Lean I.T. is Waaaay Overdue

Try as I might, I can't find a really good example of an organization devoted to Lean I.T. - that is; a company who continuously drives out waste from its I.T. processes.

Jeffrey K. Liker, author of The Toyota Way, has spent decades studying Toyota, who happen to be the most efficient manufacturing company on the planet. It's Toyota's passion to identify and remove "mudo" (waste) from all of their processes.

They describe waste as:

1. overproduction
2. waiting
3. unnecessary transport
4. overprocessing
5. excess inventory
6. unnecessary movement
7. defects
8. unused employee creativity

None of these activities add value, (as defined as something a customer would be willing to pay for) so when stripped away, the idea is to leave behind a process that ONLY adds value.

While America has embraced the notion of Lean Manufacturing (to varying degrees of success), I haven't found a great example of how lean principles are being used within I.T.

Consider the massive amounts of administration and management that go into every large I.T. project; the documentation, the approvals and sign offs, the numerous team meetings to "get everyone on the same page", the status reporting, document filing, retrieval etc.

Even the physical organization of the project should be scrutinized - are all the team players together in the same place or are they dispersed across several sites or across the organization?

Have you ever done post project forensics on your PM processes to determine which activities add REAL value? If you had to defend all the documentation you currently complete to your peers in other departments, could you do it? - even down to every box on every form?

I ask the question, because after Sarbanes-Oxley, it seems to me that the knee-jerk reaction is to document the heck out of every project, (regardless of risk) and whether or not the documentation adds any value.

And I think our I.T. processes have suffered as a result.

I have actually come across examples where for some small I.T. projects, managing the project is 80% of the work and the actual activities DOING the project (designing, coding, testing, implementing) amount to only 20%.

Houston we have a problem.

If you haven't looked at your I.T. processes in awhile, I'd recommend bringing in a "Lean Expert" to help you Value Stream Map your processes. VSM is a process whereby you actually, map, step by step, in intricate detail, how you believe a process works. The VSM process identifies "waste" wherever it appears within the process. At the end of the exercise, your team will be able to quantify how efficient your process is. Don't be surprized if you find that actual Value Added work is only a fraction (usually less than 5%) of the total elapsed process time.

Then, you observe the ACTUAL process to see how it works in "real life" and document it again.

Finally, your team identifies ways to cut out the waste. The results can be stunning.

I once worked for a company where VSM was done on an estimating process. The estimating process took about a week from the time we received a customer quote request to the time they had a formal quote back in their hands. After a VSM exercise, our improvement team found that over 70% of the quotes they received could be completed within 20 minutes. The actual value added work, in a process that took a week, was only 20 minutes! The rest was "waste".

Is lean I.T. long overdue at your company?

Attensa to the Rescue?

Thanks to my friend Dave, who alerted me to Attensa. This small technology company may be onto something. Attensa was recently featured in a PC World story. They have developed a "behind the firewall" RSS feed server that aims to solve some of the problems we all have with email.

Basically, their server can be setup so that groups of people, project teams, departments or whatever, can subscribe to wikis, blogs, etc and be provided with just in time information as it's published. The feeds integrate to Outlook and mobile devices, so whether your team is local or is comprised of road warriors, everyone has access to the feeds as they happen.

The huge advantage of course, is that the audience who wants to hear the information, subscribes to it - rather than the highly inefficient process currently used by emailers, who "guess" who needs to see the information. If they're wrong (and we usually are), each of our inboxes fill up with loads of unprioritized information, mixed in with the critical communications we really need to do our jobs.

This RSS feed technology has two advantages from my perspective. First, it has the potential of "clearing the email channel" of the "noise" of project updates, news etc that may be important to some, but not relevant to you. That leaves your email box relatively free for the communications that really matter - customer requests, critical internal communications etc.

Secondly, the news flows to you. While I'm a huge fan of Corporate intranets, posting the information in one spot and expecting everyone to go there on a frequent basis has always been a challenge. With RSS feeds, you can not only publish directly to interested groups of people, but you also have the opportunity of posting to your intranet as well. It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition.

