Sustainable IT Practices

Sustainable IT Practices for Today's Executives

by Linda Holroyd, FountainBlue

the Facilitator and Panelists for the August 18, 2006 Connections Event,

Stuart Robbins of CIO Collective, Madhukar Govindaraju, SVP of Engineering for Certive, former VP of Engineering for Hyperion and Usha Sekar, former CIO of Fujitsu America and CEO of CriaTec

and Event Attendees

The executives in Silicon Valley see first-hand how technology is impacting the day-to-day business operations for their organizations. As we evolve from an age of data (a computer science term representing numerical or other information represented in a form suitable for processing by computer) into the age of information (a computer science term for processed, stored, or transmitted data), we will be asked to manage increasingly larger volumes of data: from storing the data itself, to recovering the data as necessary, to proactively planning for the networking infrastructure so that data can be shared efficiently and to securing the data and managing who has access to the data. Indeed, proactively managing who has what type of access to important data and information will become increasingly important not just for CIOs and other technical executives within organizations, but also for senior executives in general.

Below is advice and suggestions from the panelists, facilitators and audience for the August 18 FountainBlue Connections event on Sustainable IT Practices.

Definition of sustainability: ability to meet the needs of today without compromising the needs of tomorrow.

• When planning or executing your IT practices, consider people, process, technology and environmental needs (including the global impact of your activities).
• Lead your teams effectively: Deal with the people issues!

* Develop consensus on the criteria for success within specific timeframes and continually measure results

* Foster cooperation between people, teams, partners and other stakeholders

* Model the way

* Engage your stakeholders, communicate the reasons for planning and execution, forge consensus/buy-in, manage for success

• Proactively develop and encourage a commitment to best practices for today and tomorrow, while efficiently responding to the needs of today.

* Start with the desired and measurable outcome and work backwards

* Consider factors such as reliability, security, inter-operability, etc., and the requirements now and expected requirements in the future based on changing business and technology needs

* Understand the clustering of skillsets, draw out the best in individuals and teams

* Investigate actual results of implementation - did it go as planned, why or why not? Were the requirements accurately reflecting the needs of the customer?

• Accountability is important when trying to raise quality standards

* Consider corporate, industry-wide, and other expectations for software vs hardware for example. Consider also how you will hold your team accountable to a higher standard, and how to motivate your team to achieve those standards.

* A culture-wide shift on software quality expectations may be long in coming, but developing a higher quality standard more on par with hardware standards may improve your company's brand.

• Be flexible in design and execution

* With the additional complexity and challenges today, flexibility is 10 times more important than it was ten years ago.

* Put the processes, tools, resources in place to change quickly based on changing requirements.

* Measure your responsiveness to change.

• Balance bottom-line pressures with sustainable business practices
• Remain in touch with the needs of the customer

* Example: take a 'cow's-eye-view' when designing a product for a cow.

* Leverage focus groups for current customers and prospects and partners

Putting it Together: Plan for changing technology and business requirements, based on the needs of the market and the customers, and remain flexible in your IT strategy and execution.

We invite your comments, additions and suggestions. For more information, visit http://www.FountainBlue.biz or get Stuart's new book
Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror.