Living the Dreamforce 2013

Posted on November 23, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

df-logo

I virtually attended several of the Dreamforce keynotes held this week in San Francisco.  Hard to believe but this year’s Dreamforce had 135,000 attendees, making it the largest software conference in the world. Salesforce is now 15 years old and will do $5B of revenue in 2014, meaning the SaaS business is very significant and Salesforce is truly a technology giant. Good thing we are working with Salesforce via Remedyforce and not against them. Here are several takeaways from the event.

A theme of this year’s show was, the “Internet of the Customer,” borrowed from Cisco’s “Internet of Everything,” or “Internet of Things.” CEO Mark Benioff pointed out that in this “third wave” of computing (Microsoft and Oracle belong to the second wave), there will be 50 billion things interconnected in 20 years.  To prove this, Mark showed off his new electric toothbrush which is Wi-Fi and GPS enabled so his dentist can make sure he is brushing regularly (I did not make this up).  At any rate, the “Internet of the Customer” really means that customers are in charge, and Salesforce is listening, understanding, and engaging its customers through technology.

Just announced is SalesForce1, a new upgrade to the force.com platform. SalesForce1 is better enabled for mobility and social media while providing access to the same Salesforce cloud.  It comes with “APIs for anything to connect with everything.” Mark Benioff astutely and succinctly summarized it this way, “the software you know and love, only better.”

Service Cloud SVP Alex Bard led one of the more interesting sessions. According to Gartner, Service Cloud is the number one rated customer support application for three years running. In fact, Service Cloud is so highly positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Engagement Centers that no one else is even close.  Here are several new features, that hopefully will be added to Remedyforce in subsequent releases.

Predictive Intelligence. This is an advanced knowledge management application that automatically looks up similar cases to quickly resolve incidents. In addition, relevant knowledge management articles are matched to the particular situation.

Multi-monitor support. Since agents often have two monitors, Service Cloud now allows an agent to open up a window on one monitor and then move that window to the other monitor. Allowing multiple windows to be open and visible to the agent greatly speeds up incident resolution.

Co-Browser support. This is a new Bomgar like feature that allows users to share their desktop and smartphone with an agent to quickly resolve technical issues.

Alex Bard also discussed proactive support, where users issues are fixed prior to a situation becoming an incident. He used an example of a DeWalt tool user trying to remove sticky lug nuts.  By monitoring tool battery usage through its Wi-Fi connection, a support agent can prevent a user from running down the battery too quickly. A quick call determines that the user was using the wrong tool. The agent can then make a sales appointment to discuss purchasing the right tool for the job. This truly is the Internet of the Customer.

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ITSM Project Lessons from Obamacare’s Failure to Launch

Posted on November 3, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

CGI Federal recently found itself in a place most companies hope they never appear: the front page of the Washington Post. In that article, senior VP Cheryl Campbell pointed fingers saying that CGI gave the government ample warning that the web site was not ready for prime time.  And a short time later, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius found herself on the front page of the Washington Post. She testified, “hold me accountable for the debacle.  I’m responsible.” While spending $100M on a website that still doesn’t work may not be fathomable to the kind of ITSM work that we get involved with, there are several lessons that we can apply to our much smaller ITSM projects.

The right architectural design matters. Although little is known publicly about why and how the web site continues to crash, a likely scenario is that the site was not designed properly to begin with. Either there was not enough attention paid to potential loads, or there was not enough redundancy built into the system in the first place. (If no fault can be attributed to the design, then  software glitches and inadequate testing are the next whipping boys.) Of course, situations sometimes occur that have never been experienced before. For example, RightStar has been involved in two enterprise sized Asset Core deployments that stretched the limits of the product design. The result is potential product redesign in order to fully restore service.

When something goes wrong address it quickly and honestly. No one likes surprises and it important to make sure the customer gets regular updates throughout the project.  Wouldn’t it have been better to announce that the go-live date must be pushed back, than to attempt and fail? The damage is done and trust will be difficult to regain.

Bigger is not always better.  Years ago, the mantra for success was, “you can never get fired for selecting IBM.” It still rings true today, although IBM has been supplemented by IT behemoths Cisco, Oracle, Google, and Microsoft. Even with a nearly unlimited budget, CGI still was not able to complete the job on time. Again, it is hard to imagine that the government that got us to the moon in such a short time, can’t deliver a website in two years. The size and complexity of the site, along with the on-the-fly design changes undoubtedly contributed to the delays.

