Question, is it worth keeping such an employee on staff? Do employees like this provide value to a team or are they more trouble than they are worth?

Example, you have an employee that is a great technologist. When there is a fire he is the first one in and resolves the issue. When there are no fires, he struggles or most times does not provide the mundane information to monitor the environment. For example, documentation diagrams, KPIs, etc. So other employees have to pick up the slack.

There have been various methods used to tell this employee what is expected. From goal settings, to individual one-to-one meetings, to plain this is how it needs to be done. Yet very little improvement.

So this begs the question, does this employee’s value in a crisis outweigh his value overall to the team and department?

I am not a believer in magic or the so called “evil eye”. I would think if such things did exist we would hear about it more often. I equate such things to Big Foot or UFOs. Nice to hear and get a laugh but I don’t lose much sleep over it.

Recently, I was cleaning my son’s crib and discovered an unusual colored cloth with some black thread wrapped in it. I thought it was odd and brought it to my wife’s attention thinking the delivery people left something they should not have. My wife quickly grabbed it and told me it was to protect the baby. “Protect the baby!” I said. “Protect him from what?” She said, “The evil eye”.

Being the inquisitive (or as my wife likes to call it — being an a**hole) person I am, I wanted to learn more. He is only 3 months old and has barely been out of the house. Why would anyone give him the “stink eye”? My wife was unable to give a direct answer let alone a name of who she thinks might do such an outrageous thing.

She quickly placed the cloth back under the mattress and told me not to touch it. Having learned to choose my battles, this was one that was not worth the headache.

So my son sleeps over an oddly colored piece of cloth and thread which is supposed to protect him from the evil people intend on causing him. I wish all things in life could be so simple….

Here are some real world examples:

1. User – “I cannot my desktop on my monitor. “ Helpdesk – “Have you pressed a key and moved your mouse? Maybe your PC is in hibernation.” User – “Yes but still nothing.” Helpdesk –“Is your monitor turned on?” User – “How do turn it on?” Helpdesk – “Push the power button on the lower right of the monitor.” User – “Ohh. I see a green light and now my desktop appears.”

2. User – “My phone is not ringing.” Helpdesk-“How do you know it is not ringing?” User – “I see it flash but no sound.” Helpdesk – “Is your ringer turned off.” User-“Yes”. Helpdesk –“That is the reason why you do not hear it ringing.”

3. User – “I don’t have internet access.” Helpdesk –“Can you give further details?” User – “When I go to Explorer and type Yahoo. It says page cannot be displayed.” Helpdesk – “Have you tried other sites?” User – “No.” Helpdesk – “Try typing yahoo.com.” User – “Amazing! Thanks for turning my internet back on.”

Just another day on the front lines of the technological jungle….

will fit our business. In evaluating the functionality of each system we ran into the problem that for the most part each system under review performed a similar function.

We therefore looked at how the systems match each of our business processes. We documented each process in a variety of swim-lane diagrams that shows the major areas/systems the process touches and the end result. It was a worthwhile endeavor that gave tremendous insight into broken processes. We then developed a series of requirements and from there built a matrix with our “current state” and “target state”. Our target state being where we want to be with all the bells and whistles.

We took this information and built a matrix with Actions required and assigned a Value and Score. The score is internal this this project but can be changed accordingly. Below is a sample to give you an idea.

For CIOs, trying to compare systems, utilizing a score card approach give insight into what direction to take beyond using just cost and functionality information.

We have been to a few family functions recently due to the holidays. On these occasions, there is always the big camera guy who whips out his $3000 camera and 6 foot lens to snap a few family pictures of uncle and aunty cutting the birthday cake. We are not looking for a portrait that should be hanging in the National Gallery but a snap that captures the moment. I was amazed  how bad some of the pictures turned out–blurry, framed incorrectly, useless…. Thank god for iPhoto to help clean up some of these mistakes. Others, many others, ended up in my trash can.

