What “Change Management” bring to any org.

Today’s organizations are faced with unending competition, changing circumstances and increased customer demands. To remain viable and competitive, their IT and services organizations must be in complete alignment with the strategic goals of the organization.
In businesses, this means that IT has to be a partner in delivering value to the customer. One of the important challenges of doing this is to ensure that changes are implemented without disrupting the delivery of that value to the customer. ITIL Change Management (CM) provides the necessary framework to guide organizations in meeting this challenge.
While no methodology can guarantee absolute success, a standardized Change Management process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, increases the likelihood that the business objectives and goals are successfully achieved and limits the likelihood of embarrassing and costly mistakes in implementation.
ITIL Change Management is one of the most effective ways to provide stability to the IT organization. It is the linchpin of any ITIL implementation because it both controls many of the ITIL processes and also ensures the other processes are not attempting to work with an unstable environment.
I have compiled a list of Top 10 Tips to use when implementing an ITIL Change Management process after lots of binging.
1. Clarify what Change Management will accomplish in your organization. Many corporations struggle with defining ITIL in general and Change Management in particular. The most common misunderstanding is the assumption that implementing Change Management will fix issues that are related to Release Management or Configuration Management.
Change Management focuses on the oversight and approval aspects of the process, ensuring that only authorized changes are being worked on. It is more related to organization change than the operational aspects of change.
2. Articulate the benefits of Change Management to each level of the organization. Using a top-down organizational approach is usually the most effective way to establish Change Management. When the leaders of an organization demonstrate the commitment and participation to implement a Change Management program, the better the chance for success.
Getting buy-in at all levels is critical to the success of the program. The first step to achieving a successful buy-in is identifying all stakeholder groups that are affected by such an implementation.
Stakeholders need to understand the benefits on a personal and organizational level (What’s in it for me?). Clearly defining and presenting to each stakeholder what those benefits will be, and conversely, establishing and enforcing policies that address the penalties and repercussions for bypassing the process is essential. Finally, to ensure buy-in and understanding among everyone, be sure to communicate the same message to everyone involved as to what those policies will cover.
3. Define what a Change is. The most important concept to convey is that everything in the IT world can have a change element to it. Nothing should fly under the radar.
All Installs, Moves, Adds and Changes (IMAC’s) to the infrastructure, and any software changes should fall under the control of Change Management. Even the most seemingly innocuous changes can cause major disruptions if no one knows about them. This can be especially true if you are implementing Change Management in an immature, silo-structured organization.
4. Establish clear roles and responsibilities for the Change Advisory Board (CAB), Change Manager, and Change Authority. Creating an Executive Committee for the CAB is a good way to keep the executives engaged in the process without subjecting them to the low level details that change management sometimes involves. Having executive sponsorship increases your leverage when encountering parties resistant to changing the status quo.
An effective and successful Change Manager is one who proactively ensures that the right resources, both technical and business, attend the CAB and present viable, justifiable changes. The Change Manager can be the final arbiter in resolving disputes over classifications and prioritizations. Ensure that the Change Authorities who are representing changes to the CAB are well-informed and can speak to their items when challenged. Their role is to present the business case, the impact analysis, the resource plan and execution plan for each change.
The CAB is not just an IT operation. A successful CAB will have a wide rotating mix of participants from the IT, Operations and Business groups. Embrace the flexibility that the CAB offers by limiting the standing participants and ensuring only those resources that can add value to the discussions are invited to the meetings.
5. Create standardized processes and timeframes to support Change Management. Defining processes and timeframes up front around Major, Minor and Emergency changes will assist in managing client expectations as to when, and how, changes will be delivered.
Getting the senior members of the Change Advisory Board (CAB) to sign off on the criteria is essential to reducing the noise level. Define the boundaries around priorities and hold to them. By having standard change processes understood, there will be fewer circumventions of the system.
If your Change Management scope is significant, and incorporates IMAC’s as suggested above, there needs to be a means of expediting the process to overcome the bureaucracy that may prevail. Designing and implementing a standard change model for those changes where the risk level is already well understood, allows for such expediency.
6. Establish and Stabilize the Change Management Process before introducing tools. In theory, it seems logical to buy a tool that can guide your change management implementation and utilize it as a key component of your change program. In practice, this approach is rarely effective. Introducing new processes, making them more efficient and finalizing them will lay the groundwork for defining the requirements for a tool selection. You can then better evaluate a tool fit for your purposes instead of getting lost in the various options that most tools present.
7. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Critical Success Factors (CSF) that highlight the improvements that Change Management brings to the organization. Bring metrics to Senior Management’s attention on a regular basis showing how CM is benefiting the organization.
Sample CSF’s should reflect that CM is:
A repeatable process that can make changes quickly and accurately
Protecting the integrity of the service when making those changes
Delivering process efficiency and effectiveness
Sample KPI’s should be established around:
Reduction of unauthorized changes
Reduction in change related outages
Reduction in emergency changes
Actual cost of a change vs. planned (budgeted) cost

