June 30th, 2009
Failing with online backup
Seeking to back up 350GB in safe, reliable, off-site storage, I tried Carbonite and Mozy, two of the most respected names in the online backup market. Both products failed miserably to achieve my goals, each one in a perversely different way.
Carbonite offers a simple, set-and-forget solution that should make life easy. In my case, something bad happened along the way because I can no longer restore files reliably. This screen capture shows what happens when I try to restore files using the company’s remote access feature:
As you can see, Carbonite can’t find my selected file. Would this message inspire confidence that your backup is safe?
Carbonite tech support was quite helpful trying to diagnose and solve the problem. However, my luck ran out after support submitted the issue to the developers for further research and fixing. At that stage, support essentially said the developers will handle my issue when they want, with no time horizon and not even a pat on the back.
Based on that interaction, I decided to try Mozy instead.
Mozy takes a somewhat more configurable approach to its backup software, which I like. I transferred the first 200GB of data to Mozy with no problems and reasonably fast upload speeds of 1.5Mbps. Recently, however, my upload speed decreased to a level where large backups are no longer practical. This dialog box shows my current upload rate, which is slower than a dialup modem:
June 29th, 2009
Enterprise 2.0: The Kumbaya irony
Last week I attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. It’s one of my favorite events, primarily because so many online friends attend from around the world and I enjoy their company. Despite overwhelming good will among participants, the conference exposed gaps between expectations and reality that continue to plague the Enterprise 2.0 world.
Enterprise 2.0 aspirations. Enterprise 2.0 suggests a network of organizational activities involving collaboration, cooperation, and engagement as part of a broader ethos of social interaction in business. Professor Andrew McAfee, formerly of Harvard Business School and currently with MIT, coined the phrase Enterprise 2.0. Andy recently blogged about implications of this new system of thought on managing organizations and leading teams.
Andy’s blog elaborated on a piece in the Wall Street Journal by Gary Hamel, which describes “12 work-relevant characteristics of online life.” The post provides a convenient summary of an Enterprise 2.0 view of management:
June 24th, 2009
Computer errors in public places
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent much time in airports and hotels to bring you, dear reader, strange and fascinating tales from the world of IT. During my travels, I keep an ever-watchful eye for interesting and bloggable tidbits. Fortunately, I hit pay dirt twice and have photos to prove it.
First, here’s a photo of the session announcement board at HP’s Software Universe 2009 conference, held at the Sands in Las Vegas. Note, this is a Sands issue and has nothing to do with HP:
…and a cropped, rotated version showing the error:
June 22nd, 2009
HP connects IT investment, value, and transparency
Last week, I attended HP’s Software Universe 2009 conference to participate on a panel discussion around success strategies for deploying project portfolio management (PPM). I used the opportunity to speak with HP executives about their vision for the future of PPM and its relationship to enterprise value creation.
To understand the company’s PPM product direction, I spoke with four folks representing HP’s views on features, strategy, and customer implementation:
- Paul Muller, VP for Strategic Marketing
- Ken Cheney, Director of Products, IT Financial Management
- Bruce Randall, Manager of Product Marketing, PPM
- John Wills, Practice Principal for HP’s Business Intelligence Solutions group
HP’s primary strategic message about the future direction of PPM involves helping IT departments improve their ability to quantify project costs, benefits, and derived value, which Paul described this way:
We automate the spreadsheet Kung Fu that IT often uses to analyze financial data. Our goal is reducing decision-making cycle times and creating transparency that quantifies the business value of IT operations.
Ken Cheney elaborated on this message:
Many organizations find it difficult to get an accurate handle on IT costs. We link IT with the business services it delivers and assign value to help IT appropriately price these services. The future of PPM is helping organizations clearly see the total cost of ownership of all IT services.
HP’s strategy positions PPM as a building block in a broader IT financial management offering, as the following diagram illustrates:
June 15th, 2009
Pentagon kills $6.3 billion missile technology project
The Pentagon canceled Northrop Grumman’s Kinetic Energy Interceptor program amid accusations by Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, that the system’s design would not accomplish key military objectives.
It’s not an IT failure, per se, but certainly a great example of poor fit-to-purpose between technology and business requirements, leading to project abandonment and failure. Northrop Grumman had completed approximately $1.2 billion of work at the time of cancellation.
The Pentagon said it terminated the project for the “convenience of the government” and not because of problems with Northrop.
Northrop Grumman describes the system:
KEI is the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) element that is being designed to destroy enemy ballistic missiles during their boost and early midcourse phases of flight. It is also the first ballistic missile defense weapon system to be developed without the constraints of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Reuters said Gates stopped the program because:
June 12th, 2009
TechCrunch Research: Big deal or not?
