If you can’t count it, it doesn’t count

Early in my career, I worked as a Statistical Analyst. I learned that you virtually live and die by your numbers. I learned that if you can present numbers to back up a discussion, you are a world ahead of those who can’t. So, once I moved into technology and I would hear someone present a case that a system was having problems, I would ask for the numbers or if I were the engineer in question, I would present numbers.

On the other hand, I was sometimes surprised that the numbers didn’t support what I was hearing from end users, which raised serious question marks in my mind about where problems really lay. At that point, deep analysis is necessary to reach the true root cause.

For IT:

While I am an advocate of producing metrics, it is key that IT departments not rely so heavily on the metrics that they forget to listen to the end users. From end users, you may get different messages:
·         The network is slow,
·         The system is slow,
·         My pc is slow,
·         Everything is slow

The reality is, the numbers will tell the true story. That is, IF there are numbers. Mature IT departments, with seasoned Service Management teams, metrics to demonstrate:

·         System availability
       o   Outages due to 3^rd party providers,
   o   Outages due to extenuating circumstances,
   o   Outages due to excessive system use,
       o   Outages due to human error,
       o   Mean time to recovery,
       o   Mean time between outages,
·         Percentage of systems nearing obsolescence,
·         Percentage of systems nearing end of warranty state,
·         Percentage of systems requiring patching exceptions,

For a team that hasn’t quite matured to the point of providing full-blown metrics yet, system availability, obsolescence state, warranty state and patching state are a great place to start.

If you’re on the IT side of the house, meet with the business on a regular basis. By doing this, you become someone they are confident is going to listen to their issues.  If you are on the business side of the company and your IT department isn’t providing these metrics, ask why.

For ERM:

When creating or maturing an ERM (Enterprise Risk Management Program), the same can be said for metrics. You live or die by your numbers. KRI’s (key risk indicators) assist a company’s management and/or Board of Directors become more risk aware. The BoD should not be the last group (behind the press) to know about risk issues. Technology risk items need to include those items listed above but also align and support the business risk attitude. Unfortunately, meaningful KRI’s are impossible to manage unless there is a sufficient amount of measurable data.

Keep in mind that KRI’s are ever-changing depending upon a company’s strategy and goals. This may be uncomfortable for those who are of the mind to build a system and then leave it alone – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fixit it”. Key Risk Indicators/factors do NOT work that way.

·         Link KRI’s to a company’s strategy,
       o   This allows for the development and awareness around key risk factors,
       o   Map KRI’s to strategic initiatives,

This allows management to become more proactive in preventing risk issues from occurring by observing metrics,
       o   B e careful that indicators actually provide a clear picture of the risk. Just having a metric doesn’t mean the metric has value.

·         KRI’s create a unique experience to evaluate and communicate the company’s strategy
   o   After reviewing the key risk indicators, it’s possible a company may rethink strategy based upon the risk associated.

Another advantage to an ERM is that focus becomes proactive versus trying to figure out after the fact why a project or system failed. That’s key to the success of a growing company. Think of it as an early warning system that can give you the advantage you need to avoid risk.

If you are having difficulties figuring out where to start, give CGSolutions of Jax a call. We can help you work through the inertia and get to the guts of a reliable and informative process.

A Mother’s Choice/A Woman’s Choice

I’ve got about 8 IT blog topics documented to write on but this topic seems to be in the news a lot lately and near and dear to my heart. Please keep in mind that this blog is simply based upon my decisions and my hopes/dreams/my realizations of what works for me and my family.

The debate regarding what a woman’s role “should” be and “can” be has been around since I became a mother for the first time in 1982. At 21, I was a fulltime student and a fulltime Intake Specialist at a social agency servicing the blind. The decision to continue working was a financial one. When I had my second daughter in 1987, the decision to continue working was again financial, I was a single parent with two small children.  By that time, I had left the social agency for career growth and to be closer to home. I wanted to spend less time commuting and more time with my daughters.

