Strategic It

Solid guidance for CIOs on integration of technology into business models Strategic IT Best Practices for IT Managers and Executives is an exciting new book focused on the transition currently taking place in the CIO role, which involves developing a capacity for thinking strategically and effectively engaging peers in the senior executive team. This involves changing both theirs, and often their colleagues', mindsets about technology and their role in the organization. Straightforward and clear, this book fills the need for understanding the learning processes that have shaped the strategic mindsets of technology executives who have successfully made the transition from a technology-focused expert mindset to a strategic orientation that adds value to the business. Defines strategy advocacy as a process through which technology leaders in organizations build on their functional expertise Focuses on the shift in mindset necessary for technology executives to establish a seat at the table in the C suite as a respected strategic colleague Includes stories of high performing CIOs and how they learned successful strategies for getting technology positioned as a strategic driver across the business Written by Art Langer and Lyle Yorks, recognized authorities in the areas of technology management and leadership, Strategic IT Best Practices for IT Managers and Executives includes anecdotes from CIOs at companies including BP, Prudential, Covance, Guardian, Merck, and others.

This strategic guide to understanding, enabling, and implementing information technology accessibility across organizations of any size, type, or geographic location, is an essential resource for technology professionals and executives. IT accessibility, or the lack thereof, can have a profoundly positive or negative effect on an organization in the private or public sector. Only when IT accessibility is considered organization-wide can one gain an appreciation for its potential advantages. Drawing on his decades of experience in IT accessibility leadership at IBM and in state government, Jeff Kline clearly articulates how to: - build and maintain holistic organization-wide IT accessibility programs that integrates IT accessibility into the fabric of your organization's business, operations, and culture; - make your organization's IT offerings and internal IT environments accessible and inclusive to all audiences;

For you as an IT manager, changes in business models and fast-paced innovation and product lifecycles pose a big challenge: you are required to anticipate the impact of future changes, and to make rapid decisions backed up by solid facts. To be successful you need an overall perspective of how business and IT interact. What you need is a toolkit, enabling you to manage the enterprise from a helicopter viewpoint while at the same time accommodating quite detailed aspects of processes, organization, and software lifecycles. Strategic IT management embraces all the processes required to analyze and document an enterprise’s IT landscape. Based on the experience of many projects and long discussions with both customers and academic researchers, Inge Hanschke provides you with a comprehensive and practical toolkit for the strategic management of your IT landscape. She takes a holistic view on the management process and gives guidelines on how to establish, roll out, and maintain an enterprise IT landscape effectively. She shows you how to do it right first time – because often enough there’s no second chance. She tells you how to tidy up a IT patchworks – the first step towards strategic management – and she gives you advice on how to implement changes and maintain the landscape over time. The book’s structure reflects the patterns that exist in strategic IT management from strategic planning to actual implementation. The presentation uses many checklists, guidelines, and illustrations, which will help you to immediately apply the content. So, if you are a CIO, an IT manager, a business manager, or an IT consultant, this is the book from which you’ll benefit in most daily work situations.

Successfully navigate the changing face of the CIO role Strategic Information Technology offers CIOs a handbook for engaging with the senior management conversations surrounding strategy. The CIO role is currently undergoing a massive transition from technology-focused expert to a more strategic mindset, and this book provides proven methods for taking your seat at the table. Lessons from high-performing CIOs and a wealth of leading-edge insight provide invaluable guidance for positioning technology as a strategic driver across the business, while a focus on building the necessary connections—for example, an alliance between IT and HR—provide a multimodal approach to navigating the transition. The evolution of the CIO’s role involves more than simply technical knowledge; the new CIO must be an influencer, an engager, and just as adept at the soft skills that become increasingly crucial as you climb the management ladder. It’s about changing mindsets, translating hard skills into strategic advantages, and demonstrating IT’s value to the strategic decision making process. This book provides best practices, illustrative examples, and up-to-date perspective for CIOs wanting to: Position IT as a critical driver of overall strategy Build on functional expertise with strategic insight Learn from the stories of successful tech-to-strategy transformations Engage C-Suite peers in shaping the strategic conversation Not long ago, the CIO occupied a unique place in the C-Suite. Executive by title, CIOs have nevertheless been seen as predominantly the “chief tech expert” with little input into strategy, as IT has historically been regarded as a tool rather than a source of competitive advantage. The truth is becoming increasingly apparent, with companies around the world turning to technology in order to gain a competitive edge, and CIOs are beginning to claim their place in strategy discussions. Strategic Information Technology offers much needed guidance for a successful transformation.

* Supports a range of businessplanning techniques such as Portfolio Management and Value Chain Analysis * Helps to ensure accurate and continuing aligning of IS/IT strategy with business goals and intntions * Delivers a complete IS/IT plan, intergrated with the business planning process, with effective provision for implementation and continuing maintenance * Incorporates the latest advances in information technology, including Open Systems and Client/Server

Managers and executives know the importance of integrating business strategy and IT strategy for competitive advantage. Strategic Information Technology: Opportunities for Competitive Advantage provides managers and students alike with an understanding and appreciation for the development of business and information technology strategies to yield competitive advantage.

When Fortune Magazine estimated that 70% of all strategies fail, it also noted that most of these strategies were basically sound, but could not be executed. The central premise of Strategic Project Management Made Simple is that most projects and strategies never get off the ground because of adhoc, haphazard, and obsolete methods used to turn their ideas into coherent and actionable plans. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is the first book to couple a step-by-step process with an interactive thinking tool that takes a strategic approach to designing projects and action initiatives. Strategic Project Management Made Simple builds a solid platform upon four critical questions that are vital for teams to intelligently answer in order to create their own strong, strategic foundation. These questions are: 1. What are we trying to accomplish and why? 2. How will we measure success? 3. What other conditions must exist? 4. How do we get there? This fresh approach begins with clearly understanding the what and why of a project - comprehending the bigger picture goals that are often given only lip service or cursory reviews. The second and third questions clarify success measures and identify the risky assumptions that can later cause pain if not spotted early. The how questions - what are the activities, budgets, and schedules - comes last in our four-question system. By contrast, most project approaches prematurely concentrate on the how without first adequately addressing the three other questions. These four questions guide readers into fleshing out a simple, yet sophisticated, mental workbench called "the Logical Framework" - a Systems Thinking paradigm that lays out one's own project strategy in an easily accessible, interactive 4x4 matrix. The inclusion of memorable features and concepts (four critical questions, LogFrame matrix, If-then thinking, and Implementation Equation) make this book unique.