The 8 Truths of Quality

Quality practices (e.g., quality management, quality assurance, quality control, quality improvement) apply to a broad range of topics and tasks, and this broad scope has created some dangerous myths about applying quality principles and practices. Here are a few misconceptions that should be cleared up to avoid the cost of poor quality: 1. Quality is…

How to Say No to Your Boss

What should you do when the CEO keeps demanding things from IT and there are no more resources to do it? What should you do when demands pile up so high that you and your team are constantly over-worked and the work just keeps coming? I always talk about how you need to rise above…

Is Cloud Boon or Bane for IT Staffers?

In an industry that has seen thousands of jobs leave for foreign shores and cheaper labor, it is understandable there is much wringing of the hands over how many more IT jobs might be lost to the cloud. “I have an acquaintance that calls it the ‘Corp Tech Pocalypse,’” laughed Steven Savage, a technical project…

IT vs. Business: Who Should You Blame When Projects Fail?

Here are the stereotypes: Business executives think IT is a socially awkward group with zero business savvy. IT, meanwhile, is amazed when business executives can successfully power up their PCs and open a browser. So many projects depend on IT-business alignment, yet so many fail because that alignment is like Bigfoot — plenty of people…

Special Report – Seeing the Invisible and Doing the Impossible

Have you ever wished you could predict the future — and be right? What would it be like if you could clearly see critical changes in the months and years ahead, and use those glimpses to shape that future, instead of just letting it unfold by default? Well, you can accurately predict enough of the…

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Presenters – Authority

In the last column, I introduced the first of the seven habits which was rapport. Now we will move to the second habit of highly effective presenters which is authority. Authority is the audience’s perception that the presenter is knowledgeable on the subject matter. Knowledge leads to credibility and gives the impression that the presenter…

Career Funhouse – Is Perception Reality?

In response to asomewhat recent LinkedIn post asking for a single word or phrase to characterize people’s leadership style 1500 LinkedIn professionals offered up a steady stream of “courageous, passionate, compassionate, sincerity, charisma” and other warm and fuzzy epithets. Not surprisingly, there were no posts indicating harsher forms of rule. This, of course, begs the…

What Makes Your Business Tick?

Much has been said and written about the gap between IT and business and the need for IT to understand business requirements. However, many IT executives try to bridge that gap by aligning IT’s capabilities with the direct, yet sometimes conflicting, requirements from various business functions across the organization. This is a narrow view of…

Special Report – 8 Growth Opportunities for High Tech Firms

Global operations within electronics and high-tech firms offer a wealth of growth opportunities that can accelerate firms towards high performance. Accenture arrives at this conclusion based on new research, The Future of Electronics and High Tech, that polled COOs and other executives from companies in the enterprise, communi­cations and consumer technology industries that have operations…

It Always Comes Down to People

Before you can link your infrastructure together, you’re going to have to break through some silos. This third article in our series suggests some diplomatic ways to break down the walls. While the technology exists today to implement a fully converged infrastructure that integrates servers, storage, networks and management into a single, flexible, and adaptable…