The Burden of planning
Hi and سلام to All
Or rather, why there should be a Planning Phase in the project plan?
From all the staff at whatiknow.net a great Eid Muburak to all our Islamic readers and greetings to all others.
I have been asked to blog about the requirement for planning in IT, that is; what is planning? what does it do? and why should I do it? The reason for this topic is extremely funny (to me that is) but not to my fearless project manager friend who eats, breathes and sleeps according to PMBOK. Yes, I would like to call him 'grasshopper'. His story goes along the line of (from the horse's mouth so to say);
I am engaged at a client who wanted some documentation done, simple stuff. Operational processes and procedures, you know what I mean? How difficult is it to run a project for and to deliver documentation?
At this stage, I nearly drowned on the sip of tea I had taken. Ha, a project that has the deliverable 'documentation' hidden somewhere in it's Charter and Scope is more of a nightmare than say meeting your bank manager in the unemployment queue. So, how is documentation related to planning? Well, put it this way, remember the carpenter/dress making saying; 'Measure twice, cut once'?
Planning allows you to do this. Measure what is expected and plan the delivery.
Now, the client has a Quality Management System (QMS) in place (ISO 9002) which stipulates certain requirements for documentation, how it is created, stored, distributed and communicated. Yes, the company actually has a 'template' for an operational process and procedure that was signed off by the QMS board. So? What's the problem? Nothing if you are the client, aches and pains if you are my friend!
My friend then went on to tell me that his company had been given the work to "Compile, Approve and Implement" the processess and procedures and you guessed it, the sales person did not even ask the subject matter expert for expected time frames. After all, you can write a process in say 3 days, 10 processess equals 30 days less 5 as you will not have to do all from scratch. So, total man-days is 25 (including discount). And the deliverables? Draft, Approve and Implement 10 business processes and procedures (process and procedure seen as 1 document).
Simple? Yes. Understandable? Yes. Doable? Yes!
The question is, will it meet the client's expectations? No. Why? The client's QMS requires all documents to be reviewed by relevant internal parties and to follow a change management process. One of the requirements of the change management process is the 'Reason to create and/or modify the document' and this is where the tremors started, went to 9.5 on the Richter Scale and ended up with a Tsunami with the different departments at the client getting along like a house on fire, No survivors!
Lets see, my friend has been there for 4 months now, he is running the project at a loss and his company can not withdraw due to contractual obligations. I estimate that they will be at the client for another 3 months.
So, what will planning have told us?
- That there was a QMS in place and what was required.
- The process to follow to create, modify or delete a document.
- Certain default document requirements as in, Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?
- Identified all relevant parties and departments.
- Confirmed the template.
- Confirmed the content.
- Confirmed the 'Implementation' process.
- Confirmed that the client did all processes and procedures following Business Process Management principles.
- Allowed my friend to motivate why 3 days per document was not sufficient and to request a 'Change of Scope'. That is, to manage the project by Scope Change
.
So, what would the planning phase have included?
- Meet with the client, Subject Matter Expert NOT Salesperson.
- Identify documents to be delivered with the client (their buy-in and agreement).
- Understand client's methodology and requirements (QMS and DMS).
- Agree on the content of the documents (what has to be in, their buy-in and agreement).
- Roles and Responsibilities (you can not have the QMS board meet to agree on a document).
- Get the client to understand why the project is bigger than what was specified.
- Identify key role players.
- Schedule the meetings in advance.
- Agree on the deliverable template (Word, Excel, Visio, Open Office etc).
- Know the dynamics of the client's site. Who sits higher in the tree and who may prevent you from getting paid.
Taking this into account, what do you charge the client? I believe that all work done at a client for the client is chargable, maybe at a lessor rate as no intellectual property should be required. Shjould it be free? No, as the client may see this as a business process management exercise and delay the start of the project resulting in a delay to your payment.
What are your thoughts, next up, planning for technology roleout.
Is there ethics in business?
Hi and سلام to All
To all Islamic readers, Happy Ramadan!
Thanks to all who have asked me to post other subjects and have enjoyed the posts?
I have a question for the people out there; what is the difference between and Ethics and Morals? Look further down for the answer. 
This subject is something close to my heart as I have two different opinions on the subject.
