Technology: How to avoid the IT project from hell
Overseeing technology projects can be devilishly difficult, so Bill Vass, CIO of Sun Microsystems, has devised some handy rules which he shared with CIO magazine:
- Proprietary systems fail in the long run as they must be redesigned to handle unplanned growth. Use open systems instead.
- Separate your technological layers by main purpose such as presentation, business logic and data, which will allow you to oversee them better over their life cycle and manage costs.
- Technology is not a problem. Getting people to embrace technology and understand its advantages is the hard part -- the hardest thing IT managers do. "The job is 5 per cent technology and 95 per cent communication," he stresses.
- Know your estimation factor. When he estimates how long a project will take, he multiplies by four because that generally makes his calculation accurate.
from the Globe and Mail, Monday morning manager
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