8. Ensure back-out plans are documented and realistic. Although no one ever intentionally introduces defects into the production environment, it is a fact of life that problems will sometimes arise as a result of new submissions. To combat these instances, there must be a robust contingency plan in place to minimize the amount and length of production outages. Ensuring that the Release Management team comes prepared to the CAB with both their implementation plan and back-out strategy is an essential check-point for the Change Manager.
9. Accentuate the positive by building on successes and leveraging lessons learned. Discussing lessons learned, whether good or bad, is important for everyone involved to better prepare for the next instance. While it is important to correct bad behaviors after a release, it is just as important to highlight what went well. Showcase success stories and integrate lessons learned into plans for further roll-outs.
10. Use the Change Management Initiative to promote other ITIL processes. Many organizations are only familiar with the Change Management component of ITIL.
· Use the success story from implementing Change Management to promote the benefits of the other processes and how it will improve the overall performance of IT. Change Management cannot be truly effective in isolation. · When Release and Configuration Management processes are absent, consider combining all three into a centralized function. The three processes have many close links to each other and together can stabilize an organization’s production environment.
In summary, implementing Change Management is and should be viewed as a major strategic undertaking. It is much more than a simple process roll-out. As a starting point, organizations need to know where they stand in terms of ITIL maturity, where gaps exist, and where they want to be.
Any ITIL implementation is a major change program that warrants a roadmap, a realistic project plan and associated communications to achieve the desired outcomes. It also requires training of the support organization as well as the users receiving the service on new processes and procedures. Piloting the new processes or performing dry runs will furthermore ensure smooth transition and higher effectiveness.
Using items such as these Top 10 Tips to aid understanding throughout the support organization is a good starting point for design and deployment of an ITIL-based Change Management Process. In the end, implementing change management is a key step in establishing the stability you need to make your other ITIL processes and your organization more successful.

Use ITIL to Enhance Your Disaster Recovery Capability

You spent time developing an actionable plan, assigned responsibility to various personnel and created confidence that business systems will be available during times of disaster. But, what happens on Day 2 after the plan is put in place? The plan must be maintained, tested and revised to stay aligned with business changes and increasing risk. Maintaining the plan becomes one of the most critical initiatives to reduce risk in the future.
One method to ensure your plan is kept current is to integrate your BC/DR efforts with the best practices contained in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Various processes within ITIL integrate seamlessly with BC/DR and, when implemented properly, can enable the ongoing maintenance of your BC/DR plan. Processes such as Service Level, Incident, Change and Configuration Management stipulate activities that can help ensure your plan stays current, regardless of the dynamic nature of the business.
The service lifecycle contained in ITIL v3 can provide for the ongoing improvement of your BC/DR plan over time. Let's take a look at some of the activities contained within ITIL that you can use to enhance your BC/DR capability:
Service Level Management (SLM) – Activities contained in this process establish the guidelines to design and implement services within your organization to ensure that the business and IT are aligned. Whether you are adding new services or maintaining existing services, continuity is a key component that must be addressed.
When determining your strategy for delivering services, its effect on your BC/DR plan needs to be addressed. Including continuity discussions when defining services and drafting service level agreements ensures that the business understands how the service will be recovered during disasters and other associated risks. Your service level manager should have a detailed understanding of the contents of your BC/DR plan in order to ensure that changes to business services that impact the plan are taken into consideration when revisions to the service catalog are made.
Incident Management (IM) – In its simplest form, an incident is any event that results in a service becoming unavailable or deteriorated. Disasters are major incidents that require the organization to follow an established workflow to restore the service to an acceptable and agreed upon service level. The process to detect, record, diagnose, resolve and close these incidents must be established in order to effectively manage the incident.
Integrating the contents of the BC/DR plan into your incident management process will ensure that the activities of the plan are executed in a timely and organized manner. Establishing the process that will be followed when these incidents occur will ensure that all the stakeholders involved will be notified of their responsibilities.
Service Desk – There are various service desk technologies available today that can be used to enable the process to work more effectively. The service desk is a tool you can use to create templates that will be followed to document the incident and establish the workflow that will be followed.
The BC/DR plan will stipulate the activities to be followed during a disaster and the service desk will be the place where the workflow will be documented. The standard template can be initiated, allowing each person with responsibility for the incident to be notified so they can take the appropriate actions established in the plan.
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – All BC/DR plans contain a detailed list of the configuration items making up the critical services that need to be recovered during a disaster. Inclusion of the configurations in the CMDB will ensure that the information is available to all the required parties during the disaster. The CMDB will also contain all the attributes of the configuration items and establish ownership, control mechanisms, status, and verification requirements that will be needed to maintain the information so it stays current.
The CMDB is an important component for Incident and Change Management in order to determine the appropriate scope of outages and changes. Any changes to the configurations of critical services will have a direct impact on the BC/DR plan and should be annotated as such in the CMDB.
Availability and Capacity Management – As the service catalog is developed, service level requirements will determine the level of availability and capacity needed to reduce risks associated with the infrastructure. These plans provide critical input to the BC/DR plan in that they indicate the level of redundancy and capacity requirements needed to ensure continuous service operations. Availability and capacity managers must be consulted when developing the BC/DR plan so the level of capability can be defined appropriately. A detailed process in this area will lead to a more effective BC/DR plan.
Continual Service Improvement – In order to ensure that IT transforms itself toward a higher level of maturity, service improvement plans must be developed and maintained. A key component of drafting an effective plan is identification of the impact improvements (changes) have on the BC/DR plan. A detailed process for coordinating and determining the effect on the BC/DR capability is critical in ensuring that when improvements to the plan are made, all stakeholders are informed and the impact on the business is considered.
Summary-
Integrating your ITIL program with your BC/DR capability can provide the business with the assurance that IT is considering all aspects of maintaining continuous service operations. The list of correlating processes between ITIL and BC/DR contained in this article are not all inclusive, however, they represent a good start toward transforming and aligning IT with the business.
When developing your BC/DR capability, it is a good practice to consider ITIL as a means to enhance your plan by taking the time to integrate your efforts and consider the effects of Services, People, Process and Tools. The time you spend to ensure effective maintenance of your BC/DR plan using the ITIL best practices will go a long way to ensure continuous business operations before, during and after a disaster.

Dictionary of Management Jargon

Words and Phrases

A

Accommodate concerns

1 Make room for opinions 2 Make an allowance for a preference 3 Tolerate a different point of view

"We will try to accommodate your concerns"

Accountability

1 Responsibility for the progress of a project or the progress of the firm 2 A lack of progress may not lead to any disciplinary action

"We are going to build in accountability"

Address

1 To provide words on a topic which may have little or no meaning

"He will address us on the topic"

Aggressive quote

1 A low bid to produce a good or provide a service

"We can get it with an aggressive quote"

Ambush marketing

1 To tie a firm's name to its competitors advertising

"They are using ambush marketing by naming the stadium ..."

Anecdotal information

1 Scattered stories and or reports 2 First information from the field 3 Not scientific or definitive

"Your use of our product provides anecdotal information to us"

Arrows to fire

1 Points to mention and/or tactics to take

"He ran out of arrows to fire"

At some juncture

1 Some unspecified point in time in the future

"At some juncture we will decide"

At this point

1 Now

"At this point we have begun"

B

Band aid

1 A quick temporary fix which when the fix works, is frequently ignored because of the higher expense to permanently fix the problem

"Can we put a band aid on the problem"

Bandwidth

1 Capacity 2 Maximum amount

"We do not have the bandwidth to accommodate your request"

Bearish on

1 Against 2 To assert a belief that something will decrease

"I'm bearish on the economy"

Believe in

1 Behind an idea or in favor of something

"I believe in our marketing"

Benign report

1 A harmless document when it could have been detrimental to the firm

"The benign report is not a problem"

Bounce an idea off someone

1 To get someone's initial impression of an idea they have not heard before

"Can we bounce an idea off someone today"

Bring them along

1 Give a slow introduction over time 2 Incrementally spoon feed small amounts of possibly misleading information until the whole concept is accepted 3 Withhold distasteful information

"We must be careful to bring them along"

Brush fire

1 Out of control 2 Growing wildly

"Lets stop these reports before they grow into a brush fire"

Budget

1 Projected dollar amounts estimated ahead of time for a project 2 the company's overall costs and revenues 3 Any estimate before or after any or all facts are known

"Let's revise our budget after the project starts"

Bullish on

1 In favor of 2 To assert a belief that something will increase

"I'm bullish on our sales"

Bushit

1 Great lies told by a great authority 2 Overly exaggerated claims of validity about a heterogeneous collection 3 Giving assurance with a quick smile and a chuckle 4 Claiming new information is true because it is common knowledge

"I know better than to believe his bushit"

Business case

1 A multiple year estimate of a future projects costs and revenues

"Can we make a business case for your project"

Buy in

1 Agreement 2 Commitment

"We need manufacturing's buy in before we go ahead with this"

Calm market

1 A steady price

"We are experiencing a calm market"

Cash burn rate

1 How quickly liquid assets are being spent 2 The number of dollars of cash flow being lost each month or quarter

"Let's get our cash burn rate under control"

Cash flow benefits

1 Either increase in revenue or a decrease in costs 2 A decrease in costs caused by a more efficient production method 3 A production method that requires fewer employees and/or less plant and equipment

"Your idea has some interesting cash flow benefits"

Clamp down

1 To reduce 2 To slow to near zero 3 To spend very little

"We must clamp down our expenses"

CNBC

1 Conservative National Bushit Conference 2 Nonstop radically conservative propaganda

"I am watching CNBC because they think they are right."

Commitment

1 The act of standing behind a policy whose value ends when the policy is concluded

"We made a commitment to this"

Company policy

1 A written or verbal statement of a firm's stance on a topic

"Ours is a very good company policy on that"

Compelling case

1 A winning argument 2 Overwhelmingly persuasive

"You make a very compelling case"

Competitive analysis

1 An investigation to find out if others are already doing the same thing

"We need a competitive analysis before we begin"

Confidence in the future

1 Assurance that a plan of action will work out 2 To imply prior knowledge of future events

"We have confidence in the future"

Consolidation

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"Our consolidation will close one store"

Cost containment

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"Cost containment will lead to a profit"

Cost management

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"We need to exercise some cost management"

Create value

1 Make a better product or service 2 To increase a customer's perception of something's usefulness

"This will create value for our customers"

Crisis management

1 To control and limit the impact of major unforeseen problems 2 A management style that only acts after a crisis has occurred

"We need to exercise better crisis management"

Corporate culture

1 Acceptable behavior at a company

"It's within the bounds of our corporate culture"

D

Deal with

1 Handle and/or dispose of something in such a way that it may not solve and/or answer anything directly 2 A postponement and/or avoidance

"We will deal with that when the time comes"

Decisive action

1 A change by the firm which will effect its future performance 2 A deterministic stance

"This requires decisive action"

Dehire

1 The firing of employees

"We had to dehire your friend"

Detailed

1 Provide another level to a description 2 Very little extra substance when the starting level is high enough

"Send them the detailed report"

Down size

Downsize

1 To fire some employees and/or reduce plant and equipment

"The firm will soon down size their production"

Drill down

1 To increase the amount of detail about a topic, the amount of additional detail is relative to the starting level

"The report will drill down into the issue"

Drive home a point

1 To emphasize 2 Repetition used instead of additional information

"They will drive home the point"

E

Effect the production

1 To reduce output 2 A reduction in output that is not desired

"The weather may effect the production of corn"

Empowerment

1 To give responsibility and some authority to one or more employees. The amount of authority may not be sufficient to fulfill the responsibility

"His empowerment is over this product"

Expense management

1 To limit wasteful spending 2 To keep a record of what is spent

"We must exercise more expense management to make a profit"

Extended price

1 A high price 2 A price that may be reduced in the future

"The extended price will soon fall"

F

Feel good about

1 Optimistic 2 Can accept

"Your must feel good about our future"

Financial drag

1 Expenses that are higher than desired

"Waste is a financial drag on us"

Focused on

1 Give a great deal of attention to 2 The attention given by some to one of many things

"He is focused on the problem"

Follow up on

1 To check on progress at a later date 2 To not promise to take any corrective action in the future

"I will follow up on that"

Fox News

FoxNews

1 Propaganda for the radical right 2 NonStop Republican spin 3 The religious right 4 The more conservative the better

"No one is more conservative than Fox News"

Free seminar

1 sales presentation

"Come to our free seminar to learn how to buy our product"

Fully paid moving expenses

1 Pay for some part of each major expense incurred for employee relocation 2 Pay only the minimum fees for services such as moving insurance

"We offer fully paid moving expenses"

G

Get a handle on

1 Investigate and learn about something when very little is known before hand

"We will respond when we get a handle on that"

Give a comment

1 To provide words on a topic that may have little or no meaning

"They need to give a comment on that"

Give a talk

1 To provide words on a topic that may have little or no meaning

"Will you give a talk about your area"

Given a mandate

1 Told to do something with few employees or resources assigned to the task

"I was given a mandate to do this"

Go a long way toward

1 Get a good start on

"That will go a long way toward solving this"

Good meeting

1 A discussion with nothing unexpected happening 2 A uneventful meeting

"That was a good meeting"

Going forward

1 In the future

"Going forward sales will be up"

Granularity

1 Detail

"We need to see these reports with more granularity"

Great confidence in

1 To have a belief that something is likely when little proof may exist

"We have great confidence that you will finish"

Growing

1 An increase in sales or an increase in the number of employees

"Our firm is growing"