I learned to take pictures with a 35mm film camera my parents both for $50. Which to this day I still have and enjoy taking the occasional filmed photograph. Outside of the cost of development I would still use it today because I think it captures the true essence of color of your subject. The ease and use of digital makes it easy for people to take pictures but to be honest it makes it almost too easy. I have delete hundreds of bad pictures from wannabe photojournalist. I did take the occasional ooops picture but I was more careful when I pressed the shutter.  However, with technology today it makes it too easy to take worthless pictures. Technology makes it too easy for the casual amateur photographer to think he is the next Ansel Adams.

If you are going to own an expense camera, a very expense one at that,  it should come with some type of requirement for you to learn how to use it to take proper pictures. Or at least tell your family that of the 600 pictures you have just taken of Uncle Fred cutting the cake, 400 of them will need to be deleted.

Management and Planning

Objective 1

The staff responsibilities to information systems environment are assigned to specialized personnel.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to not knowing and/or too many responsibilities associated to information systems.

Objective 2

The strategies about information systems, development plans and budget are mapped according to the strategic goal and company business.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the design, purchase/construction, development and system operations not responding to the company and business needs.

Objective 3

The selection of a service provider is based on company policies.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unsuitable service and inaccurate generated information, vulnerable or lack of integrity.

Objective 4

The services levels given by the provider are consistent with the Management expectations.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unsuitable service and inaccurate generated information, vulnerable or lack of integrity.

Objective 5

Users receive correct formation in use and handling the information systems.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead the incorrect use of information assets, which could cause generated information, were inaccurate, vulnerable or lacks of integrity.

Physical and Logical Security

Objective 1

Tools and security techniques are implemented and set up with the purpose of assuring a correct logical techniques level, narrowing the access to the programs, data and other information sources only for authorized persons.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unauthorized access and possible exposure, theft, modification, damage or loss of information, due to absence of proper policies, the lack of implementation of these measures on information systems and ignorance on the part of users of safety standards.

Objective 2

Tools and security logical techniques are implemented to monitor and control actions on information systems.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to lack of control made actions on information systems, with possible impact in information confidentially, integrity and availability.

Objective 3

Information systems are correctly protected against external attacks and/or malicious codes.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unauthorized access and possible exposure, theft, modification, damage or loss of information.

Objective 4

Tools and security are implemented to allow access to information systems only to authorized users.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unauthorized access and possible exposure, theft, modification, damage or loss of information, due to an incorrect access profiles management.

Objective 5

All information resources are fixed by a correct security control, access to critical areas are restricted to authorized personnel.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to unauthorized access and possible exposure, theft, modification, damage or loss of information, as well as failures or incidences in information systems working and other disaster or extraordinary accidents.

Objective 6

All company information resources are identified and managed.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead the incorrect of fraudulent use of equipment and/or data they have, leading in a possible exposure, theft, modification, damage or loss of information.

Applications Development and Maintenance

Objective 1

Development or maintenance applications of projects are consistent with the management’s intention.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the design, purchase/construction and systems development not responsive to the end users’ needs.

Objective 2

Migration process of replaced old applications is carried out accurately and completely.

Deficiencies in this objective could negatively impact information integrity and validity.

Infrastructures Operations and Maintenance

Objective 1

Infrastructure development or maintenance projects (database software, networks, equipment) are in consistent with the management’s intentions.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to changes not responsive to the users’ needs.

Objective 2

Technological infrastructure are correctly identified and supported.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the changes not responses to the users’ needs, as well as a possible loss of knowledge in information assets.

Objective 3

Information systems levels of service providers are consistent with the management’s expectations.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the information systems not working correctly, resulting in potential risk to the availability of the information.

Objective 4

In disaster case, every essential business processes are recoverable in a defined time.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the information integrity and availability, due to incomplete, inaccurate or no recoverable data.

Objective 5

The information is kept in accordance to company laws, regulations and politics, could be recoverable, in case.

Deficiencies in this objective could lead to the information integrity and availability, be incomplete, inaccurate or not recoverable data.

CIOs are privy to a lot of information that we come across during our everyday processes and during executive meetings. That is just the nature of the beast and part of carrying the chief in your title. As the conversation devolved into this maligning gossip I quickly recognized what was occurring and stayed quiet. I was hoping that the person would recognize that one I was uncomfortable and two due to my position could not and should not participate in such talk.