Ensure that delivering the right solution is balanced with customer satisfaction. It is likely that HHS thought they knew what they wanted and insisted that CGI give it to them.  We know from experience that giving customers what they want is often not the best thing to do.  We’ve learned the hard way:

  • The customer could be wrong, yet we still get the blame.
  • It’s important to understand the problem we’re solving and how success will be measured.

Our customers must trust that our intent is compatible with their best interest and that we have the experience to design and deliver a solution that meets their needs. While we won’t be delivering health care websites any time soon, we will continue to provide high quality ITSM solutions.  We must focus on what our customers actually need, not on what they think they need.

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ITIL: A Four-Letter Word?

Posted on October 28, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

ITIL is what happens when good ideas get absorbed by a bureaucracy and institutionalized and homogenized to a point where they are almost useless. Why is ITIL so obtuse that someone has to ask, “Is rebooting a production server considered a change?”  I saw on another board, ITIL as a formal entity runs a very significant risk of becoming yet another 4-letter word in the IT industry–tried it, it failed, we moved on. The ideas behind ITIL are still meritorious, however, just as the ideas behind the CMMI still have huge value.  IT needs to provide value and service to the company beyond simply helping them stay in business. The problem is, any improvement process like ITIL needs champions, sharp people, freedom to act, and long-term vision, all seriously lacking in modern business.

            -An anonymous email I received this past week.

Is ITIL a four-letter word?  While it is true that we have seen a drop in demand for ITIL foundation level training and ITIL based assessments, that is more of a function of tighter IT budgets and a commoditization of ITIL training.  For example, it is possible to find on-line ITIL training materials, and with some self-study, pass the ITIL exam in just a day or two. I believe that ITIL is only a four–letter word if allowed and that despite a slight slowdown, ITIL is as important as ever in returning value back to IT organizations. Here are several suggestions for moving forward with ITIL.

Implement ITIL along with an initial (or upgraded) software ITSM toolset such as Remedy or Remedyforce. Remember, ITIL is a framework, not a step by step instruction manual.  Included with most software toolsets are flowcharts, mapping ITIL modules such as Incident and Change Management to specific work instructions. While this may not cover specific details such as the time and date of your Change Advisory Board (CAB) Meetings, you can fill in these details in your own policy and procedure manual.

ITIL Foundation training does make a difference. While not all IT organizations have highly motivated people that will all self-ITIL certify, ITIL training does give everyone in the organization common nomenclature.  Most importantly, ITIL training provides employees the impetus and value behind good ITIL practices.  Based on RightStar’s ten years of experience with ITIL, we far prefer working with an ITIL savvy organization over one that is not.

Keep it simple. Michael Cizek, Gartner Research Director says that 90% of mid-market firms are at the Gartner ITSM maturity levels 1 and 2 only. This means that a fully integrated problem, incident, change, and configuration management ITIL roll-out would be overkill for the typical mid-market company.  Start with Incident and Change and go from there.

Management buy-in is essential for success. I agree with the anonymous emailer, “ITIL tends to be top-down due to scope, cost and staff allocations. Guerrilla, ground-up implementations of the core ideas can be successful. The hard part is getting the two efforts in place and meeting at the same point. That is where our efforts need to be addressed, because it is at that point that value to company becomes real.”

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David and Goliath at RightStar

Posted on October 14, 2013 by dick1stark

David and Goliath

By Dick Stark

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him: for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

            1 Samuel 16:7

David and Goliath is Malcolm Gladwell’s newest soon-to-be bestselling book.  Subtitled Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, the book provides hope for the little guy. In case you don’t know, Gladwell is a sociologist that writes interesting books such as Outliers, where the idea of the 10,000 hour rule came from.  (Both Bill Gates and the Beatles practiced at least 10,000 hours before excelling in their fields, computer programming and music, respectively.)

In David and Goliath, Gladwell tells stories such as why it is better to be a big fish in a small pond.  He uses an example of a Brown University student that excelled in everything in high school but was so challenged at Brown in Chemistry, that she dropped the class and changed her major to a non-scientific one. Had she gone to the University of Maryland (a smaller pond academically) she undoubtedly would have not dropped Chemistry and her life would now be on a different path.

