Why Analytics Fails to Deliver its Promises

The important bit is the communication of all insights in a joined up way which inspires simple effective action. An analytics professional is a translator of sorts.

Although analytics project is at top priority list of any forward-look organization, it has very low success rate to reach customer satisfaction, what are pitfalls, why analytics fails to deliver its promises, and what are principles to follow when doing analytics project.  

1.    The Pitfalls to Analytics Success

Lack of analytics talent, immature process and technology are all causes to fail analytics, more specifically:

1)     No clear business purpose for the analytics model being built. What's the decision you're trying to make, or the problem you're trying to solve? The fatal failures always seem to result from the strategic/visionary side. Far too often, the analytical work is started without a very clear goal of the actual problem, the business objective, and most importantly, the eventual deployment of the “answer”. A great analytical solution usually proceeds in reverse order from the implementation backwards to the data collection/aggregation stage.

2)     Incomplete or ineffective sponsorship. Are you working directly with all those who have a say in the decision, and having regular reviews with them? Or project managers cut you off from the sponsors or generally don’t let you communicate with the sponsors or others in the organization. If this happens, escalate to sponsors.

3)     One size fits all. You need to focus on a few key points before starting an analytical project, which may help in finding exact results as per the client requirement.

- Predictive Analytics vs. Traditional Statistics
- Group level decision making vs. Individual evaluation
- Business Objectives vs. Analytics Metrics
- Low Incidence vs. High impact occurrences
- Effectiveness vs. Efficiency 

4)     Failure to take a hypothesis-driven, rough cut approach to the problem. Quick and dirty analyses early on can simplify the scope and focus considerably, before investing in more detailed modeling. Analytics is above all a practical discipline that should be oriented around solutions to problems; the techniques and technologies should be a function of what is needed to solve the problem, not the other way around

5)     Clients who request “parallel universe” models that could answer any question. These are tempting but unrealistic. Clients who want to build a model to affect decisions they don’t own. The “if we build the model and conduct the analysis, they will change behavior” does not usually work. 

6)     Projects that stall—slow data gathering, low project meeting attendance, etc. If a project appears to be stalling, call for a sponsor review immediately to get clarity about the project’s importance and help move things forward. If this does not work, consider communicating a clear “end date” at which the analytics team will stop working on the project—this can prompt client action

7)     Unfortunately, sometimes the best analysts tend not to be the best action translators/inspiring communicators and vice versa.  The important bit is the communication of all insights in a joined up way which inspires simple effective action. An analytics professional is a translator of sorts. Their responsibility is to align the right data with the right analytical techniques to solve problems for the end user.

2. The Analytics Principles to Follow

But most of the pitfalls can be avoided when the following principles are incorporated.

1)     All the data and models in the world will have pitfalls if proper theories and principles are not incorporated.

2)     Modeling and Statistical analysis will out-perform management judgment the majority of the time, but experience + judgment + modeling will always out perform models only or management judgment only or experience only.

3)   The best models incorporate and cross-validate proper behavioral theory + management judgment + business experience.

4)   Analytics relates to a variety of data handling techniques used to justify certain business actions - there are lots of contextual insights, competition or customer feedback that must wrap around analytics to make truly effective business decisions.

5)  Figure out “WHY”:  Let's not forget data tells you who, when, where and how but not why. Once you have your derived data and use it to identify a meaningful subset of users and talk to them to find out "why" they are doing what they are doing. Knowing why is important for growing a business.

6)   During and after the model/final analysis, a seasoned analyst should view the assumptions and methodology of the process. If time permits, the model should be shown to a gathering of diverse background people within organization (different teams) and their opinion be taken. Let the technique not decide what we make but let us decipher what fits best and gives meaningful insights.

7)     Don’t overlook simple or sometimes obvious solutions; keep in mind, at complex circumstances, the science vs.art of project success comes from tradeoffs.

If you have a great team of analysts, follow the principles, you get the objectives correct, the actual operational aspects of doing the analytical work is quite simple, and the analytics should always deliver on its promise.

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Which IT Best Practices Do You Take at the Time of Uncertainty

Think inside the box - what can you do in the short term; shape the new box of thinking - what can you do in the long term.

IT is a huge investment and costly in most of the organizations, whether it is "planning" or "performance";  "process" or "people" issues - the CIOs shouldn't have been “overwhelmed” by complexity of IT and uncertainty of business dynamic, besides setting up practical IT Principles to follow, what are those IT practices can be shared?

1. Strategic Planning 

Think inside the box - what can you do in the short term; shape the new box of thinking - what can you do in the long term; Decision makers need to have the right tools in place and with all the information at their hand in order to make the right decisions upon growth opportunities and risk management. Strategic decisions related to technology should be business driven. The advantage being that technology supports the business priorities is funded, technology with marginal value is eliminated.

The strategy issues as "WHATs" and the implementation issues as "HOWs." WHAT questions include what business problems need to be solved, and map into IT projects -which applications to build, enhance, modify, decommission. HOW questions include whether to develop it in the house or take advantage of the cloud; whether to employ proprietary COTS tools or go open source. 

