Following a recent discussion with a colleague about the tenants and pitfalls of a new service agreement with the IT-department and the system owner, my mind kept turning over this question:  Is the IT-department more focused on making money than on making things work for the organization? Followed closely by: Is not our cost center budget model seriously flawed? And finally: Is there a better incentive or IT-management model?

Photo by: David Blackwell.

In search of an answer

First stop Harvard Business Review where I found the frank and engaging post by Susan Cramm: “8 Things We Hate About IT“. Reaction: apparently we are not alone, and our mediocre operating model and strategy execution is not the exception, but the norm.  I present a few slightly modified excerpts from the points that especially resonated:

8 4 Things We Hate About IT

IT’s bureaucratic governance process rivals the tax code in complexity and inhibits rather than promotes innovation. (From 8 things, #1 – IT Limits Managers’ Authority)

Molasses moves faster – IT projects and planning move slowly, often taking 3 to 4 times longer than necessary (see point above). In-process projects are always 90% done. “Completed” projects don’t have agreed to functionality, and the team that promises to deliver missing functionality in future phases are always mysteriously MIA. (From 8 things, #4 -Their Projects Never End)

Condescension not collaboration: When you try to brainstorm with IT about how to apply new technology, you get paternalistic responses. When glitches emerge, functional specialists defend the reliability of their piece of the byzantine infrastructure. (From 8 things #5/#7)

The perpetual struggle. No matter how much you spend and how hard you work, you never have anything to celebrate and little to look forward to as the promise of technology seems perpetually beyond your reach. (From 8 things #8 – IT Never Has Good News)

The blame game

It is tempting to rally behind the sentiment of Cramm´s introductory quote:

“In the quest of getting things organized, they are introducing a bunch of bureaucracy and, in the process, they’re abdicating their responsibility for making sure the right things get done.”

But I won´t. Like many of those readers who commented on the above article, I like and respect my colleagues in  the IT department. It is the system that is broken.  And it  is only fair to also include the valid points from the Cramms´s sequel presenting  IT’s point of view on corporate management.

I can definitely attest to the following:

5) The user community is unskilled and ungrateful – The IT department often provides on the job training to an ungrateful user community even though much of this tedious work could be eliminated if they mastered the basics of the systems that support their business.

7) IT is hardworking – IT works long hours supporting old technologies that the company can’t afford to upgrade.

And it also needs to be said:

The model we have is the model we built.  The IT-department is a cost center that fills orders and builds things to spec, because that is what the organization has asked it to be.

Are we anywhere yet?

So how much closer are we to finding some good advice?  Authority and governance is the  big issue and no one seems to have the silver bullet, but McKinsey´s Marina Levinson makes and illustrates some good organizational principles (below).

Governance  principles

Processes must use fast-cycle innovation and be tied to long-term interests
In particular, Levinson suggests “deliver tangible business value within 90-day increments” … and “build quickly while also looking at least two or three years ahead.”

Foster mutual understanding and complementary skills in both camps
Core business areas need people to be IT savy, and IT experts need a knowlege of the business. “[You need] IT leaders who challenge [the business]” .. and “each cross functional process has a sponsor at the senior or executive VP level…with operational leader whose responsibility includes that business process”, says Levinson.

The motivators and values need be top-line and customer focused
Prioritize systems that allow you to get closer to customers and partners

The problem is, embracing these principles involves a paradigm shift way above my pay grade.  And therein lies the rub, as I realistically don´t see this as anything we can achieve by grass-roots means. We are talking change management.  On a massive scale.  We need these changes, and my colleagues may even agree, but I know our organization´s leaders have not reached the same conclusion.

Always look on the bright side ….

In true Monty Python fashion, let´s end with a look at the bright side. We are taking small steps:

1. Some units in our IT-department are increasingly embracing SCRUM, and agile development methodology in general
2. Business processes reviews have been initiated on a small scale
3. Some discussion of our ICT organizational model, albeit in back rooms, has taken place.

