IT needs to add value – Mike Schaffner,Forbes, Mar 2009
Sometimes we get too wrapped up in the Holy Grail twins: meeting customer requirements and being efficient. These are admirable goals, and we should continue to try to achieve them but sometimes if we focus too tightly on them we may miss opportunities to add value
Example: The airline took an unused asset (the blank two-thirds of the page) and converted it to something of value – an events list and weather forecast for the traveler and a source of ad revenue for the airline
Adding value (and doing it quickly) can be key factors in IT achieving a couple of its other goals: a true partnership with the business and being thought of as an area for investment rather than a cost center to be tightly controlled.
Do experiments, not projects – Harvard Business Review, Dec 08
‘I wish IT projects would come in on time and on budget.’ This very reasonable sounding request is actually quite unreasonable. We are no longer simply automating existing manual processes. We are trying to change the way people think and behave. Who really knows what’s going to happen… – Susan Cramm
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