2. Cost Optimization 

Thoughtful cost-cutting and investment with an eye towards the future is the mark of a well-run company. Mistakes are made when the all-in value of a business line (including technology) is not taken into consideration when making budget decisions.

Rigorously identify and pursue value. All of IT spending must be looked at through an investment lens, provide a framework for thoughtful and informed decision-making. etc. What returns are you expecting? When do you expect them? What risk levels are you taking on? Scrutinize every expenditure and ask if it can be done more cost-effectively; take advantage of realigning staffing by having more flexible talent management; renegotiate all maintenance contracts; using demand-side analysis with TCO shifts from technology budget to business budget discussions, to ensure that technology spending is in line with the business strategies and objectives.

3. Contextual Understanding 

Focus on your own situation, not media portrayal and not comparative studies; recognize what you don't know, can't predict and can't control; identify quantitative measure of success and trouble; assess and address root causes ...objectively; practice Common Sense Practices principle: If IT leaders are tuned into their business and their organization, they can be successful in any economic climate. If IT leaders remember that IT is about the Information, and focus on being a service organization, innovation engine, and running it as a business, the business will ultimately benefit. 

Leverage IT unique knowledge. There are few business units that are as deeply embedded into each corporate function as IT. Use this knowledge to uncover hidden value, not only within IT but benefit the entire organization.  

4. Simplicity

 Simplicity brings speed, clarity, and flexibility and productivity. Cultivate a management culture within IT and drive it through the organization, consolidate, integrate and optimize IT asset accordingly: Manage application lifecycle, retire legacy systems; reassess any systems that require extra IT effort; consolidate database or infrastructure tools; streamline and then redraw the IT architecture to reflect SMAC trends; tighten coordination with vendors and partners.

Re-plan any project or undertaking via Agile methodology so that there are deliverables that provide benefit to the business at the shorter delivery cycle. Run, grow and transformation, simplify unproductive complexity and streamline limited resources on higher prioritized projects to make a competitive business advantage.

5. Governance

A simple definition of IT Governance is how to manage IT,  as mere management of IT will not yield the desired results. After all, you can manage a group efficiently, but if they are producing things that do not matter, you have just managed to produce things that do not matter. Put simply, governance discipline is to ensure business effectiveness-doing the right things. Implement a governance framework with the leadership, organizational structures, and processes that ensure the organization’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategies and objectives.

 Delivering IT Services is complex and requires in-depth technical expertise. However, governing the delivery does not have to be complex, the more complex you make a process, the more likely it will not be followed. Good governance practices will ensure both IT effectiveness and efficiency, also, make sure not losing sight of the opportunities for growth, and measure risk as it relates to investing in that risk.

Digital CIO today have to execute a strategy for the long term, also, be tactical, and be operational ALL AT THE SAME TIME, from best practices to next practices, the road is rough, but keep the spirit up.

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What is Wrong with Current Software Architecture Methods?

 Following the golden rule to get the customer involved, and make the customer happy is the project goal.

Among the reasons why architecture is important, worth studying, and worth practicing is that the analysis of architecture enables early prediction of a system’s qualities. This is an extraordinarily powerful reason! However, it has been said that current software architecture is weak in expressing and evaluating ideas of quantified qualities and costs. It has a lack of rigors, which needs to be improved by moving in the direction of engineering methods. So what are more specific issues in software architecture methods today?

1. The lack of domain-wide business modeling and enterprise architecture planning,  that should have occurred at a higher level and before the project team takes on gathering requirements and designing software solution has an effect on software architecture, quality, costs, etc. The project's end product does a lot but doesn't contribute enough to the expected business outcome so the customers think there must be something wrong with the software architecture process. They are spending too much and yet not truly getting what they need. 

2. The art of the trouble is that software architecture is not a solution in/of itself, but rather a component of the overall business objective. That aspect is often confused as too many architectures are constructed without regard as to why it is there to begin with. They become pet projects and the byproducts of empires. Coupled with the all too frequent deficiency in requirements quality - often devolving into little more than a long list of point functionalities, with little regard to the larger business picture, and most importantly - the fact that these systems must operate for and be understood by human beings 

3. The inherent problem in software architecture is that it tries to solve too much. Software is just one of many factors in addressing a solution and often a solution is not delivered because something fails. Requirement, qualities and cost factor should be prioritizing while comfort zone and market trends taking place when architecting software. 

4. The biggest problem with the software architecture methodologies as a whole is that they lack flexibility. The same set of practices that works in one context will be too heavy in another and insufficient in yet another. In addition, software systems are massively complex and they need to be flexible to continuously change with the needs of the business. Perhaps no individual architect is capable of defining all of the current needs, foreseeing all of the future needs and recognizing all of the potential opportunities for integration or consolidation when defining requirements. Software architects have to revisit the value that the architecture adds to the organization and not make it after the fact as document costs too much with no business value.  

