Beneath the Buzz
topical concepts and the fundamental components of their effective implementation

PHILOSOPHY: Peel the layers off popular concepts to see the fundamentals and what it really takes to implement them.

Beneath the Buzz was first published by CIO Magazine.

More on what's in these articles....

Beneath the Buzz: FULL COST: Most IT leaders don't have a clue how important their business and cost planning processes are!

Beneath the Buzz: SERVICE-BASED COSTING: A concept from ITIL could make a huge difference this budget cycle.

Beneath the Buzz: UNFUNDED MANDATES: What to do when executives expect something for nothing.

Beneath the Buzz: ALLOCATIONS: How to turn a controversial nuisance into a powerful governance process.

Beneath the Buzz: WHO OWNS THE WIRES (OR WIRELESS)?: The way you get funding for building wiring and wireless connections may antagonize clients and disempower IT.

Beneath the Buzz: ACTIVITY-BASED BUDGETING: The right destination, but a flawed path

Beneath the Buzz: STRATEGIC SYSTEMS: This overused term is at risk of losing all meaning. What's truly strategic?

Beneath the Buzz: VALUE: Do clients understand the value of what they get for their money?

Beneath the Buzz: INNOVATION: How to keep up with the pace of change despite the pressures of daily business.

Beneath the Buzz: MANAGING EXPECTATIONS: systemic planning instead of lectures, hurdles, and bureaucracy

Beneath the Buzz: PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: managing investments in internal support functions as one would manage a portfolio of financial investments

Beneath the Buzz: OPERATIONAL PLANNING: the one-year plan for business, resources, investments, budgets and rates

Beneath the Buzz: SERVICE CATALOG: documenting the organization's products/services to clarify clients' expectations and staff's accountabilities

Beneath the Buzz: SLAs and INTERNAL CONTRACTS: forming clear agreements for services and projects, the basis for accountability, teamwork, and resource management

Beneath the Buzz: CHARGEBACKS: If you go in with the wrong objective in mind, chargebacks become an administrative nightmare and may induce a client backlash.

Beneath the Buzz: HEADCOUNT CAPS: Caps actually drive costs up, not down!

Beneath the Buzz: COST CUTTING: cutting a function's budget (and perhaps headcount) by selecting what's worth buying (versus traditional budget cuts and caps on headcount)

Beneath the Buzz: MISSION-VISION-VALUES: describing what the organization is about, where it's going, and how it will behave

Beneath the Buzz: IT STRATEGY: why IT strategy should not be driven by business strategy

Beneath the Buzz: SHARED SERVICES: establishing a competitive business within a business

Beneath the Buzz: USER, PARTNER, CUSTOMER, CLIENT: What's in a name? Lots, including the key to customer focus, teamwork, and effective working relationships!

Beneath the Buzz: PARTNERS IN THE BUSINESS: be careful how you define the word "partner"

Beneath the Buzz: WHERE IT REPORTS: Is it really that important to report to the CEO, not the CFO?

Beneath the Buzz: DECENTRALIZATION: Why do business leaders choose to pay more for less?

Beneath the Buzz: DOTTED LINES: how to coordinate a decentralized organization without ineffective dotted lines

Beneath the Buzz: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER: A fad title that may be better left behind

Beneath the Buzz: CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER: Some simple guidelines make the difference between a Chief Compliance Officer and a Chief Scapegoat.

Beneath the Buzz: RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS: Relationship managers are an essential element of a healthy IT function; but all too often, they fail to achieve their potential and create a new set of problems.

Beneath the Buzz: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: systemic approach versus traditional oversight and audit

Beneath the Buzz: SOX AND MICRO-MANAGEMENT: how regulations are used as an excuse for costly disempowerment

Beneath the Buzz: COMMITTEES: Some simple rules to avoid burying yourself under committee bureaucracy.

Beneath the Buzz: THE ROLE OF STEERING COMMITTEES: A productive way to engage the business, or a bureaucratic albatross?

Beneath the Buzz: NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS AND CORPORATE CULTURES: Why, in both cases, some work and some don't

Beneath the Buzz: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Staff need clear job descriptions; but traditional "roles and responsibilities" can confuse accountability and seriously hamper performance.

Beneath the Buzz: PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO): how to implement a PMO that helps everyone succeed

Beneath the Buzz: PROJECT TEAMWORK: It doesn't take a project management guru to manage complex projects.

Beneath the Buzz: TEAM-BUILDING AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMWORK: Team-building is rarely the answer to problems with teamwork.

Beneath the Buzz: BEST PRACTICES: Imitating others may actually do more harm than good!

Beneath the Buzz: LEAN + SIX SIGMA: Process-improvement methods that had best know their place

Beneath the Buzz: ITIL: how to avoid the pitfalls in implementing best practices

Beneath the Buzz: TOP MANAGEMENT SUPPORT: if you need it, you don't deserve it

Beneath the Buzz: OUTSOURCING: how to ensure that vendors work for your shareholders

Beneath the Buzz: POLICY CZAR: Good governance or oppressive government?

Beneath the Buzz: EMPLOYER OF CHOICE: attracting, motivating, and retaining great people

Beneath the Buzz: ERP AND MEGAPROJECTS: the organizational issues that make or break large, complex projects

Beneath the Buzz: ERP AND COMMON BUSINESS PROCESSES: Motherhood and apple pie, or the evil empire?

Beneath the Buzz: MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS, AND CONSOLIDATIONS: achieving the synergies through a participative integration process