Gladwell also discusses specific examples of successful underdogs with significant disabilities such as dyslexia and loss of a father at an early age.  In other words it may be better to bet on someone with a disadvantage, and he sites successful businessmen, researchers, artists, athletes, and others that all started as underdogs.

How does this apply to RightStar?  Certainly RightStar as a small business must be at a significant disadvantage when competing for work against computer behemoths like IBM, HP, or 200,000 person consulting organizations such as Accenture or Deloitte. Not necessarily.  It’s very difficult for such large companies to be as focused and compassionate about BMC and Service Management as we are. How does RightStar compete with such giants?

Passion for the business. At all levels, it is critical that we are emotionally attached to service management, to each other, to BMC and its employees, and most importantly, to our customers. We must also be willing to try harder than anyone else.

Unusually intimate workplaces.  My vision for RightStar is to treat employees with respect, dignity, integrity, fairness, kindness, and generosity.  In that sense, I hope that we will continue to recognize one another as family and as a company that people want to work for.

Owners are in control. I’m proud that I’ve had the opportunity to help build the kind of company we all want, rather than let RightStar be shaped by outside forces.  Several RightStar employees joined us from an ex-BMC partner.  That partner company brought in outside investors, and before long, the company was out of the BMC solution provider business.

If we can continue to do these things, then we can all agree about the power of underdogs and misfits.   The powerful and strong are not always what they seem.

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Ethics at RightStar + ToolBank

Posted on October 5, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

Several months ago, I received a call from one of our consultants on-site at a government agency.  We were a subcontractor to a systems integrator.  The consultant explained that the systems integrator was having trouble with its Remedy SLAs making it appear that their SLA responses were more favorable than they actually were. What should we do?  Do we have an obligation to do anything?

The answer is that we must do what is right and that is to inform the integrator of the apparent mistake. We took action and sent an email with an offer to fix the formula so the correct data was accurately reported.  This was the right call and I was proud we recognized a potential business ethics issue and took action early on.

The two-year anniversary of our National Capital Business Ethics Award (NCBEA) is this month and it’s important that we don’t let the aura of the award wear off. Ethics, honesty, integrity, and doing what is right have become the foundation of RightStar and our success.  Customers want to do business with other ethical companies. Additionally, employees want to work for ethical companies that they can trust to do the right thing.   We now see ethics as a business driver that adds value to our customers, employees, partners, and to our bottom line.

What is at the heart of ethics at RightStar?  I tell others that it is the Golden Rule: whatever you want others to do to you, do also to them.  In other words, ask the question, “how would I like to be treated in this situation?” I agree with management consultant, Jim Blanchard, “If we had only one rule in this company, it would be the Golden Rule.  If we’ve got that one right, no other rules are necessary.”

The thinking behind business ethics is this:  do the right thing and it will maximize profit.  Really?  Don’t we also have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit at any cost?  And how can we “give back” if we aren’t making any money?

Toolbank

We do have a recent feel good ethics success story.  Several months ago, we worked hard on a sales opportunity with an Atlanta based non-profit, ToolBank, that rents hammers, gloves, ladders, power drills, wheelbarrows, shovels and dozens of other types of tools for charitable organizations. ToolBanks across the U.S. loaned over $1.66 million worth of tools in 2012, equipping nearly 73,000 volunteers to build playgrounds, paint murals, remove graffiti, reclaim abandoned lots, and beautify parks.

It turns out that ToolBank’s reservation system is based on the Remedy AR platform and in need of an upgrade. After an extensive selection process which included several reference checks, RightStar was selected for the job. One of the reasons ToolBank picked us was due to our similar cultures.  As you all know, we sponsor a company-wide volunteer day, give everyone several volunteer-time off days per year, allow conversions of paid time off to charity, and support a Personal Progression Plan (PPP) for every employee.

ToolBank has yet to raise the money needed to fund our project, but it shouldn’t take long.  I even introduced them to an old friend of mine at Cisco, responsible for the Cisco foundation.  This should be the start of a beautiful partnership!

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Gartner’s Top Ten for 2013: How Do They Apply to ITSM?