5. You cannot gain the benefit of architecture without modeling consistency when you build a model, and you cannot achieve consistency without using the patterns and tactics. How many of you see these characteristics among the architectures that you have built or worked with? How many of you use architectural patterns and tactics to the trade-off between the qualities of systems? You can analyze architecture to see how the system or systems being built from it will perform with respect to their quality attribute goals, even before a single line of code has been written. But sometimes, the architects design a system instead of architecting it.  

6. More Pitfalls: Software Architecture as sub-component of Enterprise Architecture, all the Enterprise Architecture pitfalls may also cause that piece fall, such as
   -Improper analysis/knowledge of existing components in the system and lack of understanding on their interfaces to extend and re-use.
   -Not Balance well on EA/SA aspiration & EA/SA Practicality
   -Lack of an effective set of metrics to measure delivery.
   -Time to value or no value delivered or out of date value
   -Do EA/SA for its own sake
   -Culture inertia "that's the way we've always done it".
   -Too much focus on EA/SA tools and frameworks
   - The wrong scope focus from the start
   - Lack of SW Developer understanding of how to use architecture
   - A weak architect: An architect needs the capability and authority to synergize with the functional experts involved in the development and to make decisions and continuously adjust and enhance the system design throughout the development process.  

All happy projects are alike. All unhappy projects are unhappy in their own unique way. Either software architecture or software development project, follow the golden rule to get the customer involved, and make the customer happy is the project goal.

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Which is Better Strategy: Adapt to Change or Mitigate the Change?

Newton’s third law: Every action has a reaction.

Change is inevitable ,the speed of change is expedited. There are too many different types of change management initiatives, so there is no one size fits all approach to successfully managing change. Organizations today are more dynamic than ever, there are Big’C’ changes such as digital transformation, merging organizations with overlapping or duplicate functions, and little ‘c’changes such as implement a new software tool, reorganize a department, improving a new process to do things more efficiently. But too often changes are made as a reaction to outer impulses, crisis, and demands. Which one is the better strategy: Adapting to a changing climate, or taking logical steps to mitigate the changes that are already underway?

• Adaptation is an inherent characteristic of humans, and mitigation is a consequence of failure to adapt fast to rapid changes: According to Newton’s Third Law: Every action has reaction; the reactions result into further actions and cycle goes on. What is sustainable is when equilibrium occurs, etc., the reactions call for no more incremental actions and thus no incremental reactions; this thus moves when both adaptation and mitigation balances; if one is followed a complete change will be there, this is what history witnesses. Thus, keeping a clear focus on the "desired/defined end results" and change, adapt to, and/or mitigate is "practical" way for the existing change plan to bring about the goals of tomorrow. Change is always in progress. We need the flexibility to adapt "in-stride" as necessary to move the goal post as we discover the knowledge and events of tomorrow. We all want progress, but as directions change we must be able to adjust.

• It is critical that both strategies be employed: Mitigation, in its most general sense, will lessen the impact and severity of the current climate change trajectory over time. In parallel, adaptation will allow business to better adjust to the current and foreseeable reality. However, equilibrium can not be the end game, rather, at the point of equilibrium, the need for adaptation should be minimized and the shift of emphasis towards mitigation activities could begin to allow the environment to reverse the adverse impact of the current climate change trajectory.

• Mitigation and adaptation are like two sides of the coin: At an operational level, mitigation will win the toss! But it cannot be without adaptation. The adaptation is inherent in this sense. And at the strategic level, adaptation is the approach to foresee the business dynamic and prepare the best scenario to adapt to it. An appropriate balance of both mitigation and adaptation is required to the point where equilibrium is reached.

There are too many different types of change management initiatives, so there is no one size fits all approach to successfully managing change. But pay more attention to these pitfalls to change. A clear vision, step-wise planning, positive emotions, talent competency, cost effectiveness, and right timing are all important factors to lead change, large or small in an effective way.

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How to Improve IT Management Capabilities?

IT is trending towards becoming 'service' elastic and on-demand which moves faster, more flexible, and more resilient.

 IT Management is a strange animal, in that the capabilities are there, the data is there - but the motivations are often confused. IT tends to measure itself against trivial things IT considers important but are often less important and impactful through the business lens.

When IT does not reach a higher level of customer satisfaction, is it due to lack of IT capabilities, lack of IT management capabilities; or low maturity management of IT overall?

1. The “Key” of “Key Performance Indicators”

Technology is trending towards becoming 'service' elastic and on-demand which moves faster, more flexible, and more resilient - but how does that stack up against business objectives and goals? Is that fiscally responsible?

• More importantly, perhaps, is the notion of Key Performance Indicators. Answering those fuzzy questions such as "How well is IT serving the business?" and "Can IT do better?" requires not only hard evidence from IT components and capabilities - but also requires the ability to aggregate 'business sentiment' and convert that into something tangible on a display. You also have to ask yourself who the audience is? Often times the audience for IT performance metrics is IT itself ...but is that the ultimate consumer of IT? The answer is no - so it's time IT grew up and learned how to effectively measure itself.  

