strategy & delivery

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Value of Multi-Generation Planning for Technology

One of the better concepts for managing a set of systems over time comes from the product marketing world. A Multi-Generation Plan (MGP) is a high-level summary of functionality enhancements in phases. Applying this strategic thinking to your IT department’s list of core systems or your tech company’s products and services is invaluable.

What it is and how it’s used 

An MGP is first used as a tool for planning and decision making around your investments in technology. Then, once you have worked out the details and timing, your Multi-Generation Plan can be an excellent communication tool to inform all stakeholders what to expect. A well thought out MGP clearly summarizes key features and functions along a visible time line. It helps busy managers quickly digest a large amount of information so they can give their necessary input into a plan and also make preparations for changes that are coming. 

Here is a simplified example of an IT Multi-Generation Plan:

Assuming only two systems to worry about in this example, you could use the above plan to both capture unmovable requirements like planning for regulatory tax changes in the accounting system and to map out a logical order for all other enhancements such as website improvements and additional financial functions. Once everything is laid out, you can make decisions and adjustments as necessary. For example, in Quarter 3, if you don’t have the budget and/or resources to both implement an Accounts Receivable system and deliver Customer Registration, you can use this tool to highlight the problem, decide which has the higher priority for your business, and explain the result to both your marketing and finance department managers.

Benefits of an MGP

People always want more from technology and rightfully so. But balancing the volume of requests that come from all directions and creating a prioritized plan can be tough in organizations of any size. I’ve found that once a good MGP is created and communicated, even the most pushy customers (both internal and external) tend to back off a bit when they see that you do have your act together, you've thought things through, and that in most cases they are going to get what they want in due time. Now that doesn't mean they still won’t want it all sooner, faster, cheaper, better, etc. But that push back from them can lead to healthy discussions about resources and funding levels resulting in the necessary pragmatic prioritization to move forward.

A good Multi-Generation Plan:

• Provides a simple, visual representation of your path. 
• Allows you to think about the big picture holistically rather than just focusing in detail on a bunch of tactical improvements with no roadmap.
• Benefits non-technical stakeholders and busy managers by logically grouping and summarizing a multitude of data into manageable chunks.
• Allows your internal developers, analysts, and engineers to see how the detailed work they are doing today fits into the big picture. Even more importantly it allows external or outsourced suppliers to see where you’re going and what will be expected of them.
• Helps you decide when to retire older systems and replace them with new ones.

Note on this last point:  for complex environments you may need to create a Systems and Platform Convergence Plan.  Sounds almost scary, but it’s actually simple to understand once you see it.  We will write about that in a future article.

Details on how to create and execute to a Multi-Generation Plan follow . . .

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lessons Learned from Implementing a Fully Digital Hospital

In healthcare these days, the most challenging information technology efforts are the successful implementation of the electronic medical record (emr), computerized provider order entry system (cpoe) and all the needed interfaces that support these two massive (and incredibly important) systems. During my tenure as chief executive officer for a hospital in Colorado, I had the pleasure of overseeing both of these implementations as we completed a journey from paper to fully digital. Focusing on the cpoe implementation and the critical interactions with physicians, below are nine key strategies that leadership will need to employ to ensure a successful cpoe implementation:

1. physicians must have a voice in the process
2. build credibility with physicians beforehand
3. respond effectively and in a timely manner
4. explain the value
5. “at the elbow” support
6. local voice
7. customization
8. presence
9. key metrics

Details around each of the 9 strategies follow . . .

Friday, March 05, 2010

Workshop Follow-Up - GE Leadership Values in Action - Washington DC

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our first public offering of this workshop Hosted by American Office at the impressive Herman Miller showroom in Washington, DC. Below, attendees can find a link to download the presentation slides and other materials from the workshop at our protected file site. Workshop Materials for Download The information is protected with the password distributed at the meeting (found on the bottom of the Team Assessment Tool). Feel free to use this site to make any comments or ask follow up questions for continued group discussion under this blog entry or in the password protected area (link above). You can also e-mail me directly (e-mail link to the left) with follow up questions if you'd prefer. I thoroughly enjoyed the excellent discussion and appreciate your active participation in the session. Don't forget to do your quick and easy follow up homework!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

The GE Leadership Values in Action - at the John Deere Project Management Forum

Deere PM Forum participants:  below you can find a link to download the presentation slides and other materials from the February 2010 workshop at our protected file site.  The post is protected with the password distributed at the meeting.

Workshop Materials for Download

Feel free to use this site to make any comments or ask follow up questions for continued group discussion under this blog entry or in the password protected area (link above).  You can also e-mail me directly (e-mail link to the left) with follow up questions if you'd prefer.

Thanks for your participation in the session!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Every Company Should Have a Master Calendar

Rhythm of Review was one of the most important management concepts I learned while at GE. Every manager (and most employees) knew the dates of the monthly financial closes as well as when the major strategy sessions with corporate were scheduled. These were big events where success or failure was objectively measured and the future of the company was energetically planned.

Regularly scheduled rigorous reviews of results against plan (finance, sales, project status, inventory, etc.) are critical to ensure companies stay focused on their most important metrics. In particular, your IT department needs this rhythm to align their efforts well with the business strategy and flow.

In my years as a consultant, I've been surprised to find that many companies of all sizes have no single calendar that shows when all their important management meetings are scheduled. And often these aren't planned at the macro level at all, so there is no communicated rhythm of review in place.

If you're doing everything ad hoc, then chances are you're missing some necessary disciplines around both strategic planning and tactical execution.

I've searched several times for a good calendar template and found none, so I created this Excel tool and have used it for several clients and my own consulting practice:

visular---company-master-calendar-example---v02.xls

This example is populated with dummy data for demonstration purposes - feel free to customize to meet your needs. Read on for instructions: