IT Governance

6 Signs You Need a New IT Strategy

by

Guest post by Mike Pearl IT departments face crushing pressure from every direction to transform IT to meet the daunting demands of the digital age.  If you feel yourself asking questions related to IT’s role, better working relationships with Marketing, and how to capitalize on the firehose of emerging technologies, it is likely time for a new IT strategy. IT must institute massive change on multiple fronts: deepen and reshape business relationships, overhaul IT skills, […]

Career Path – Management

by

Career Path for Management Roles There are three job descriptions in the management career path for our IT department.  The entry level position is Team Leader.  The Team Leader role has day to day operational responsibility for the services delivered by their team.  The role also has tactical responsibility for project resourcing and reports to […]

The post Career Path – Management appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

A Project Portfolio Management Approach

by

I introduced an approach to project portfolio managment (PPM) to my IT team at the American University of Sharjah.  After 9 months here, I have a real sense that we were doing too many projects for the resources that we had available.   The result of trying to do too much was that our planning […]

The post A Project Portfolio Management Approach appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

Who is Your Customer?

by

Who is Your Customer?  This may be easy for many businesses especially if they are selling consumer goods.  If you ask any service organization at a University, the standard response is “Students are our main customers”.  The rationale here is that without our students, we wouldn’t have a university.  At a very high level this […]

The post Who is Your Customer? appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

Implementing Organizational Structure and Focus

by

When I joined the IT Department at the American University of Sharjah as the Director, I was presented with an organizational structure challenge.  I found out that I had 21 direct reports and that my department did not have a concept of operational management!  I had just come from being the Manager, Business Application Services […]

The post Implementing Organizational Structure and Focus appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

My First 180 Days as a CIO

by

Hard to believe that time has gone so quickly in my CIO role.  On March 17, 2013 I have been the Director of Information Technology at the American University of Sharjah in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates for 180 days. It has been a huge change for me especially after spending 20 years at the British Columbia […]

The post My First 180 Days as a CIO appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

Leveraging Roadmaps to Link Business and Technology

by

Enterprise Architects have used roadmaps as a standard model to describe the transition from the current state architecture to the future state architecture.   Many of my fellow enterprise architects have described the many different ways to create a roadmap and to show how they link to an organization’s strategic goals.  Nick Malik (@nickmalik) wrote […]

The post Leveraging Roadmaps to Link Business and Technology appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

An Approach To Project Assessments

by

Every IT leader at one point or another will be asked to conduct project assessments.  Sometimes it is a project that was initiated by your department and others it is a project that was started in a different part of your organization.  Rarely are successful projects reviewed (even though we should, as we are missing […]

The post An Approach To Project Assessments appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

5 Steps to Brighten Shadow IT

by

With the popularity of public cloud offerings, BYOD and personal productivity apps, rogue technology acquisitions (at least from IT’s perspective) are more pervasive than ever, creating a new focus on “Shadow IT.” Our 2012 Digital IQ study of 489 executives found that 30% of technology procurement is outside the CIO’s budget. A wise proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” What if you need […]

If you liked this, you might also like:

  1. 6 Steps to Close the IT Skill Gap
  2. 4 Steps to Manage Your Technology Portfolio
  3. Why the CIO Should Heed Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits