The ITG Evangelist

09/14/12 What's new in COBIT 5

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:00:00 GMT

This past April, the Information Systems Audit Control Association (ISACA) came out with a new version of the COBIT framework. For the uninitiated, COBIT was first released in 1996 with the mission is "to research, develop, publish and promote an authoritative, up-to-date, international set of generally accepted information technology control objectives for day-to-day use by business managers, IT professionals and assurance professionals." The previous version of COBIT, initially an acronym for 'Control objectives for information and related technology' defined 34 generic processes to manage IT. The latest version of COBIT is now comprised of 37 processes – 5 governance processes, and 32 management processes. Here is ISACA's new description of the framework: (read more)

09/11/12 IT Financial Management

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:00:00 GMT

This post was inspired by an aticles I read today in the Enterprise CIO Forum on the topic of IT financial managent. I wanted to leave a comment but I thought it would be much easier if the author of the article simply read an excerpt from my book, “Eliminating ‘Us and Them’ – Making IT and the Business One.” So in the interst of saving me the time of writing a lengthy reply to his article, I decided to post this excerpt on my blog and simply leave a link in my comments to his post. Here it is. (read more)

07/06/12 Taming the Change Resistance Beast

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I recently started delivering project success workshops for Gantthead and regional Project Management Institute (PMI) chapters. The workshop consists of three modules, the first focusing on Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) given project success is founded on sound project and portfolio decisions. The second module addresses project management offices (PMO) and how to elevate them from 'paper-pushers' and 'process police' to participants in project success. The last module is the most unorthodox of the workshop as it tackles the widely neglected and misunderstood discipline of process management. Mastering the art and science of process management is essential to project success given PPM, PMOs, and project management, are all quite process-dependent. (read more)

06/22/12 What is Cloud Computing?

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

What is cloud computing? It may seem odd for me to be asking that question today given “the cloud” has been around for years and it absolutely dominates the information technology landscape. I actually addressed this question in a blog post I wrote two years ago. At the time, many people I encountered were struggling with the term and the litany of differing and disparate ‘expert’ views didn’t help this situation. (read more)

06/08/12 Shawdow IT - Cutting off the IT nose to spite the business face!

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Shadow IT is on the rise. What is shadow IT? The definition I encounter most often is: IT systems and IT solutions built and used inside organizations without organizational approval. One of the most interesting aspects of this allegedly new phenomenon is how shadow IT is being touted as a "threat to the IT department" or a threat to the CIO. Why isn't it a threat to the "organizations" that are not approving these IT investments?! (read more)

05/25/12 The Business Of IT Governance

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Who is responsible for IT governance at your enterprise? I'll bet your answer is the CIO, or one of their direct-reports. I am conducting an IT governance assessment for a large hi-tech firm and of the 34 executives I interviewed, half of them said it was the CIO. Most of the remaining folks identified various IT executives as sharing responsibility for IT governance. Of the 17 IT and 17 business execs I interviewed, only six identified members of the business as having responsibility for IT governance. (read more)

05/11/12 The Role of the CIO

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I am sure you have heard the calls for the “new CIO.” Analysts, pundits, and IT experts are advising CIOs to change, or more popularly, transform. They warn if CIOs don’t change they will soon go the way of the dinosaur. Instead of a six-mile-wide meteor, it is the onslaught of so-called game-changing technology trends threatening to render “conventional” CIOs extinct. The consumerization of IT, mobile data, and cloud computing are the forces most frequently cited. (read more)

05/04/12 Goodbye to the CIO? Or, Goodbye to the IT Budget?

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Last week I responded to an online CIO article titled, "J.C. Penny Slashes CIO Role." The article comments on the appointment of Kristen Blum as Chief Technology Officer and the elimination of the CIO position that was held by Ed Robben, who recently left the company. After reading the article, I left the following comment: (read more)

03/30/12 IT Business Alignment STILL Critical to Enterprise Success

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I wrote a blog post last year on the topic of “work-life balance”. I noted how I don’t like the idea of work-life balance because the term “balance” infers there are two forces opposed to one another. I continue to believe this is a fair characterization as I still know countless people who struggle with the “battle” between their work life and their personal life. Their situation sets work up to be the enemy, even for those who love their jobs. (read more)

03/23/12 IT Business Alignment STILL Critical to Enterprise Success

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Is your IT Organization aligned with the Business? IT-Business Alignment is the first and foremost f the five principles of IT Governance. The remaining principles: Value Delivery, Risk Management, Resource Management, and Performance Management are impossible to realize if IT is not aligned with the business. Despite this absolute prerequisite to the success of any IT organization, the term “IT-Business Alignment” is often ridiculed if not dismissed outright. I keep hearing it is so “passé.” (read more)

02/10/12 Employee Empowerment

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I just read a Forbes online article this morning titled: “The Empowered Employee is Coming; Is the World Ready?” It is a very insightful guest post hosted by Forbes staff writer Eric Savitz and written by John Hagel, Suketu Gandi and Giovanni Rodriguez. Ideally, you should read their piece before continuing, but for those of you who don’t want to toggle between posts, the following is the basis of their discussion. (read more)

01/31/12 Time to End the Claims of “The End of the CIO”

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I’m sick of the so-called pundits and self-proclaimed experts who are yet again contending IT’s days are numbered and the role of the CIO will soon go the way of the dodo. I can barely stomach the assertions that IT and the CIO must change – implying that IT and its leaders have not been in a constant state of change since their very beginnings. (read more)