Posted on September 29, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

Since RightStar supports many mid-size customers, I attended Midsize Enterprise Summit this week held in Phoenix.  More than 200 CIO’s from mid-market firms also attended this event.  (In case you’re wondering, Gartner defines an average mid-market firm as 17 IT employees, 1800 employees and $270M in total revenue.) I sat in on a presentation from Gartner VP and Fellow, David Cearley about Gartner’s Top Ten Strategies for 2013, which he claims won’t change significantly for 2014.  Here’s how several of those trends apply to the ITSM space.

(1)   Mobile Device Battles. David reported that by the end of the year, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web accessible device. There is no apparent winner—prepare for heterogeneity for years to come, and expect only 20 percent of those devices to be Windows based. That’s good, since BMC’s MyIT supports iPhone and Android native apps in its most current release. I predict that 2014 will see more widespread acceptance of MyIT as companies roll out application for end-users that allow them to simplify and improve their experience with the corporate IT service desk. (MyIT is a new BMC app that empowers your end-users to ensure they always have access to the right technology and support services, no matter where they are.)

MyIT trimmed

(2)   Mobile Apps & HTML 5. Coincidently, this was the week that Apple released IOS 7 to existing iPad and iPhone users. While the overall reaction was mixed, no one would disagree that the appearance of the new operating system was much improved.  Especially significant was the slight “tweak” in the user interface significantly improving the user experience.

BMC also released an HTML5 version of MyIT, designed to merge the desktop and mobile experience.  With this enhancement, users in an organization could manage their IT requests from three different devices—for example, iPhone, iPad, and desktop.  This is a significant update for MyIT. It’s even possible that small companies might use MyIT solely for incident and knowledge management since MyIT comes with an AR server license.

(3)   Enterprise App Store.  With BMC’s recent acquisition of Partnerpedia, it is clear that BMC will offer customizable app stores for companies to distribute their own and other apps in a centralized location.  For those organizations that already have service catalogs, employee benefit portals, and so on, this seems like a logical next addition.

(4)   Hybrid Clouds. There continues to be real interest, especially in the mid-market space in moving applications and services to the cloud. Hybrid clouds allow organizations to move some applications to the cloud while keeping and integrating to existing on-premise servers and applications.  For example, RightStar is hosting FootPrints Asset Core for a large retailer due to the horsepower required and complexity of the infrastructure necessary to support thier 30,000 stores.  (To do this, we’ve teamed with Rackspace to offer a hosted version of Asset Core.)  The retail organization decided to keep their Service Core on-premise, but we’ve integrated it to Asset Core “in the cloud.” to enable service desk technicians to connect to each store to troubleshoot or download software.

One thing is certain: IT is becoming more and not less complex so service desk software offerings must continue to evolve to support the changing trends and technologies in the IT space.

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ServiceNow: No Real Competition?

Posted on September 10, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

“Our customers are actually frustrated because it’s tough to negotiate with a vendor who doesn’t have much competition”

— ServiceNow CEO Frank Slootman, reported in The Street, August 2, 2013

ServiceNow (SNOW) is on a roll and is gaining market share from long time ITSM market leaders BMC, HP, and CA.  In a short amount of time, SNOW has risen to the #3 marketshare ITSM position behind BMC and HP.  In its latest earnings statement just last month, SNOW reported that it has more than 1800 customers, and will do more than $400M in revenue in calendar year 2013, a one year growth rate of 68%. Since the market is growing at a single digit rate, this is an amazing accomplishment.

How is this possible? What’s even more remarkable, is that this momentum exists arguably despite Remedy’s technical superiority as compared to SNOW. The Gartner Magic Quadrant still rates BMC higher, and ITSM University, an independent ITSM “think tank” rates BMC Remedy considerably higher across a wide range of categories such as functionality, architecture, and pricing.  Perception is reality, and this is where SNOW really shines. Mike Scarpelli, SNOW CFO discussed this in an analyst conference on September 4. He said that one reason SNOW is so successful is due to their emphasis on sales. He pointed out that SNOW started 2013 with 350 people in sales and marketing and will end the year with more than 600.  That’s mind-boggling in a market space that is not growing that rapidly.

SNOW has also excelled because of its SaaS based architecture which is becoming a defacto standard among CIOs. CA, HP, and BMC have all struggled to keep up. BMC offers Remedy onDemand and Remedyforce which despite the common name are very different offerings.  Remedy onDemand has more than 100 customers and Remedyforce, BMC’s fastest growing product line, has more than 500.