• From an IT performance perspective, measure what it matters, to reflect the business value: Make sure IT and business are always on the same page. IT metrics need to evolve into something that matters to the business audience, at the same time that "business sentiment" needs to get put into something more tangible. It almost sounds like a translation issue - two different languages/cultures that need to find common ground. Can the right metrics do that, or is that asking too much? The set of KPIs include:

-IT Value Indicator (optimize process, improve productivity)
-IT Innovation Indicator (end customer retention, revenue growth)
-IT Investment Indicator (long-term vision vs. quick win etc.) 

2. Management of IT Takes the Board/Leadership Team’s Commitment

An effective IT management takes not only the strong IT leadership but also needs to have the collaboration and full support from the top leadership team.

• Effective IT management means understanding every island of operation and every workflow process. It is through this comprehensive understanding that a CIO would be able to identify true cost savings, workflow optimizations, and additional revenue opportunities. IT is about using technology to lower costs, improve operations, and increase revenue. However, where to get the data from? It takes organizational-scope support to manage the business information lifecycle. In some cases, IT organizations lag behind the LOB counterparts and no standard system of record. In fact, IT seldom has standard processes across all of the different teams. So, while the scorecard is valuable, IT needs to address the underlying disparate tools approach as well as to understand holistic information in order to improve management capabilities. 

• More explicitly, IT failure is caused by the management of IT rather than just IT management. The responsibility for evaluating the performance of IT investment lies squarely with the C-Level/board leadership team. It is not a function that can be handled only in the IT department or by IT managers. They do not have all the information needed, they do not have all the mechanisms & authority to collect that information and they do not have all the skills necessary to evaluate the information. Without effective guidance/support from the board, the managers in the IT department are perhaps working in the dark -Mushroom management. 

• IT Executive Scorecard that has pre-built KPIs reflects the best practice measurement areas across IT holistically. It is balanced scorecard oriented and looks at IT Value, Customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and future orientation. KPIs are grouped into these different buckets to reflect financial, SLA, project health, people, etc measurements. It's an effective tool to enable executives and leadership teams to improve the management of IT via qualifiable and quantitative data. 

3. How to Improve IT Management Capabilities

The strategic planning should start with a clear picture of its own enterprise application landscape at a minimum and preferably understanding of its own IT capabilities and practices maturity relative to its industry. The enterprise architecture provides a framework in which sound strategic planning can happen grounded in present state realities so a full accounting of the perceived risks and rewards can avail itself of the decision-making process.

• Portfolio Management Capabilities: Portfolio management is essential to successful corporate governance and as such, a comprehensive fusing of a firm's strategic capabilities, tightly coupled with one organization would implement and oversee governance. Embodied in a Portfolio Management Office, there are six programs - IT strategic planning, enterprise architecture, capital programming, assets management, risk management, and projects management. 

• Communication Capabilities: Speak the language of business. IT inability to measure and have a transparent and agreed-upon way to measure the value they bring to the organization means they lose the trust of those who fund their livelihoods. Business-oriented KPIs and scorecards help to standardize this and fill the business/IT language/culture gaps.  

• People Management Capabilities: Either managing IT talent or customer/vendor relationship, people are usually the weakest link, while IT is pervasive these days, this will come about as more people begin to interact with and understand IT and what can be provided, from discerning customers, demanding CxOs to enthusiastic vendors, identify and cultivate the people management capability via following fundamental IT principles: first people – then process – then technology in that order. Develop and nurture a high-performing IT team, strive to be leaner and more business-focused. 

A highly-capable IT is a key business differentiator but keeps in mind, IT is still the means to the end, not the end, the end is to fulfill the business vision and execute business strategy smoothly to achieve the expected business result.

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CIO’s Strategy Planning Scenario

Fundamentally, an IT strategy should flow from the business strategy.

Preparing a strategic plan is important as it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. This direction must allow for economic, market or customer change and let business adapt swiftly. Alternatives and adaptation are the keywords to survival. 

To put another way, strategic planning simply answers the two questions: Where will you compete and what do you need to do to win? Now information and technology leads to disruptive innovation more often than not, so CIO as a strategist: What’s your strategy scenario?

• Vision-Strategy-Execution Flow: It is from Vision (where do you want to go, what do you want to achieve)–Gap analysis (the current state assessment) –Strategy (How to get there, roadmap) –to Execution -Balanced Scoreboard (objectives, metrics). Vision (Where do you want to be) needs to be tied to two inputs - the business strategic plan goals and the upcoming technologies. Without linking the IT Strategic Plan to the Business plan, the department appears to be a non-contributing entity and the perception of the department demises. Technology is changing so rapidly, that ignoring an emerging technology will put your organization behind your competition. The real trick is to merge these two inputs into your strategic plan by following the strategy framework.