H

Has far too much time

1 Not busy

"He has far too much time"

Health care delivery system

1 The medical services (doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, equipment, and medicines) available to an employee and the method used to pay for them

"We are currently evaluating our health care delivery system"

Heritage

1 A firm's traditional lines of business which are rarely abandoned

"We will stick with our heritage"

Hired gun

1 A consultant with an expertise who may or may not have better knowledge than almost any employee

"Do we need a hired gun"

I

In Depth

1 To some degree of detail

"It is an in depth report"

In some sense

1 Partially 2 Related in some way

"We are in some sense better off"

In sourced

1 Use resources owned by the firm to produce a good or provide a service

"It was in sourced because we had the people"

Interact with

1 To be in physical proximity to or connected to over some communication medium 2 Some amount of talking with

"They can interact with us"

Internal efficiencies

1 Reductions in the cost of production whose cost savings may come from a the firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"We have experienced some internal efficiencies"

Is hot

1 Current and up to date 2 Topical in the media 3 A growing field

"Email is hot"

Issues

1 Questions 2 Problems 3 Points of disagreement and/or other assorted topics that can be brought up but are rarely disposed of satisfactorily

"These issues need to be handled"

J

Jettison employees

1 The firing of one or more employees who will not be hired back

"We must jettison employees to reduce costs"

Job ready

1 A prospective employee with all the required skills 2 Older and more experienced workers 3 Retrained workers

"The applicant is job ready"

K

L

Lay off

Layoff

1 A permanent firing of one or more employees 2 A temporary firing where the employees may be hired again

"We lost some good people in the last layoff"

Leaner

1 A firm with fewer employees and/or less plant or equipment 2 To produce the same amount with fewer people

"We are a leaner company with fewer employees"

Leverage

1 To use a firm's knowledge to produce a related product or service 2 Attempting to produce more without more plant or equipment

"We can leverage our new knowledge into a new line of business"

Long haul

1 An extended period of time 2 A period of time long enough to allow a good bit of uncertainty 3 A year or more

"The firm will be better off in long haul"

Long term

1 An extended period of time 2 A period of time long enough to allow a good bit of uncertainty 3 A year or more

"Invest for the long term"

M

Major player

1 A firm, union, or other participant which is involved or has some influence

"The firm is a major player in their field"

Makes sense

1 A logically correct assessment 2 Within the realm of possibilities

"This decision makes sense"

Manage expectations

1 Limit enthusiasm 2 Prevent over hype 3 Warn customers that their needs may not be satisfied

"We must manage expectations better"

Market research

1 An investigation of the participants in a market 2 Get some idea of which way trends are headed 3 To find out who else is doing the same thing

"We need some market research before entering that line of business"

Market share

1 The percent of total market sales 2 A high percent of a market, determined by a more restrictive definition of the market

"Our market share is growing"

Marketing department

1 A subgroup of employees in a firm which invents strategies for selling the company's products

"Salesmen get their best ideas from the marketing department"

Matrix management

1 Many employees report to more than one manager allowing each manager to have more employees reporting to him

"He reports to three managers thanks to our matrix management"

Measured

1 Small 2 Steady 3 Predictable

"We must be patient because of our measured growth"

Milestone

1 The completion of a part of a project that may be needed by some specific time 2 A point in a project to be reported to management

"We must meet our milestone" 

More competitive

1 To reduce costs by either firing employees and/or reducing plant and equipment 2 A lower price without less profits

"We have become more competitive by cutting costs"

Move on

1 Take action 2 Put something behind 3 Go on to the next thing

"We need to move on these new contracts"

Mushroomed

1 Grew large quickly 2 Grew out of control

"We lost control when sales mushroomed"

Multi billion dollar firm

1 A business with sales of at least two billion dollars 2 A firm with sales or assets of over a billion dollars 3 Any large firm

"More large multi billion dollar firms are moving here"

N

Negative comments

1 Derogatory statements which are not used or appreciated by management

"Keep your negative comments to yourself"

O

Office politics

1 The day to day maneuvering to enhance one's position which can lead to favoritism

"He got his promotion due to office politics"

On target

1 Costs are close to projected costs and/or revenues are close to projected revenues

"Sales are on target"

Opportunity

1 A problem which does not have a clear solution 2 Someone's assignment

"I gave him an opportunity"

Out placement services

1 A bundle of services which can include: resume preparation, letter writing, interview training and job opportunity identification

"We provided out placement services to the employees we fired"

Out sourced

1 Use of resources not owned by the firm 2 Services provided to the firm by suppliers, consultants and temporary employees

"We are producing more because we out sourced"

Overview

1 A general description of the topic whose goal is not clarity

"The president will provide us with an overview"

Over time

1 During the next period of time 2 In the future

"Our sales will grow over time"