Recommended reading:

No Scrum, No More – Why are we not scrumming? (Select* Geir Berset - Feb. 11, 2010 )

The Norwegian super-cluster, aka knowledge hub, comprises many of Noway´s best and brightest in maritime research and industry, many of whom had gathered at DNV´s headquarters in Høvik  today to exchange ideas and plot the way forward.  Present were many of the new industry endowed professors. These earmarked experts are a key component and resource in  the Maritime Knowledge Hub endeavor.

The June 2008 cover of genome-technology.com. The sign: Cape Codon, biotech capital of the world. Population 2,000,000 (mostly postdocs) Photo by: dullhunk

Speakers included:

Jon Rysst
(Knowledge Hub/DNV)

Torgeir Reve (BI)

Sturla Henriksen
(Norges Rederiforbund)

Tore Ulstein
(Ulstein Group)

Jan Fredrik Mehling
(Eidesvik Offshore)

Oddvar Aam
(MARINTEK)

Per Magne Einang
(Maritim 21)

Rikke Lind (NHD)

Related articles and sites:

• knowledgehub.no – The website for the new Norwegian Maritime Super-cluster
• Norway plots course for Global Maritime Knowledge Hub
• Department of Marine Technology, NTNU

A member of the back-to-paper movement, I love Bill Westerman´s “where the day went to crap” note on this illustration, as well as how this photo illustrates the power of analog lists. In my estimation PDA´s and, hm-hmm iPhones, take at least 10 seconds longer per interaction with one´s list. What´s  more, just looking at one´s iPhone tempts to check Twitter, and e-mail, and, and… Come on you know I am right, but the point is one can easily get distracted from the task at hand.

Another illustration I appreciate – “The Quality vs. Quantity Whiteboard UX “  manifesto, which includes these rules:

Email

• Check e-mail only @ 10:00AM, 1:00PM, 4:00PM.  Set e-mail check every 3 hours
• Send anytime
• No Email on Evenings
• No Email on Weekends
• Emergency? = Use phone

Focus

• Focus: 1-3 activities max/day
• Log: 1-3 succinct status bullets everyday on team Wiki

• Minimize chat
• Maximize Single Tasking

Out by 5:30PM – NO EXCUSES -

(Reality check: The author of this post notes this  just one day after skulking away from the office at 10PM on a Friday, because one fix sparked a slippery slope of obsessive compulsive css and functionality tweaking on the university´s leadership blog.)

These are the some of my ahah conclusions as 2009 winds down:

1. 6 is no good
   Representative committees are no good. Of late, truly useful interaction and progress has occurred only when there are 5 or fewer participants in the room.
2. Buck the futility of meetings and the tyranny of the email onslaught
   More gets accomplished through MSN and before/after meetings, than in meetings or through emails. One can save a lot of time by cutting out 90% of emails, and all meetings with more than 6 participants. Show up once in a while, bail on the rest?  (Additional inspiration: HBR – Manage your Time Like Jim Collins)
3. Lay low – Full stop on the meta-discussion
   Leaders across the organization are supposed to care about the how/who/why, but given their every-day they could really not care less. The results should be the focus, and I am sure that good results will win any argument. I should stop trying to get consensus/understanding on the “why” and “how”. Consensus has rarely been achieved, and when it has, it hasn´t gotten us anywhere really. ROI on time invested = .01.
4. A good model seems like a good goal – but it really just looks good on a slide
   What I bring to the table (and the same can be said of my most effective colleagues) probably doesn´t fit nicely into any role, in ANY organizational model that might solve what ails us.  The university is decentralized, and lets not kid ourselves, future centralization efforts won´t be plucking people from among the existing rank and file.  So you are outside of the box, far removed from the politics, you might want to take a second look around.And if one is already outside the box, why try and hop inside it? Maybe misguided craziness?
5. Geeks and nerds will always be a bit rogue
   It is often the uniqueness, the oddities and special talents of those in some of the best teams, not sameness that yields great results. Increasingly  the “odd-man-out ” in every single org model discussed lately, my gut feeling is that maybe I should just stick to participating in the virtual teams and ad-hoc collaborations.  It is even possible to further self-organize without getting anyone´s blessing.  This might also be more fun, in addition to being more effective.

