Technology & Policy amidst Shrinking Budget$ Copyright © 2003 Patrick McDermott The Association of Public Sector Web Professionals February 20, 2003 [email protected]
Dec 30, 2015
Technology & Policyamidst
Shrinking Budget$
Copyright © 2003 Patrick McDermott
The Association of
Public SectorWeb Professionals
February 20, 2003
Our Agenda• Today, even a small City has more obligations
than most nations had throughout history.• Patrick De Temple’s Observed Problems
– Ill-fitting technology solutions– Technology tails wagging the organizational dogs– Unintended organizational consequences
• Put Content into Right Sizing– Five Tiers of Business Systems (p. 42)
– Three Strategic Disciplines (p. 120)
– Six (or five) Enablers (p. 34, 102, 226, 253)
Political Economy• David Ricardo, Principles of Political
Economy and Taxation, 1817.• Politics = Poly + Ticks?
• Policy
• Economics: No Free Lunch
a : the art or science of government b : the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing
governmental policy (Merriam-Webster)
1: prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs 2: a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives
and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions (Merriam-Webster)
The Science of balancing unlimited human wants with limited resources; The Art of allocating scarce resources to fulfilling human wants and needs.
Ill-Fitting Solutions
• Two Cultures– Bridge the Gap
• Solution in Search of a Problem• Résumé Technology• Three Solutions:
– Communicate– Communicate– Communicate
Tail Wagging the Dog
• The Prime Directive
NoCultural
InterferenceThe Business shouldn’t adjust to the Computer System
–The Computer should adapt to the Business
Unintended Consequences
• Emergence’s Evil Twin
– Freeway Fliers & Contract Programmers– Email & Spam: Productivity Paradox– Labor Saving Devices and Long Hours– Environmental Damages
• The Only Defense: Expect the Unexpected
Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of
Unintended Consequences, New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Michael Crichton, Prey, New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Johnson, Steven, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, New York: Scribner, 2001.
Th
e 5
Tie
rs
Desktop
Database Server
Presentation / I nterface
Application Process
Data ManagementApplication Server
Student
Section
I nstructor
EnrollStudent Drop
Enrollment
TransferStudent
OK
Mechanisms by which people orother systems interact with anI nformation System
"Transactions" containing logicto enforce business rules andmaintain data integrity
Databases maintaining recordsof people, things, events, etc.needed by the business
Usually GUI s running on thedesktop, but could be justabout anything - I VR, EDI ,kiosk, World Wide Web, ...
Stored procedures orapplication logic distributedacross servers or clientmachines
Usually Relational DBMSsrunning on one or moreservers
Mission, Strategy & Goals (MSG)
Business Process (Workflow)
Businesses establish a mission, goals,and objectives that describe themarkets they will serve, how they willdiff erentiate themselves, and howthey will perform.
Businesses organize people, resources,and activities into processes whichdeliver value to external or internalCustomers, in keeping with the mission.
Manual and automatedactivities; may or may notbe formalized; flow may ormay not be automated
Only eff ective if stated,widely distributed, and"believed"
Three Disciplines
Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersma, The Discipline of Market Leaders, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1995.
Table adapted from Fortune, February 6, 1995, page 96.
Operational Excellence
Product Leadership
Customer Intimacy
Core Business Processes that…
Sharpen distribution systems and provide no-hassle service
Nurture ideas, translate them into products, and market them successfully
Provide solutions and help Customers run their business
Structure that… Has strong, central authority and a finite level of empowerment
Acts in an ad-hoc, organic, loosely knit, and ever-changing way
Pushes empowerment close to the point of Customer contact
Management Systems that…
Maintain standard operation procedures
Reward individuals’ innovative capacity and new product successes
Measures the cost of providing service and of maintaining Customer loyalty
Culture that… Acts predictably and believes “one size fits all”
Experiments and thinks “out of the box”
Is flexible and thinks “have it your way”
The Three Strategic Disciplines
As Consultants are Wont to Say • We can do it Faster… • We can do it Cheaper… • We can do it Better… • --choose no more than two of the
above.
• Michael Porter’s Three Generic Strategies– Overall Cost Leadership – Differentiation – Focus
Michael E. Porter, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and
Competitors, New York: The Free Press, 1998 (1980).
The Enablers
A process,supported by six "enablers"
Enabler:Workflow
Design
Enabler:InformationTechnology
Enabler:Motivation &Measurement
Enabler:Human
Resources
Enabler:Policies &
Rules
Enabler:Facilitiesor Other
Your solution can be technologically perfect, but fail!
The enablers are what enable your solution to succeed.
Being Right is only half the battle!
1. Workflow Design• Bottlenecks• Handoffs• Exceptions: Pareto Principle• A Coordinator or Expeditor Role implies
complexity: KISS.
• Would a Customer willingly Pay for it?
• I could write a book
Harry Newton, Newton’s Telecom Dictionary, 18th Edition,
New York, CMP Books, 2002.
2. IT• Information & Technology• The Unknown Tech• The Future is Ahead of Us
– Never be First—or Last
• “Machines should work. People should think.”• Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of IBM
• Problems– Missing Information– Duplicate Entry– Irreconcilable Sources
3. Motivation & Measurement
• Time on Phone• Auditors & Copy Editors• Carl’s On-Time Performance• Don’t Evaluate with an Indicator
• Process Improvement or Decision Support– Will Manager be promoted for Improvement, or
Building an Empire?– Kaizen not Breakthrough
W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2000 (1982).
4. Human Resources
• Training• Job Descriptions• Org Chart
• Right People• Right Jobs• Right Skills
A liceA n a lys t
W a llyE n g in eer
D ilb e rtD eve lop er
P o in ty H a irB oss III
5. Policies & Rules
• See that great Business Guru, Scott Adams• Recursive Feasibility Study • Approvals & Inflation
• Reward Inertia, Punish Innovation?
6. Facilities• Transport or Communications Delays• Collaboration versus quiet• Copier/Fax• Supplies• Secretarial Support
• … or Other• e.g. Research Opportunities
Parting Wisdom
• Sunk Costs are Junk Costs• The Unpleasant & The Difficult• The Squeaky Wheel Needs to be Replaced• Choose the Middle Way
Shakespeare in Love
Patrick McDermott, Zen & The Art of Systems Analysis: Meditations on Computer Systems Development, New York: iUniverse, 2002. 0-595-25679-1.
Alec Sharp & Patrick McDermott, Workflow Modeling: Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development, Boston: Artech House, 2001. 1-58053-021-4.
Henslowe: “Strangely enough, it all turns out well.”Shakespeare: “How?”Henslowe: “I don’t know—It’s a mystery.”