P

Paradigm shift

1 A change in the well known typical example 2 Any major change in the generally accepted point of view

"This new product will cause a paradigm shift"

Pare down

1 The firing of employees and/or the use of less plant and equipment

"We must pare down because of the tight market"

Partner with

1 A linkage between two firms

"We need to partner with more sales firms"

Pass back to shareholders

1 Use money to either buy the firm's stock, pay dividends, or in some other way increase payments to the stockholders

"We can pass back to shareholders some of this money"

Payroll orphans

1 Employees that were fired

"We created several payroll orphans in the last layoff"

Perspective

1 A point of view

"That's true from your perspective"

Ping

1 Discuss 2 Mention 3 Verify 4 Notify

"Go ping the accounting group to make sure they have what they need"

Play a role

1 Take part in 2 Have some influence on 3 Be included

"He can play a role because of his experience"

Position

1 The firms point of view which usually changes over time

"It has always been our Position to train our employees"

Position a product

1 An attempt to convince customers that this product will satisfy their desires 2 To differentiate a product from competitors products

"We will position a product at the high price end"

Positive comments

1 An upbeat view 2 optimistic statements

"We like your positive comments"

Positive tax benefits

1 A reduction in tax payments

"The new law saves us money because of its positive tax benefits"

Proactive

1 A step taken before something happens

"We can prevent this by being proactive"

Provide an employee benefit

1 Give employees something of value. Some are paid for by the firm, the employee, or both. Some are paid by the firm and taxable to the employee. Some are chosen by the employee

"We can provide an employee benefit by allowing our people to buy group life insurance"

Push for

1 Recommend 2 Suggest to management

"I will push for your promotion"

Put a spin on

1 Modify a story to make it more favorable

"How can we put a spin on that to make us look good"

Put forward

1 Assert something as factual

"We can put forward these new statistics"

Put off of work

1 The firing of employees who may be hired back again

"He was put off of work"

Q

Quite some time

1 An extended period of time 2 A period of time long enough to allow a good bit of uncertainty 3 A year or more

"It has been quite some time since last years product introduction"

R

Ramping down an operation

1 The firing of employees and/or the use of less plant and equipment in a particular part of a firm

"We are ramping down an operation to save some money"

Reductions

1 The firing of employees and/or the use of less plant and equipment

"Our office is experiencing some reductions"

Right sized

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"We must right size our operations"

Right questions

1 Current unanswered questions which may impact a decision 2 Questions that will not be answered at the present time

"Your are asking all the right questions"

Rising tide raises all boats

1 If the overall picture improves then everyone will benefit, yet some of those on the lowest levels have difficulty identifying their benefit

"Everyone will benefit because a rising tide raises all boats"

Reluctant

1 Not willing to do something but still open to ideas

"We are reluctant to make any changes"

Renege on

1 Unable to fulfill a promise 2 To do the opposite of what was promised

"They had to renege on that promise"

Resource

1 Either an employee or a piece of plant or equipment

"Another resource will be assigned to the project"

Respond

1 Provide words with little or no meaning as an answer

"We will respond to all your questions"

Responsiveness

1 The amount of delay before any action is taken 2 An action taken that need not be informative or definitive

"Customer support needs to increase their responsiveness"

Restructuring

1 The firing of employees and the reorganization of those remaining 2 Some reductions in plant and equipment

"Restructuring will lead to some cost savings"

Rethink

1 To review a position or policy 2 A possible change in the firm's position or policy 3 A new position or policy

"We will rethink our stance"

S

Sacrifice

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"Some sacrifice is needed to increase profits"

Sales department

1 The subgroup of people in a firm which executes the marketing departments strategies. This group frequently values incentives and rewards

"The sales department must know about our new products"

Share with you

1 Tell you something 2 Give information that is for you only

"I will share with you my secret"

Shelved

1 Put away 2 Not used 3 Not under active consideration 4 may never be used

"We have shelved your project"

Short term

1 A short period of time 2 A period of time short enough to give reasonable assurance of stability

"We will use that in the short term"

Significant Rigor

1 A non trivial examination

"That will be looked at with significant rigor"

Sit down across a table

1 Have a possibly confrontational meeting 2 A meeting where some work is planned

"It can be worked out when we sit down across a table"

Situation

1 A development that is hard to explain away

"We have a situation here"

Speak on a topic

1 To provide words with little or no meaning on a topic with some minimum amount of time set for this activity

"He will speak on a topic for ten minutes at the meeting"

Spin off

1 The sale of a part of a firm to new shareholders or to an outside firm

"We will spin off the division to raise money

Squeaky wheel gets the grease

1 A vital employee can get a raise by asking for it

"He got another raise because the squeaky wheel gets the grease"