• Fundamentally, an IT strategy should flow from the business strategy. It should reflect where the company wants to be and thus what IT needs to do to enable the business in making its strategy work. As the business wants to grow revenue, profit and value, IT must focus on assisting the growth of revenue, driving profit and, as a result, creating value. Nobody cares what IT is doing until the business can't do something because IT doesn't let them do it effectively or efficiently to at all.

• IT Strategy Flow is Strategic objective – Strategic goal – Capability – Project – (People, Process, and Technology). The relationships, though described as a top down (one to many), can actually be many to many because for example a particular project could impact multiple capability increments. Key Factors & Consideration in a solid strategic planning and execution:

1) Current functional maturity & capability and overall organizational capability & maturity. Do the functional areas in each part of the business have what they need to achieve the five-year business plan? How about an organization as a whole?

2). Current IT maturity and capability. What things are in place that will enable the business strategy? What can be done to strengthen them? What things are in place that will inhibit or endanger the business strategy? What can be done to minimize them? Are the right skills in place? Are costs in line with the five-year plan?


3).What will change about the business over the next five years in order to achieve the strategic plan? And what are the impacts of those changes on IT? Higher transactional volumes? Heavier investments in product development? Does the business need to make decisions faster?

4) What is the organization's capacity for change? If radical changes are needed, does the change management structure exist internally to deliver on that? If not, should you look for a partner or possible acquisition target?

5).What's going on in the market? Where are the suppliers headed? Where are the competitors headed? And most importantly, where are the customers headed?

6).What could cause you to fail? Brainstorming scenarios for failure in the future helps everyone be clear about what you don't want to happen and what can be done to avoid it.

7) A continued assessment to allow IT monitor and modify the IT strategy, if and when organizational strategy changes. It is also worth noting that IT strategies must always be driven and redefined by, and aligned with the organizational strategy to succeed.

CIO's strategy planning is a continuous journey, a scenario to smell four seasons of business and touch the flows of business nature, it takes principles, preparation, and practices 

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EA as an Enterprise Navigator: Analyze, Model & Influence

Businesses need EA as GPS to navigate, bridge, facilitate and establish.

EA is not a management role but it must be able to advocate and communicate effectively with business leaders; it also enables the organization to navigate from strategy to execution.

So is EA an analytical role? Where does EA add value to an organization? Where should EA provide value? Does it add value that is not already provided in an organization by a strategy group, by an organizational development group, by business innovation and transformation group?

1. Businesses need EA as internal consultant to analyze, model, explain and communicate:
• Analyzes and models the business, at a strategic level, accounting for all strategic influences and factors.
• Uses its models and analysis to develop scenarios for moving the business closer to its goals.
• Works with business executive management and other stakeholders in order to understand the various influences and strategic factors.
• Explains and communicates its analysis and scenarios to executives and other stakeholders, using terminology and modes of communication that they can understand and relate to.
  
  
2. Businesses need EA as GPS to navigate, bridge, facilitate and establish. Many of today's EA can play an important role in helping managers to analyze business choices in a holistic manner, that accounts for business agility, indirect sources of value & cost, and technical compatibility (which affects agility)
• Enable everyone in the organization to see the whole by mapping the enterprise. 
• Enable everyone in the organization to know the parts by managing the enterprise knowledge. 
• Apply architecture and engineering in business practice. 
• Facilitate collaborative culture. 
• Establish enterprise agility in adapting to change via taking advantage of technology evolution. 
• Close the gaps between strategy and execution. EA is a critical body that bridges the gap between what is required and how it is implemented
• EA carries high-level accountability for compliance and provides important input into the feasibility and appropriateness of policies that have a direct impact on the architecture. They then work with implementers to ensure they provide solutions that move toward compliance. 
• Enterprise Architects are not the "Guru" to architect a frozen enterprise blueprint in a command and control approach, but a “glue” to bridge the silos. 

3. Businesses need EA as “producer” to design, cultivate, enhance and support 'management capabilities'. EA is proposed as adding value to the development of strategy, then the EA capability is being proposed as an enhancement or strengthening of the management capability is known as strategy development. EA doesn't get to own accountability for the success of the strategy. That belongs to management and will remain their accountability, but EA needs to take a fair share of reward or blame on the decision they make. And that accountability is multifaceted, it’s EA ability to influence, and offer value, with respect to each facet of management's responsibility EA is impacting.

a) Strategy development
b) Organizational development
c) Business change management (including associated investment decisions)
d) Quality management
e) Risk management

f) Portfolio Management
g) Program Management
h) Project Management
i) Business Management (or product line management .. with P/L management)
j) Product Management (customer products and services)
k) Process Management
l) IT Management 

Read more about EA's Role:
EA as Trusted Advisor

EA as Enterprise Navigator

EA as Value Creator

EA as Customer Evangelist

EA as Vista Point Viewfinder

EA as Communication Glue

EA as Strategic Planning Tool

EA as Silo Integrator

EA as Problems Solver

EA as Governance Champion

EA as Complexity Master
EA as Process Conductor
EA as Capability Producer
EA as Change Agent
EA as Strategy Steward
EA as Innovation Enthusiast 

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Data Architecture Best Practices

Data is one of the most valuable assets in modern business today. Organization manages data and information from two perspectives. Operationally there are practices of information management that cover such things as Data/Information Quality, Data/Information Acquisition and Migration, Backup/Recovery, Maintenance and Data/Information, Security and Access Control. Architecturally there are three key areas that are considered: Meta Data Management (including providing business data design), Trusted Source Management (Looking to define master and reference data, systems of record and enterprise data warehousing) and Information Delivery (Defining the delivery of information via applications, integration, BI, analytics or reporting). More specifically, what are some data architecture practices?

