Category: IT Project Management

Digital Transformation – is it really a new concept?

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Digital Transformation, Education, IT Project Management, Uncategorized

The Badger can’t help but roll his eyes when he sees the phrase ‘Digital Transformation’. Of course, strategists, marketeers, consultants, media people, and researchers all need a convenient label for their visioneering or to sell their wares, but you’d think from its use in recent years that ‘Digital Transformation’ is a new phenomenon. Not so. At least in the Badger’s opinion which, admittedly, is influenced by a tendency to cut through flimflam and look at realities under the covers. If ‘Digital Transformation’ embraces putting digital technology into an enterprise changing the way it operates and delivers to its customers, then it’s been going on for at least 40 years! Why this view? Because since joining the IT industry everything the Badger’s been involved in entailed delivery that transformed enterprises and the way things worked.

A recent interview by Computer Weekly with Mark Gray, Director of Digital Transformation at the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) illustrates the Badger’s point and also provides an insight to the vision, leadership and complexity involved in keeping an organisation modern, relevant and effective. CPS’s core case management system, built and hosted in a data centre 17 years ago, is apparently on track to complete migration to the cloud in the next quarter. A significant moment indeed, especially as the Badger was at the time a senior leader in the company that built and delivered the CPS’s case management system all those years ago! It was a very significant achievement for all concerned, and it was transformational for the CPS. It was a ‘Digital Transformation’ embracing the technology available at that time. It was just as fundamental then as the CPS’s transformative moves with technology are now.

So ‘Digital Transformation’ isn’t new. It’s been at the heart of keeping organisations modern, relevant, efficient and competitive – all things that leaders must focus on – for decades. If there’s been something new in recent years, it’s that leaders are dealing with ever speedier cycles of change in a world being disrupted by many forces – technology advancement is just one. Accordingly, there’s no scope for leadership complacency these days if an organisation wants to survive and remain relevant to their customers.

So good luck with completing the whole CPS transformation programme successfully, Mr Gray. No doubt the necessary culture changes and revised working practices are as much a challenge as the technology, but just think…it’ll all have to transform again in a few years time when the robots finally take over!

So, you want to be a project manager…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, IT Project Management, Uncategorized

A young builder working on a Badger property happened to say that he ultimately aspired to be a specialist construction project manager (PM). This made the Badger wonder if young IT PMs realised the full breadth of attributes needed to succeed in project management.

The Badger remembers attending his first internal project management course many years ago. The course leaders were company seniors and a 10-minute opening address was given by the CEO. He made two points that made a lasting impression. First, he wrote 1×5=4, 2×5=10, 3×5=15 up to 10×5=50 on a flipchart. He then turned to the course attendees who, horrified that the boss could make such a mistake, pointed out that 1×5 is 5 not 4! The CEO grinned. His mistake was deliberate to make the point that in the real world you’re rarely congratulated for the 9 out of 10 things you get right, but you’re always criticized for the one thing you do wrong. He said if you can’t cope with that, don’t be a project manager!
Second, he presented a question regarding two project managers who’d each run three projects. The first PM ran two successfully but failed with their last project.

The second failed with their first two but succeeded with their last one. Which was the best PM? Everyone plumped for the first one. The CEO grinned and made his point; namely, to remember that you’re only as good as your last project, and if you can’t cope with that then don’t be a project manager!

Wise and very apt words in the Badger’s experience. It’s also the Badger’s experience that it takes more than PM process knowledge or APM or PMI accreditation to be a good project manager. The right human attributes are crucial too. The best PMs have complex personalities and inner strengths. They’re focused, assertive, directional, objective, decisive, and action-oriented individuals who are empathetic but firm with their team and their client. Their actions build respect and they take responsibility. They’re rational, natural problem solvers, astute, calm under pressure, and politically, technically, commercially and financially savvy. They’re tough, resilient, analytical, forward-looking with a nose for trends and threats, and at least 7 out of 10 decisions they make are good ones. People with all these attributes are rare beasts!

So, if you want to be a PM think carefully whether you’ve the right personal attributes for the role. But don’t be unduly put off, because you don’t know what you’re capable off until you try! Afterall, the buzz from shaking the client’s hand on a successful delivery is second to none, and the pride that goes with seeing the results of your management in use for years – or sometimes decades – is awesome and will never leave you.