Technology & Policyamidst

Shrinking Budget$

Copyright © 2003 Patrick McDermott

The Association of

Public SectorWeb Professionals

February 20, 2003

pmcdermott@msn.com

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.”

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