If you look at the economic climate today and the amount of people who have been retrenched you could say that there is not. Why do I say this? Easy, it was caused by the hunt for more money and higher profits which would result in more money in the person's pockets. So, the rich got richer, the poor become poorer and the middle income lost a lot.
On the other hand, if you look at companies that have a social responsibility programme, such as Vodafone which made the decision not to install cellular masts in certain areas and is in the process of making a decision on whether it will remove all mats from major motorways to prevent people from talking and driving at the same time. Or the case of BHP Billiton who chose to close a very profitable mine as there was a chance of loss of life.
When I talk to people about ethics, I have always told them that in my opinion. When you live at home, you get and learn your ethics and morals from your parents, when you reach your teens; you get it from your friends and from your parents. However, when you leave home and you go to work, this changes. You, if you choose to, now get your business ethics from your management. Why? To further your career.
Taking all of this into account and from experience, the ethics of the business is determined by the appetite for risk that management have. If management is willing to discuss and act on the requirement for Risk Management and Corporate Governance, you will find that the company has a high level of ethics However; if management is not bothered you will find that the company has low or no ethics. You can also see it in the way that the company deals with its staff, do they treat them well or are they just paid slaves? Does the company put social responsibilities before profits or put profits before anything else?
This brings the question of how do you improve profits? Many financial people will give you a formula on what it is and how it is made but most seem to miss out on the 'Human' factor. To increase profits, you must lower your costs or improve the efficiency of your work force. One way of lowering your costs is to automate the processes or to simply retrench some employees and get the remaining staff to work harder. This is what I call the cost of service, service in this instant could be a physical object, a call centre or customer support. When a company starts losing profits what is their first reaction? Yes you have it! Retrench, Retrench, Retrench. Look at what the major banks have done, they caused the current financial problem and their first action was to retrench. They do NOT retrench management; they did retrench the normal employee. On the other hand, some companies have, when faced with a loss of profits have chosen to keep the staff and cuts the salary and perks of management as management should have seen it coming over the horizon.
The European Union and especially the French have started to look at limiting the salary and perks of senior management. Why? They identified the fact that a company loses its ethics when management have the opportunity to increase their salary and perks. I hear the UK is about to do the same. Will it work? I believe so! Do you?
In summary I believe that there is ethics in business but that it is shown in few companies as the majority of companies are after the profits and the ability of management to improve their salary and perks. The companies that want profits but are will to limit their expectation based on their social responsibilities prove that there is ethics but unfortunately, these are few and far between.
Will governments be able to regulate and enforce social responsibility in companies? Only time will tell. I will not hold my breath and neither should you.
An ethical person is like a married man who knows he should not cheat on his wife. A moral man will not. I got it from NCIS which is a great show. Do you agree with the statement?
Cheers and We Aleichem As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
1. The primary function of a supplier,
2. The primary function of a consultant,
3. The differences between client and supplier,
4. The differences between supplier and consultant,
5. The differences between client and consultant,
6. Ethics as a consultant,
7. Ethics as an employee and
8. Is there ethics in business.
Examples of Ethics as an Employee
Hi and سلام to All
In this post, the use of the male ‘him/he‘ is used for easy reading and can be replaced by ‘her/she‘ depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
I have been asked by reader to give examples of situations I have been in that have or may have impacted upon my ethics.
I must comment here that not all of you will have experienced all of them but I am sure you have experienced at least one.
The first example goes back to my time in the military where I was a corporal; I was in charge of a platoon and was responsible for their health and well being as well as their discipline. During an inspection by the commanding officer, he noted that the one toilet bowl was a bit 'grey'. I checked it and the bowl was stained but not dirty, so, the toilet bowl would never be 'white'. I informed him about this to which our Lieutenant took exception to. After the inspection was over, the commanding officer said that it was good and to continue. The Lieutenant on the other hand, must have thought it had cost him his name 'good' versus 'excellent'. He told me to punish the platoon by taking them for a forced march (20 Kms) and to drill them for at least 2 hours after the march. I disagreed with him and told him so, I even refused to do it and ended up in front of the commanding officer who stated; 'Ferreiro you are an un-commissioned officer who will take orders from officers and carry them out EVEN if you do not agree with them.' I again refused to do it and asked for a transfer to another unit (32 Battalion) which was approved. I left the unit 3 days later. I actually saw the Lieutenant a few years later to his surprise when I was a sergeant, he lost this time as we were working with mature soldiers aged 25 and up which you treat differently to soldiers who are 16 thru 18 years. He tried the same stunt, telling his platoon sergeant to punish the platoon, again the sergeant refused and took it to the Regimental Sergeant Major who agreed with him, the end result is that the officer ended up doing a lot of extra duties to teach him about leadership. I do not believe to this day that he did.
