Information Strategics

    Information Technology (IT) has varying definitions among the community however, it can be best described as a combination of people connected with information. The information varies depending on the industry as well as the strategy to implement. While it may be true that software technologies are common and affordable, even open source, it does not make software any less meaningful. The role of technology in software development is to facilitate an environment for the creation of new systems capable of distributing or processing knowledge/and or models. Given that truth the meaningfulness of the system will always be dependent on the people.

    Often times I hear fellow developers getting excited about brand new technologies, architectures and even wonderful designs and graphics. The IT industry has a sort of hobby of engulfing themselves in there surrounding world. I embrace the fact that fellow developers, designers and engineers put time into discovery and exploration of new or even older systems. However, there are times when the cost-benefit factors outweigh the efforts and work. Project teams, while in their best effort to create and explore, will often take months to even years longer than needed. I propose that project failure is not a result of poor planning, failure to learn what the user needs, multi-task dependency or even the famous death march schedule; project failure, in my opinion, is the result of not realizing a strategy.

    A project typically starts out with planning goals, describing requirements and collecting resources. For the better part of the project, variables are introduced, studied and worked on. The problem is that as the project gets further along, more and more variables are introduced causing a ripple effect of analysis and work distribution. If the project takes too long or simple fails to complete the requirements, most would say that the problem is organization.

    If a football team were to organize a plan in which the ball is passed in a particular sequence between specifically positioned players, their success is dependent on each of those players both being present at the exact location, and remembering exactly when, from whom and to whom the ball is to be passed; moreover that no interruption to the sequence occurs. By comparison, if the team were to simplify this plan to a strategy where the ball is passed in the pattern alone, between any of the team, and at any area on the field, then their vulnerability to variables is greatly reduced, and the opportunity to operate in that manner occurs far more often. This manner is a strategy.

    Put simply, a project team is built because of what and how much they know. But having the best and the brightest does not instantly make you a winner and it certainly doesn't finish a project with the magic of their brains. The same goes for visionaries, a project won't survive on ideas alone even if they are prototyped. As well as much as it is important to focus on interaction design and enabling ease of use with your audience, it doesn't necessarily make a project meaningful, maybe pretty. No, the first step is quite firmly about creating a playbook for each and ever level.

    Here are a few links to help you get on track:

• Digital Strategy
• Personas
• Strategic Management

    The goal is to put more emphasis on the people involved with the information. Whether those people are fictitious personas or real people. The CIO of any company won't be able to manage every project (nor should he/she), so it's important to derive focused variables that can reduce as much vulnerability within the team.