Charles A. Araujo, Jr.

How to fix the innovation gap: A conversation with Judy Estrin

McKinsey has recently posted a video interview with Judy Estrin on the state of innovation and how companies need to be looking at driving greater innovation.  There are definite lessons to be learned for CIOs and IT organizations.  Check it out here.

Back in the Saddle...Again!

Well, I have no real excuse. Yes, I've been extremely busy, but In truth I just got out of the habit of writing. The funny thing is that I miss it. But with everything going on it was easy to just skip it.

The good news is that I've been busy.  It's been a wild six months and it has been rough on everyone.  I've been fortunate to be working on a number of exciting projects and am looking forward to a productive 2009.  But despite the fact that I've been busy and haven't taken the time to write anything down, it doesn't mean that there hasn't been a ton of stuff swirling around in my head. 

Well, we're coming up on a new year and it's time I got back to it. So here we go.  My goal is to get back to this with some regularity - I find that it really helps keep me focused and centered.  I've also been giving a lot of thought lately to what it really takes to move an IT organization.  A couple of my recent projects have been fascinating studies on the role of culture in an IT organization and has crystallized for me how much of what we do is really about people more than anything else. 

I've also become much more focused on the role of innovation in IT.  I've written in the past about subjects that flirt at the edges of this concept, but I hope to spend much more time exploring this subject in the next few months.  I think that it's easy to fall into the process and efficiency trap and am very interested in how we connect to the other side of the value equation much more rapidly.

So in case anyone is still out there, stay tuned.  Some good stuff (hopefully!) is coming!

The Fuss and Hype over CMDBs (aka "myCMDB")

We may have finally reached the pinnacle of CMDB hype with Managed Objects' release of their new product, myCMDB.  While I have been somewhat of a fan of Managed Objects, this one just has me completely baffled.  The press release hype is talking about bringing 'Web 2.0' to the CMDB.  Huh?

It seems to me that this is indicative of a general trend to make the CMDB so much more than it was ever meant to be...and in so doing make it more and more difficult to actually make it work.  Managed Objects is certainly not alone.  It seems as though there is a virtual land rush out there to see who can cram the most different types of data into the CMDB.

Call me a simpleton, but here's my take on effective CMDB implementations:

1. Keep It Simple - CMDBs (and really the Configuration Management System (CMS) - so we can avoid this whole discussion of one really big CMDB!) should be a relational representation of the core and critical assets that IT utilizes to deliver services.  Each organization needs to determine how deep that needs to go to be effective, but there is a definite balance point that must be found.  The more detailed the data, the harder it will be to keep it accurate.  So, the key point is to get the level of detail just "good enough."  IT people are sometimes their own worst enemy here - once we get a hold of this, we want to put everything under the sun in this wonderful, magical database.  Remember that we can provide access to additional detail and related information through the federation model, but when we are talking about what should be considered a CI there must be relentless restraint to keep the data model as simple as possible while still delivering data relevant to the delivery of service - just good enough.
2. Relationship Trumps Granularity - I always find it fascinating that so much effort is put into defining CIs to an excruciating level of detail, but little effort is put into mapping the relationships between CIs.  The truth is that it is in understanding the relationships that the true value of a CMDB/CMS will be found.  I believe that a CMDB/CMS that defines CIs at only a very, very high level, but maps their relationships effectively will provide significantly more value to an organization than one that contains infinite levels of detail about each CI and its various changes in state over its useful lifetime, but which cannot describe the relationship between each CI and others in the delivery of service.  Get this one right and everything else will fall into place.
3. Process is Still Key - ITIL is all about process (well, v2 anyway).  But when it comes to the CMDB/CMS, it seems that we throw process out the window.  Yes, I'm a big believer in discovery tools and application mapping applications.  But when it comes to maintaining the CMDB, nothing will take the place of a rigorous process.  Anywhere that there is a change to a CI, process should dictate how the CI data is updated in the CMDB.  This should be a key process activity tied to Change and Release Management.  It should also be incorporated into the Standard Change process that might be executed as a function of Incident Management.  The key point, though, is that if your CMDB is falling out of sync, it's a process failure.  Can tools help?  Sure, but nothing can take the place of a well executed, well managed process.