The second example skips a few years ahead when I worked for a supplier. I was responsible for a security tool called ESM from Axent Technologies (who were later bought by Symantec). We were tasked by the client to perform a comparison test between 3 products which measured baseline security compliance to a standard, these being; Axent, Computer Associates and Digital. In the review following a testing methodology, it was found that the CA product was not up to scratch and may meet 30% of the client’s requirement. The Axent and Digital products were very much the same mainly due them both being created by Raxco which developed tools for VAX VMS. Both products would meet at least 90% of the client’s requirement. The sales person who was responsible for the account, told me to bias the report to show that the Axent product was better. In doing so, he could make the sale. I disagreed and he went to the MD who also told me to do it. Again I refused and told them I would give them the report and that they could change it to suit their requirements. Needless to say, the client had actually expected me to bias the report and when they received the report were pleasantly surprised that it was not. The MD had chosen not to change the report as his name would have had to be put on the report. We got the sale as the opposition were tasked to do the same investigation and they biased their reports. We received other work from the client and the company made money. I resigned from the company and cited the experience as one of the reasons. The MD promised me that it would not occur again, but once bitten twice shy.
The third example skips a few years ahead to when I was a manager at a big company. The company made a great deal of money so I thought they would have a feeling of better responsibility for compliance. In this instance, I found that some people are motivated only by money and not what is ‘right’. ‘Right’ in this sense being the fact that you do not contravene laws such as Intellectual Property and Copyright or report back to management about instances that are cannot be proved. In this case, I was told not to answer a vendor’s request for licensing information on their product. Along the same lines, I was told not to tell management about a report that I compiled showing the serious lack of licence management and the associated cost to ensure licence compliance. I was also told by management that I was to do an investigation into an employee to prove that they had done ‘something’ wrong. After doing all the checks and verifying the balances, it actually identified that the manager’s ‘friend’ had planted the evidence against the employee. When I reported this with facts and figures, the manager told me that I must have been wrong and that his ‘friend’ would not do anything of the sort even thought the evidence showed differently. I was moved to another division so had nothing else to do with the manager again other than to audit his operations and raise comments and associated risks. I have since left the company after understanding that even in a large company ‘ethics’ is based on how much money ends up in your back pocket. I have since heard that the company is under investigation by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and that they face legal litigation both civil and criminal.
The last comes from a project that I was involved in where the client was informed that the contractors knew what they required and to accept the deliverables. When prompted by the lead consultant and myself about best practices and frameworks such as 27001, eTOM, COBIT and TOGAF we were told to keep quiet and do the work which we were tasked to deliver. When asked to design a solution which following all practices requires the client’s input, we were told to ‘just deliver’ and not to trust the client. Again, this is against all principles of client engagements for each of the multi-nationals involved in the project with perhaps one not even having one. The lead consultant was removed from the project for I quote ‘bringing the consortium into disrepute’. In a later meeting, I was informed that the solution must meet the client’s requirements of a 360 degree Information Security view. When I prompted the consortium of what was required to deliver this, I was told by the multi-national that this could be discussed and that they would ‘HACK’ their product to deliver a 360 degree view even though it was not able to do it. I have since left the project.
There are many other examples that I could use but I believe that highlight what I have been saying in my posts.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
Ethics as an employee
Hi and سلام to All
‘In this post, the use of the male ‘him/he‘ is used for easy reading and can be replaced by ‘her/she‘ depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
The subject I am posting today is what I have experienced in my careers in the Military and into IT then management and finally GRC.
As all of you know, when you work for a company, you get to know many people both in your department and outside. You can also see how they react to circumstances whether good or bad and how they handle themselves under stress and finally what their values in life are.