If I were running a big company, this is a product that I'd definitely look into.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Just read Lee Iacocca's article in this weekend's Crossroads section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

While he is railing on the "current leadership" of the country, he does spell out, what he considers to be the 9 "C"s of leadership.

Whether you're trying to run a country or a business, they all "rang true" for me. Here they are:

1. Curiosity: reading (all points of view) voraciously, talking with people who don't necessarily share your point of view, staying away from "yes" men.
2. Creative: willing to honestly evaluate results and try something different - managing change.
3. Communicate: facing reality and telling the truth - not talking in sound bites or using "talking points".
4. Character: Knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing.
5. Courage: The commitment to sit down and negotiate. Not swagger. Not tough talk.
6. Conviction: Passion for what you're doing - the measure of the "fire in your belly". Your commitment.
7. Charisma: The quality that makes people want to follow you.
8. Competent: Need to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing.
9. Common Sense: Well, that's just common sense.

I remember when Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler. Since he retired, Chrysler has been bought (Daimler) and recently sold. Perhaps the lesson of the 9 Cs were never learned by his successors.

And based upon the arguments in his new book "Where Have All the Leaders Gone", perhaps these are lessons we could all revisit.

Dell Ubuntu prices now released

Today I read an article on Digg, that compared the pricing of several Dell models, featuring Ubuntu 7.04 vs. Windows Vista operating systems. Here's a link to the results.

Not surprisingly, all Ubuntu Dell's are cheaper - as much as $140 cheaper for the identical machine.

Now we'll see how the market "votes".

SOA Irony

Does anyone else find it ironic that when reading the CIO.com forum on SOA (Service oriented Architecture) that the link to the article entitled "The Truth About SOA" appears to be broken?

Which Wiki is right for you?

For a side by side comparison of available Wiki's, check out: http://www.wikimatrix.org/

18 Reasons People Think Your I.T. Dept Sucks

Yesterday I read an article on Digg, that was entitled something like:
"21 Ways to Tell if You're a Stupid User".

Here's the other side of the coin.

18 Reasons People Think Your I.T. Department Sucks.

1. We never hear from you in person. The entire department hides behind email, instant messaging or voicemail. I could be talking to a machine. Oh wait! I am.
2. I seem to encounter the same problems over and over again.
3. I have to tell YOU when the system is down. Isn't anyone monitoring?
4. It's faster for me to order a new PC directly from Dell than it is for you to get me one.
5. Even I know that defragging my PC isn't going to resolve a driver problem. If you don't know the answer, just say so.
6. For a department that's supposed to help automate processes, why does every I.T. request start with a piece of paper?
7. It takes you longer to approve a project than it does to DO the project.
8. When you deny a request, you never offer an alternative solution.
9. You never tell me what's going on in I.T. I always have to ask.
10. You don't understand that I.T. isn't just about the technology. It's about how well our company uses it. You have a role to play in both.
11. Not EVERYONE is a stupid user.
12. I never hear when a problem has been resolved! No one checks with me to make sure it HAS been resolved!
13. You don't survey your customers. Are you too lazy or too embarrassed or do you just not care?
14. If you DO survey, you keep the results to yourself. Be more transparent.
15. If your I.T. Helpdesk keeps getting the same questions over and over again, any thought of addressing the SOURCE of the problem? Hmmm?
16. If my call was so damn important to you, why isn't someone answering at the Helpdesk?
17. Calling everyone a "stupid user" doesn't absolve you of your responsibility to get YOUR act together.
18. You fail to realize that having a great Helpdesk isn't the objective. Not needing one is.

Enjoy.

Do you suffer from PM Bloat?

A colleague of mine is currently doing some consulting for a major local company. He's noticing an interesting phenomenon. His client is suffering from "PM bloat".