1. Both operational and architectural practices collaborate in defining business and technical meta data. This practice allows for a better foundation for enterprise business data design, and, subsequently, logical design (where systems haven't been purchased). 

2. The logical model is best fit to the processes it needs to support, as data is the persisted state of company processes. To do so as an outside step introduces unfamiliar semantics, and constructs to the application developers in a company. Let the tech-leads and application architects handle the logical design; 

3. Have an oversight on data sourcing, data model, and the applications using that data model. Data redundancy is one of the larger maintenance costs that a company can incur. The decoupling between architecture and operations actually masks the usage patterns and sources of data that are essential in resolving data sourcing issues. While storage is cheap, people to maintain servers, backup servers, servers that are purchased to support the cycles of retrieving that data is not cheap. So an architect should have oversight on data sourcing, data model, and the applications using that data model (at least at the application architect/tech lead level.)  

4. Security, security, security. More and more emphasis is being put on Architects and Development leaders to protect the lineage of data in certain areas of a corporation. Security is a chief concern for the enterprise architect, and knowing the logical representations of data gives the EA the general view of what data originates from which sources, and then further, who has access to those sources needs to be controlled 

5. Controlling the master data is very important The issue in whole world today because of so many home grown application uses their own data. It leads into data redundancy and inconsistency .There are three types of data: 1) Master data; 2) Reference data 3) Transaction data. In which Master data like can go across many application , Others might not. So controlling the master data is very important. Now the people won’t be knowing that , which source is having true copy of data. Who is the actual creator (source) of the data? Without an Enterprise data model it’s difficult understand the data movement and usage. You need to have meta-data management process since each department has different terminology to define an entity. You need to have data owners for each major entity and requires change control process in place 

6. Domain Model: A domain covers a certain coherent part of the business. Each domain is governed by a model that shows entities and their attributes on a logical level.  Each domain is governed by a model that shows entities and their attributes on a logical level. Each service that is defined has input and output attributes, which all can be mapped to the exchange model of the domain the service belongs to. The service description has a technical translation into xml of the functional service description. This service must be used for exchange of data between domains. A service is provided by an application. This application has its own logical and technical data model, however in the service it needs to use the domain attributes. So architects work with a layering of data models that are spread out, interlaced and woven into each other..

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Is BPM the Magic Bullet for Process Failure?

When process fails, perhaps there're both management and governance problems, is the roots cause to failure about effectiveness-does the process still do the right thing? Or about efficiency -does process become inefficient somehow? Is the process document driven or human oriented? ...etc. Organization should go beyond the symptom, and dig through the root causes from different perspective:

• From  Change Management Perspective: Change can only happen if a) People feel that involved with the decision-making process and it is ‘their process’ and b) Senior Management gets behind the initiative and want to make a change. People forget the improvement aspect and imagine process mapping to be the magic wand for all the problems. Whatever the system or whatever the project, unless it is part of Organization’s culture and driven by Senior Management, process change and use is difficult. From a BPM practitioner’s point of view What has helped you in your organization when looking at using process mapping to improve quality or manage change? How do you know the maps are being used? What methods were employed in the communications program? How was it received by the organization?

• From Process Perspective: As the mix of traditional highly structured work shifts to a mix of unstructured and structured work (industries where knowledge workers perform process steps), the notion of "process" goes to "process fragments" and the only time you see a "process" is after-the-fact in the audit trail. Users thread together process fragments, software threads together process fragments, users carry out ad hoc interventions, data triggers the launch of process fragments. There are really NO end-to-end processes in an environment where some of the work is being done by knowledge workers - what we have are "process fragments" and aside from the obvious local objective which is to get to the end of a fragment, process fragments do not on their own consolidate to Case Objectives. An entire different mechanism from traditional BPM is needed to assess progress toward Case objectives. Once an organization gets to where it is able to assess progress toward overall objectives, the next level of maturity is to integrate predictive metrics within the overall system

• From BPM perspective: There are three concepts of Business Process Management (BPM): 1) A management discipline - using processes to manage business; 2) An architecture of a portfolio of the business processes of an enterprise, and the conventions for governing the design, execution and evolution of this portfolio; 3) A tool to manage processes per se. When talking about "Process Failure", it typically means that a process fails to perform. With the intention of BPM (Business Process Management) to make a process perform, (and avoid it to fail), BPM is what you need, although there’s no such thing as magic bullet. Organizations benefit when they integrate predictive metrics within the overall system of process through an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) value chain. 

