Terrance Knecht MBA, CISSP, PMP, CGEITAssistant Vice President, Chief Information OfficerThe University of Iowa Foundation terry-knecht@uiowa.edu

T h e U n i ve r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n2

Time is a zero sum game

Everything is interrelated

All actions/decisions have an impact forever

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n3

Moral law—Be in accord with the sponsor

Heaven and earth—Know the environment

Commander—Does the PM have the virtues of

wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and

strictness?

Method and discipline—Organize the project

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n4

Absolute defense on what IT is working on and

(more importantly) what IT is not working on

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n5

True record of reality

The record of hours shows the true investment

PBS: Business staff thought (deluded themselves)

that IT was working on everything at once

UIF: Business management felt that reporting

requirements were only temporary

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Annual Fund Blackbaud Telefund Outputs

Foundation Outputs

University Outputs

Alumni Association

Output

Fixed Work

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008 Projected

6

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n7

Pick a sponsor who wants to use the project as a

vehicle to move their career forward

PBS: The director of development (giving) was the

sponsor of the new development system which we

built. She glossed over the problems until they were

solved

If the obvious sponsor is unenthusiastic, follow the

food chain

PBS: Director of video sales did not support the new

system, but the vice president of marketing did

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n8

Have the business side own the project

Have the business side make the decisions (or at least

think they are)

Structure the project so that the business side does as

much of the project as possible

UIF: When the PM for the University of Michigan

visited UIF—he was amazed to the extent that the

business areas ran the fund raising project

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n9

Being the second project manager is often a very

good situation

Realism has set in for the users

The bad feelings from the journey to reality are tied

to the drowned first project manager

Lexi International: I was the third CIO that year, so

when I wanted to tear up the existing infrastructure—

got an OK

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n10

If the project charter does not flow easily from the

sponsor to the written word, then resolve the key

issues before going on—they will not resolve

themselves

If the project manager is very lucky, everything will

be aligned

Unresolved issues hinder the organization in reaching

the project objectives

UP&UP: The scope of Y2K was not resolved

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n11

Charter restrictions are very important and

sometimes more important than the project

UP&UP: The completion date for the new corporate

HQ needed to be 90 days later for financial reasons

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n12

Training is NOT something outside the project

Put training on the project’s critical path

If possible, configure training costs as a base cost for

the obvious participants and an incremental cost for

the less defensible

Create an interesting chart for training progress

13

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n14

Get the priority resolved—especially if the project is

a whale. This will make resources available

If the organizational commitment is of the highest

order, it is more difficult for forces outside the

project to siphon off resources and ask individuals to

do more than reasonable

UIF: The president announced the fundraising

software project was the most important project

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n15

Make individual tasks as discrete as possible to

insure ownership

UP&UP: Each program was assigned to an

individual for Y2K (1 million lines of code)

Brand key steps - especially if they are critical or not

glamorous

UIF: The tedious, pedantic step of coordinating all

of the paperwork for each 13 design groups was

called the ―Last Chance‖ meeting

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n16

Couple tasks to create a feeling of dependency – do

not let your buddy down

Crocker Bank: One person did the edit and one did

the update program

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n17

Safest path is the one that if an outside consultant

was called in they would say either ―that is the way I

would do it‖ or ―I would do it differently, but many

others would do it this way‖

Be creative on how the pieces are put together, not in

selecting the individual pieces

PBS: I worked with Lucent to create the new call

center. Then the business management went to

Lucent to ask if it was a good idea

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n18

If you try to save a dollar and something goes

wrong, no one will remember your savings. If it goes

well, you will receive no thanks

Lexi International: All of the new servers had to be

replaced

Make sure that ―what you see‖ looks like the value

you paid

UP&UP: The computer room looked like a million

dollars

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n19

Always look at the true cost of activities. More

importantly, link what the true alternatives are

PBS: $125 per hour (1991) consultant working on an

AS/400 in storage room

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n20

Sometimes people are not needed to be around

during the actual implementation

UP&UP: The day that the organization cut over to

the new corporate HQ, a VP took the President for

golf

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n21

Recognition is great for the next project

Blue Cross: After the successful disaster recovery

test, I flew from one site to another just to hand out

certificates – the best I could find

Recognition is not always what you think it will be

UIF: During the flood of 2008, I wrote ―Essential

Person‖ letters which became highly prized artifacts

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n22

Project can be vehicle to elicit a demand for change

DESIGN TEAM CURRENT STATUSCR Blackbaud to resolve 4 critical signoff issues

Campaign Signed Off

DRS Blackbaud to resolve 3 critical signoff issues

PG UIF to set up Final meeting

Athletics Signed Off

AG Blackbaud to resolve 1 critical signoff issue

CFR Signed off

OLC Blackbaud to meet with UIAA on 2/19

E&V Mgt Blackbaud to resolve documentation

Done

Last Phase

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n23

Issues do not go away

Confront issues directly and early

Start early beating the drum if business management

will have accept an inconvenient truth

Blue Cross: The fixing security was something they

did not want to understand. Used EDS and the legal

department to finally succeed. This also allowed me

not to be the one carrying the final message

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f I o w a F o u n d a t i o n24

Be ready with a story for every occasion

UIF: Flood (ACT)

Remember, you are always working for the next

project