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Boiling the IT Frog:
How to Make Your Business Information Technology Wildly Successful Without Having to Learn Anything Technical
A book available from Amazon.com for just $19.95
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I've always believed that IT is more about people than about technology, and that most IT problems come from misunderstandings between business and technology people. Wouldn't it be great if there was a book that IT people could give to their business customers to help explain the issues faced by IT organizations? I've always thought so, but I couldn't find such a book, so I wrote one myself.
I've put some of the most important things I've learned during my thirty-plus years of IT experience into a 183-page book that's written in business language (no technical gibberish). It doesn't explain the technology itself – there are lots of books that do that – it instead describes the critical aspects of IT management that business people need to understand, including answers to questions like:
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Why does software – which doesn't wear out – have to be maintained?
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Why does IT infrastructure cost so much?
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Why can't I specify a project's scope, cost and schedule?
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How do we select the best projects for the business?
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How can we assure project success?
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How can we better define business requirements?
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How should IT be measured?
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Why do we need an IT strategy, and how do we create one?
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Should our IT be outsourced? Offshored?
- What responsibilities should IT have? Should business have?
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Why can't I understand what my IT people tell me?
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Why isn't Information Technology simple?
This book explains all of the things about IT that business people really need to know. This isn't the technical stuff; it's the IT issues caused by various factors outside the control of the IT group – the things that tend to make IT unsuccessful no matter who the people are in the IT or business roles. Take these factors into account in your planning, and your business IT will become wildly successful.
And as an added benefit, IT people reading the book can find out why their jobs are so difficult and unappreciated, and how to make those jobs more enjoyable.
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Hint: Order copies for members of your IT staff and for your most important customers.
This book will help you open up a whole new level of communication between the business and IT.
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More Detail
Here's the Table of Contents from the book, along with a list of the 44 IT secrets I explain in the book. I'm revealing these secrets here because there is a lot more information in the book. I go into detail on every one of the secrets, giving reasons why the secrets are true, providing you with examples, and telling you how to improve things in your own organization. For example, I give you specific instructions for creating an IT strategy, I tell you why most IT projects fail and how to avoid that failure, I explain exactly why IT is viewed as so complex, I give you the criteria for an outsourcing or offshoring decision, and I describe the most common division of roles and responsibilities between IT and the business. There is a huge amount of detail in the book, and it's all written in clear business language.
Does this stuff seem simple? Sure – that's what makes it so powerful. But how many organizations are actually following the advice in the 44 secrets? If you are, then you probably have great IT. (Click here to take a 20-question test to see if you do.) But most people aren't taking advantage of the 44 secrets in their business – even though they're easy to understand and implement – and that's why so many business people complain about IT.
Read this book, and make your IT wildly successful! Click here to order your copy of Boiling the IT Frog from Amazon.com
Book Table of Contents and a List of the 44 Secrets
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Introduction: We’re Off to See the Wizard
Pulling Back the Curtain
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Who Should Read This Book
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This is not a technical book.
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How to Get the Most Value from this Book
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Chapter 1: Poof, There It Is!
Magic in IT isn’t a Good Thing
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Secret 1: Technology that crosses the line into magic leads to unreasonable trust, illogical thinking, and inappropriate wizardry.
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Secret 2: New technology always disappoints before it succeeds.
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Chapter 2: In IT We Trust?
Without Trust, IT is Useless
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Secret 3: Information Technology is all about infrastructure, projects, maintenance, strategy, and trust.
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Secret 4: If your company doesn’t have a mutually trusting relationship with its IT organization, then IT won’t be successful.
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Chapter 3: The Stuff Inside Your Walls
IT Infrastructure
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Secret 5: IT infrastructure is just like the stuff inside the walls of your house.
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Secret 6: There is no “right” amount of money to spend on IT infrastructure.
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Secret 7: Almost any software and hardware will work in the short term, but you’ll see the difference in the long term.
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Secret 8: The fewer Information Technology products you have, the better off you’ll be, as long as you’ve chosen good products.
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Chapter 4: Keeping the Pipes Clean
Optimizing your IT Infrastructure
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Secret 9: Keeping software users up-to-date on current versions is much more difficult than you’d think.
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Secret 10: If you’re going to use off-the-shelf software, then use the business processes that come with it. Otherwise you’re just paving the cow paths.
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Secret 11: The biggest revolution in Information Technology in years is in the area of middleware, integration broker technology, and web services.
