New CIO - Phase 1 - Learn!

I just finished my first 5 weeks in a new CIO position. Fun. Hectic. A ton of learning. I set out with a 90 day plan divided into 3 phases. The first phase focused on learning, the second on analysis, and the third on planning.

During the first phase - roughly the first month - I focused on learning two areas: the business and current IT environment. My new position is with a mid-size fast growing retailer - an industry where I have minimal experience. Learning our business in particular - and the retail business/industry in general - were equally important. On the business side, I first sat down with the IT management team and reviewed the business end-to-end from an IT perspective, i.e., what were the major systems and the major interfaces as you follow our product from conception through sales. I then had meetings with each department/business unit to learn about their business functions, their major systems, and their view on what makes us unique. This last point will become critical as we move forward with long term IT planning to make sure we understand how and where to prioritize investment dollars.

The second area of learning focused on the IT environment itself. People, processes, technology. I reviewed our many lists of tasks and projects. I reviewed the inventory of systems, technologies, tools, etc. I reviewed the relationships with existing partners and contractors. At this point, I have a handle on our current business and IT environment and can start working to identify areas for improvement and growth.

Read More...

Summary only...

Popping the Bubble

If you rub your hand along a carpet starting along one wall and continue to the opposite wall, your hand will always move steadily and level but a bubble will slowly grow. Eventually, you'll have to pop the bubble to reach the opposite wall.

Many projects, especially IT related projects, develop a bubble throughout the project. In fact, many projects appear to move steadily onward while the bubble grows larger. The challenge for project managers is to identify the growing bubble and do whatever it takes to stop the bubble from growing. In most cases, any problems or issues should be resolved promptly - don't let them add to the bubble and potentially create other dependent problems and issues. Sometimes it's not clear that a bubble exists.

With our recent warehouse automation initiative, we did not identify all the corrupt data until the 11th hour. During our pilot, we actually were compounding the problem due to an internal system error. Eventually, we tackled the problem (literally) using a small army of employees to correct the data over a period of several days. During our postmortem, I remembered the "popping the carpet bubble" metaphor as we discussed the series of events that led to our final push to complete the project.

Read More...

Summary only...