If we look at people who work in IT, the majority of us want stability and routine and to be in the know of what will be happening in the company. When I was in the Military, our primary focus was to look after our 'buddies' and ourselves and to follow 'reasonable' orders. How you differentiated them I still don't know, but we survived, some didn't but most did. The amazing thing was, we had things we would do and things we would not. We learnt very quickly to treat others right and to learn from our mistakes, why? One of your buddies could die if you did not. I believe that the Military has not changed in the past 20 years or so. You can see what the soldiers of all nations are saying, maybe not through their words, but through their deeds. And no, I do not mean the soldiers and officers who abuse their positions of trust with civilians and prisoners alike.
When we look at life out of the military, you see different scenarios in different professions. Take a lwayer for instance, he is legally bound to protect his client whether he is guilty or not. If the lawyer knows his client is guilty of the crime, the lawyer must go to reasonable means to get his client found not guilty/the case thrown out of court or remove himself from the trial.
Now look at directors of companies, their 'only' contract with the company they work for/with is to increase revenue and/or profitability. Why do I say this? They have a legal obligation to make sure that the company performs, failure to do this could result in them being prosecuted either criminally or civil (a great motivator if not the only). Another motivation is the nice 'bonus' they get at the end of the year based on the performance of the company. Look at the current Credit crisis and you should see what I mean. Watch the documentary 'The-greed-game' from www.freedocumetaries.org (http://www.freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=275) to see how this could happen.
As mentioned previously, a person gets their ethics from more than one place, the foundation is laid by our parents and as we go through life, we either add to or remove from it depending on the situation. One of the entities that we learn 'business' ethics from is management in the company you work for. Why? Simple, they are the people who pay you and give you your bonus and/or can hire/fire you. So, everything you do at work should be focussed on what management want you to do, or rather, what the company requires. Failure to do this WILL have an impact on your family, finances, career and personal outlook on life.
So, where does the ethics come in, you work for a company as an employee or contractor/consultant and are bound by the company's rules and regulations. This is both good and bad, good because you are earning money to support your family, bad because you are being sucked into the corporate (company's) culture and everything that goes with it. You may be called upon to do a task that you do not agree with or don't like. What do you not like about the task? Is it personal or professional or both? If it is personal, is it against your principles, ethics or religion? If professional, is it against your ethics or 'professionalism'. As previously mentioned, ethics is relevant to the position you are in and the situation you find youself in. What are your options? Do the task and shrug it off (Nuremberg comes to mind), or tell management that you would prefer not to do the task for reasons a,b,c?
Having been in this situation many times in the past and I am sure to be there in the future, it is difficult to make the decision. As a consultant, the choice is easier, as an employee NOT. As a soldier it was easy as well, we were clothed and fed and the worst that could happen is to be court martialled and go to military jail. Not so in the civilian job market, failure to do the task could impact on your (amongst others);
- Name,
- Family,
- Job status,
- Future earning potential and
- Career progression.
You could move from been employed to unemployed quite quickly especially if you annoy your management by saying you will not.
There is a way out of this, unless the task is against your religion. Mainly, make management aware of your concerns (in writing) and request that they agree in writing. This takes you out of the hot seat and puts them in it. As a manager, they need to then either confirm your concerns and tell you to continue or taking into account you concerns, tell you to continue. Remember, no one may tell you to do something that is illegal under the laws of the land, not even the police. So, with this piece of paper in hand, you do the task. I do not believe that you have lost or forgotten your ethics but rather have placed the ethical decision on the person who pays your salary and allows you to eat every day and have proof of their decision.
In my humble opinion, as an employee, you can keep your ethics and your job by transferring the ethical decision to a higher authority. Believe me, management starts thinking when they are presented with the concerns of their staff about a task.
REMEMBER: A religious decision is another thing that is personal to yourself and NOT management, they employed you (maybe knowing your religion) but it was not the deciding factor (or was it?). How you handle this, I don't know and can not give you any advice other than to think it through and find someone to talk to who has been in the same situation or has helped others make a decision along the same lines.
Another decision you will need to make; knowing the ethics of the company you work with/for. Are you willing to continue working for them or to seek alternative employment. The decision does, as always, rest with you and your family.
Just a parting note, a few weeks ago, my daughter asked me why I was not going to work everyday like I used to (which has impacted my family to the extent that I will again have to leave my home country [ZA] and seek employment overseas), I asked her 'how can I teach you about ethics if I did not live them?'. Even at 7.5 years, she said I could not.