Stay abreast

1 Keep up to date

"Please stay abreast of developments"

Stay on task

1 Continue on a path toward an objective and not get distracted

"Your can finish if you just stay on task"

Stick to your knitting

1 Staying with your main lines of business while other lines of business may suffer cutbacks in employees and/or plant and equipment

"We can become profitable if we just stick to your knitting"

Strategic decision

1 A major choice, usually about what market to be in

"We made a strategic decision to enter that market"

Strong market

1 Price is rising due to a large or rising demand

"It is in a very strong market"

Substantive

1 Reality as seen by an unbiased observer and not just the official view of the management

"They have substantive reasons"

Successful meeting

1 Productive discussion 2 An uneventful meeting 3 A concluded meeting

"We had a very successful meeting"

Supply-Side

1 The rich and powerful

          2 The upper class

3 High income earners

          4 The wealthy

"Supply-side tax cuts benefit the well off and my trickle down to everyone else"

Surplused

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment

"The firm surplused several people"

Suspend Operations

1 The temporary interruption of normal business activity 2 The permanent closing of an office or plant

"We will suspend operations for now"

Switching gears

1 Changing the pace 2 Changing the topic

"Next week we will be switching gears"

Synergy

1 A common attribute 2 The combination of two things could produce more with fewer employees and/or plant and equipment

"The synergy from the merger will lead to some savings"

T

Take care of your concerns

1 To overcome objections and/or questions 2 Explanations suffice in place of answers

"Let me take care of your concerns"

Take charge of

1 To take responsibility for an activity 2 To guide the activity

"Please take charge of this project"

Take a position

1 Have an opinion 2 Have a point of view

"We will take a position on that issue"

Take questions

1 Listen to questions from one or more people 2 Some response may be offered to each question but none is promised

"I will now take questions"

Task force

1 A group of employees given the responsibility to research some aspect of a firm's business

"The task force recommended this change"

Team player

1 Someone who goes along with policies and gets along with others

"He is a good team player"

Termination

1 The firing of an employee who will not be hired back

"He was given his termination"

Tight supply and demand

1 A rising price due to both a high demand and a low supply

"We can charge more because of the Tight supply and demand"

Timely

1 At a time anywhere near when it is needed

"It is a very timely report"

Title sponsor

1 The firm after which something is named. Firms frequently attach their name to buildings, stadiums, tournaments, and other structures and events

"They are our title sponsor"

Top line

1 Gross revenues to a firm

"We need to grow our top line"

Track the project

1 Keep management informed of progress made. Management may feel that the project may not be completed on time

"We must track the project until completion"

Tremendous contribution

1 Great help in the accomplishment 2 Help from someone who may have been one of many in a group

"Thanks for your tremendous contribution"

Trim costs

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment with a minimum reduction in production

"We need to trim costs"

Trim fat

1 The firing of employees and/or the reduction of plant and equipment. These were non productive inputs

"We can trim fat to increase profits"

U

Use it in conjunction with

1 Compatible to some degree 2 Not a seamless integration

"You can use it in conjunction with our product"

V

Value add

1 Benefit 2 Help

"Where is the value add in having purchasing's opinion?"

Vesting period

1 The number of years before an employee owns his employer paid benefit 2 The percent owned by the employee that grows over the entire period. This increase is rarely steady and can be from 0 to 10 years or more

"The 401k has a 7 year vesting period"

Viable

1 Able to last for a least a while

"It is still viable "

W

Want you to feel

1 Ask you to believe 2 A desire to be believed with little evidence offered

"I want you to feel this"

Weak market

1 Price is falling due to a low demand

"We can not sell more because of the weak market"

Well behaved price

1 Stable price 2 A price that is little changed 3 A price which is not falling or rising over time

"We can predict our costs because of the well behaved prices"

Well positioned

1 Desired by customers 2 A claim to satisfy customer's needs

"Our product is well positioned"

Whittle a department away

1 Slowly close a part of a firm 2 To gradually fire all the employees in a section of the firm

"We must whittle a department away to save money"

Wider context

1 A broader point of view 2 Looking at other related topics.

"It is not so important in a wider context"

Work to make it happen

1 Do all that is necessary to obtain the desired result 2 Do what little may be needed to be done 3 Do nothing to prevent the desired result

"Let's all work to make it happen"

X

Y

Your take

1 Opinion 2 Point of view

"Give me your take"

Z

I want to be a T.V.

Taken from PMIMC News later

A teacher from Primary School asks her students to write an essay about what they would like God to do for them...
At the end of the day while marking the essays, she read one that made her very emotional.
Her husband, who had just walked in saw her crying and asked her: 'What happened?'
She answered, 'Read this. It's one of my student's essays.
"Oh God, tonight I ask you something very special: Make me into a television. I want to take its place. Live like the TV in my house. Have my own special place, And have my family around ME. To be taken seriously when I talk.... I want to be the center of attention and be heard without Interruptions or questions. I want to receive the same special care that the TV receives when it is not working. Have the company of my dad when he arrives home from work, even when he is tired.
And I want my mom to want me when she is sad and upset, instead of ignoring me... And... I want my brothers to fight to be with me... I want to feel that family just leaves everything aside, every now and then, just to spend some time with me. And last but not least make it that I can make them all happy and entertain them...
Lord I don't ask you for much... I just want to live like every TV."
At that moment the husband said:- 'My God, poor kid. What horrible parents!'
She looked up at him and said:- 'That essay is our son's!!!'

Think about this before its too late. This can happen to anyone of us. Take good care of the most beautiful gift that god has given to Human Being. Your Child!!!

SOA: Overview

A service-oriented architecture is essentially a collection of services. These services communicate with each other. The communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting services to each other is needed. Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first
service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use of DCOM or Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification.
ServicesIf a service-oriented architecture is to be effective, we need a clear understanding of the term service. A service is a function that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services.
ConnectionsThe technology of Web services is the most likely connection technology of service-oriented architectures. Web services essentially use XML to create a robust connection.

How to move to consulting?

Once I was interested in consulting and started thinking to join any consulting organization. During course of the finding the nature of a consultant, I came to know following stuff which are basic requirement of becoming a consultant
You have to become an expert in your subject matter, Take on challenging projects, and Become creative in finding solutions to problems. Attend courses in areas you feel you are deficient, read up on the blogs, get involved in forums, read pdf / books on consulting (i.e. The McKinsey Way and Trusted Advisor, Dangerous Company on “infamous” cases by leading consulting firms.
Take a look at past project documents in your organizations. Look for the original request for proposal (RFP), your company’s response to the proposal and the final solution documents. Try to understand what the challenges were , how they were solved and what the client feedback was.
Work with your business analysts to see how they are capturing client requirements and how they are working with clients to get more information on areas that need digging deeper. Get involved in pre-sales activity such as preparing proposals, meeting clients along with the sales or account teams. Volunteer yourself in writing proposals to get some first hand exposure to “understanding what clients want, formulating a solution and influencing them to buy form you”. These are key skills. Read, understand and  practice the 10 important attributes of a consultant. Network in your organization at company events and seek out consulting practice delivery managers. Tell them about your interest in consulting and tell them how what you have done to prepare yourself.
Look at job listings in your company jobs database and apply. However, reaching out to practice leaders may be more effective.
Have a good future in consulting job!

Documentation as one of your deliverables

Document these sorts of things

• Requirements (features): Early on in the project, you should define what the client wants the product to do in specific terms. You can generate some requirements initially from brainstorming, but you should also engage your client in nailing down specific use cases to ferret out more detailed requirements. Also, explore all of the edge cases and exceptions that you can. This document should evolve with the project, because you can never know everything up front. Make sure you keep it up to date, because it should serve as the basis for testing and user documentation. The requirements doc can usually become the system documentation at the end of the project.
• Constraints: Make sure to express the limits imposed upon the project. What won’t it do? What minimum versions of other software does it need? What features that similar systems might provide are being intentionally excluded from this one? You can often include these constraints as part of the requirements doc.
• Commitments: The project schedule needs more than a verbal OK, and so does the allocation of resources. Write it down, whether it’s your commitment or theirs. You don’t necessarily need a formal document — email can work, as long as you can verify receipt and keep it organized for quick retrieval.
• Implementation: You should comment code, but only comment the non-obvious. You should assume that the person reading the comments is capable of reading the code, and avoid explaining commonly used algorithms or features of the language (unless they’re esoteric). You should explain “tricks” that might deceive the reader, and algorithms that may be difficult to understand. Most importantly, you should document your intentions — the “why” instead of the “what” or “how”.
• Documentation: Yes, you should document your documentation. Provide a map, so when the next person comes looking for something, they’ll know where to look. This can be as simple as a single web page that links to all of the project’s related documents.

What thorough documentation provides you and your client

• You know what you’ve got and what you don’t have.
• You’ve set clear expectations, so you reduce or eliminate unpleasant surprises.
• When someone comes along later to add a new feature, they can tell what’s going on (even when that someone is you).

Include documentation in your contract

Documentation doesn’t magically appear by itself, and I’ve never seen any evidence of the rumored Documentation Elves. So you need to allocate time in the project for writing documentation at all stages. Your client needs to be on board with that resource commitment, so include documentation as one of your deliverables in your contract. It’s a vital part of the product.