In the end, IT and the many wonderful ITSM vendors must resist the temptation to turn the CMDB/CMS into something that is delivered in and for itself.  It's not.  The CMDB is nothing more than a tool that provides appropriate and relevant data during the execution of a process, in the delivery of a service so that those responsible for the execution and delivery can do so effectively and efficiently.  A well implemented CMDB/CMS is one that becomes virtually transparent.  The data you need is available when and where you need it to get the job done.  If you're having to interact with your CMDB data directly - "Web 2.0" or not - well, you're kind of missing the point.

Changing Perspectives: Pena Pachamama, The Upside Down Map and the Meaning of ITIL

I spent Memorial Day weekend in San Francisco and got some much needed mental rest.  Over the course of the weekend, I had a couple of experiences that made me think about the meaning of ITIL, but it might surprise you what they were.

First, I stumbled into a fair trade shop in Healdsburg and came across a map with the fun title, "What's up? South!"  An image is below.  It was simply a map of the world printed "upside down" but with the name of each country, ocean, etc. printed "correctly."  The result is an entirely new view of the world.  If you step back and look at this with "fresh" eyes and don't let your mind automatically flip it around for you, you will realize how an arbitrary decision (who decided that north was "up"?) can inform our perspective to the point that we don't challenge it.  I must have spent 10 minutes just taking it in.

Later in the weekend, we were wandering down (or was it up?) to North Beach for some good Italian and rather than cutting over on Green as we had intended, we continued down Powell....and stumbled across this little restaurant called Pena Pachamama - an amazing Bolivian restaurant in the middle of Little Italy.  They had a Bolivian band playing which was followed by a Middle Eastern band - complete with belly dancers! 

It was quite an experience.  There were a number of locals who were obviously of Bolivian descent and they were interacting and dancing traditional dances to the band.  My wife and I felt like we had almost crashed a family party.  What I found most interesting was that while there were a number of similarities to my Mexican culture, there were also some very strong differences.  It was an experience that opened my eyes to a way of life that was both familiar and unfamiliar and challenged my perspective of what I would find in "Little Italy."

So what does all of this have to do with ITIL?  Well, maybe I'm turning into too much of an ITIL-geek these days, but these two experiences exemplify two of the greatest challenges that we encounter while trying to adopt ITIL within an IT organization:

• Recognizing that it is less that what we are doing is new and more that we are challenged to look at what we do and who we are in a different and new way
• Understanding that while all IT organizations come from a similar place, every organization has its own unique cultural elements that must be understood and accounted for in order to make an ITIL adoption successful

ITIL IS NOT NEW
One of the greatest challenges that we have to overcome is the recognition that, for the most part, ITIL is not new.  Most IT organizations are already doing large parts of ITIL in some way - you almost have to if you're going to function as an IT organization.  But like the map, ITIL is about changing how you look at what is already there and challenging some of the preconceived notions of how IT should operate.  Yet, when an organization embarks on an ITIL adoption effort, what's the first thing that they start with?  Process development.  There is always this significant effort involved with tearing everything down and "developing the new XXX process."

In reality, however, I have typically found that most organizations have a lot of the building blocks already in place.  It doesn't necessarily require that everything be thrown out.  What is really needed is a deliberate review of what's there, what's working and what isn't - and the conceptualization of the behaviors that will drive change.   It's all about organizational change - and that means changing perspectives and changing the assumed way of doing things so that new, more effective and efficient ways of operating can be envisioned.

