Know Your Strategic Objectives

As part of an activity on one of our workshops at JISC infoNet I ask delegates to list their organisation's strategic objectives. For some of them this is an impossible task as they just don't know them.

This isn't because of any lack of attention or poor memory - in one conversation I had recently a college manager said "We don't tell staff below Senior Management Team level what our strategic objectives are because they don't need to know."

Now I have to agree that for a data entry clerk in an office, feeding student data into a database, that may be true in as far as their day-to-day work is concerned, although even there it may explain why some of that data is important to the organisation.

However when we look at the sort of work carried out by many staff which is outside the normal day-to-day routine - i.e. project work - then it would surely be of some help in identifying projects that contribute to strategic objectives and allow some prioritisation or even a basis for saying "no" to running a proposed project.

Projects are funny things in many organisations and they are run along the lines of Mastermind - they've started so they'll finish. By which I mean that, despite it becoming obvious sometimes that a project has no hope of achieving the goals and outputs it was created to achieve, no one will actually take the responsibility of pulling the plug and saving the money allocated but as yet unspent.

Where strategic objectives are disseminated throughout an organisation it can give a sense of purpose to the work of staff who are able to to make the links between what they do and the strategic objectives of the organisation. It helps to engender a corporate culture - rather than what is all too often the case, where lots of clashing sub-cultures exist and staff are happy to form their own game plans without any thought or check to see whether there is goal conflict with another team elsewhere in the organisation.

I'm minded of the time when a colleague was at a senior management away-day. At the end of the day when everyone was happily getting sloshed in the bar, one of the managers had withdrawn to a corner with some papers. One of the other managers felt this unacceptable and went over to enquire what she was doing.

"I'm working on my Departmental Plan" came the answer and in evidence the documents were thrust under the second manager's nose. About to dismiss this as a poor excuse for sobriety, the second manager noticed one section of wording on the plan.

"Hang on," he said, "if you do that you'll be using resources that I need and I won't be able to achieve my goals..."

Identify the Critical Pressure Points

Every business has its critical pressure points. Those parts of the business process that, should they go wrong, will have a knock-on effect to the rest of the business like a snowball effect.

The other night I went with some friends to a busy restaurant and the person on the door gave some wildly optimistic waiting times. People kept coming in and accepting the short waiting times he gave, had a drink at the bar and then started to complain.

By the time they were seated (around 3x the waiting period suggested) they had been in the bar long enough to be confident to complain even more. This of course slowed down the waiting staff even more and gave them a thoroughly stressful evening.

The restaurant was consequently so full that the kitchen couldn't cope either and food was coming out showing signs of a chef and his team struggling to cook so much food at once. Things were getting burned and being served blackened around the edges. More complaints.

The point is that the whole situatuion could have been alleviated by the doorman giving more realistic waiting times. They would have lost some customers, but the ones who stayed would have had a good night out instead of a bad one.

Having more business than you can satisfy should be on everyone's risk register. How would you turn business away, or delay it, without causing offence? Would you recognise when the situation was becoming out of hand and how would you step in to manage it?

Have you identified the critical pressure points that could be the cause of a build up of pressure on the other processes of the organisation? It's sometimes easier to solve symptoms than causes. But it's better to deal with the cause.

Social Software Use in Projects

I'm looking for examples of projects that have made good use of social software such as wikis, blogs, photo/video sharing, social networking.

Projects should be work-related rather than personal and public sector rather than private, particularly the education sector. But good practice is good practice so if you have examples from other work sectors then please get in touch either through the comments here or to j.burke[at]northumbria.ac.uk

Anything I use will be credited.

I'm particularly interested in examples of collaborative planning and/or problem solving using wikis/networks or engagement activity.

Over to you...

Innovative College Library

Yesterday I had the pleasure of looking around the recently refurbished library and learning resources centre at Blackpool & The Fylde College.

I visited shortly before work began 14 months ago and the library now is almost unrecogniseable as the same place.

Perhaps I shouldn't say the library anymore because Blackpool asked students to come up with a name for the new combined library and learning resources centre from a list of alternatives. The new resource is now named The Loop which allows the college to display signs such as 'Get in the Loop' and the term library is almost forgotten now even though The Loop has only recently opened for business in its new guise.

'I overheard two students talking', my guide and project manager for the refurbishment, Christine McAllister said, 'and one said "I'll meet you later in the Library."
"Where?" said the other, "Oh - do you mean The Loop?"'

Some of the refurbishment caught my eye - bookshelves with inbuilt concealed lighting has been used which certainly makes the books stand out and looks attractive and draws you towards them.

Blackpool could be the first Further Education college to install and use these self-service machines which allow students to book out or return books using their student card.

Any outstanding fines can be paid into the machine which issues a receipt for any payments.

The touch screen interface looked easy to use and students can also use the machines for reserving library books that are currently unavailable through being out on loan.