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Chapter 5: Think of a Number Between 1 and 1,000
Picking the Right Projects
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Secret 12: A key to successful IT projects is selecting the right projects to do. A bad project selection process will lead you to the wrong projects.
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Secret 13: Using Return on Investment (ROI) for project selection is a ticket to failure unless some stringent rules for calculating ROI are put in place.
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Secret 14: Adding strategic alignment to the project selection process ensures that IT projects move the company in the right direction.
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Chapter 6: You Want It When?
Making Projects Successful
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Secret 15: Good project management is asking the right questions.
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Secret 16: All projects have risk. Good projects deal with it, and bad projects just hope for the best.
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Secret 17: Most projects fail for the same reasons.
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Chapter 7: It’s Not Just Like Tuning Up the Car
Maintenance — Keeping up with Business Change
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Secret 18: Software “maintenance” follows different rules from hardware maintenance, and should be planned and budgeted differently.
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Chapter 8: Are We There Yet?
Creating an IT Strategy
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Secret 19: An IT organization without an IT strategy is like a sailing ship without a destination; it’s anybody’s guess where you’re going or when you’ll get there. But pick a destination, and you’ll begin to see progress.
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Secret 20: The IT organization should actively participate in setting business strategy in order to leverage their technology expertise for maximum business benefit.
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Chapter 9: Can Nine Women Have a Baby in a Month?
QCSS — Pick Three
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Secret 21: When you define the requirements for a project, you can’t specify quality, cost, schedule and scope; only three of the four can be required, and the other variable is dependent on the process being used for the project.
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Secret 22: Adding more resources to an IT project (especially one that’s running late) can make it take longer.
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Chapter 10: How’d We Get into this Mess?
Why isn’t Information Technology Simple?
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Secret 23: Information Technology seems more complex than it has to be.
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Chapter 11: Simple, Simpler, Simplest
How to Simplify Information Technology
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Secret 24: The easiest way to simplify technology is to not use it at all.
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Secret 25: Lack of focus leads to unnecessary complexity. Follow the 80-20 Rule to focus on the important things, and your IT will be simpler.
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Secret 26: Systems are unwieldy and complex because we let them get that way. To make systems simpler, keep project scope under control.
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Secret 27: Systems that are built in layers are much easier to manage and change.
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Chapter 12: Your System was Bad Today
Building a Partnership
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Secret 28: The Information Technology organization is your partner in creating and managing systems and data, with shared responsibilities.
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Secret 29: Emotionally, it’s more difficult to deal with a system problem that you inherit in a new job.
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Chapter 13: Parlez vous Anglais?
Dealing with IT People
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Secret 30: IT people are very focused on the how, not on the what. The most common mistakes they’ll make are errors caused by doing the wrong things, not by doing things wrong.
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Secret 31: The best way to communicate with an IT organization is to talk to members of the organization as if they’re from a foreign country and don’t speak English very well.
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Secret 32: Motivate an IT organization the same way you’d motivate any other organization, by measuring its contribution to business success.
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Chapter 14: Sprechen sie Business?
Dealing with Business People
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Secret 33: Although business people want long-term success, they easily get caught up in the apparent urgency of shorter-term goals. The most common mistakes they’ll make are errors caused by a focus on inappropriate shorter-term goals.
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Secret 34: Like IT people, some business people are also somewhat focused on the how, but often inappropriately so. Overly-specific definition of system requirements by the business is a leading cause of excessive IT spending and low IT morale.
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Secret 35: Good IT analysis work can ensure that the real problem is being solved – not just a symptom. But a business focus on symptoms will prevent work on the real problems.
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Secret 36: Telling someone in the IT organization about a problem doesn’t mean that the IT organization is committed to fix it; but business people tend to see things that way.
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Secret 37: The best way for IT to communicate with a business user is by using the language of the business – not the language of IT.
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Chapter 15: Have Your “Guy” Do It
Should IT be Outsourced? Offshored?
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Secret 38: Parts of IT can be outsourced or offshored, but it’s a business decision, with risks and rewards.
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Chapter 16: Who’s the Designated Driver?
How to Improve Your IT Organization
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Secret 39: When you look past the technology itself, IT is all about change: changing the business in ways that make it more efficient and effective.
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Secret 40: To increase the effectiveness of an IT organization, align direction, leadership and resources.