   All we need now  is a secret handshake or a code word, maybe even a lair.
   

6. Fun shouldn´t be tabled for later
   Maslow was right.  Money is not what drives everyone. After my basic needs are met, I work because I want to achieve something more, and I like much of what I do.  We are not all characters in The Office, and it is possible to be too focused sometimes. One´s job can NOT be 150% about the organizations goals. (This can burn people out and that helps no one). Plan for a bit more fun, and few other bits from the top of old Maslow´s hierarchy.
7. If you build it, they won´t necessarily come, but maybe.
   Compelling is: finished products that can be demonstrated; processes that have achieved some results, and systems that are up and running. These are way more compelling that any plan or description.  Example: Installed WordPress and  Joomla, then people started using them. Propose adoption of WordPress MU and we got a institutional skepticism, budget concerns and a report. Propose a video and you get a long discussion. Make a video and you get a video. Develop an interaction yourself an you please your users; request a developer to develop it, and you get a place on their massive todo list.  Choose what is fastest.

It´s not worth blaming anyone, it´s not ideal. It´s not how we want things to be. It´s just how it is. (Unless you are lucky enough to work at Ben & Jerry´s or Google. Lucky, talented, ducks.)

* Translations:

julebord = corporate Christmas party in Norway
ribbe = traditional Norwegian Christmas pork ribs

A revolution doesn’t happen when a society adopts new tools, a revolution occurs when a society adopts new behaviors.

This applies as much to an organization as it does to society at large.  The well-made UsNow video introduces the power and utility of social media to the unfamiliar, but will appeal to the well initiated as well.  Need to  demonstrate or explain why the Web 2.0 functionality adoption in your next recommendation is not about the technology, but about ideas and cooperation? (not to mention tapping into resources and systematizing informal knowledge)  Start with the just first few minutes of this video.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Some additional quotes from the opening few minutes:

More people can say more things to more people than ever in history, and that is still growing enormously. … So if you can create an encyclopedia with millions of people you never met … what else could you create? … These tools have lowered the cost of doing things to the point where our desire to engage with one another is enough to get things to happen on a large social scale rather than a smaller family scale. … The web can create large communities of informal knowledge, systematize that and make it very useful.

Join the campus mapping effort and OpenStreetMap competition this month at NTNU. I can attest that mapping is a bit addicting, and there is fun to be had by joining the collective NTNU effort.  Even if there weren´t prizes it would be fun—but there are indeed some prizes—good prizes.

Did I lose you?

OpenStreetMap is on its way in as NTNU´s official map app (cheering heard somewhere). A free editable, net-based, map of the world, OpenStreetMap (or OSM)  is made up of data collected and plotted by anyone who wants to.  For any who find this hard to digest, it could be described as the Wikipedia of mapping, if you will.

More about the prizes

The competition is open to both NTNU students and employees. Just by participating one will be eligible to win one of 3 gift checks for NOK 3000.  Prizes will be awarded in each of the following groups:

• Best contributor to NTNU campus regions.
• One random contributor to NTNU campus regions ( lottery drawing)
• One random contributor to Trondheim´s “midtby” regio (lottery drawing)

It´s never too late to get started,  but keep in mind that the competition ends on the 15th of November. One GPS track will earn you 10 lottery entries, 1 change-set with sensible comments will earn you 1 lottery entry, (max 1 change-sets per 3 minute interval).  Definitely read the official rules and registration, and if you are an exchange student in need of a translation, let me know.  Happy mapping!

Further Reading for OpenStreetMap fans

• Flickr Allows OpenStreetMap, FourSquare Geotags

RE: Contact component – Joomla

Seems like I looked forever for a simple recipe on changing the default sort order of a contact listing to alphabetical. Found only a post for an old version of Joomla. So simple when you find the variable (but I myself still find the Joomla “loop” a little confusing).

