There's No Such Thing as an IT Project: A Handbook for Intentional Business Change

by Bob Lewis, Dave Kaiser

Overview

Learn how to stop pouring vast sums of money into technology projects that don't have a lasting impact by closing the communication gap between IT and leadership.

Too many businesses miss opportunity after opportunity to design, plan, and achieve intentional business change. Why? Because they charter projects focused on delivering software products: IT projects. But as this groundbreaking book points out, there's no such thing as an IT project—or at least there shouldn't be. It's always about intentional business change, or what's the point?

It's time to stop providing simplistic, one-dimensional, all-you-gotta-do panaceas. When the only constant in business is change, truly useful IT has to help you change instead of build solutions that are obsolete even before they are completed.

IT consultant Bob Lewis, author of the bestselling Bare Bones Project Management, has joined forces with seasoned CIO Dave Kaiser to give you the tools you need. It's a multidimensional, relentlessly practical guide. Condensed to handbook length and seasoned with Lewis's trademark sardonic humor, it's an enjoyable and digestible read as well.

Lewis and Kaiser take you step by step through the process of building a collaboration between IT and the rest of the business that really works. Insisting on intentional business change takes patience, communication, and courage, but it has a huge payoff. More to the point, insist on anything else and every penny you spend will be a wasted dime and a waste of time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523098859
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	706 KB

About the Author

Bob Lewis’s has spent 21 years of writing and consulting in business information technology. When InfoWorld was a print publication he was one of its most popular columnists – his “IS Survival Guide” reached an estimated 250,000 readers per week and received a silver medal from the ASBPE, West Coast chapter. Counting this, his InfoWorld blog “Advice Line,” (which received a bronze medal from the same organization) various feature stories published in InfoWorld and CIO, and his own Keep the Joint Running column/blog, He’s published more than 1,600 columns and eleven books on subjects related to information technology organizations and their intersection with the rest of the business.
Dave Kaiser is a talented CIO, with more than 34 years of diverse IT experience, in Insurance, Finance, Technology, Retail, and Manufacturing. He has lead IT organizations making use of the principles espoused in this book. His relevant specific experience includes what other companies might have called a core system modernizations, but which his company understood was a business risk mitigation that carried with it opportunities to streamline business processes while facilitating strategy-driven revenue growth. Because of his recognition that there is no such thing as an IT project, his company put him in charge of its strategic planning efforts for the past seven years.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Prologue: What the Mess Is and How We Got into It xi

The problem we're trying to solve.

Introduction: What You're in for When You Read This Book 1

1 It's Always the Culture 12

2 The New Business/IT Conversation 26

3 Fixing Agile 54

4 BusOps 77

5 Business-Change Governance 90

6 IT in the Lead 113

7 The Seven Change Disciplines 127

Epilogue: A Few Last Words 148

When it comes to achieving intentional business change, don't listen to anyone who starts the conversation by saying, "All you gotta do is…"

Notes 153

Glossary: Irreverent Definitions 155

Because you aren't an expert until you're FBC (fully buzzword compliant).

Acknowledgments 169

Index 173

About the Authors 177

Editorial Reviews

There’s No Such Thing as an IT Project is a refreshing change from the heavy academic books on IT management theory. This new work provides practical been-there-done-that guidelines that can be easily implemented by IT leaders. It’s a quick read, offering an innovative approach to promoting IT’s essential role in business success.”
—Michael Benz, Vice President, Information Technology, Kraus-Anderson Construction Company

“This is a must-read for C-suite executives still searching for a better way to adapt quickly in an ever-changing world where technology is dramatically leveling our competitive playing fields before our very eyes. Doing so requires courage and a new and practical approach to understanding how to best leverage your precious IT resources and staff.”
—Mike Felmlee, CEO, Prouty Project

“Bob Lewis is one of the few honest voices out there. He and coauthor Dave Kaiser deftly turn their vast and often-amusing experiences in the innards of organizations into lessons learned. Read their advice and you’ll have a better shot at navigating the minefield of hazards that annihilate more than half of all business change initiatives.”
—Eric Knorr, Editor in Chief, IDG Communications

“There's No Such Thing as an IT Project will transform how you think of IT and the value your organization can derive from it. It should be required reading for everyone in the C-suite, particularly the CTO and CIO, as well as every line manager, business analyst, and anyone else who’s about to say ‘Let's get IT onto that.’”
—Mark Gibbs, entrepreneur; Contributing Editor, Network World; and IT consultant

From the Publisher