The Adventure of an IT Leader - Essay Example

14th March The Adventure of an IT Leader An end-of-chapter question asks you to take sides in the debate between Huerta and Calder. Ill suggest that it may not be so simple. Is it possible that each can be "right" under certain circumstances? If so, under what circumstances? It is not easy to decide who between Huerta or Calder is right. Calder says that the system described by Huerta is a waste of time. They have been spending a lot of time on the system but the system does not work. However Huerta says that there is lack of discipline in the project management process which is causing failure. Both of them may be right from their own perspective. It may be that the system can work with proper management or there may be need to change the system according to the needs of Calder. Both of them appear to be right in their own way which makes it difficult to decide. However if I were to choose I will Calder as the arguments presented by Calder are more convincing. 2. The Software Engineering Institutes "Capability Maturity Model" is mentioned on p. 96. What are the key characteristics of the CMM approach to software project management?  Capability Maturity Model Capability Maturity Model is a process improvement approach. This model is used to rate organizations according to their maturity levels. Maturity levels depend upon the standardization or process in the organization. These processes can be varied such as software engineering, risk management, personnel management etc. There are five levels of CMM – Level 1 or Initial where processes are ad hoc and there is no stability and familiarity in the process followed from case to case. Level 2 or Repeatable where the organisation uses basic project management to document successes and to track cost. Level 3 or Defined where the standard processes to be followed are well defined and followed throughout the organisation. Level 4or managed where the software development effort can be controlled using precise measurement and techniques. Level 5 or Optimizing focuses on innovative and continuous technological improvement. The structure of CMM consists of maturity levels, Key process areas, Goals, Common features and key practices. Every maturity level described above has some key process areas which need to be focused upon in order to reach the maturity level. Each key process area has goals common features and key practices associated with it. 3. What seems to be the core idea in the "Agile" approach to project management? The core idea in “Agile” approach to project management is rapid and flexible response to any change in the project. In order to ensure this the agile approach encourages teamwork, collaboration and the ability to alter the process throughout the life cycle of the project. Agile projects do not involve long term planning. They break down the project into small iterations or time periods. Iteration usually lasts from 1 to 4 weeks. During each iteration all the teams involved in project such as planning, designing, coding, testing work simultaneously and in close collaboration with each other. This easily allows for changes in the project after each iteration .Agile gives importance to face to face communication, flat hierarchical structures, small team size and constant communication with the customer. 4. If youve been involved in a "death march" project, tell us about it IT projects with more than 50% chances of failure are usually called as Death March projects. These are projects which are designed to fail right from the beginning. Many IT projects are death March projects which most of us have experienced. My example of such a project came when I was working in a project for developing a new commercial website for famous banks. We were supposed to improve the look and feel of the site, make it more consumer friendly, and allow more number of customers to access it without the site crashing and various other functions. However right after the project plan had been made, the subprime crisis struck. This proved to be a death knell for the project. The staff for the project was cut in half , not only this even the budget for the project was reduced by 60%.everyone who had worked even for a year in IT knew that there were not enough resources for the project. However the project continued to linger on before the client shut it down completely for lack of results. By the time the project was shut down, global slowdown was all pervasive and the failure of the project was used as an excuse to lay off many employees on the team. 5. Let’s begin an ongoing discussion on the tradeoffs involved in using consultants, or other third parties, in IT projects. If applicable, include your own experiences The advantages of using consultants in an IT project are many. The most important advantage is that they are experts in their skill. With a skilled consultant the project manager does not need to worry about the task given to him. As these consultants are professionals and their success depends a lot on word of mouth publicity, they are much more productive and dedicated toward their work as compared to normal employees. Hiring consultants also proves to be cheaper in the long run as a large number of overhead costs like training are avoided by the company. The biggest disadvantage of consultants is that they are outsiders and are not aware about the working culture of the company. Although their working style may be efficient but it can cause a large amount of friction inside the company and among the employees. The other factor is being over reliant on consultants. There may be some skills which you need to develop for long term success of the company but outsourcing it to consultants can deprive the company from gaining that competency. Reputed consultants are also very costly and charge a hefty sun for their engagements. 6. Can we generalize on the percentages of "competes" versus "qualifiers" applications?  If we consider IT services to be a race, then a qualifier application is one which will help us participate in the race but a “compete” is one which will win the race for you. Although it will be highly beneficial to be able to generalize competes and qualifier application but it is not possible to do it practically. An application which is a compete now may turn into a qualifier as the operations and the scope of the company grows. The percentage of qualifiers and competes also depend on the financial health of the company. In case of any crunch it will be the compete applications which will be shut down first. Thus it is not possible to generalize competes and qualifier applications. 7. Well discuss infrastructure replacement projects soon. What is "infrastructure" in this context? Infrastructure replacement projects are necessary in order to improve the sagging IT performance. Infrastructure in this may mean replacement of hardware like computers network cables routers etc. In order to improve performance. It can also mean improvement of software infrastructure such as replacing the old operating system, installing new antivirus software’s and faster computing software. IT is constantly changing. In order to keep up the pace It infrastructure needs to be regularly replaced and upgraded every 5-6 years. Infrastructure replacement project take care of such up gradations. Bibliography Robert Robert Daniel Austin, Richard L. Nolan, Shannon ODonnell. Adventures Of An It Leader. London: Harvard Business Press, 2009. Read More