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Secret 41: Achieve your IT objectives faster by focusing on what’s truly important. Focus includes preventing work on things that aren’t relevant or productive.
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Secret 42: To increase the efficiency of an IT organization, optimize people, processes, and tools.
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Secret 43: To achieve IT objectives which are important but not critical, take advantage of your company’s “wind direction.”
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Chapter 17: Putting It All Together
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Secret 44: We wouldn’t be where we are if we’d planned it; but now that we’re here, we don’t have to stay.
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Endnotes
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Acknowledgements
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Index
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About the Author
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| “This commonsense managerial guide is a page-turner. At 183 pages, the book only takes about four hours to read. However, it manages to impart a great deal of wisdom in a short time. I said 'Wow, that makes sense' at least once a chapter.”
an IT Manager for a U.S. manufacturing company
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| Click here to read the full book review |
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| “Harwell Thrasher's new book can help you demystify technology for your CEO.”
July 23, 2007 Cover of Computerworld
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| Click here to read the Computerworld article |
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| “If you work in IT and are frustrated by the lack of understanding and unreasonable expectations of your department, or just want to facilitate common sense conversation between business and IT, start saving now for your Secret Santa shopping list -- and put Thrasher's book on it.”
Brad Kenney, in his 8/24/07 IndustryWeek Information Technology newsletter
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| Click here to read the IndustryWeek article |
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Reader Comments (send me your comments on the book)
“I Love This Book!
Thanks for a clear concise book that speaks to me at exactly my level. I work in an industry where I don’t often have the opportunity to interface with other IT organizations and it’s comforting to know that I’m not alone! I found several ideas to implement by the time I reached the end of the 2nd chapter.”
- Bob Ruckle, Director of IT, The L & L Company, Inc., Manassas, VA, USA
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“I really like your writing style – humorous, candid, thought provoking, and insightful.”
- Dave Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Management Information Systems Department, Terry College of Business, The University of Georgia |
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About the Author
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| Harwell Thrasher has spent over 30 years working in and around IT organizations: as a developer of information systems, as a manager of software development groups, and as a technology vice-president. Harwell has worked for major companies, including Digital Equipment Corporation (now part of Hewlett-Packard) and Ceridian Corporation (originally called Control Data Corporation). He's done technology due diligence for over twenty corporate acquisitions in the United States, Canada, the U.K., and Switzerland. He's been a speaker at the Microsoft CIO Summit, and at meetings of numerous technical and non-technical societies. He's seen systems come and go, organizations succeed and fail, and leaders make a difference or get fired. He's seen the difference between mediocre IT and effective IT. Now you can benefit from his experience. |
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You can be quoted in Inc. Magazine
Inc. Magazine is interested in doing an article on small and medium businesses who have seen improvement in their relationship with IT as a result of some of the solutions described in my book. If you work in a US-based small or medium business, and you would like to see your business mentioned in Inc. magazine, just:
1. Buy my book.
2. Use some of the techniques from the book to improve the relationship between IT and the business.
3. Send me an email with contact information so that I can put you in touch with Inc. Magazine.
Everyone gains: you improve your IT relationship, your company gets publicity, and you get your name in a national publication.
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Testimonials
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“...Your article was thought-provoking and value-for-money.”
– Dr Paul M. Wright, Head of European Operations, CAI Europe Ltd |
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| “Informative and well organized. The process and structure helped me present my issues to my executives.”– Robert D. Peate, Global Director of Information Technology for MKS Instruments, Inc. |
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“Great article ... very thought provoking”
– John Woolbright, Senior VP and CTO, Synovus Financial Corp |
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“... great reading. I was doing IT due diligence of some banks for a consortium and needed to get a feel of the state of the art – I wasn’t disappointed. Thanks for making it so easy to follow.”
– Tajudeen Balogun, CEO, Infosol Ltd, Nigeria |
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“... excellent column ...”
– Mitch Betts, Executive Editor, ComputerWorld |
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“Harwell is one of those rare individuals who has both great vision and the ability to get things done. His leadership, forward thinking and deep understanding of technology resulted in several state-of-art business applications that have gone on to become mission critical systems at Ceridian.”
– Robert Bazzini, President of Bazzini Consulting and former VP and GM at Ceridian Corporation |
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“I enjoyed reading your critique of my article.”
– Nicholas Carr, author of the 5/2003 Harvard Business Review article “IT Doesn’t Matter” |
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