Achieving quality outcomes does not have to
involve all-nighters, last-minute rescue
missions and other similar heroics.
Everyone loves a superhero. After all, how can you not when you see Superman
appear out of nowhere and stop a bus full of little children from driving off the
cliff after the brakes fail. We often have a similar infatuation with superheroes
in IT. Everyone loves the technical superhero who comes in and rescues the
project that is about to drive off the cliff when the project scope or design
brakes fail. That hero syndrome of “I pulled an all-nighter to get it back on
track” is, unfortunately, rather common. IT is littered with projects that were
incorrectly scoped, poorly managed and badly executed. Some were rescued
by last-minute heroics on someone’s part, but the large majority just drove off
the cliff. Why does that happen? It’s because technology is complex, executing
large projects is difficult and the amount of unknowns is, well, unknown and
human beings are just too optimistic to account for that.
Cloud transformation initiatives are no different. If anything, they are even
more complex and difficult because they require coordinated efforts from a
number of organizational areas. They are usually larger in scope, with bigger
budgets and have a higher impact on the organization, as well as on customers
and partners. As such, cloud initiatives have their own heroes who are either
“on the front line” implementing a cool new technology or performing some
unimaginable feat to save the day.
But what if saving the day was not necessary? What if everything simply went
according to plan, so heroics were again something we only read about in
comic books? There are key roles that do not make the hero headlines. These
roles do not perform “heroics,” they simply work quietly behind the scenes to
ensure that everything goes as planned. Let us look at some of these superhe-
roes hiding in plain sight.
Program Management
How do your run your project? “Oh, we are agile.” But of course you are! Every-
one seems to be on the agile train these days. The agile concept is good – it is
very good, but let us not use the word agile as a substitute for lack of planning,
or to justify running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Meticulous
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