Unraveling the CAB

By Patrick Gray
Summary
A Change Advisory Board tends to get overcomplicated when it's implemented at many organizations. Here's how to avoid that.
A Change Advisory Board (CAB) is another good idea that tends to get overcomplicated when it's implemented at many organizations.
At its core, the CAB exists to provide a balanced analysis of any changes to a company's systems and processes and to provide a final "ruling" on whether a proposed change moves forward or is shelved. The CAB concept is promoted by some of the popular IT management methodologies, which overlay the conceptually simple concept with layers of formalities and a veneer of unnecessary complexity.
Scope changes are generally the only way to control costs on an IT project, with seemingly minor changes made by junior analysts often carrying six-figure price tags. With this fact in mind, the CAB is your best defense against these changes dragging your projects deep into the red.
With this objective in mind, consider the following two keys to implementing an effective CAB.
Representation and transparency are key
If a CAB is seen as primarily an IT function, it will rapidly become a bureaucracy to be avoided, sabotaged and dodged.
In all but the most mundane infrastructure projects, most of your IT projects will be done to impact your company's business. As such, many of the change requests will be business-related and impact finance, marketing, sales and operations and often are fundamentally business decisions of how to allocate scarce resources rather than purely technical decisions. Therefore, your CAB must have representation from each business unit that is respected and empowered to make decisions.
IT gets the same vote as other business units and, save for articulating part of the costs of each change and guiding the process, does not gain any additional power to influence the CAB.
With the right people on the CAB, an arbitrator is required for any stalemates that arise. Depending on whether your company is more operationally or financially oriented, this might be the COO or CFO or in some cases even the CEO. In any case, each person on the CAB has voting power and is at a high-enough level that the buck stops with them rather than their decision being subject to reevaluation and overriding by a superior. It should be clear who makes the decisions, and each item that comes before the CAB should be allocated a rapid time frame in which it will be evaluated.
At the end of the day, when change requests come to the CAB you want them to be decided quickly and the people and process behind the decision to be respected by the company, even if it is disagreed with.
Time is money
A CAB's value comes from two areas: respected and fair people and process, and timelines. If you have painstakingly recruited the right people, but your CAB takes four months to reach a decision, it will rapidly lose its value.
While some recommend quarterly CAB meetings, this is generally too long, especially if you are implementing large-scale projects like ERP or CRM systems. Monthly meetings of the CAB should be the baseline objective, and with some forethought, each can be short and effective. Send a summary of each change request, the facts around the issue, and any background in advance of the meeting, and actually CAB meetings can be about final fact finding, analysis, and decision-making rather than endless debates.
A good decision is often better than a great decision two months from now, so in the case where information is missing or the environment is unclear, document the assumptions that went into a decision and document any triggers that might cause the board to reevaluate the decision and move on. Major organizational projects can burn significant amounts of cash just waiting for a critical decision, so be sure to convey the very real cost of inaction.
With the right people, a transparent decision-making process, and a focus on making good decisions as rapidly as possible, the CAB can be a very valuable tool. Rather than an administrative hurdle, it becomes a tool for ensuring money is spent effectively, changes are evaluated in light of the company's core business, and projects are able to move forward in the face of competing priorities rather than spinning their wheels (and burning cash) waiting for decisions.
For the CIO, an effective CAB shows his or her peers that the CIO understands that IT exists to facilitate the company's business and also demonstrates the value an effective IT organization provides to the larger company. Each member of the CAB will see IT efforts tied directly back to their business benefit and grow to understand that IT is about far more than servers and software.
Patrick Gray is the founder and president of Prevoyance Group, and author of "Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology". Prevoyance Group provides strategic IT consulting services to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies.

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Salary, not 'fun perks', attract IT talent

By Jamie Yap

Summary

A good pay package is still the best draw to attract and keep employees, note recruiters. However, tech firms say offering "fun perks" at work provides similar appeal.
Axer Goh, manager of contracting division at Robert Walters, highlighted to ZDNet Asia that the "ultimate factor" that motivates many job candidates is the money on offer. This is the first thing most potential employees would think of upon taking up a new role, she noted.
"I have yet to come across a candidate who is more interested to find out about non-monetary job perks than the pay package provided by a new employer," she said in her e-mail.
Annie Lim, manager of IT commerce at Robert Walters, added to Goh's observations, saying that as the job market in the technology sector continues to pick up, job seekers and employees are factoring higher salary increments in their decision-making.
Gavin Henshaw, head of Kelly IT Resources, a specialist division within recruitment firm Kelly Services, concurred that a competitive salary will always play an important part in an applicant's decision-making process.
He noted in his e-mail that non-monetary perks are usually considered by people as "luxuries and non-essential" and will not be able to help retain staff.
Goh, however, said additional perks do "help retain talent to a certain extent" as employees are less likely to be actively exploring external work opportunities if they are happy in their current workplace.
Companies dangle perks
Despite the recruiters' assertions that salary remains the top draw for most potential and existing employees, IT companies ZDNet Asia spoke to said that "fun perks" play an equally important role in attracting top talent.
Myriam Boublil, head of communications and public affairs at Google Southeast Asia, for one, said "people don't join or stay with a company for money only". It is with this in mind that Google is "committed to providing its employees with benefits that encourage work-life balance and make employees' time at work as enjoyable and productive as possible", she added.
Elaborating on the company's work philosophy, she noted that besides a "competitive compensation package, which comprises of salary, yearly bonuses, and equity grants", all Google offices, including Singapore, have game rooms with Nintendo Wii consoles and pool tables, massage chairs, and cafes offering free meals all day. All these features are included to ensure that "work is challenging yet fun", she said.
"Our people are our greatest assets and we will always look after them so they are able to keep creating, inventing, finding solutions and breaking boundaries," Boublil noted in an e-mail.
Google's employee-centric approach appears to have paid off. The search giant was ranked fourth in Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" this year.
Scott Morris, managing director at NetApp Asean, also emphasized that today's employees have "different priorities and an increasingly bigger pay packet can no longer ensure employee loyalty". Studies have shown that employees who are happy and have job satisfaction are productive, he added in his e-mail.
"Happy employees are more willing to ride through the tough times with the employer and have a greater sense of ownership. This, in turn, manifests itself in happy customers and partners, thus favorably contributing to our bottom line," Morris elaborated.
Ranked fifth in Fortune's list of top places to work for, data storage firm NetApp also has "simple practices [in its Singapore office] to make coming to work more fun" such as breakfast gatherings on Fridays, free espressos daily and fruits weekly, the executive noted.
Social gaming company Zynga also believes in providing incentives to employees to reward them for their work. Colleen McCreary, the firm's chief people officer, said Zynga is "proud to offers its employees [in San Francisco] great perks such as free weekday meals, haircuts, massages, and bringing their dogs to work."
"Offering fun perks is a way for Zynga to give back to our staff in special ways," she explained in an e-mail. "They work hard and we want to make sure they feel appreciated, rewarded and cared for."
Career progression also important
Beyond these fun perks though, Kelly IT Resources' Henshaw pointed out that other offerings such as training and career progression may be more beneficial to employees in the long run.
"A great working environment is a bonus, [but] it is of less importance if it is not matched with personal reward and benefit," he stated.
Morris concurred. He said that NetApp nurtures its people and provides opportunities for career progression and expansion within the company, which is why preference is given to internal candidates for new job offerings.
Boublil, too, stressed that "Google is all about learning and offers many training and career development programs and initiatives". For instance, its engineers are placed under a "20 percent time" program that allows them to work on independent projects which interests them yet does not fall under their usual job scope, she explained.

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How to engage employees in the workplace

What does it take for a company to become successful at engaging its employees?  Socialcast created this infographic to explore this very question.
In the formula that makes up an organization’s success, a key factor is employee engagement. Top-performing companies know this. Human Resources departments know this. However, studies show that there is still an overwhelming number of employees who are disengaged in the workplace. What are the factors contributing to this issue, and how can companies address this challenge to improve engagement and ultimately the bottom line?
(Click on the infographic below to learn more.)

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5 management tenets for every CIO

By Scott Lowe,


Summary

It's far easier to keep the people you have than it is to hire new ones. Here are five management tenets that are critically important to staffing success.
Topics


Finding and retaining good staff is extremely difficult, but it's even more difficult when employees are working under unfair conditions.

In this blog, I'll outline five management tenets that I believe are critically important to staffing success.

1. Recognize that people want to do well, so treat them well
In general, your IT staff doesn't come to work every morning with high hopes for achieving mediocrity or failure. People want to do a good job, want to contribute, and want to know that their efforts mean something. Make that your guiding principle in all your dealings with your staff.

Frankly, this can be really, really hard sometimes, particularly as you get stressed out and are dealing with something that might seem trivial. It's more than likely that, at some point in your management career, you'll look back and realize that you handled a particular employee action pretty poorly. When this happens, the affected person deserves an explanation and an apology.

This actually goes both ways, too. If you've treated your staff well, it's more than likely that they'll treat you well, and if they treat you unfairly at some point, they'll realize it and make it right.

I was in this exact situation a few weeks ago. One of my guys had a particularly bad day, and at the end of the day, a tense situation arose and he took it out on me. Now, the guy is awesome at his job and we generally have a great working relationship, but it obviously still bugged me. However, the next morning, he called me up, we had breakfast, and he apologized.

