Have you ever been involved in a complex, prolonged project with a large budget that never picks up speed and never delivers the anticipated business value? Or, what about projects that generated many potential technical and business opportunities that were never realized due to scope changes?
In order to find direction, focus and progress, we need strategies that establish the critical frame for highly important strategic projects.
In this article, you will read about three specific recommendations for effective strategy execution.
Strategic execution requires a long-term focus, break down the strategy into goals using OKR and map out the behavior that brings you closer to your goals using lead measures.
When we integrate behavioral design into the IT strategy, as a natural supplement to the classic strategic methods, it opens the way for organizational changes that create greater business value that is carried into effect among the coworkers and management throughout the organization
Focused execution always wins. This is especially valid when it concerns businesses and organizations aiming to generate maximum value while working on projects, tasks, the implementation of strategies and portfolio management. This is why IT ADVISORY advocates designing short and fat projects, and in this article we offer advice on how to implement it in practice.
All IT budgets can be trimmed. The challenge is how to do it without damaging the business unnecessarily. In this article we offer you insight into our IT budget model, which can be used to analyze and optimize IT budgets in your organization or IT department. We interviewed Mads Madsbjerg Hansen last November. He is an experienced CIO and has held leading IT positions at Carlsberg and FLSmidth.
Software and IT systems usually do not come to the attention of senior management until problems arise. Having the wrong order of priorities is very expensive. It can also damage a good reputation, cost unsatisfied customers and, in the worst case, it can cost you your business.
The best companies create the business and IT strategies in symbiosis Many top leaders have come to realize that a company’s business strategy and IT strategy should be integrated, but few succeed in converting this knowledge into standard practice. The reason for this is simple. IT is seldom offered a seat at the table in…
You probably need to have more than one IT strategy. In this article we focus on our Strategy Landscape tool. Not only can it help you to analyze better, it also gives you an overview of the different strategies within an organization, their interdependences and how they are related to the goals of the business.
Does it make any sense to develop IT strategies that are set three years into the future, when technology is evolving so quickly that it is hard to predict and plan far ahead? YES. Strategies may never have been as important as they are now. What is essential is that the structure of the strategy is flexible and dynamic.
An IT strategy should always be prepared with comprehensive business insight. This ensures that the IT strategy generates value for the organization, and that in connection with other activities, the strategy can realize synergistic effects throughout the organization.
Conflicts are a condition of life. They crop up and there is no changing that. However, the way we handle them greatly influences whether they will lead to something constructive or destructive. In this article we closely examine the nature of the conflict and introduce the model of conflict escalation, which assists in spotting a conflict and evaluating its severity.
In the procurement of strategic IT contracts, such as new systems, new technology or consulting services, businesses often focus too much on prices and requirements, and not enough on business needs and value generation. We can equip you with a good foundation for “strategic sourcing.”
At IT advisory we have challenged traditional business models and instead created a dynamic network of experienced, value-driven and unbiased IT consultants. We enjoy working together professionally and on a personal level, but we only partner up on projects when it creates significant value for our clients.
Words like strategy and strategic are often used carelessly and that leads to confusion around these concepts. What is a strategy, actually? What does it consist of? How can you tell the difference between good and bad strategies? In this article Sune Dybdal and I address these questions and share our approach to strategic planning.
A good IT strategy is a major catalyst of growth, development and innovation. It helps to ensure a healthy symbiosis between the business and IT. This is necessary for corporations as well as for smaller businesses with few employees. In this article, I dispel the myth that IT strategies are something of interest for big businesses only.
For a long time, SWOT has been among the most popular strategic analysis tools that both managers and consultants use regularly. But if you ask me, a SWOT analysis all too often ends up being a waste of time and energy – and can do more harm than good. For a little insight into the problems of the SWOT method, and my suggestion for a better alternative, read on!
The majority of Danish SMEs do not have an IT strategy and lack digital direction, and this lack prevents them from having a successful digital transformation into the US market. The good news is that once Danish SMEs increase their digital capacity, their potential to do well in the US is great.
The Corona crisis has given many companies a much-needed digital boost. Both employees and business leaders have now experienced that it is possible to create value through digital tools and online collaboration.
A successful business model always considers the needs of the customers, and the news media have neglected exactly that for many years. Discover why in this article. In it, I’ll investigate the crisis-ridden Danish media and suggest three focus areas that can help the industry.
In facing the challenges of Covid-19 we have learnt a lot in relation to the potential of digital collaboration, and how it is possible to achieve remarkable efficiency gains working online. This article explores these lessons.
From hourly rates to value-creating, fixed fees – this is how to do it Creating value together. That is the foundation of a good collaboration! And that is also the reason why I long ago dropped time estimates. I offer value-based fixed fees when selling my consulting services. And in this blog post, I lift…
Public and private companies have to stop paying external IT consultants by the hour. They should instead jump into a collaborative model by paying fixed fees based on what the consultant will add in value.
“What is the best approach to creating an IT strategy?” This is a question that I have been asked many times – along with a “What is your best practice strategy template?”. The reality is, however, not that it is not that simple – and there is no specific and final answer.
In the following will be scrutinized five concrete behavior patterns (typologies) that can come into play in touch with conflicts or negotiations. The tool is based on Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI). For the sake of clarity, the term ‘negotiation styles’ will be utilized throughout the rest of this article.
Self-management is about attitudes, qualities and the way we meet the outside world. Strong self-management has a direct effect on the ability to utilize own – and other’s – skills effectively and create common results.
As a follow-up on my blog post “Forget Disruption! Instead, focus on innovation and create results through good conflicts and innovation culture”, I think it could be interesting to give some examples of innovations that most of us know. Innovations that in many cases have been down to change the world.
Most disruption consultants should stop talking and take action, and the words “disrupt or die” have been repeated several times. My message is: Forget disruption. Instead, focus on how you can create a foundation for innovation in your organization.
Constructive conflicts create innovation, propulsion and change. The project manager’s job is to ensure a good conflict environment, which prevents and handles unnecessary conflicts and promotes constructive disagreement.
Interpersonal relationships and the ability to work together are crucial to a project’s success. Understanding the intentions behind the behaviour of others can provide common ground for collaboration across national borders and cultural diversity.
Achieve win-win decisions in your projects Project managers can use the natural decision-making process to disarm and deal with resistance and conflicting opinions in a constructive and proactive manner and establish a win-win perspective that promotes cohesion and ownership in the project A survey among Danish project managers (Projektlederundersøgelsen 2014) showed that motivating project participants…
The procurement foundation contains essential elements that must be defined and accepted amongst key stakeholders of a procurement project prior to starting the procurement process. The more impact the IT system has in an organisation, the more important the foundation becomes.
This article provides a simple and powerful approach to establish a solid procurement foundation for IT procurement projects.
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place and performing a retrospective is a natural part of all projects whether or not it is done formally or informally.
The process helps reduce tension and is motivating to the people involved.
One of the continuous major challenges for project managers is getting sufficient resources with needed competences. This is particular apparent in the project initiation or when taking over an existing project.
This article discusses a “reverse engineering”-approach to solving this challenge, which will make you gain momentum, deliver results fast and build a happy project team.
There is a need for increasing the focus on leadership in projects. But what are the key qualities of the perfect project manager? This is what we will discuss in this article.
Engaged leadership creates results. However, results in projects do not come from leadership alone; management skills and domain expertise are just as important qualities.
Mostly making a budget for an IT project starts with estimation. This article discusses the pitfalls in estimation and gives insight on how to avoid and handle unrealistic budgets in IT projects.
We cannot make things cost less by inventing low estimates, but we can easily do the opposite and invite Parkinson for coffee.
The evolution of the way we do projects have been very slow when compared to e.g. the parallel evolution in technology. A project is rarely “by the book” simply because projects are complex by nature and thus there is no straight road to success.
This article discusses the historic drivers for success in projects and suggests the upcoming drivers that increase the chance of project success.