PM bloat is a condition whereby the management portion of an I.T. project becomes a disproportionately large piece of the overall project. His example? They're currently evaluating a project that will take about 50 hours of "actual work" (configuration, testing, training) to complete. The overall project time frame is 300+ hours! That's right - the paperwork, forms checking, collation and rechecking, approvals, pre-SOX audit, reviewing of each deliverable, will take 5 times longer than the actual work.

The project management is getting in the way. And no one within I.T. is noticing!

Here's some reasons why this may be happening.

1. No one has looked at the overall process with an eye towards making it "lean" (eliminating waste in the form of time, checking, rechecking, workflow, approvals etc). I suspect that the PM process grew organically over time or previous processes were modified for better SOX compliance and no one has looked at it since.

2. The process is not automated. If your I.T. processes involve paper, they will be MANY times slower (read: expensive) than if document storage and workflow are electronic. They're also more time consuming to move, file, store, check, retrieve and audit.

3. Each person within the process must be held accountable for the completion of each step. Processes that include excessive double checking aren't designed very well.

4. Make sure that each steps adds value. Question every box on every form. Why is this necessary? Where does this add value? What would happen if we got rid of this piece of information? Why does this need to be verified?

5. Set up appropriate documentation specific to the project. If your IT project is implementing a service with an ASP, it's a different project than developing a customized application from scratch. But I bet your project documentation requirements are the same.

6. Don't accept the excuse "We have to do that because of Sarbanes-Oxley". Certainly you need adequate SDLC processes, but in most cases, if your SOX Control Document is well written (i.e. not so detailed as to cause you compliance fits), your processes can be simplified and still be effective.

So take the PM bloat test. If you're suffering from PM bloat, make your very next I.T. project a review of your project management and documentation processes! Spend more time DOING and less time MANAGING!

Turning Customers into Fans.

I don't know if my 15 year old son, Jeff is representative of an "up and coming" consumer or not. But if, he is, watch out!

Jeff recently bought a used Scion tC. He had done all the research at Consumer Reports. He had gone for several test drives. He knew the car's features better than the salesperson. He is thrilled with the car (his first). By all accounts he's a "satisfied customer".



Less than 24 hours after taking possession of the car, he had already visited a Scion tC customer forum on the Web. There he learned how to configure his in dash radio to customize the start up message - changing it from "Scion" to whatever 16 letter message he wanted.


And that's when he began the transition from "satisfied customer" into "fan".

Such a simple, low cost and almost completely unadvertised feature, allowed him to personalize his purchase - turning a Scion into HIS Scion. I can only guess that this photo and others will soon appear on his MySpace page and the message will begin to spread.



I have three takeaways from this story.

1. Young consumers will research and educate themselves about the products they buy, like never before. It's so quick and easy to do on the Internet.
2. Companies need to find ways to allow their customers to personalize their product or service experience - thereby turning satisfied consumers into fans. It doesn't have to cost much.
3. The experiences your customers have will be spread virally like never before. MySpace, IM and Facebook will amplify every customer experience - good OR bad.

Gone are the days of "Buyer Beware". Dawning is the day of "Manufacturers Beware".

A Blast from the Past?

I just read Getting Clueful: Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting - a recent CIO.com article. And it struck me that this article might have been written ten years ago! If your CIO doesn't understand the benefits of telecommuting, your company is in trouble. You should be looking for a new job, because there are a lot of CIO's who "get it".

Now, my definition of telecommuting may be different than some. I only had one or two people who worked remotely for months at a time. The vast majority of my team had the ability to work from home and did so, occasionally (a few days a month). The key is flexibility and trust.

We were able to have some very skilled (out of state) employees temporarily relocate to our head office to participate in a major ERP implementation. Once the system went live, these people were able to return to their home states and still provide application support. On a quarterly basis, they'd travel back to our Head Office for a week, to reconnect with our team, and their internal customers, but for the majority of the time they worked remotely.

If it weren't for telecommuting, we would have lost these people and our company would have been worse for it.

If you're running an IT department of any size at all (greater than 10 people) and you aren't setup for telecommuting (whether occasional or full time) you need to find a new job.