SNOW is “making hay” with this perceived SaaS competitor weakness.  For example, Mike Scarpelli, when asked about Remedyforce, remarked that BMC would be hard pressed to point to one single enterprise Remedyforce customer, implying Remedyforce is for smaller organizations only. Had Mike asked us, we could have directed him to Samsung, where we are rolling out a large enterprise Remedyforce call center or Cliffs Natural Resources, a Fortune 500 customer, where we implemented a large BMC service assurance and automation system.  Rather than Remedy, Cliff’s choice was Remedyforce.  Indeed, we’re also working on a new rollout of Remedyforce for a very large government agency.

Let’s not forget that SaaS ITSM offerings only make up 25% of the market today, with a jump to 50% predicted by 2015. An ex-Salesforce executive confided to me that with a 90%+ customer retention rate SaaS is addicting and expensive, just like cocaine. And it is true that customers will spend much more money with software vendors like Salesforce and SNOW over a product lifetime than they would with a comparable on-premise software offering.  SNOW has to make a profit eventually, so look for price hikes and up-sell offerings later.

My bet is that the glow around SNOW is not sustainable forever. In the short term, look for Remedyforce and FootPrints version 12 as the next up-and comers.  And don’t count Remedy or Remedy on-Demand out yet.  The usability and performance improvements in Remedy version 8 provide a significant improvement over past versions and a strong counter to SNOW’s perceived claim that its software is much easier to use than Remedy.

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Simplify, Standardize, and Automate

Posted on August 12, 2013 by dick1stark

“Change is inevitable—except from a vending machine.

            –Robert C. Gallagher

By Dick Stark

During our Automation webinar on Wednesday, I described how IT organizations must simplify, standardize, and automate in order to reduce overall costs.  Indeed, at the BMC Forum at the National Press Club, the following day, John Richey, BMC Deputy CIO, delivered the same message. BMC utilizes its own software and tracks very carefully the hard dollar savings as applied to server automation.  The result after automation: 8% cost reduction which equals 21 people! That ‘s significant! What are some other ideas? And how else can similar savings be accomplished?

Simplify. In a world, where employees bring their own smart phones and tablets to work, IT is quickly becoming more complex and difficult to manage. One BMC software tool for simplifying service management is MyIT , a new BMC application for smartphones and tablets. There is no phone number to call, no self-service portal to log into, just an app that’s easy to install on your iPhone, Android, or Tablet.  MyIT empowers your end-users to ensure they always have access to the right technology and support services, no matter where they are:

  • They get easy access to knowledge and can receive important information and updates from IT.
  • They can schedule an appointment with an expert, and raise new service requests with just a couple of taps.
  • And because MyIT knows who and where they are, it can help provide faster, more personalized assistance.

Standardize. For service management, the ITIL framework offers organizations the opportunity to standardize IT processes with the end result being improved efficiency and lower overall costs. John Richey pointed out that having all IT employees certified on the ITIL v3 standard has done more than anything else to advance the acceptance of ITIL processes especially around Incident, Problem, Change, and Configuration Management.  In fact, BMC has established a Service Management Office (SMO), and like a Project Management Office, has really promoted the cause of services management as it relates to organizational change readiness and reporting.

Automate. Virtualization is still hot because of its very rapid ROI. BMC’s BladeLogic Server Automation (BBSA), is the tool that BMC utilized to receive a 21 person reduction. (In actually, BMC did not reduce staff; they were reassigned and focused on new ideas and innovation.) BBSA, by automating processes like patching, configuring, updating, and reporting on servers, enables consistency, compliance, and complete insight into server farms and data centers.

Does all this make a difference?  At BMC, the answer is a resounding yes, and data exists to justify this.  For example, in the four years since automation, BMC has reduced its Break/Fix workload from 70% to 55%. That’s also very impressive and a very positive improvement to the bottom line.

 

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The Boys in the Boat

Posted on July 29, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark

Boys in the Boat

Note:  I just finished reading Daniel James Brown’s new book, the Boys in the Boat, about nine Americans and their quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  This is a must read, but Warning: the following contains spoilers…..