In the view.html.php file located in:

1. components/com_contacts/views/category/  (or)
2. templates/templatename/html/com_contact/category/(#2 is the alternative file location, if you have created an customized view for the extension in your template)

change the filter_order on line 40 from ‘cd.ordering’ to ‘cd.name’

// Selected Request vars

$filter_order = JRequest::getVar(‘filter_order’, ‘cd.name’, ”, ‘cmd’);
$filter_order_Dir = JRequest::getVar(‘filter_order_Dir’, ‘ASC‘, ”, ‘word’);

Building upon the breakthrough work of B. F. Skinner, Page and Brin reasoned that low cost pigeon clusters (PCs) could be used to compute the relative value of web pages faster than human editors or machine-based algorithms. And while Google has dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of our service on a daily basis, PigeonRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools. http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has its best practices, rules, and studies; and knowing a little bit about it is a good idea. If you were looking for information on that and arrived here, I mean no disrespect. Here is a good place to start:

• High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization, (A List Apart)

But if you already know the rules of thumb, you probably are a geek like me and spend little time outside. My challenge to you: Go outside, or at least to the window. Fresh air FTW!

Humorous error messages diminish the irritation a bit: this “You are lost” 404-variant from The Telegraph made me smile. Fail Whale is a similar example. It wasn´t exactly funny, but over time Fail Whale had a similar effect on me, eliciting a “Hello again Fail Whale” response rather than peevishness.  Many of its fans agree.

A serious aside on the content of error messages: Emily Wilska, author of Non-fatal errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages says that they are often an afterthought. This surprises no one, I gather?

Scrambling to get something–anything!–in the product to deal with problems users might encounter, we fall back on standard error messages, overly general or technical text, and confusing functionality.

The post goes on to offer a good overview of things to consider when, why, and how, borrowing a bit from Scott Burken´s  The Web Shouldn´t Be a Comedy of Errors. Recommended.

Error-message hits list

One could go on to reiterate the importance of tone (fault-free declarative or imperative) and the balance in the amount of information presented — but instead here is a little error-message hits list, as that is way more fun.

1. lp0 on fire (aka Printer on Fire) (Unix) – an error message with a legacy is still generated on some Unix/Linux operating systems for select printer errors. Line printers of yore used alcohol so a friction-related fire was thought possible. The original “printer on fire” message was a purely motivational message to users, trying to get them to check the printer under conditions Unix considered dangerous. No actual fire was occurring or necessarily imminent. Today, a CPU thermal failure can still yield “CPU#0: Possible thermal failure (CPU on fire ?)”.
2. Not a typewriter (Unix) – Haven´t received this myself, but imagine the surprise of learning this as you sit in front of your modern machine. (I think I would have to yell back at the machine “No kidding!”) Its origin is in the fact that “Typewriter” was what early UNIX systems called a terminal. The error message persists today, used to indicate that an attempt has been made to use a non-TTY device as a TTY device.
3. Fail Whale – Twitter. A must on any list for its iconic standing, and its innovative place in web 2.0 history.
4. Blue Screen of Death (Windows) – Infamous and truly terrible to behold.
5. The red ring of death (Xbox)  – No, not so much a message as a signal, but we get the message.
6. More new-fangled amusing error messages – Flickr, Digg, Technorati and Reddit server error notifications that are empathetic/humorous on purpose.

Digression: Am actually planning some of my own, with hopes that the IT-dept will be willing to deploy during the platform migration arriving at a theatre near me. Yep there is bound to be some stress involved with NTNU´s upcoming migration from Escenic to Liferay, and why not have some fun with it.

Make your own error message with the Atom Smasher´s generator.