Folks, the ability to telecommute is table stakes. If your company isn't already offering telecommuting options, you're likely not attracting the best IT talent available - and you're saying something in a loud voice; We don't TRUST our employees.

Personally, I've had at least some of my staff telecommuting (at least on a part time basis) for over a decade. I can't imagine asking people to be on call (either developers or technical staff) without giving them the opportunity to remotely access systems to solve issues at all hours of the night, from home.

The benefits have been tremendous:
1. It allows parents the ability to stay at home with a sick child and still get some work done.
2. It allows employees to avoid hazardous weather related commutes to the office altogether.
3. It allows "off hours" work to get done.
4. Remote access is fundamental to any disaster recovery plan anyway, so it's not an additional cost to provide for most IT employees.
5. It allows employees the flexibility to get to doctor's appointments anytime during the day and still get some work done - instead of restricting appointments early in the morning or after work.
6. It allows you to attract talent from outside your local community.
7. With IM, E-mail, cell phones, Blackberries, Wikis, Sharepoint, web based applications, VPN security, Skype, desktop video-conferencing tools, Web-Ex etc, there is really no reason to have to come to the office 100% of the time.

In my experience, the flexibility afforded employees, paid huge dividends in terms of work accomplished, company/team loyalty and retention.

If your CIO is suffering from "trust issues" there are lots of ways to tell if remote work is getting done;

1. Are deadlines being missed?
2. What is the quality of the work?
3. Are IMs, emails being answered promptly?
4. Can remote people be accessed by cell phone easily?

I actually think it's easier for some non-performers to "hide in plain sight" at the office, than it is to hide remotely.

It doesn't take long to determine who can effectively work remotely and who can't. And always remember that telecommuting can be administered as a privilege, not a right.

Mac Ads: Made to Stick

About 6 weeks ago, I was reading Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. I love this book. It describes six key principles that are essential for effective communicating . No matter what you do in business, these principles will help get you message heard and retained.

The 6 principles are: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, Stories.

For an in depth understanding of all the principles, please go buy the book. I have found no better example of the Made to Stick principles than the current series of Mac ads. Here's an example.




This ad takes a complicated issue and treats it simply. The fact that actors are playing the roles of PC and Mac is unexpected. Any PC user who has encountered Vista can relate in a credible way to the imposition MS security imposes on your computing experience. The ad tells a story that viewers can relate emotionally to. Brilliant.

"Reply to All" Electroshock

At our house we have many different email addresses. One is designated for our "Home" correspondence - generally from friends, relatives and the occasional spammer. Recently we've been receiving a huge number of emails we care nothing about.

E-mail has been around for some time now, depending upon your rate of adoption, perhaps as long as 20 years.

And yet people still abuse the "Reply to All" feature of Email.

A neighbor invited about 50 friends to a restaurant this evening. It was a casual invite - come if you can. And yet a huge number of people felt that they had to let EVERYBODY know the status of their attendance. Like everyone cared.

I think these are the same people who, when at work, feel it necessary to tell the world about everything they do, using CC address line as a "CYA button".

Don't get me wrong. I like these neighbors. It's just not important to me whether I know in advance whether they attend this particular event.

So I'm going to petition Microsoft to either delete the "Reply to All" feature or to add a feature which can be turned on by anyone receiving a "Reply to All" Email - one which would send an electroshock to the sender the next time they use it.

If you must tell me you're planning on coming to the restaurant, I want a unique, personal message from you - otherwise I'll see you there.

Time for some Serious Magic!

About two years ago, I wanted to test some video on our corporate intranet. I did some research and found a small software company called Serious Magic. My thinking was that people were trending toward watching video, rather than reading for their information (this was before YouTube got really big). And I'm a firm believer in providing information in the format your audience wants.

I wanted a cheap video production solution that wouldn't require professional skills to produce.

Serious Magic offered a very low cost product that allowed you to create professional looking videos for the web.

