role-based “communities” where users can easily view and interact with CMDB data and other CMDB users.
CMDB Meets Facebook
Each CMDB community consists of logically related CMDB data – grouped by function, role, class, or geography. IT or business users subscribe to CMDB communities – usually based on their specific business responsibility. Within each community, users can quickly and intuitively search and report on CMDB information.
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Nagios Free Network Monitoring Software
Budget conscious IT departments such as those in smaller organizations may be interested in Nagios. It is an open source network monitoring software solution that operates under the Linux operating system.
Service Detail View Tree Status Map
From their web site
Nagios is a host and service monitor designed to inform you of network problems before your clients, end-users or managers do. It has been designed to run under the Linux operating system, but works fine under most *NIX variants as well. The monitoring daemon runs intermittent checks on hosts and services you specify using external “plug-ins” which return status information to Nagios. When problems are encountered, the daemon can send notifications out to administrative contacts in a variety of different ways (email, instant message, SMS, etc.). Current status information, historical logs, and reports can all be accessed via a web browser.
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5S System Step 4 - The Standardize Step
The fourth step in a 5S System is to Standardize. In this step you will set in place the rules and policies that support the first three steps, Sort, Straighten and Shine. A 5S System will only work if it is followed.
To carry out the first three steps you should already have a support system in place. Such as designated areas, proper marking of areas, a log of what goes where and other parts of a support structure mentioned in the first three steps. These should all be standardized so that it is clear to everyone what the support system is.
Schedule 5S Activities
By scheduling regular 5S activities you will make it part of the work routine. The goal is to make 5S a habit for your employees. It may take a few reminders, but before long employees will be starting their 5S steps without supervision. You should always participate and follow-up to make sure everyone is doing their part.
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Numara FootPrints Service Desk Management Solution
Numara FootPrints is an ITIL based solution for Service Desk Management. Numara FootPrints will help you implement best practices for IT service management and compliance.
Numara Software provides service desk solutions designed to optimize productivity and improve overall support.
Numara FootPrints 8 features:
- Streamlined ITIL compatibility tools
- Comprehensive CMDB with no programming
- Powerful workflow automation
- Bold usability features
- Advanced customization options
Numara FootPrints will help you implement best practices for IT service management and compliance. Our software supports multiple components of the ITIL-compatible service desk and has received PinkVerify® certification for incident, problem, change and configuration management functions. Many of our customers have also used Numara FootPrints to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for IT compliance.
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HP Release Control 4.0 BTO Software
HP today announced the release of a new Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software and Software-as-a-Service solution. It helps IT organizations manage change and resolve problems across business services and applications, dramatically reducing the risk of potential business downtime.
Industry’s first ITIL V3-based Configuration Management System solution
Traditional approaches to providing a consolidated view of how IT delivers business services are insufficient. Static configuration management databases are unable to support the real-time needs of today’s complex technology environments.
Recognizing these limitations, ITIL V3, co-authored by HP, recommends a federated, or data-sharing, approach for delivering a complete configuration management system. The new HP Configuration Management System solution helps break down information barriers across organizational silos, providing the right information in the right context to the right person.
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Track All of Your Shipments In One Place
Keeping track of your shipments can be a time consuming task. Orders from a variety of different vendors using different shipping services can have you web site hopping to try to track down where your items are.
A web site called TrackMyShipments.com offers a free order tracking service. You simply email the “Your order has shipped email” or create your own email message with the tracking number and shipping service. Their system will examine your email and extract the shippers name and the tracking number.
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Leadership Skills - Communications Part 2
Great leaders are usually great communicators. No leadership skill can compensate for poor communications. Great communicators use their skills to persuade others to follow. They are able to present their vision and plan in a clear and concise manner.
In the first article in this series, Leadership Skills - Communications Part 1 we looked at the role of the speaker. Now we will examine the listener and learn how knowing who you are communicating with is almost as important as what you say.
The Listener
Communications Are Heard With the Ears
To communicate effectively the listener must hear what you are saying. Your voice should be loud enough to be heard, but not overbearing. Shouting is not an effective form of communications. It turns on the emotional barriers of the listener and will make effective communications difficult. You should speak using a normal tone of voice, only changing it to make an emphasis to a point.
If you are unsure of how well your speech is being heard you should practice by recording yourself talking. Rehearse a speech and record it. Do this first in private to look for obvious flaws in your speech patterns. Then record yourself as you actually give the speech or communicate with someone. You may be surprised at how you think you are speaking and how you really are.
