Foreword

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Some books are written by folks who are good writers, but have never actually done the work. Some books are by smart theoretical types who describe how the work should be done. Other books are regurgitations of yet other books. Pick a way to write one, and there is a title out there somewhere on the subject in one style or another. Few books, however, are written by people who have 'been there and done that, have the T-shirt, starred in the video, and wrote the book.' Well, this is one of those types of books.

Corporate IT software program management has always smelled like unneeded bureaucracy to me. Lots of people, paperwork, meetings, templates, forms for all, project critical reviews, more forms, financial spreadsheets, and so on. Bleah! Who needs it? Being a technical person by nature and training, my immediate reaction to such efforts has always been distrust and disdain. Then, I saw what I call 'John's way.'

I have known John for several years and have worked with him extensively both as a consultant and later as a coworker at the world's largest Web hosting company, where he ran the Information Technology (IT) department. When John arrived, IT was a real mess. If you wanted an internal network connection and an Internet connection, someone had actually set up an IT policy where you would be issued two laptops to access both connections (no kidding). Getting access to e-mail was like being dragged over carpet tacks and then dipped in alcohol-very painful, but not life threatening. Forget asking for help with an application-related problem on your system: You got the 'ticket of death' from the ticketing system and you might get called back-someday. Along came John-or JR, as those of us who know him best tend to call him.

John is an interesting guy. When you start learning more about John over time, you find that he ran a software development shop for the War Plans Division in the Air Force at the Strategic Air Command for several years, has a Ph.D. in psychology, and is fluent in Chinese and Thai (if you ever get a chance to go to lunch with John, go to a Chinese restaurant, get him to order lunch, and watch the reactions). He has run very large multinational IT organizations, done the mainframe thing, done the Web translation thing, and run large, distributed IT organizations in many countries. Experience is something he doesn't lack when it comes to project management and deployment of ugly technologies to folks that have no clue how to use them. John is also a gadget junkie and always has the proper array of the latest technologies at his beck and call.

As a coworker, I coerced him to come to work for our company to assist us with several large projects that needed help in focus, execution, and cost overruns. John came in, got the troops organized, and initiated John's way-Corporate IT Software Program Management-for all the projects underway. These included a complete change of financial systems, sales systems, customer ticketing systems, IT organization, help desk systems, and a dizzying myriad of other smaller systems too numerous to remember. In less than 60 days, the projects-all of them-went from totally unmanaged disasters to well-tuned, humming machines of management excellence. The troops were happy, goals and milestones were actually being achieved, deliverables were happening, management was happy-you name the benefit, it was there. Oh, and we saved more than $60 million as well.

I can't say I was a bystander. In fact, I was right in the middle of much of it because my department, information security, was in the middle of a lot of the projects underway. John spent some time educating me on the processes, and then I saw paperwork and went screaming down the street, hair on fire (well, what little I have left). I did come back eventually and found that process, not paperwork, was the key, and that process and discipline of execution are keys to success.

With time, I have come around to John's way. It really works-in theory and in practice. I have seen it work in at least three major corporations first hand. The results are well worth the efforts. Projects actually get done in a predictable fashion. Anomalies are accounted for and accommodated. Financial details are managed, leadership and execution of tasks are measurable and quantified, and the bureaucracy is not all that bad. When you walk out of a project meeting, you don't feel like your time has been wasted and that you have not accomplished anything. I spent many years having that feeling. John's way is better. I don't feel that way when working with his project teams.

If you are reading this book, you are on your way to committing to a better way to get projects and tasks out the door. It will take some effort to internalize John's way, and it will not be easy at first. But, like a duck on the water, you will soon be swimming smoothly along and making progress with every stroke. I follow John's way for small and large projects, and I use his ideas for keeping track of the multitude of tasks I have to deal with every day in my job. Yes, I work for a very large company with very large projects and very large problems. I have also done four startups and recommend the techniques and ideas in this book strongly for that environment as well. The system works equally well for an entire range of businesses and efforts. Take the next step and read this book. Follow the examples and internalize John's way. It will change your outlook on actually getting projects out the door and make you successful. And, your weekends will become free, your job will be fun to go to because you are making scheduled deliverables, and you will have time to do real work again.

Dr. Bill Hancock, Ph.D., CISSP, CISM

Vice President, Security and Chief Security Officer

Cable and Wireless

October 2003



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Managing Software Deliverables. A Software Development Management Methodology
Managing Software Deliverables: A Software Development Management Methodology
ISBN: 155558313X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 226

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