Using a teleprompter script (displayed on your laptop) in combination with a laptop (or handheld) video camera, Serious Magic allowed you to easily create professional looking video in streaming flash format (viewable by all browsers). Their product included a "green screen" backdrop to allow you to include fake "sets", like a newsroom or a mountain top. Basic editing features allowed to to drag and drop images, sound files, captions and video into the final production.

It was brilliant.....and cheap.

Today when I went to check out the latest on www.seriousmagic.com, I was disappointed. This little gem of a company had been swallowed up by Adobe.

Now I'm a fan of Adobe products, so I was interested in how Serious Magic would benefit from the deep marketing pockets of it's new owner. You might expect an updated video demo presentation, produced with the product itself, complete with high production values and slick video effects to show off every single feature - a video demo so compelling that you couldn't wait to drop some cash to try it out.

And you'd be dead wrong.

Instead, I was shown a formatted product page with a photo of the software box and a written list of features and benefits (yawn). Adobe might as well be selling it on a Yahoo store. Gone is the terrific video demo done by the founder, using the actual Serious Magic product. Gone is the irreverent, enthusiastic attitude.

Here's a demo of how an upscale version of this product used to be sold.




As a consumer, which works better for you?

A Little Self Promotion....

Thanks to readers who let me know that my RSS feed buttons weren't working properly. I was using AddThis (which seems to work well with other blogging sites, but has some problems with the new blogger.com - at least in my case).

I've changed over to FeedBurner and the buttons seem to work pretty well now. If you have any problems, please let me know.

Just for fun, I've also added a new Email subscription. Frankly, this is an experiment (you KNOW I love experiments!). I want to see how many people prefer to receive blog updates in their email vs. RSS reader.

I'm betting that most people prefer RSS feeds to additional email.

Finally, I've added a Lulu button. If you have any interest in downloading my E-books, they can be found there. I promise you'll get what you paid for.... After all, they're free.

My First E-Book!

Well, I'm now a (self) published e-book author. After reading about Lulu in Seth Godin's blog, I though I'd test it out.

For those of you who don't know about Lulu, it's a website that allows anyone to create and publish books (including E-books). Once you've done the hard part (writing the book), getting it published is a snap.

Lulu's SIMPLE instructions walk you through choosing the format (paper size) of your book, allow to to design cover art and if required, the jacket. You can set your price (any price) you want to receive for your book. Lulu's cut is 20% of your commission (again, whatever YOU decide) as payment for hosting/producing your book.

Book formats can range from e-books (free .pdf downloads), to spiral bound, paperback or even hardcover editions. Depending upon format size, page count and whether you need color or not, the prices to produce the book are predetermined. They then add your cut to the price and voila, you're in business.

Lulu offers a print-on-demand model. When your book is ordered, it's produced and then shipped to your customer. You do nothing.

I suppose there are as many reasons for self-publishing as there are books for sale on Lulu. In my case, I wanted to share lessons learned implementing major software systems. And I wanted to try Lulu out (I'm curious). So I've offered my E-book for free.

If your company is about to undertake a major system upgrade, I'd recommend you check it out. Just click on the Lulu icon on my blog and it'll take you right there.

Let me know what you think!

Ubuntu, IdeaStorm and my friend Dave....

Here's an interesting (about 9 minute long) video I found on Dell's website. It features Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu project founder) talking about how Linux found it's way into Dell's product mix, via IdeaStorm.

Enjoy.






I promised an update on the Ubuntu experiment that we undertook with my friend, Dave. If you recall from a previous post, my son installed Ubuntu on an old (about to be discarded) desktop. With nothing left to lose, he wanted to experiment with Linux.

After playing for a couple of weeks, we have a satisfied customer. Dave's PC did not have a network card in it. After booting Ubuntu and playing for a short while, he was very eager to see how everything worked once he was connected to the Internet. The idea was that this new PC was to be basically a PC for his kids - to allow them email access, web browsing and access to Internet based gaming.