Social areas for networking or single study in more comfortable surroundings has been included with use of swivel panels to reveal power outlets for laptops.

As I was being shown around, students were using the facilities both for informal social meetings whilst on the next block of seating a student was sitting with her laptop, surrounded by a collection of open notebooks and text books.

Even before all of the graphics had been delivered and installed, the place had a buzz about it that was both friendly, vibrant and yet conducive to study.

For students without their own IT equipment there was a mixture of both sit-down bookable PCs and stand-up short-term machines where students could quickly download and send emails, check out blogs and network on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Blackpool believe in encouraging use of Web2.0 facilities, which is a refreshing change to them being seen as a threat because students might 'diss the teachers' as one IT manager explained the 'risks' to me. He wasn't from Blackpool. I suspect Blackpool & The Fylde may have the right approach!

Acceptance Criteria

I've been writing some materials updating JISC infoNet's Project Management infoKit and had given some examples of user or customer acceptance criteria:

● target date
● functions required
● performance levels
● capacity
● downtime / availability
● running cost
● security levels
● level of skill required to operate

The above may, at first glance, appear very IT systems based. But consider the installation of a lift in a new build project. The lift needs to be installed by a certain date, a specific function may be that it should only go down to the basement if a key is used to turn a lock to a certain position. It has performance levels - eg speed, it has a capacity in weight and number of people carried safely, it will require servicing at times, it will use electricity, and whilst it may not require any security levels for normal use (though we have mentioned one possible level already), there will need to be security of access to the operating machinery and a level of skill required for servicing personnel.

Then I applied them to producing a new range of paint. Target date becomes shipping date, functions required seems fairly simple, but capable of being thinned and by what or whether undercoat is required, performance levels as in opacity, how many coats required, can it be washed down without coming off a wall, capacity as in what area will one litre of paint cover, let's forget "downtime"(!) but availability is certainly an issue, how much can be produced, how many retail outlets are we aiming for to stock it, how much will it cost, will we need notices about storing out of children's reach, is it suitable for brushing, spraying, rolling, sponging...

For some projects your users or potential customers will be able to specify some, perhaps the majority of the acceptance criteria, but quite often they need some assistance with this.

Many users have an idea of what it is they want from a project but can totally lack the ability to put it into words or at least into enough detail so that you have a clear view of what is required. Specifying the acceptance criteria may need to be an iterative process, but one which needs to be finalised as early as possible.

Making changes before you start is cheaper than making changes once you've finished...

Workshop Writing

I'm about to start writing JISC infoNet's new workshop - Project Management Masterclass.

This takes the Project Management techniques delivered in our original Project Management Workshop into senior management territory and explores in depth, things like turning strategy into projects, portfolio management, management by exception etc.

We have always used the same tool for putting workshops together and it's a very simple one. We take a flip chart (or a wall) and cover it in post-it notes.

The different colours represent different delivery tools or activities during the workshop.

The blue notes are for "TALK" (not "TRUC", yes I know it looks a bit like that at the bottom...)

The yellow notes represent a shout-out session, where delegates are asked to give answers to a question, opinions on a point, or feedback.

The pink notes represent an activity that the delegates will undertake either singly or in groups.

Ensuring that there is not a whole bunch blue notes together can help your lesson or workshop motor along without risking delegates or students getting bored.

Quite often during the shout-out sessions I will write down any delegate points on-screen using Word. This can be minimised afterwards but then contains a record if I want to come back to a point someone made during the workshop or we can put the delegates' feedback online afterwards where they can compare it with previous groups' feedback.

Writing the Manual

I suppose this entry takes the thought processes from my earlier entry Black & White Computing a little further, but forgive me if I repeat myself slightly.

I've had the pleasure of a new PC on my desk and have spent much of the morning installing a well known security product. Let's call it "Not-On"...

Not-On comes with a huge box, a normal-sized CD and an A5 sized 48 page User Guide, 1 page of which is the title, 1 page the copyright notice, 1 page the contents, 1 page blank, 9 pages of guidance (2 of which help you to find help elsewhere), 12 pages about the support you can get from Not-On and their associates, 2/3 page about upgrades and subscriptions, 1 1/3 pages about worldwide support, 2 pages of index and 14 blank pages for you to make your own notes.

Nowhere in the 2 pages of the guidance that are devoted to installation is there a diagram of a screen shot. Nowhere does it say:

"The Not-On program will open and start to work before it has finished installing. It will recognise there are bits missing and initial tasks undone and therefore will open a warning page giving dire messages about the state of your machine's security"

I mean, come on! It's not hard is it? If this happens every time and I assume it must, then might it not be an idea for the installation manual to at least mention it?

Nick Langley, writing in Computer Weekly this week has an article headed "Technical writing provides career path with creativity" in which he says "Technical writers take complicated technical information and present it in a way that is understandable to users..."

Not at Not-On...