TechCrunch, the opinionated startup-focused blog network, has launched a low-cost analytic research service. Given the company’s high profile, this research offering cannot be ignored. However, does this new TechCrunch initiative provide value to buyers or threaten established analyst firms?
TechCrunch describes its 1Q 2009 Report report this way:
[It] provides key take aways and statistical support for the major trends of Q1. The report covers trends in start-up foundings, products, financings and exits across a variety of technology sectors: consumer media and entertainment, social networking, cloud computing, mobile communications, search, advertising and ecommerce, consumer electronics and clean tech.
The report costs $149 and partially overlaps the outstanding, web-based MoneyTree Report, which is free and has been around for years. PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association sponsor MoneyTree.
THE PROJECT FAILURES ANALYSIS
TechCrunch keeps its finger on the pulse of startups, writing with a colorful (some say arrogant) tone and style. This formula has propelled TechCrunch’s popularity and influence among those following technology startups and investment.
June 6th, 2009
Field guide to interpreting CIO-speak
Do you need a universal translator to interpret and understand your organization’s CIO? Well, you’re not alone. Fortunately, blogger Thomas Wailgum comes to our rescue with a post explaining key CIO phrases.
I added quick reference categories to Thomas’ list and formatted it for convenient reading. Use this handy chart as a field guide to communicate more effectively with the CIO in your life.
One little note: CIOs are known to be a bit…shall we say, prickly, at times. Therefore, in the interest of politeness, and also not being fired, I suggest keeping this chart under wraps.
As a small mea culpa, I’ll share the words of Twitter user Mark O’Neill, who said to me, “I sentence you to be taken from this place and made a CIO. May God have mercy on your soul.“
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| [Image via iStockPhoto] |
June 5th, 2009
21 ways to flog dead horse projects
After writing my last post, which was on this same topic, I learned about 21 special techniques organizations use to deny their true state of failure.
This is from the Humor Archives blog, but it’s actually not funny at all. In reality, this list is a sad and accurate commentary on denial in its various forms and manifestations:
- Buying a stronger whip.
- Changing riders.
- Say things like, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”
- Appointing a committee to study the horse.
- Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
- Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
- Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
- Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
- Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment.
- Change the requirements declaring that “This horse is not dead.”
- Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
- Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
- Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat.”
- Providing additional funding to increase the horse’s performance.
- Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
- Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
- Declare the horse is “better, faster and cheaper” dead.
- Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
- Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
- Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
- Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
I just can’t believe the insight and accuracy of these observations. Please share your stories of organizational denial and corporate silliness.
[Thanks to Sarah Runge for bringing this list to my attention. Image via iStockphoto.]
June 5th, 2009
Kill your dead horse failures fast!
Some projects will never (as in no chance, baby) achieve intended goals, despite substantial investment of time, resources, and political capital. Even so, many organizations find it difficult to terminate these inevitable failures because of fear, denial, shortsightedness, or lack of consensus.
A post from the Self Improvement Revolution blog hits directly on difficulties associated with ending failures mid-stream:
But the resulting mindset for the project effort can often be so focused on getting the project back on track that it pays no attention to the fact that the project may very well be a dead horse that is still being flogged. It is wise to be open to the possibility that the project is a like a horse that will never run again. So stop flogging it!
It often takes courage to close a project prematurely because often you are likely to upset someone further up the hierarchy. Closing a project early is not for the faint of heart who are afraid to upset the boss, which is why independent consultants often step up to the mark and do the necessary.
There are many large smelly projects that were the brainchild of a C-level executive still laying in dark corners of companies. They have often become irrelevant, expensive and a complete waste of time and effort. No one has the courage to get the executive in question to face up to the fact that their project was not the best idea after all.
There’s truth hidden in the hyperbole of this excerpt.
Allowing a dead horse project to run its course means greater expense, more wasted time, and continued investment of political capital. As a result, the consequences of termination only become worse over time. For your own sake, kill these failures sooner than later.
[Image via iStockphoto.]
June 2nd, 2009
IBM: IT failure and social media disaster
IBM’s recent DB2 fiasco in the Philippines is a textbook case of Devil’s Triangle relationships causing conflict between a technology provider, third-party consultants, and a customer.
Although the situation is interesting, I never expected it to bubble over onto Twitter, demonstrating poor social media practice in addition to vendor/consultant arrogance.
The Twitter connection began when I tweeted a general request seeking an expert to explain technical aspects of DB2. IBM’s customer, a Philippine government agency, raised questions about DB2’s suitability to task, making the technical aspect relevant:
A consultant with DB2 expertise re-tweeted my request. So far, so good:
An IBM DB2 executive responded with the implication my request was somehow wrong, unethical, or not straightforward. Yes, the tactic definitely caught my attention:
Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a software and consulting company dedicated to reducing software implementation failures. Click here to discuss this post with him on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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