My next post will be about 'Is there ethics in business?'
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
Ethics as a consultant
Hi and سلام to All
'In this post, the use of the male 'him/he' is used for easy reading and can be replaced by 'her/she' depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
If you have read my previous posts you would have (hopefully) seen a trend of the need for ethical professional behaviour in consultants. The reason for this is that consultants only have their 'name' to market their services. Not like a 'resource' (refer to previous post), that can hide behind the name of the company they work for. For example; You contract a company (lets say 'X') to run your IT infrastructure, the company has said all the right words and make themselves shine in the area of service delivery. When they start running your infrastructure you notice that something has gone wrong or is faulty resulting in a problem for your company. What do you do? Call in the account manager. You tell him to sort the problem out and you use the term; 'Company X really messed up' when anyone asks you about Company X or in general discussions.
Now take the same scenario for a 'consultant' (lets say 'Y'), you have contracted him to do a job based on your requirements, understanding and expectations for the deliverable. Now, being a good customer, you have adopted the principles of 'Project Management' and have project planned the deliverables (SCOPE and CHARTER). The project is hopefully a 'fixed cost' project and NOT 'Time and Material'! Yes, there is a difference. The consultant starts working on the deliverable and for some or other reason is sidetracked by some other work either at your or another company. The end result is that the project is not delivered on time OR the deliverable does not meet your expectations. The consultant tells you that the deliverables are not what is expected due to 'unforseen' circumstances. Now, when you are asked about the work that was done, what do you say? 'Y does not know what he is doing, he does not deliver what was expected'. Is this true? Look what has happened in your company in the past and you will see that it is, EVEN if the consultant is contracted through a third party.
So, what do I say about the ethical behaviour of the consultant? Remember, the consultant must make money in order to eat and drive that smart car of his. Taking into account that the consultant only has his name to get more work he has to do the honourable thing and 'not lie or tell untruths'. Take my word for it; this is difficult when an employee is making your life hell and preventing you from delivering what was agreed upon. Does the consultant make the concious decision to remove himself from the project due to 'non performance' or 'loss of name'? Yes or No? I say no, unless there is evidence of 'fraudulent activity' that could result in him going to jail in the event that he does not bring it to the authority's attention and meeting 'Baba' (been in this situation many times) or if management has alterior motives and they use him to build a fictitious (not real or true; imaginary or invented) case against another person. The consultant must tell the truth as he sees it or what he has observed. To do anything else is, in my humble opinion, unethical.
Hopefully, your company has demanded that the consultant has certification from international bodies, these bodies have a 'code of conduct'. While each one seems different, they are, in principle, not. He must give the client the best advice based on knowledge and expertise, this includes the naming of the person who has prevented him from doing his work. Why? It informs management that there is a person in the company that is not bothered with management's decision to employ the consultant. The end result is, in my experience, management's approval for identifying another problem and bringing it to their attention. The downside is that the person will always tell everyone that you did not do your work.
So, what does the consultant do in reality? He MUST determine how management think as they will determine whether he gets paid or not. His decision on what he tells management is based on the way they think. Trust me, this is not easy. He should also have a project closure/handover meeting with a report that indicates to management the responses he received from the employees. Why you ask? Easy, the report is not 'official' and can be used by management for whatever purpose.
Another one is; if the consultant must deliver a 'findings report' as part of the deliverables, he should (MUST?) indicate the facts as identified. The 'tone' of the report is however different and is based on the audience; Auditors want the truth (as it is), management want it to indicate what they are doing well and minimise what they are not doing although the consultant should put this in the report. The one is a basic cake, the other is a cake with icing sugar which makes it easier to swallow. By doing this, I believe that the consultant has acted 'ethically', failure to do this is an indication that the consultant is primarily concerned with getting paid and not 'rocking' the boat. This usually ends up with a report that has content (?) but is NOT applicable or is of no value to the customer.
The question I ask the consultant out there, does the product you deliver add to the client's knowledge or is it toilet paper/shelf ware? If it adds value, the job has been done ethically else? You decide!
Please, to all the people that are making comments, make sure that your email address is valid, I can not respond to you if the mail bounces with 'Account does not exist'.