After a quick trip to purchase a network card, he managed to (without help from us) get it up and running. Not quite as seamless as a "true" plug'n'play experience, but mission accomplished, nonetheless. His family is now "connected". All that remains to be seen is how his kids respond to the new environment. Stay tuned.

The Doctor is In - Part 2

So you've decided that your department needs a B-12 shot - that you're lacklustre, need some motivation. Well here's the good news.

The good news is that it's easy to start your department generating and implementing ideas. Here's a few things you can do immediately to get the process started.

1. Build idea generation and experimentation into people's jobs. Review all your job descriptions. I'm guessing that idea generation and life-long learning goals are absent. And if you aren't officially asking that your employees do these things, how are they to know? Go on, review and update those job descriptions. It also gives you the opportunity to sit down with everyone to emphasize the changes - the new expectations.

2. ASK for ideas! Don't make the mistake of thinking that they will be naturally volunteered. If you get in the habit of asking, you will eventually get your employees to start thinking ahead or better yet, to start thinking more strategically. When they arrive at a meeting to discuss an issue or problem, they'll come with the expectation that they'll be asked for an opinion or idea.

3. Test some new ideas. Start small experiments. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant - just begin the process. If the ideas are "small" and don't work out, they're easily forgotten. Small "wins" lead to bolder experiments and bigger wins. Watch as your employees begin to take ownership for ideas and initiatives. Help them add value.

4. Share stories and experiments. In larger work environments, it's difficult to know what experiments are going on everywhere. Bring your teams together for lunch'n'learn sessions where you can share stories about what is working and what isn't.

5. Celebrate wins AND losses! Not every idea will be a winner. It's important to set up an environment where it's okay to occasionally fail with an idea. So celebrate the wins and learn from (and laugh off) the duds.

6. Teams Win, Coaches Lose. If an idea or suggestion goes well, give your team ALL the credit. If one bombs, you can help take the "sting out", by taking the blame. "I should have seen that coming" - or "I didn't think that one through very well". Then, share what you've learned from the failure.

There should only be two possible outcomes from your experiments; Success or a Lesson Learned. You win either way.

Let me know how it goes!

The Doctor is In

My annual physical always involves three basic measurements; heart rate, blood pressure, weight. These three metrics tell my doctor a lot about my general well being - well before I complain about my arthritic knees.

If you were to perform an annual "physical" on your team or department, what would the metrics be?

Here are some thoughts;

1. How many new ideas have you implemented in the past 12 months?
2. What was the source of these ideas? (Internal or external).
3. Who generated the idea? (all from one person, (you?) or from across the department?)

If your answer to #1 is that you haven't done anything differently, didn't implement any new ideas, your department may be stagnant - doing what you always do.

Showing up.

Punching the clock.

Going home.

If this sounds familiar, check for additional employee symptoms; glazed-over eyes, chronic fatigue, one word responses to questions, unexcused absences. Your people are either burned out or your department is in a major rut. Or both.

To me, idea generation is a basic indicator of business health. It means that people are engaged - they're interested in taking new approaches, constantly improving, optimistic, engaged in experiential learning, excited about what they're doing. They have the feeling that they can make a difference and that their contributions are valued. That is a HUGE business advantage.

Now answer the question; "Where are the ideas coming from?" If the answer is that they are solely internal ideas, the "not invented here" paradigm may be flourishing in your company. I used to tell my people to "Steal Ideas Shamelessly" - in other words, keep your eyes open for ideas that work - no matter where the source. It could be a marketing idea from the local grocery store, a customer service experience at the auto body shop or a blog you've read on the Internet.

Why spend the time re-inventing the wheel? If someone has had success with an idea, take a look at it, tweak it. Make it your own. Build upon what's already been built. Keep your antennae up! Experiment quickly. Learn. Experiment again.

Finally, who is generating the ideas? If they're all coming from one person or from the "top", you have unrealized idea capacity. Great ideas can come from anywhere, from anyone at anytime.

It's your job as leader to draw them out.

So give your department it's "annual physical". If the prognosis isn't good, stay tuned and tomorrow I'll share some ideas to get you healthy again.