The Boys in the Boat is the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their journey from humble beginning during the great depression in Seattle. Like similar books during that that time period, e.g., Unbroken about Louis Zamperini, who also qualified for the 1936 Olympics, and then was later captured by the Japanese during WWII, and SeaBiscuit, the best horse in America in 1938, The Boys in the Boat  provides hope for all Americans about the ability to triumph despite the odds.

Even though I’m from the state of Washington, this story was new to me. I especially enjoyed learning about eight-oar crew. It is a fascinating story about the sport, and in particular Joe Rantz, whose mother died, and then was later abandoned by his Father and Stepmother, Amazingly Joe made it into the University of Washington, the varsity Crew, and finally the Olympics. There is plenty of drama along the way: their close races with Cal Berkley at the National racing championships in Poughkeepsie, NY, the Olympic trials, and of course their final race at the Berlin Olympics.

The book is really about optimism, discipline, teamwork and leadership.  Fractions of seconds matter, and the eight oarsmen, and coxswain must work together as a team, all pulling in perfect harmony.  Every detail of every stroke has to be synchronized across eight oars, and it has to happen over and over again in rapid succession. For example, if one of the eight “catches a crab,” have his oar enter the water at the wrong, time, the race may be lost. Did I mention drama?

After arriving in Germany, their best oarsman, Don Hume became so ill he could not get out of bed. Although the coach made the decision to replace him with an alternate, the rest of the team informed the coach that they would not compete without him. “We’re all in this together and we will win or lose as a team.” Don Hume was not replaced.

After winning their qualifying heat with the fastest time, the Americans should have received the best lane assignment. But this was Nazi Germany, and somehow the Germans gave the fastest lane to their own team and the slowest lane to the Americans.  Based upon the way the wind blew the day of the race, the Americans figured that this was at least a two-length disadvantage.

Despite all this adversity, the boys in the boat caught the Germans at the finish line to win the Gold, right in front of Adolf Hitler.

The author summed up his book, this way, “Championship crews have to become one, single entity. Each individual oarsman has to subsume his or her individual ego to the common effort. And in that sense, I think the story of the 1936 crew illustrates what Americans can do when they join in a common effort, when they literally climb in a boat and pull together”

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Next Generation PMO and Portfolio Management at RightStar

Posted on July 15, 2013 by dick1stark

By Nikki Haase

Two weeks ago we attended a three-day seminar called “Next Generation PMO and Portfolio Management” at a Project Management Institute (PMI) SeminarsWorld. We had two objectives. We both need the PMI credits, which will help us to maintain our PMP certifications. More importantly, though, we went to gather ideas on how to improve program management at RightStar. The stated objectives of the course were to identify the key elements of a successful Program Management Office (PMO), to determine the appropriate strategy for our PMO, to assess our PMO’s maturity, to learn about “next generation” or contemporary approaches to successful PMO implementation, to understand PMO metrics and measurements and to identify potential PMO pitfalls and best practices.

The leader of our seminar took the approach of a facilitator, not instructor, and he split our group up into five table teams of five participants each. The sessions were very interactive and included much discussion and team assignments. We chose to be at the same table so we could share ideas during the seminar. We worked on case studies, exercise questions and creative interpretation for which we were awarded points. Yes, our team won.

One common theme throughout the seminar was the need to improve communication. This applies to all levels of the organization – communicating with management, with project team members and with customers or project beneficiaries. This idea isn’t anything new, but the facilitator used effective examples to illustrate the impact of different communication styles. The most controversial statement he made was something he wrote on the board: “The Plan is a Lie!” Intended to provoke discussion, he was poking at traditional methods of project management that rely on rigid project plans that don’t reflect the accurate, real work being done by the project team. He encouraged us not to eliminate project plans (darn!), but to understand that plans should be seen as fluid and that they need to adapt and change as the project progresses. A more “next generation” approach to program management should be organic, which contrasts to the traditional mechanical mindset. He encouraged us to be better listeners and to improve discussion and understanding of assumptions and expectations. We should focus less on output and more on outcomes.

The challenge now for our PMO is to incorporate more of what we learned into our day-to-day practice. We have introduced a new tool that we hope will allow us to better measure and understand our project progress. But from our own work in service management, we all know that tools are most valuable if they are underpinned by good management practices.

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