Of course, this just provides further proof that I have the best IT staff on the planet.

2. Understand that people (usually) fire themselves...do it fast
For clarification, I'm not talking about layoffs here. This topic is focused solely on the act of firing someone.

Even if you've made the best possible effort to recognize that people want to do well and you've infused this idea into all the conversations you have with your people, not everyone will be able to stay on board with the organization. It's up to you (and, of course, your team) to create an environment in which they want to operate. Unfortunately, when it comes to voting people off the island, that duty usually falls to you.

I've written before that it's important that people not be surprised that they're being erased from the org chart--at least when it's for performance or attitude reasons. Obviously, no matter how egregious the performance or attitude problems and no matter how many warnings have been provided, at that moment when you break the news, there will be surprise. However, after the shock subsides and the person is able to look back through the lens of time, I believe that, in hindsight, that surprise factor will lessen.

On this point, too, always use the probationary period as it was intended. Most organizations have a probationary period during which either the employer or the employee can opt out of the arrangement with or without cause. In many cases, this is done for fit reasons (in either direction) or if the employer discovers that the person is missing a key skill, although this should be caught during the interview. It's much easier to take this step during the probationary period than it is later on.

I will admit that I have fired someone during the probationary period due to fit, and I will admit, it was probably one of the best decisions I've made. Keeping someone around that can't fit or can't carry his or her weight is a drag on the whole group.

3. Give feedback, ask for feedback, and mean it
I'll go on the record as saying that I truly despise the annual performance review process. I find it close to useless for everyone except HR. People should know where they stand throughout the year, not at just a single point in time.

If something is going really well during the year, make sure the person knows it--better yet make sure the whole team knows it. When I get a note from someone on campus praising one of my staff, I usually forward it on to the whole IT staff.

If something needs improvement, improve it. Don't wait for performance review time. It's not fair to the organization, and it's not fair to the employee. The longer you let something go, the more opportunity there is for resentment to build among the staff about the situation, so address it sooner.

Also, make sure to be able to accept feedback from the staff from time to time, too. This is incredibly difficult sometimes, but it leads to a much better and much happier staff. If you tell your staff that you're willing to listen to feedback, actually, you know, listen to it. Like I said, it's tough, but I'm far from perfect and even make mistakes every now and then. I'm very fortunate that I have a staff that is more than willing to tell me when they think I've blown it, and, in most cases, they do so in a reasonable, respectful way.

Obviously, there are times that I disagree with their assessment, but we have a positive enough working relationship that, in most cases, they're willing to accept it. Just as often, if not more often, they "win", although that's really too strong a word.

4. Say "please' and "thank you"...the golden rule applies
My kids have gotten pretty good at the whole manners thing, but it astounds me at how often people forget to take these basic steps in the workplace. My staff works their butts off to do the work that has been assigned to them. As is the case with most IT staffs, we get more and more work to do and the staff count isn't exactly skyrocketing. When I ask them to do something, it's generally accompanied by a "please" and, upon completion, a "thank you".

5. Don't be a pushover... be fair, but firm
You might think that the advice in this article makes it look like I'm recommending that you be a pushover. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, when it comes to working with my staff, I simply believe that the people who work so hard to make me (seriously, I'd fail without the people I have working with me) and the organization successful deserve to be treated well, listened to, and respected. That said, I do expect results. After all, this is a job.

On that front, over the past few months, my staff and I have overhauled our project prioritization mechanisms in order to ensure that we have sustainable workloads that still meet the needs of the organization. I work with each staff person to assess project plans and determine time frames, and then we commit to those time frames and I expect completion.

That said, life always throws curveballs, so we maintain open lines of communication and, when necessary, adjust project time lines. Recently, we had a project due at the end of the month, but due to "scope creep" that was outside our control on another initiative, the project had to be delayed. Due to the critical nature of the "creeping" initiative, it was an easy decision to postpone the deliverable on the original project, but that decision was made in concert with the staff people on the projects to make sure that everyone understood why we were where we were and what we were going to do to ensure success on both projects. In this way, we dealt fairly with the situation (i.e. didn't punish my person because some other department had a problem) while instituting a new deadline, which, by the way, was met.

Summary
It's far easier to keep people you have than it is to hire new ones. Although I do believe in making sure that new blood and new ideas come into the organization, that can happen through other natural attrition, so make sure that you treat your people with fairness and respect. They will be more successful because of it, and you will be more successful because of it.

Scott Lowe has spent 15 years in the IT world and is currently the vice president and CIO for Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

source: TechRepublic

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