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Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together

Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together

by Dan Roberts
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date: April 2011
ISBN: 9781118044506
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Book Description

Timely guidance for transforming IT into a strategic business partner

Today's leaders are expected to reduce costs, increase productivity, drive innovation and help the business identify and pursue new business opportunities. Successful IT leaders will be the ones that become strategic business partners and decision influencers in their organizations. Unleashing the Power of IT describes in actionable detail, the new mindset, core skill set, and interpersonal tool set that are necessary for IT leaders to thrive in today's increasingly complex challenging business environment.

  • Provides tangible, hard-hitting, real-world strategies, techniques and approaches that will immediately transform your IT workforce and culture

  • Includes Top Ten lists of tips and techniques, proven frameworks and practical guidance to help you launch and sustain your IT culture change and professional development initiatives

  • Addresses how to build a client-focused IT culture; move your organization from order takers to trusted business partners, market IT's value, lead change with confidence, manage projects and vendor relationships

A special feature of this book includes a chapter profiling several world-class organizations that have implemented the principles in this book. Learn about the culture change challenges they overcame and benefit from their best practices and successes.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Foreword
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Chapter 1: Creating Your Twenty-First Century Workforce and Culture
    1. Core Skills for Success
    2. A Consistent Terminology
    3. Who Will Benefit Most
    4. Leveraging This Book
  8. Chapter 2: Transforming Your IT Team
    1. How to Make This Transition: Learn to Think Differently
    2. Five Critical Success Factors that Enable IT Organizational Excellence
    3. Conclusion: High-Performance Reality
  9. Chapter 3: Building a Client-Focused IT Culture
    1. What Good Service Looks Like
    2. Service Skills and Mindsets
    3. Strategies for Developing a Service Mentality
    4. Conclusion
  10. Chapter 4: Evolving into the Role of Consultant
    1. What Exactly Is a Consultant's Role, Anyway?
    2. Why Do I Need to Become More Consultative?
    3. Learning to Change Hats: The Four Roles of IT
    4. So, How Do I Become a Consultant?
    5. How Difficult Can This Be?
    6. Conclusion
  11. Chapter 5: Negotiating: Getting What You Want without Damaging the Relationship
    1. Position versus Interest Negotiations
    2. Three Key Factors; Three-Step Process
    3. Applying the Key Factors to the Second Step: Information Exchange
    4. The Final Step: Now Comes the Bargaining
    5. Conclusion: Effective Negotiators Are Made, Not Born
    6. Notes
  12. Chapter 6: Managing Projects: The Science and the Art
    1. The Building Blocks of Project Management
    2. Structuring Projects for Success
    3. Developing Plans that Work
    4. Managing to Successful Completion
    5. The Four Tenets of the Project Manager's Mindset
    6. Conclusion: Thinking like a Project Manager
  13. Chapter 7: Changing Your Requirements-Gathering Mindset
    1. The What, Not the How
    2. The Importance of the Interview
    3. Communicating through Pictures
    4. Writing a Solid Requirements Document
    5. Conclusion
  14. Chapter 8: Sharpening Your Political Savvy
    1. Picturing Yourself as a Political Player
    2. IT and Politics: Historically Strange Bedfellows
    3. A Five-Step Process for Developing Political Awareness
    4. Developing Political Skills
    5. Conclusion
  15. Chapter 9: Marketing IT's Value
    1. Marketing to the IT Department
    2. Build Partnerships
    3. Differentiate Yourself
    4. Establish Credibility
    5. Create Product and Service Awareness
    6. Develop a Formal Plan
    7. Determining Success
    8. Conclusion
  16. Chapter 10: Managing the Vendor Relationship
    1. Both Sides of the Coin
    2. Preparing for a New Role
    3. Getting a Fresh Start
    4. Seven Phases of Managing Vendor Partnerships
    5. Conclusion
  17. Chapter 11: Driving Change with Intent
    1. Defining Terms
    2. The Components of Change
    3. Achieving Commitment Is Essential for Sustaining Change
    4. Change Takes a Community
    5. Clarity Precedes Activity
    6. Messaging the Change
    7. Conclusion
  18. Chapter 12: Putting the Book into Action: Stories from the Trenches
    1. A Newly Consultative IT Function Helps Drive St. Luke's Health System Transformation
    2. At Marriott, a Transformed IT-Business Relationship Is the Underpinning for Hospitality Giant's Success
    3. At Bowdoin College, Trust in IT Created a Culture of Change within a Haven of Liberal Arts
    4. Conclusion
  19. A Call to Action: Create Your Road Map for IT Transformation
  20. Bibliography
  21. About the Contributors
  22. About O&A
  23. Index