Comments are as always, appreciated.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
The differences between client and consultant
Hi and Salam to All,
I sometimes get asked by people at conferences when I tell them that I'm a consultant what I do. Some usually pass the comment(s) 'Do as I say, not as I do', 'Give me the money' or the latest, 'do you go to a company, get the information, deliver a report with recommendations that will not work?'. Well, there is a sense of truth in all the comments and observations, Consultants bring to a company their knowledge and experience which has been 'gained' from numerous clients or from a knowledgebase (see wiki as an example). They also try to fit their knowledge to what they know about the client and what the client expects. The consultant also knows (or should) that every client is different even if they offer the same service to their customers.
The client on the other hand, knows (?) what his buisness is, mainly, making money. The main question is, the IT consultant usually only sees the IT management and staff and never the business. In an IT Risk Management consultation exercise, the consultant may meet business people but only related to the use of IT systems and solutions.
A business consultant on the other hand, usually sees the buisness andhardly ever IT unless it is for a new system that business has asked for a business person as the project manager. The Auditor on the other hand will meet with IT and business and (usually) has the ear of the Financial Director and the Board.
So, back to the comments the people made to me, The role of the consultant is based on what type of engagement it is; Business, Technical and/or Audit. Yes, a consultant can also be an auditor especially with regards to compliance to International Standards.
In my previous posts I mentioned the role of a professional consultant, where they had the best interest of the client at heart but would also like to make some money. I also mentioned the role of a client where they had to find a solution at the best possible price. Based on this, the consultant may require more time to get in-depth knowledge of the client, which is not usually accepted by the client as it costs money. The in-depth knowledge may be gained by interviews, questionnaires and/or Workshops after all, who knows the business better, the consultant or the client and how may the consultant make meaningful or valid implementable recommendations if there is no knowledge?
This is where the diffence is, the client must understand that in order for the consultant to deliver a meaningful document, they need to know the client (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) this could be solved in one workshop (the cheapest?) from a consultancy cost point of view or through multiple interviews (more expensive?).
These requirements could be resolved in the Project Scoping meeting which unfortunately only occurs after the client has accepted the initial cost based on their 'expectations'.
In essence, there should be no difference between an employee of the client and the consultant, they should both have the 'interest' of the company at heart (?) and understand the business. Unfortunately, in todays world, this is often not true as the requirement for 'profit' exceeds the requirement for 'governance' which certain individuals in a certain country across the waters showed the rest of the world and in my honest opinion started the global recession.
Comments are as always, appreciated.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
Fahad is a Dad!
Hi All,
It is now official, Fahad is officially a daddy, yep, he is about to enter the world of little sleep (once his wife is out of the hospital) and great financial burdens and to realise that the extra money he has at the end of the month will be spent on his son who will be growing in leaps and bounds.
To you dads out there, remember the toys you used to buy before your first child appeared on the block, it was great, all the spare money either went to your toys (flashing lights) or to romancing your loved one. You would agree with me, once you have a family, your toys went out the window and your childrens came in. But in total, having children I believe is a great thing in life (I just wish they had a volumn control).
From the readers and myself, may your entry into parenthood bring you much happeness and may the highs outnumber the lows.
Remember from what I have experienced, the children we bring into this life is what makes all the hassles at work seem worthwhile.
Congrats to you and your wife.
Gavin
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Hi and Salam to All,
Those that have read my blogs have possibly picked up the fact that I am biased towards business and not IT. This is not true, I have worked in IT for the past 23 years plus or minus and was a techie once. Some of my friends will say that I am still a techie. But being a techie seems to have bubblegum stuck to it. You know, when you walk along the pavement and step on some gum, it stretches and pulls you back and is difficult to get out or off. As anyone who has had gum in their hair, yep, you have to cut it out. having no hair to talk of, I do not have this problem 
. I have been trying to get out of the techie business but always seem to be pulled back.
I have been working with a friend who is more into Governance especially IT and WOW, he really knows his stuff.
Marius, is older than me and has much more experience in IT and IT Governance than I have and possibly will ever have. He is a mountain of knowledge with regards to certain standards and guidelines around IT Governance such as ITIL or ISO 20000, CoBIT and BS25999. His knowledgemet of System Development Lifecycles (SDLC) using TOGAF (http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/), Business Process Management and Best Development Practices using their associated standards and guidelines is amazing.
