Management
IT retrenchment: performing IT project triage
The on-going economic turmoil in the U.S. and global economies over the past several years continues to force many organizations to freeze, trim or even dramatically slash internal budgets. If you’re an experienced IT manager, you already know that your budget may be among the first to be affected. And that means making hard choices, […]
The 5 books every IT manager should read right now
In a prior post I talked about setting up a reading program for your IT department. However, whether or not you can get your IT engineers to read, you yourself need to be aware of the fundamental realities of IT project management and software engineer that have been discovered again and again. In other words, […]
Windows XP end-of-life on April 8, 2014: the debate [UPDATED]
![Windows XP end-of-life on April 8, 2014: the debate [UPDATED]](http://brucefwebster.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Windows_XP_SP3-300x200.png "Windows XP end-of-life on April 8, 2014: the debate [UPDATED]")
[UPDATE AT END OF POST] As I mentioned in my previous post (“Windows Forever and Ever?“), Windows XP still has 33% of the desktop/laptop installed base, even though Microsoft has set its end-of-life (meaning no more security patches) for April 2014 — seven months from now. That 33% actually represents half a billion computers, all […]
How to retain IT talent with goal alignment
Back in 1990, I was hired by the principals of a start-up company (Pages Software) to build an engineering team from scratch to create a new product: a design-oriented word processor. For more than a year and a half, I acted both as head of engineering and as chief software architect — a dual role […]
Septic code: why some large IT projects never go into production
A common pattern in the failure of large IT software projects is “the Never-Ending Story”, which I described back in 2000 (PDF) as follows: The client contracts with the manufacturer to develop and install a system. The project starts. The completion date slips. It keeps slipping. Each time the adjusted delivery date approaches, the project slips […]