Top IT Trends in MANAGEMENT Drive Projects: Grad Shortage, Source of Inspiration, and Master Data Management
Continuing with MANAGEMENT trends in IT from CIO Insight’s Top IT Trends for 2008 , we now deal with graduate shortages, sources of innovation, and one of the most interesting and impactful trends toward Master Data Management:
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CIO Insight: IT grad shortage changes the face of IT- CIOs expect fewer young people to enter the IT profession and say half of those that graduate with IT and computer science degrees aren’t well prepared.
PM411: I’m not as tuned in to this “shortage” of talent. Should companies expect IT graduates to be prepared properly? I’m jaded by my MBA experience years ago where there was a huge lag in including technology innovations in the curriculum. Is this getting better? Are fewer younger people entering IT? Chime in.
CIO Insight: IT outsiders provide inspiration- innovative IT organizations look to consumers, youth and leading users for new ideas.
PM411: “New” is often found in other companies, industries and countries. Better to have a great research arm looking for these innovations as they occur and efficiently evaluate and apply them to your company.
CIO Insight: Master Data Management expands- data integration remains a top priority, with data quality one of its most enduring obstacles.
PM411: Data quality is probably the most important management challenge. The emphasis should be on how to harness the data and systems that are already out there to innovate the decision-making processes of a company.
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Are colleges providing computer science degrees that are useful? How important is data quality as a challenge?
My MANAGEMENT trend sum up of CIO Insight’s trends follows in my next post.
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Tags: 2008, CIO Insight, innovation, IT trends, management, master data management, PMO, processes, projectmanagement411, projects, strategy, technologyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Solutions and Trends Requiring Projects
6 opinions for Top IT Trends in MANAGEMENT Drive Projects: Grad Shortage, Source of Inspiration, and Master Data Management
ActiveEngine Sensei
Feb 8, 2008 at 8:05 am
Data quality is a huge issue, and many companies do not practice good data stewardship where they have group responsible for ensuring that there is one version of the truth.
Most departments feel that it is IT’s job to fix the data; that is, make the poorly structure databases work without involving any personnel other than IT. While it is IT’s job to implement the rules, it is up to the business units to develop and adhere to those rules.
Bob
Feb 8, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Sensei- this is a tough one in that I’ve seen systems poorly implemented, especially in manufacturing shop floor environments, because the data input chore is simply too heavy. What happens is a misuse of the system- putting in data every other manufacturing operation or hit or miss input because the “most important” thing is getting product out. The “culprit” is at least 2-3 headed: overly complex system, too heavy data input requirements, management that doesn’t enforce discipline. The original system should have been designed to be a workable one with heavy collaboration between IT and users. The tough issue is what to do if you are in a mess like I described: I say swallow hard, admit it isn’t working, and reimplement.
ActiveEngine Sensei
Feb 8, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Agree - you have to swallow the bitter pill, rip out what doesn’t work and make it right. If you are amongst the those who did not enforce discipline, you need to take your medicine and make it work.
Bob
Feb 9, 2008 at 10:49 am
Sensei- I know you have examples- can you share a couple like my manufacturing shop floor one? Thanks.
ActiveEngine Sensei
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I have seen many systems try to complete a “CRM-Lite” function, and not properply model the database between the sales / prospecting module and the revenue collection module. A complete nightmare as the modules DID NOT SHARE THE ACCOUNT SAME DATA! Yep, two structures, each completely disparate in design, separate sections of the database, no rules concerning using DBA names, etc. Deals were signed without knowing all the appropriate parties involved, a true mess. All because the database designers could talk to each other.
The re-design of the database was the easy part. The horrendous mess was reviewing all the data and assuring the correlations between parent, national and deal accounts were appropriate, then they all had to be re-keyed.
Data stewardship, where key department heads meet with the PMO and discuss how to get to and maintain one version of the truth, would have avoided this disaster.
Bob
Feb 11, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Sensei- the “horrendous mess” of getting all the bad data that resulted from this up to speed is the real problem here. Great example that reveals how bad systems can create data nightmares.
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