Look at his website www.govware.co.uk, but please note that it is a temporary site. We are working on a better one.
With Fahad's permission, I will be asking Marius to post some stuff that will add value to your and my knowledge and understanding in all things nice, IT that is.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you travel safely.
Gavin
The differences between supplier and consultant
Hi and Salam to All,
Thanks for the comments we have received so far, but still no questions?
Please, if you send me comments, please make sure that your email address is correct. Moh, this is for you.
There has always been a contradiction between what a person's primary focus should be when they work for a supplier, I like to use the term 'Oxymoran' which is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms like 'Military Intelligence' or 'Honest Politician' and my latest 'Common Sense'.
Remember the previous posts, the supplier is out there to make money, the same holds true for the consultant and this is where the 'issues' between the 'sales person' and
the 'consultant' start raising their heads. The consultant (and not a resource) has to meet the 'Ethical' requirements laid down by the certification authorities that he holds or for his personal ethics. The sales person is chasing a target, he meets it, he makes a great deal of money. This is the reason why many technical people can not see eye to eye with sales people. Why do you ask? Well lets look at it from this perspective;
The client wants a network device that can be a firewall, IPS, IDS, Mail content scanner and proxy server as the client wants a one box solution. Now the sales person looks at it and says, 'Yes, we have just the thing for you, it is the blister X99 and it does all of those.'' The techie on the other hand knows for a fact that the Blister X99's current solution only does firewall and IPS. The new release will include the IDS and Proxy but this will be released in about 9-12 months time, the following release will include the Mail content scanner. What does he do? If he tells the client the facts he will be disciplined at his office by management and the sales person. If he does not tell the client, he will have to get the same result as what was promised (client's expectation) from a device that can not deliver.
This is now an ethical question and one I have faced many times and I believe a great deal of you out there have faced as well. The way I overcame it was to deliver brochures to the client as well as relevant websites and made sure they knew that they had to go and look. The result of this is that I never had to get a product (device or software/application) to deliver what it did not support at that time.What did this do for me, a few clients started to 'Trust' me and ask me for my opinion not only on our products but on products from other suppliers as well.
Did I prevent the company I worked for from making money and a juicy profit? No, the clients started telling management that they did not appreciate certain sales people's ability to stretch the truth. The company received a great deal of business from the customer and others due to their ethical approach.
Was I acting as a 'consultant' or a 'resource'? Yep, 'Consultant' it even said so on my business card, not only that, it said 'Senior' as well. Did I make any money out of the deals I worked on with the sales person, no, techies do not get commission. Something I dislike with a passion and one of the reasons why I tell sales people to get their facts right. Remember the book; 'How to make friends and influence people', I have never read it but it is available somewhere on this planet.
Why have I rambled on about this? Remember, the supplier will sell you the 'pie in the sky' and expect the resource or consultant to deliver it.
One thing you should always remember, as an employee, you have to adhere to the policies of the company and will have to do many things you disagree with or find unethical. Just remember, you and your family have to eat. As a resource, this is easy, just do your job. As a consultant, the line is thin and treacherous (guilty of or involving betrayal or deception)
And most of all: 'TRUST' is a valuable thing to have and so is 'PRINCIPLES and VALUES' however, these do not put money in your bank or food on your table. Read more in the next edition; 'The differences between client and consultant'.
Comments are as always, appreciated.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
The differences between client and supplier
Hi and Salam to All,
Thanks for the comments we have received so far, but still no questions?
When you look at what a person does (whether male or female) in their professional career and how they act or react n their private lives, are you able to see whether they are a client or a supplier?
I think you can very easily. How many employees do you know who can afford to buy expensive cars and remain out of debt (yes, the bringer of all evils). My experience has shown me that as an employee of a company (who receives services from a supplier whether it is consulting or technology) especially in the IT department always has to understand why the company that pays their salary (and complains about a good increase) will pay a supplier an amount of money to deliver a report or something that the employee has been trying to do in the past. The company then expects the employee to verify the 'findings' or approve the 'something'. All this is part of his job description.