THE CULTURAL QUOTIENT
Culture is a powerful thing.  Even when cultures come from a similar history and share many common elements small, subtle differences can have a profound effect.  My brief experience with Bolivian culture, contrasted with my Mexican upbringing brought that into sharp relief.  And so it goes with IT organizations.  Over the years, I have probably been on the "inside" of 30-40 IT organizations and no two are ever alike.  Sure, almost all IT organizations operate using a lot of the same elements.  There are only so many ways to structure an organization and most IT groups are responsible for broadly the same types of services, but the subtleties of how those services are delivered and how interactions take place between management and staff (among other elements of culture) make all the difference. 

So remembering that adopting ITIL is really about driving cultural and organizational change, you must understand the cultural nuances of your organization before you can set out to change it.  That's why an initial, singular focus on "process development" or any other type of process-focused work is often misguided.  The focus must always be on understanding and quantifying those outcomes that will support the goals of the business and then undertaking those tasks that will change operating behaviors in a way that will result in the desired outcomes.  Will the redevelopment of processes be required?  Probably, but as those process changes are rolled out, it must be done in the context of the unique and subtle elements of the organizational culture. 

That's why when it comes to ITIL, one size does not fit all.  Any attempt to adopt ITIL "out of the box" without applying the filter of your organizational culture and unique perspectives will find limited success, at best.  The contrast, however, is also true.  You can drive significant value for your organization, making IT more effective, more efficient and more business focused if you begin by embracing the role that your organizational culture plays in both your successes and your failures and by recognizing that you must change the perspective of how both of these are viewed to truly affect change.

The Telectroscope

Ok, this isn't exactly about IT, but I think that most IT "geeks" will enjoy this as much as I do.  I don't want to spoil anything, just check it out: The Telectroscope. 

Our Most Urgent Problem

I believe that the most urgent problem facing IT and, in truth, the future of US competitiveness is the state of our educational system.  Like healthcare, this is one of those issues that we can all agree on the issue, but it's the solutions that get us tangled.

I don't know what the answers are, but I do believe that the students that we are turning out are woefully ill prepared to participate in the global market that we now live in.  Something must be done and done fast.

I came across an article in Fast Company from September of last year that discusses a range of corporate-public partnerships in education.  It's entitled, "Microsoft's Class Action" and as the title suggests, focuses on Microsoft's deep involvement in one such partnership with the Philadelphia school system.

I am not a big Microsoft fan necessarily, but the article is nothing if not thought provoking.  My wife and I were just discussing the fact that our schools seem ill equipped to teach our children even the basics of dealing with the world that she and I inhabit every day.  I don't know that this is the answer, but frankly, anything is better than what we have today.  I hope to circle back to this article as time permits and see how I might help our local schools apply some of these same ideas.  It's a bigger problem than anything I can tackle by myself, I know that.  But I believe that it is something that all of us in IT need to be very aware of and that we must begin to look at what actions we can take to help drive change before it's too late.

The Maslow Adoption Model for ITIL

There appears to be a bit of 'Maslow Mania' taking root in the business press these days.  I've been a fan of his straight forward approach to understanding human psychology since I was introduced to his concept of the "hierarchy of human needs" by my dad as a kid.  But I really hadn't thought much about it or him until recently.

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading "Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow" by Chip Conley, the CEO of Joie De Vivre hotels.  As you might guess, he has used Maslow's theory as the basis for both his book and for how we runs his chain of hotels.

Then a couple of days ago, I read a great article from Baseline Magazine entitled, "Multiple Online Personas: The Choice of a New Generation."  In it, it discusses how marketers must start a new type of conversation if they are going to break through with what Gartner is dubbing "Generation V" - for Virtual.  The gist of it is that Generation V is not defined by age or geography, but by their desire for belonging, esteem and self-actualization, realized in online communities - the top three layers of Maslow's "needs pyramid."

So how can stories about a chain of hotels and retail marketers selling to an online generation and how they are using a 50+ year old psychology theory apply to the world of IT?

