Friday, November 15, 2013

Keep it simple is not for the stupid

We all know the KISS acronym. Keep it simple, stupid.  Carrying that out is -- well, not so simple. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "I wrote a long letter as I did not have time to write a short one". Even a simple communication, such as this blog, can get longer than readers might desire. In case you don't get to the end of it ... does anyone have an example of a concise yet robust process for governing IT investments?

There is always the temptation to add a bit more detail in order to assist the end users in carrying out their responsibilities. Quite often what we really mean is the unspoken add-on: "the same way that I would have done it".  And even, "to make things easier for me". Even when our intent is truly to assist, it is almost impossible to provide for every contingency and the documentation required to do so often makes a rather simple primary process look formidable. Often, it is better to make clear what is desired and treat

Governance can also benefit from brevity. Elegance is nice, but it may take a long time to get agreement and much, much longer to get conformance even if people are trying to comply - and that is a big if. It is much more important to get some useful and truthful information in front of the governance board. Once they have that, the board members will start asking much more probing questions that introduce more sophistication into the process without the PMO having to mansate anything. That is handy when one has very little authority to issue mandates anyway.

Another key reason for trying to keep things simple is that thry need t fit into limited available time. One of the most important artifacts in the initiation of govrrnance processes is an integrated calendar. Like it or not, your topic area is only one of many competing for executive attention. The executive board is not going to meet weekly, probably not even monthly, to address your issue. Take a look at an integrated calendar - one that accounts for all the organization's major business processes - and you'll soon appreciate the value of getting even a quarterly dedicated timeslot.

One can overdo this. The recent fiasco with the Obamacare website gives clear evidence that a governance process that is fed inaccurate or incomplete information, and lacking the interest or know-how to identify obvious weaknesses, will lead to serious failures.  The hard part about making things simpler is retaining the critical essentials.

So the challenge: who has a good example of a concise but robust process for governing the selection or oversight of IT invedtments or programs?

1 comment:

  1. Doug,

    I wrote a detailed process used by AT&T Long Lines and Google ate it! Call me if you want to discuss, 'cause I am not typing it all in again! John Morrison

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