By managing the process seamlessly, it is possible to avoid foreseeable process failure through better planning, coordination, control and intervention. BPM is about management, not just about model or map. The word "management" MUST include planning, resourcing, coordination, communication, monitoring and measuring.

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Should CIO Title be Unique

The magic "I" in the CIO's title evokes a lot of imagination!

The prominence of the CIO position has risen greatly as IT has become an increasingly important part of the modern organization. Many CIOs are adding additional c-level titles to reflect the growing interest in technology in high-performance companies, this trend is referred to as the CIO-plus. However, with the criticality of information, there are multiple relevant titles cropped up such as Chief Data Officer, Chief Digitalization Officer, Chief Process Officer, Chief Customer Officer., etc. or at larger enterprise, there are multiple people holding the CIO title, it stimulates further debates: Do the emerging titles devalue the CIO role? Should CIO title be unique, does too many C-role cause confusion in the market and within the organization? What are the major responsibilities of CIOs?

1. The Root of CIO Role and Information as Life Blood of Business 

The original reason for the CIO was to have one person who with overarching responsibility for the multiple IT initiatives spawned by the business units within large organizations. Those initiatives were often not coordinated and ignored the potential interactions between business lines. That was why Chief INFORMATION Officer was born, the role was to assure the entire organization could leverage the information created by many systems serving many constituencies. Yes, "CIO" is the original title for IT leader. 

• It is all about information – How are the information-related outcomes achieved? Information (from an IT perspective) is really data following a process. The digitalizing or digitalization is often used when diverse forms of information, such as text, sound, image or voice, are converted into a single binary code as it flows through systems. Part of the CIOs role is to structure the information in a way that it can be used, build the trust and have feedback loops to test the quality of information. The challenge is working with peers to ensure that the interfaces between the business and information architecture align, and the business architecture is correct in the first place.  

• Although the title is not as essential as responsibility, the standard needs to be set: Many argue that the CIO title should be unique and should be held by the position that is really managing the "Information" within the corporation, having multiple people holding the title does water-down the position and causes confusion in the market and within the organization, or creates the new silo and add the more layers of bureaucracy. Further, the title can often be misleading and situation-driven, many companies define the duties and functions of a CIO differently. The focus of IT upon business transformation is not about changing the title, but changing the mindset, attitude, setting up the standard, to improving IT capability and maturity as well.

2. C-Level IT Leader’s Responsibility 

Leadership, confidence and being competent not only in IT but business are crucial elements, in terms of a title an effective leader is included regardless of the title but by the contribution and input they can provide.

• High-performance companies have a C-suite that is primarily focused on making the entire enterprise function smoothly, not just their functional silo: ANY C-level executive, regardless of the middle word of the title, should have the ability to be a corporate business leader, transcending the functional organization that they represent, while still being able to bring that perspective to bear on the corporate planning and direction. If they can't speak intelligently about the functions of a business and have a very clear understanding of how each interrelates, as well as the corporate market position, financial position, socioeconomic business impacts, competitive position, they are more as functional manager. 

• 40/40/20 Ratio of C-Level Responsibility: In leading companies, the top level performance is created when C-level execs spend 40% of their time on strategic issues, and another 40% on overall business coordination across functional silos. The 20% is spent interacting with the VP level that remains responsible solely for the functional silo.  Many “C” level roles now have an element of risk/ compliance identification, management, reduction/acceptance, and adherence. The CIO now also takes responsibility as a shared business innovator (depending on the company) from a technology perspective and how that supports organizational goals including revenue targets.  

• Simplification has to be part of the long-term game that an IT leader needs to play. The scope of IT is broadening daily, social and environmental needs are increasingly driving the type of access people require. It’s now more relevant than ever to have a leader that will build feasible business-centric strategies, to keep the business ahead or at least in line with customer expectations. Senior managers need to own process within their area with the CIO office facilitating an end to end business process mapping, assisting in defining appropriate owners and handoff points across the business. Without a full understanding of upstream and downstream impacts, inefficiencies across operational silos won't be addressed. Indeed, there needs to be a strong leadership team to work seamlessly, break down the silo and bureaucracy. 

The title of IT leader may still vary, but every CIO is unique, every IT organization is unique and every business needs to have its own unique set of capabilities to compete for the future.  

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CIO on the Cloud: How to Keep Balanced

 IT is a custodian to orchestrate cloud-based solutions to streamline business process and optimize enterprise capabilities.

Cloud Computing is growing at about three times the rate of traditional, on-premises software. From vision to reality, CIOs appreciate the flexibility that cloud solutions provide for companies large or small. Cloud also brings the various perspectives upon IT: is cloud the end of IT, or every end is a new beginning? How to run the next generation of IT smoothly, CIO at the cloud: how to keep balanced?

                     1.    Centralized vs. Decentralized IT 

The challenge for the future CIO is to pursue the opportunity and competitive advantage but also manage risk effectively by leveraging cloud solutions, there's a whole slew of new challenges for which an onsite team will be necessary. Not the least of which is application integration and security across the myriad cloud services. Cloud is the future and the present, the vision and reality.