Applied to business, Maslow's theory is really about understanding a customer's needs. And let's face it, this is something that has not always been IT's strong suit.  But perhaps the most important thing that it can do is to frame an ITIL adoption effort.  One of the greatest challenges that an IT organization must overcome to succeed with an ITIL adoption program is to answer the question why?  Why is this project being undertaken?  Why is the investment of human and capital resources worthwhile?

These questions can only be answered by understanding the needs of IT's customers.  And Maslow's theory can help frame those needs.  Maslow basically said that humans (and therefore your customers) need five layers of needs to be met (paraphrasing a little): Physical, Safety, Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization.  Chip Conley in PEAK boiled this down further into his Customer Relationship Model and identified three distinct stages in the relationship with your customer: Meets Expectations, Meets Desires and Meets Unrecognized Needs.

At it's core, ITIL is really about understanding and meeting a customer's base set of expectations and needs.  According to Maslow, until we've satisfactorily met that need, we cannot have a meaningful conversation with our customer about meeting any of their other needs.  So, why should you adopt ITIL?  First, because it is a key way in which you will help your IT organization meet the core, underlying needs of your customer.  Second, until you do that, you will be unable to move up the pyramid and find success with your customer at any higher level.

At the same time, when you begin an ITIL adoption it's also important to realize that adopting ITIL is also not enough.  While meeting their base set of needs is the first step, it's not what the customer really desires.  They are looking for solutions that will drive business value and help them succeed (personally and professionally).  The goal must be to enable IT to meet the "customer's desires" by enabling transformative uses of technology and ultimately identifying innovative ways that technology can provide competitive and differentiating advantage to the business ("unrecognized needs").

But none of this can happen until their basic, operational needs are met first.  So Maslow provides an incredibly useful framework for ITIL adoption: use it to meet the base needs of your customer, but only in the context of achieving a larger goal of business transformation that leverages technology for the betterment of the enterprise.  Not bad for a 50 year old theory.

Burn the Boats

In 1519,   Hernán Cortés sailed from Cuba to Mexico to capture Mayan gold and the interior of Mexico for Spain.  As he landed, he famously ordered his men to "burn the boats", signifying that there was no turning back.  It's a tactic that was in use at least as far back as the Greeks and it vividly symbolizes the ultimate commitment to your mission.

Not many of us face that kind of mission any more.  Rarely are our goals that specific, our mission that direct.  Or at least we choose not to make them so.  I know that's been the case for me.  Since I left The Access Group, I've been metaphorically wandering in the wilderness - unsure of what path I should follow.   I am blessed and cursed by the fact that I have many talents and a wide ranging base of experience...and I've been somewhat burdened by an intense desire to maintain a certain lifestyle.  This mix of options and pressure to make things happen fast has ironically been spinning me in circles as I flit from one thing to the next in the hope that the next thing will be the one that will get me back on track and make it all work again.

Then a funny thing happened.  Over the course of about two weeks, I had a series of introductions and meetings with some people who look at IT and the ITSM/IT Transformation space the same way I do.  I had several potential (though not necessarily immediate) opportunities surface.  And I attended an itSMF LIG meeting for the first time in a long time.  All of these combined to really hit me square in the forehead.  This is where I belong.  This is what I love.  This is what I am passionate about.  This is what I need to be doing.

So, it's time to burn the boats.

I've decided that I need to let go of my lifestyle burdens and simply focus on what I love to do and where I want to go.  That means that I am going to move away from any work that is not focused on helping IT organizations transform themselves.  It means that I will be retooling CastlePointe with a relentless commitment to working with and through other technology providers to deliver services in this space.  And it means that I'm going to focus intensely on new ways and new partnerships that will help me accomplish this mission.

My experiences over the last few weeks have also shown me that in my own personal wilderness, I wasn't nearly as alone as I thought.  There are a lot of other people who "get it" like I do and share my views, attitudes, approaches and (most importantly) desire to make things better in the world of IT.  So, I will continue to seek them out and build relationships so that we can help each other on this journey.

In the end, I don't really know if I will be able to maintain the lifestyle I desire.  But I know that I will be doing what I love and affecting change in IT - and by any definition that really matters, that will be success.