I was fortunate in that I had a close-knit family and I was able to drop the girls off at my parents’ home before leaving for the office. They rode the school bus to and from my parents’ home. I felt like I had a checklist of items that I needed to have in order to insure my daughters’’ wellbeing.  They were with people who cared about their wellbeing, check. I was still available and engaged, check. My job as an Analyst afforded me the opportunity to work 40 – 45 hours a week and have weekends off. I was able to be a Brownie Troop leader, Sunday school teacher, an advocate for strong curriculum at school board meetings and an attentive mother.

Fast forward six years. I was in IT management for a national law firm (eventually they become international). I worked 50 – 55 hours per week. I was still active and engaged in the girls’ lives but I was also travelling for work at times. As my role increased, my father and I sat down and had a talk. He was proud of what I was accomplishing in my career and wanted to assure me that he and my mother would fill in where needed. My daughters were becoming used to running by the office and enjoyed opportunities such as Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. I made sure I was home at a reasonable time and turned on my pc when needed to work. The downside was the year I was on the road for over six months. I was gone during the week and home on weekends. Luckily by the time the project was over, the girls had only had two meltdowns. I dealt with the meltdowns by taking the girls onsite with me for a few sites. What I learned was that the three of us had an amazing connection and I needed to insure there were no more long projects.

The girls learned to send messages on my blackberry for me if I was in the middle of cooking or working with puppeteers at the Church building. They learned what made a good datacenter. They occasionally slept on the sofa in my office while I worked an issue. None of this impaired them as people.

Later when I worked for a large telecommunications company, one of my daughters napped during an all-nighter anti-virus configuration issue. The girls learned to be flexible. They learned that the hours at the office were what paid for the annual family vacation, cars and savings. I learned their thresholds for my time and attention. They survived a three month project when I worked 80-90 hours per week by a lot of phone calls and notes left on the bulletin board. The one rule I insisted on with my employer was that I would take every Sunday off. The girls and I made the most of our Sundays. They were older and better able to adjust; I was smarter about how I managed our time together and apart.

Fast forward to what seems like another lifetime. My daughters were off to college and a career. I had met my husband and a marriage a few years down the road I was the parent of twin sons. As Operations Infrastructure Director of a growing environment, I was focusing on stabilizing the environment. My husband, never having been a parent before, was relishing his new role. I was relishing having sons for the first time but was also basking in a more secure, stable and available work environment that my team had built. I was torn between priorities but knew I was making the right decisions for my family. My husband’s support was priceless. We were lucky enough to have a niece living with us who needed a part time job. We coordinated her hours so she could nanny and still be a full-time college student. They boys needs were met.

While there were times when I would have an all-night issue with hourly calls and then the next night have a baby that couldn’t sleep, they were not so frequent that they became a problem. More of a problem was the level of increasing stress at the office.  At some point, every professional has to weigh how much stress and its impact on their personal life is too much.

Fast forward a year and a half later. I’m the President of my own company. My sons are in Pre-Junior Kindergarten and excelling. My company is growing and becoming more demanding. I am basically living the dream I never knew I had. My husband and I work as a team with each of us doing what is necessary at any given time. We’ve pushed aside tradition roles and we work from our strengths. Do I feel guilt when I am away from my sons? No I don’t. They are with people who care about them and will help them become better people. They understand that work is necessary to buy “stuff”. We have more time together and its quality time. I don’t want them to sleep on my office sofa while I’m pulling an all-nighter, but it’s possible.

I’m not baking a lot of brownies or cookies these days but I still make a mean green eggs and ham upon request. We have art time as long as I don’t have a deadline but they understand what deadlines are, and how that means mommy has to focus or they have to stay in extended care.

My goal is to raise independent, self-starter citizens who have a strong work ethic and want to make the world a better place. I want them to understand self-control and self-discipline. Most importantly, I want them to know they are loved. I know I was successful with my daughters. I am confident my husband and I will do that for our sons. For my family, for myself, ultimately, the choices have worked.