01/20/12 The Business Must Be a Partner in IT Transformation

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

In my last blog post I described the need for the business to take a front-and-center role in the governance of information technology to assure the continual and successful “evolution” of IT. I noted how business neglect of IT governance has greatly contributed to IT’s inability to naturally and appropriately evolve in response to ever-changing business needs. Enterprises failing to govern information technology decisions foster the ‘Us and Them’ relationship that causes a divide between their IT organizations and their business counterparts. This divide must be periodically addressed each time the gulf becomes too great for IT to successfully serve the business. In lieu of business-driven IT evolution, IT must be repeatedly “transformed.” (read more)

01/05/12 IT Transformation Delusions

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I am certain you have heard the countless calls from analysts and experts for the CIO to "transform IT." There are calls for IT to transform from a source of efficiency and effectiveness to a driver of business innovation. The proliferation of software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers prompted calls for IT to transform from a service-provider to a service-broker. The latest calls are a hybrid of the earlier calls – beckoning IT to undertake a "cloud transformation" (though I admit, I am still trying to figure out what that is). I agree with the rational for each of these calls but I fear the characterization will cause many IT organizations and their enterprises to fall short of the desired goals of these "transformations." I wish the calls were for IT's evolution. (read more)

12/22/11 Heeding the Cloud Warning

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I read an interesting post yesterday by Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business in the MIT Sloan School of Management. In his article, “The Cloud Warning”, McAfee contemplates cloud computing’s potential to contribute to large competitive shifts not only among IT vendors, but also among consumers of technology. He draws an analogy between the “incumbent firms” holding back and being very cautious about the Cloud and the incumbent companies who held back on converting from steam to electricity a hundred years ago. (read more)

12/16/11 MIA: Process Owners!

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Do you know who the “Process Owners” are in your organization? Do you even have Process Owners? If you do, do you know what they do? Does your organization have a formal definition of the Process Owner role and its associated responsibilities? If you can answer yes to each of these questions, please contact me because you will be first person I have met able to do so. (read more)

11/23/11 Process Success Requires Sound Process Management

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Process management is the monitoring and continuous improvement of end-to-end process performance. It entails ensuring the process meets enterprise goals and includes ownership and accountability for the process design, supporting systems, resource requirements, budget, and tending to process interfaces. No matter how well a process is designed and implemented, it will wither and die on the vine if it is not carefully and passionately managed. (read more)

11/11/11 Do You Love Your PMO?

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I am headed to the annual PMO Symposium this Sunday, so I thought I would revisit a post I wrote more than two years ago by the same title. That post was inspired by an exchange I had with Demian Entrekin of IT Toolbox fame. (read more)

11/04/11 Managers, Who Needs Them?

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I delivered my process presentation last week at San Francisco State University's inaugural Business Process Management (BPM) course. My IT governance presentation has been a fixture in their Master's program for five years now, but it was the first time I spoke on the topic of process and process management. (read more)

10/26/11 Exploiting the "Consumerization of IT

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

In my last post I discussed the consumerization of IT and what enterprises can do to enable positive outcomes from this current phenomenon influencing their IT organizations. My timing was good because this morning I read a great MIT Center for Information research briefing titled, "Harnessing the Consumerization of IT." Though I was delighted to see my favorite research organization was tackling this timely subject, I had no idea they were simultaneously addressing an equally opportune topic – Enterprise Mobility. (read more)

10/19/11 Enabling the “Consumerization of IT

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

A persistent and inescapable phenomenon is beginning to have an impact on IT organizations everywhere. Whether IT likes it or not, users are bringing their “personal” technology to work. Workers have become increasingly dependent on “consumer technology” such as smartphones and social media and they are refusing to leave these devices at home. They have found countless ways to make themselves more productive and IT organizations now find themselves subject to what many are calling the “consumerization of IT.” (read more)

10/12/11 Enabling Innovation

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I wrote a number of blog posts on the topic of innovation while I was at CA Technologies. I cited the call for the CIO and IT to play a greater role in driving business innovation and about the obstacles to IT’s ability to do so. In this post, I take a deeper dive into one of those obstacles and the solution to address it – a solution you may already have in place. (read more)

10/05/11 Embracing and Learning from Failure

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Does your company use the F-word? No, not that one. I am talking about the word “failure.” I talk about IT project failures and failure in general in every IT Governance-related presentation I deliver. I have written a number of blog posts in the past on the topic of project failure. I have urged folks to follow my good friend Michael Krigsman, aka @mkrigsman, who writes a fantastic ZDNet-based blog called “IT Project Failures.”(read more)

09/29/11 The PPM S.C.A.D Model

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:00:00 GMT

A recent analyst study found that 75% of organizations are “doing Project and Portfolio Management (PPM).” My immediate thought when I saw this finding was, “I wonder what people meant when they replied they were doing PPM.” I spent most of the past five years traveling around the world visiting one PPM-challenged organization after another. In visiting those organizations, I encountered countless approaches to and variations of PPM. Though the differences in this critical enterprise discipline were all over the map, I did encounter some common circumstance.(read more)

09/14/11 Yes, I'm Serious

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I spent almost the last five years at CA Technologies, first working in their Clarity marketing organization, and then in their Strategy and Innovation group. In that time I spoke at more than 300 events across the U.S. and more than a dozen countries. My title appeared on the cover page of each of my presentations and I was introduced as CA’s IT Governance Evangelist. Now, as a member of BOT International and the founder of my own consulting company, I continue to travel the world evangelizing the power and promise of IT governance.(read more)

09/01/11 The Journey Continues..!

sromero@botinternational.com (Steve Romero) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Hello friends..! Let me start by welcoming you all to The ITG Evangelist blog here at BOT International. Many of you have known me through my years of service at Computer Associates and my blog at CA. I hope you all will enjoy following me here as I enthusiastically continue my journey and commitment to servant-leadership in the IT Governance, PPM, PMO, and Process Strategy domains. (read more)