So lets see from the employee's side;
- I have to make myself available to the supplier to answer questions
- I have to explain everything I do amd how I do it to the supplier
- I have to manage the interaction between the supplier and my colleagues
- I have to perform my existing operational duties (if any)
- I earn X a month, this works to X a day (for arguments sake, lets say, $4000 per month or $200 a day, alright I am not very well paid)
- I have to verify what they write
- I have to confirm and approve what they have done
- They will get paid when I tell my management that what they have delivered is correct or as expected (Dangerous, who will management side with when the supplier says the person is being to strict or expecting too much?)
Now lets see it from the supplier's side;
To see it from a supplier's side, you need to know how these company's work. Everything is on a 'sales target' The sales people have a target to make (big money), if they make the target, they earn big, some companies give their sales people up to 20%, others as low as 2% of the sales depending on their employment contract. All people working in a supplier must generate or save money including HR and finances, if you do not make money or save money why work there? Remember this for the resources that will be assigned to do the work, they have to cover their costs which is normally about 2.5 times their salary to earn a 25% profit from them.
- I have to meet a sales targets based on my or rather my management's earlier expectations (we talk millions here)
- I need a client that will TRUST me to deliver what is expected
- I need a team that will deliver (?) what is expected by the client
- I need to do the work with as much profit as possible to make my target
- I need to know the client well enough to know what they will settle for (after all, everything is negotiable?) If we sell them A, B and C. Will they settle for A, half of B, no C but a nothing D that is part of C
- Sell him what he wants and not what he requires. (Sell him a Hummer 1 when a NISSAN 4x4 will do)
But wait, there is more as a supplier;
- We will need the client's resources to assist us at their cost
- We will need to make sure that the client's resources are able to deliver what is expected
- We should be able to note additional costs and charges based on what we see and hear during the engagement (manage the project by change requests?)
- We must make sure that the client's resources 'trust' the company's
- We must make sure that the client gets more than they can handle (quantity and not quality)
- We must make sure we deliver on SCOPE and question the expectations or is it the other way around?
So there we have it, where did I get this from you ask? Personal experience and from talking to friends who are 'sales people'.
Now, lets see why the client asked the supplier to do the work.
- I have a requirement that my staff can not deliver
- I have a requirement that I need external expertise for
- I have money in my allocated budget that I must spend before I lose it (yes, this is a financial burden of management, if you ask for it, you must to an extent, spend it but don't waste it)
- I need to show management that we are doing something about it (Panic Attack - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_attack)
So, the client has made the decision on what has to be done or how it must be done (refer to previous post).
The question is, should the client be doing the work in-house and building up their employees knowledge, understanding and expertise which should improve how they work in the future or make use of a supplier who will cost money, possibly deliver what is expected, use my resources (which I did not budget for) and possibly not increase the knowledge, understanding and expertise of my staff.
Unfortunately, the answer is simple to the extreme.
- My staff have to deliver on their daily tasks which is critical to the company
- I am unable to employ more staff
- Using a supplier will NOT (?) impact on the tasks
- When using a supplier, I have someone I can kick if it does not work
Is there another way and what does it do? Yes and I believe will hold true for new implementations and possibly upgrades,
- Run the work as a project, clear start, clear end date - Time is money
- Have a documented scope of work and work breakdown structure (WBS) - Know what has to be done, use a consultant if required
- Get the supplier to deliver technically competant people who will replace the staff while they do the project - frees the staff to do the new work and go on training if required
- Get the staff to VET (check to see if they are good enough) the resource - ensures that the staff know who is doing their work and that they are doing it well if not better
- Get the supplier to allocate a 'Subject Matter Expert' to the project as a consultant - all knowledge is now kept in house
- Get the supplier to allocate a 'Project Manager' to the project as the person - all project management is outside the chain of command
- Make sure that everything is documented, YES, make sure that it is on the project plan and that the PM knows that he will not be paid for the final delivery unless these requirments are met
The problem with this is; are the people who work for the client able to do the work? There is a difference between a person's ability (possession of the means or skill to do something. Skill or talent. ) to perform a task and their capacity (the ability or power to do something) to perform the task. The question is, who is more competent (having the necessary ability or knowledge to do something successfully) and what is the least risk to the company.
After all, business is about risk, whether you accept it or whether you don't. From a supplier's and client's perspective.
I always like to use the term 'Nashua', a photocopy brand in South Africa that uses the phrase; 'Nashua, saving you time, saving you money, putting you first'
Comments are as always, appreciated.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
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