An Emerging Form of Capitalism?

Howard Rheingold, who wrote the book SmartMobs, gave a presentation at TED 2005 that was recently posted.   In it, he discusses the concepts of collaboration and collective action.  Interestingly, he associates these concepts with an evolving concept of cooperative capitalism in which people and organizations are simultaneously working in their self interest and in a cooperative manner.

This ties back to my concepts around Market Driven IT organizations and provides additional insights into how IT might act and react to become more strategic and drive business value.  How might IT apply some of these ideas - not so much from a technology perspective (creating social technologies for the workplace), but from a business perspective?  How might these concepts be applied to help IT develop cooperative approaches to delivering services and value to the business that simply cannot be provided independently.

This 20 minute presentation is very thought provoking and is sure to stimulate some new ideas.  It's well worth the time.
 

An Altered View of IT

Two recent articles, talking about IT from two very different perspectives, paint an altered view of IT that I believe is compelling. 

InfoWorld published an article on April 2nd entitled, "IT heresy revisited: Let users manage their own PCs."  The article poses a simple, yet radical idea - why not let the increasingly tech savvy workforce choose and manage their own workplace environments?  Having started on the infrastructure and ops side of the house, I'm well armored with all of the canned responses: non-standard environments increase support costs, user managed desktops create an unmanageable security risk, etc., etc.  These are surely valid concerns, but I believe that in the end we will find that they are outweighed by the benefits to be realized by empowering users to employ the tools best suited to their jobs and by simultaneously relieving IT of a high resource, low value responsibility.  The article discusses the first steps that companies like Google and BP are taking in this direction and what they are finding.

In truth, I believe that most of the canned resistance you hear on this and related topics is driven more by a sense of fear and job security than anything else.  The thinking goes, if the users are handling this by themselves, then what will we do?  The irony is that the significant amount of resources, energy and attention that IT has paid to these "lights on" operational duties is the very thing that inhibits IT's ability to truly leverage technology to drive value for the business.

Another article in Baseline Magazine entitled, "IT Really Does Drive Business Value" reports on the findings of a study to be release on Monday (April 7th) by the Hackett Group.  It finds that those organizations that best manage IT business value significantly "outperform their competition across a wide range of financial and profitability measures."  It's common sense, really.  Focus your IT investments in those areas that are going to drive business value and create competitive advantage - and the results will follow. 

The article identifies four key practices that are key to maximizing the business value of an organization's IT investments:

• Investment allocation:  Top performers reallocate investment from infrastructure and utilities to innovation and improvement.
• Project pipeline: Top performers weed out questionable project proposals early, minimizing the project backlog.
• Delivery performance:  Leading IT BVM companies deliver far more projects on budget and realize projected benefits more often than peers.
• Application portfolio management:  Top performers actively manage their application portfolio to drive out complexity.

But while this sounds perfectly reasonable, putting it into action within an IT organization can be very difficult.  Which leads us back to the first article.

The real challenge is that IT needs to create a new self image.  It needs to be willing to step away from those areas that no longer provide strategic value to the enterprise and focus its energy in those areas that will.  It means that IT needs to get over the idea that anything to do with "technology" must fall within their domain and identify those areas where they can provide significant differentiation.  According to the Baseline article, doing so is a key indication that you're moving in the right direction:

Companies that are leaders in IT management also spend a substantially smaller fraction of their capital expense on infrastructure and utilities, leaving more investment for improvement and innovation. While the largest part of the peer groups’ IT investment is earmarked for infrastructure refresh, the top group invests the majority of its capital on “innovation and improvement,” most often in the form of discretionary projects.

This transformation is not easy.  Moving away from the day-to-day tasks that have been the staple of IT operations (infrastructure and applications) is tough because it takes people out of their comfort zone and into uncharted waters.  But the rewards are real and substantial - both for IT professionals and for their organizations.  It just takes a willingness to alter your view of IT.