The U. S. CIO Steven VanRoekel issued a draft Shared IT Services Strategy in December 2011, which may be found at http://www.cio.gov/sharedservices.pdf. “Shared First” is the foundational paradigm for this Federal Information Technology (IT) Shared Services Strategy, which provides Federal agencies with guidance on the identification, implementation, and operation of shared services for commodity, support,Read… Read more »
“Ninety percent of a project manager’s work is communication.” You have probably seen this commonly quoted statistic but what you don’t see is a statistic that tells you how much of the 90% is devoted to listening. Why is that important? Because, poor communication is at least one of the three causes for failed projects.Read… Read more »
The Twitter network below was created by Marc Smith, Social Media Research Foundation. He used it in a recent workshop on Social Media Network Analysis that I organized here at Syracuse University on January 19-20. I picked it up and posted it here on my Social Media in the Public Sector blog, because it relatesRead… Read more »
There is no such thing as a “filibuster-proof majority” In his State of the Union address to Congress last week, President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Senate to amend or abolish its filibuster rules to break the Congressional gridlock. Don’t hold your breath. Neither party wants to change those rules because they always benefit theRead… Read more »
Dr. Paul Giammalvo and I have a lot of heated and fun discussions about project management best practices. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree vehemently. From Paul: “As you know, I am NOT a fan of “ad hoc” or creating customized WBS’ unless absolutely necessary. (And how many projects are TRULY unique) I spend anRead… Read more »
A key element in organization (and work units within an organization) success is its structure – how its work activities are organized; and how responsibility and authority are identified. Structure affects how employees – even at the very top of the organization – execute their responsibilities and authority, coordinate and work with others and achieveRead… Read more »
As federal agencies tighten their belts, they’ll be questioning the value of citizen participation initiatives under the Obama Open Government Initiative. Do they lead to better results or reduced costs? A new report, “A Manager’s Guide to Evaluating Citizen Participation,” by Tina Nabatchi, an assistant professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, is designedRead… Read more »
I’ve got the exact amount of time it takes me to get dressed, get ready for work, eat breakfast, and get to work, as well as the order in which to do them in (keeping in mind that dressing always comes before the commute to work), down to a by-the-minute science. This is probably theRead… Read more »
A few years ago, MIT’s Smart Cities project developed the idea for the City Car. You may remember the City Car – it’s the one that folds up into itself when parked, the one that opens from the front, and the one that takes up 1/3 the space of a normal-sized vehicle on the street.Read… Read more »
Around this time, various IT and professional web sites list what they consider the top skills for the coming year. It’s interesting to look back and see what skills stay on the lists, what skills fall off the list, and the new skills that appear. I haven’t seen such a list for government workers soRead… Read more »