• Centralized IT vs. Decentralized Organization: What's the best organizational structure to run an effective IT or the digital organization under the cloud? As the border of functional silos is blurred and creating meaningful differentiation requires capabilities that are almost always cross-functional. The same concerns can be lifted for other functions as well. But a centralized IT will have the advantage in purchasing power when negotiating with vendors, practicing governance discipline and sharing best practices with speed. The speed of change is creating a solutions environment that is more specialized and complex, thus more expensive to successfully manage. 

• Balanced Structure to run a nimble IT: Should we finally put an end to the costly centralization/decentralization cycle and maintain a balance between the two extremes, to manage centralized IT organization with effectiveness and efficiency; but also leverage the flexibility via decentralized talent management and enterprise social collaboration; to gain purchasing power by managing vendor relationship holistically. "Complexity is conserved." The process of moving from managing systems to managing contracts and interactions around systems retains all the complexity of system interaction and adds additional complexity 

• CIO and his/her group want to be seen as an enabler: That is largely possible through the deep knowledge of all company processes and the support that is provided by IT for any of those processes. This support goes far beyond the "keeping lights up" and often contains even process improvements, deliveries of a cheaper and faster business solution via leveraging the latest trend like the cloud. To do that, you need a group with a vast knowledge and with highly focused IT professionals in the field of technology and process. This group is often called IT.  

2.    Innovation vs. Governance 

Innovation and governance seem to be the opposite concept, but CIO and his/her organization is at the right position to the balance of them; as IT needs to be both innovation agent and governance champion as well. With the agility, faster provisioning and elasticity provided by the cloud, the business in digital era can now experiment innovative product or service at reasonable cost and much shorter life cycle, the large enterprise can become more instant on and agile by taking advantage of the cloud.

• Innovation drives new product development. If technology trend like cloud can be used to shorten that cycle, one would think that a corporation would be in better position to compete with business's innovation engine, spend more resource upon how to cultivate the set of unique business capability to gain a competitive advantage for business.  IT provides important structure and framework to streamline processes and enable innovation. Think transparent,  flat, and collaborative. Creative companies have set up processes for drawing ideas out of business units, often using cloud-based, online platforms to encourage corporate-wide, crowd-sourced innovation idea generation 

• Integration Perspective: As long as there is a desire to integrate process and information across the organization and the applications, there will need to be an IT organization comfortable with talking to all those cloud providers. As IT moves more applications to the cloud, there'll need to be more IT involvement, not less, because the efficiencies of the cloud allow to bring in more applications, but those applications then need to interface with each other and with legacy applications. And while you can buy technical expertise for the cloud applications, you cannot buy internal process knowledge.  

• Future of IT needs to play an even more critical role in cloud/IT/business governance and overall GRC practices. An organization always needs someone to understand the technical options available to help the business put together the required solution. Also, someone has to provide oversight for security, confidentiality of data, contracts, and all the other governance items including risk; and have a holistic view of maximizing the value of the various relationships, therefore, CIOs and IT still play critical role in governing, not for stifling innovation, but for ensuring its success. And, business as a whole is superior to the sum of pieces, at the age of cloud, the other important task for IT & EA working closely are to update upon governance model: The value of functions is undeniable; no company could do without them. But the business and organizational models that govern functions need updating, retooling business culture and improve business coherence and agility. 

3.    Consultation vs. Authority 

So the cloud doesn't eliminate the need for internal IT as there is still innovation, solutions to be created, processes to be developed, access to be secured, systems to be integrated, information to be processed and vendors to be managed. But Cloud allows business to bypass IT to order SAAS service if IT always say no to them or lack of competitive and alternative solutions, and then, shadow IT is popped up.

• Simplistically IT can fall back to the long-established practice of being more consultative than authoritarian. Taking a fresh vantage for IT and assuming the business leaders are the specialists in their functional area, IT can still provide significant value through lending their expertise to the process of acquiring new services but not leading it. 

• Chargeback, show back, charge forward mechanism: Take a holistic view as an IT manager, assess the options available and assess the costs, benefits, and risks of each and make the decision appropriate to that application. Cloud transforms from CapEx to OpEx, cloud services providers exemplify a financial agility that results from leasing infrastructure rather than purchasing. They use equipment leasing instead of purchase to truly exemplify what has become known as the “utility” model. Not only do they charge for their services on a pay as you go basis, they pay for infrastructure that way as well. And some IT organizations also apply the charge/show back or charge forward mechanism to their business users. 

More and more enterprise CIOs are weaving cloud into their IT/corporate strategy, and IT is custodian to orchestrate cloud-based solutions to streamline business process and optimize enterprise capabilities. The challenge for CIO in the cloud is to strike the right balance, IT should play even more crucial roles such as service broker, value-creator, innovation engine and governance champion, the future of IT will be decided by the future of IT leadership and talent IT professionals with the adaptability to the changes.

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