I wish I had the inclination to install it myself, but for some reason I have been manually maintaining at least three stand-alone WP-installations, optimistically waiting for NTNU-IT to offer WP-MU service to the plethera of academic units and student organizations it serves.  The proffering would be effective, good service, and benefit the university in so many ways.  WordPress MU (multi user) allows for a self hosted installation of the flexible, open source, user-friendly system,  at a very low cost.  Free. 

• NRKbeta is using WordPress MU.
• The New York Times is using WordPress MU.
• Harvard is using WordPress MU.

That is pretty good company to be in.  (A list of more good company.)

Harvard currently offers a WordPress MU account to any member of the Harvard community, (Good idea!)  and has this to say about it:

WordPress MU is the best system we’ve found.
— Project info: Weblogs at Harvard Law School. (Users of WP MU since 2006)

So why don’t we have it at NTNU?  Well it seems our sentral IT department will only install what it already knows or what it wants to.  Translation: we will do nothing new unless we have to. Too harsh? Maybe so.  But I know this because that is the gist of the responses I got when I wrote the proposal e-mail in January (parts of which are included below) .   

Maybe I didn’t argue well enough or lobby the right people. (Who knows, its not a new story. And, I digress, but maybe Innsida 2.0 can change our organizational culture by flattening the structure a bit :)).  But the point was/is, kudos to IME.  Both for the installation, for their flexible and constant effort to do better, and not least, for hiring smart people.  And it is not lost on me that, once again, ”just do it” was/is most probably the right strategy.

An excerpt from my aforementioned, poor, e-mail argument, in Norwegian, follows.

5 grunner til å ta i bruk WordPress-MU ved NTNU, og snart: 

1.  Det er effektivt.

Man unngår dobbeltarbeid/trippeltarbeid som vil gjelder:
(1) Fremtidige oppdatering til nye versjoner
(2) Installasjon av eventuelle nye blogger blir lettere.  Nå kreves det at man må fikle fram og tilbake med server- og installasjons innstillinger.
(3) Godkjente malverk blir oppdater sentralt, og det blir ekstra lett å formidle malverk til nye installasjoner.

2.  Det er mindre risikofylt.

Sikkerhets tiltak påvirker alle brukere. Dette er en forbedring på en situasjon som vi har i dag hvor et tiltak som er gjennomført på en blogg, er ikke nødvendigvis gjort på den andre p.g.a. tidspress/glemmeboken.

3.  Det er billig.
Wordpress MU er også gratis. Det eneste kostnad du har nå er eventuelle regninger fra meg (som jeg har nesten ikke tid til å generere). Det er bare logisk at flere enkelt installasjoner vil kreve mer tid enn 1 sentraliserte installasjon som er skalerbar og påvist.  Om tiden viser at det er ønskelig, finnes det rimelig alternativer for støtte fra utviklere som ikke koster mer per år enn å kjøpe inn 2 kopi av Adobe Photoshop. (Basis pakke = ca 15,000 NOK).  Dette anbefales.  (Les mer om Support Network).

4.  Det er mer kundevennlig.
Når eventuelle drift er nødvendig, vil sluttbrukerne ikke merke det. Eventuelle problemer blir løst for alle brukerne samtidig. Vanskelige problemer kan lettere håndteres uten unødvendig forsinkelse forbundet med tilgang til kataloger, rettigheter, innsyn i serverens arkitektur, m.m.

5.  Det er smart.
Harvard bruker det.
New York Times bruker det.
NRK skal nå begynne å bruke det.

. . . og hvis man installer WordPress MU ved NTNU … kunne Universitetsavisa og Gemini bruker det. :)
(Noe som er faktisk nevnt så vidt av Ole Nordal i sin blogg post: En Ny IT-revolusjon? [når han skrev] ”En liten digresjon: Jeg merker meg at Rektor bruker WordPress som teknologiløsning. Mye smartere og bedre enn det som er tilgjengelig i NTNU-portalen sier nå jeg. NTNU.noer jo litt omfattende for wordpress, men dette burde i det minste Uni-avisa vurdert… ”

Read the whole thing? Cool, but surprising.  You might be interested in: a short list of blogs from other universities.