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Terrance Knecht MBA, CISSP, PMP, CGEITAssistant Vice President, Chief Information OfficerThe University of Iowa Foundation [email protected]
T h e U n i ve r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n2
Time is a zero sum game
Everything is interrelated
All actions/decisions have an impact forever
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n3
Moral law—Be in accord with the sponsor
Heaven and earth—Know the environment
Commander—Does the PM have the virtues of
wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and
strictness?
Method and discipline—Organize the project
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n4
Absolute defense on what IT is working on and
(more importantly) what IT is not working on
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n5
True record of reality
The record of hours shows the true investment
PBS: Business staff thought (deluded themselves)
that IT was working on everything at once
UIF: Business management felt that reporting
requirements were only temporary
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Annual Fund Blackbaud Telefund Outputs
Foundation Outputs
University Outputs
Alumni Association
Output
Fixed Work
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008 Projected
6
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n7
Pick a sponsor who wants to use the project as a
vehicle to move their career forward
PBS: The director of development (giving) was the
sponsor of the new development system which we
built. She glossed over the problems until they were
solved
If the obvious sponsor is unenthusiastic, follow the
food chain
PBS: Director of video sales did not support the new
system, but the vice president of marketing did
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n8
Have the business side own the project
Have the business side make the decisions (or at least
think they are)
Structure the project so that the business side does as
much of the project as possible
UIF: When the PM for the University of Michigan
visited UIF—he was amazed to the extent that the
business areas ran the fund raising project
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n9
Being the second project manager is often a very
good situation
Realism has set in for the users
The bad feelings from the journey to reality are tied
to the drowned first project manager
Lexi International: I was the third CIO that year, so
when I wanted to tear up the existing infrastructure—
got an OK
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n10
If the project charter does not flow easily from the
sponsor to the written word, then resolve the key
issues before going on—they will not resolve
themselves
If the project manager is very lucky, everything will
be aligned
Unresolved issues hinder the organization in reaching
the project objectives
UP&UP: The scope of Y2K was not resolved
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n11
Charter restrictions are very important and
sometimes more important than the project
UP&UP: The completion date for the new corporate
HQ needed to be 90 days later for financial reasons
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n12
Training is NOT something outside the project
Put training on the project’s critical path
If possible, configure training costs as a base cost for
the obvious participants and an incremental cost for
the less defensible
Create an interesting chart for training progress
13
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n14
Get the priority resolved—especially if the project is
a whale. This will make resources available
If the organizational commitment is of the highest
order, it is more difficult for forces outside the
project to siphon off resources and ask individuals to
do more than reasonable
UIF: The president announced the fundraising
software project was the most important project
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n15
Make individual tasks as discrete as possible to
insure ownership
UP&UP: Each program was assigned to an
individual for Y2K (1 million lines of code)
Brand key steps - especially if they are critical or not
glamorous
UIF: The tedious, pedantic step of coordinating all
of the paperwork for each 13 design groups was
called the ―Last Chance‖ meeting
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n16
Couple tasks to create a feeling of dependency – do
not let your buddy down
Crocker Bank: One person did the edit and one did
the update program
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n17
Safest path is the one that if an outside consultant
was called in they would say either ―that is the way I
would do it‖ or ―I would do it differently, but many
others would do it this way‖
Be creative on how the pieces are put together, not in
selecting the individual pieces
PBS: I worked with Lucent to create the new call
center. Then the business management went to
Lucent to ask if it was a good idea
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n18
If you try to save a dollar and something goes
wrong, no one will remember your savings. If it goes
well, you will receive no thanks
Lexi International: All of the new servers had to be
replaced
Make sure that ―what you see‖ looks like the value
you paid
UP&UP: The computer room looked like a million
dollars
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n19
Always look at the true cost of activities. More
importantly, link what the true alternatives are
PBS: $125 per hour (1991) consultant working on an
AS/400 in storage room
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n20
Sometimes people are not needed to be around
during the actual implementation
UP&UP: The day that the organization cut over to
the new corporate HQ, a VP took the President for
golf
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n21
Recognition is great for the next project
Blue Cross: After the successful disaster recovery
test, I flew from one site to another just to hand out
certificates – the best I could find
Recognition is not always what you think it will be
UIF: During the flood of 2008, I wrote ―Essential
Person‖ letters which became highly prized artifacts
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n22
Project can be vehicle to elicit a demand for change
DESIGN TEAM CURRENT STATUSCR Blackbaud to resolve 4 critical signoff issues
Campaign Signed Off
DRS Blackbaud to resolve 3 critical signoff issues
PG UIF to set up Final meeting
Athletics Signed Off
AG Blackbaud to resolve 1 critical signoff issue
CFR Signed off
OLC Blackbaud to meet with UIAA on 2/19
E&V Mgt Blackbaud to resolve documentation
Done
Last Phase
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n23
Issues do not go away
Confront issues directly and early
Start early beating the drum if business management
will have accept an inconvenient truth
Blue Cross: The fixing security was something they
did not want to understand. Used EDS and the legal
department to finally succeed. This also allowed me
not to be the one carrying the final message
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n24
Be ready with a story for every occasion
UIF: Flood (ACT)
Remember, you are always working for the next
project