Eventually I had to say that I had no comment on the matter and walked away.

I have zero tolerance for gossip in the work place. When I hear it or get wind of it, I tune out. From my experience gossip sessions have a tendency of sweeping everyone into it like a tsunami. And as it builds momentum your name becomes associated with it indirectly.

It is best in the long-run to stay clear, very clear from it.

As we began the process to move away from our cloud solution, we discovered we had a problem. The years of data that were backed up were irretrievable. The amount of data could not be downloaded over the internet without the connection failing and even if we were able to download we estimated two weeks of 24×7 downloads to try and retrieve our data. And the data will be in a jumble without rhyme or reason. What a dilemma! The vendor proved no help. As far as they were concerned if we wanted to move, it was up to us to get our data out. In essence our data was being held hostage.

Our plan (not ideal) was to keep our data in the cloud for the foreseeable future; no additional capacity will be purchased. As equipment begin to be decommissioned, the cloud backups will be deleted in accordance with our tape backup/data retention policies.  This will help us not have to download years and years of data.

Be cautious moving things into a cloud solution. Make sure you understand the risks involved not only in the short-term but also the long very long-term.

So when Martha Heller approached me to read an advanced copy of her new book The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership it felt more like homework.  I am thought to myself here is yet another step‑by‑step guide. And that is where I was wrong – very wrong.

The CIO Paradox by Martha Heller

For those of you who are not familiar with Martha; for over a decade, she has established herself as a figure in IT leadership. She is President of Heller Search Associates, a Boston-based firm specializing in recruiting CIOs and other IT executives across multiple industries. She is probably best known as a Founder and Managing Director of CIO magazine’s CIO Executive Council, a professional organization for CIOs. It was here that she developed leadership programs for CIOs and directed the CIO Best Practice Exchange, a member-only network of CIOs from top-tier organizations. She continues to engage with CIO audiences through CIO Paradox column, as author of CIO.com’s Movers & Shakers blog, and author of You and Your CIO, a blog on CFO.com.

As a CIO for some time, I often read articles and books but never anything that truly captures the essence of what it means to be a CIO. Does this sound familiar:

• “Your many successes are invisible; your few mistakes are highly visible.”
• “You were hired to be strategic, but spend most of your time on operational issues.”
• “You are the steward of risk mitigation and cost containment, yet you are expected to innovate.”
• “IT can make or break a company, but CIOs rarely sit on corporate boards.”
• “You develop successors, yet the CEO almost always goes outside to find the next CIO.”
• “Technology is a long-term investment, but the company thinks in quarters.”

In the book, Martha posits the collection of CIO paradoxes into four larger categories addressing the multi-faceted influence CIOs have on a company. Below are some of the key paradoxes influencing companies today through the perspective of IT executives that Martha has talked with:

1. The CIO Role: You’re Damned If You Do, and You’re Damned If You Don’t

The mindset surrounding how the CIO should function is based on traditional approaches that limit true innovation. For example, our current era grants CIOs the opportunity to drive serious breakthroughs, but this prospect does not decrease the need for cost efficiencies.

2. The Stakeholders: Will the Business Ever Love IT?

As the business and employees get smarter about technology, the more they dislike IT. This is seen when CIOs are intimately involved in every facet of the business, yet they often don’t get a seat at the table.

3. The CIO’s Staff: They Just Don’t Make Them Like That

Recruiting and developing a core of well-rounded IT professionals is laden with structural obstacles and unrealistic expectations. When a rapidly developing field such as technology hasn’t evolved its recruitment process since the dot-com bust, you know there’s a problem.

4. The Future: What’s Next for the CIO?

The forecast of current and future CIOs is a multidimensional one that can negotiate assumptions for demand. A clear example of this is when the CIO role meets many of the specialties a corporate board values, yet CIOs are rarely appointed a seat.

The CIO Paradox is a book for the everyday CIO. The CIO who is in the trenches dealing with these paradoxes each and everyday. It is a good read with just the right amount of humor and wit to engage and captivate.  This is not average boring IT book….

First – Work has just gotten really busy and there have been a few issues that required me to put in extra hours. In my old age, those late nights require me to take longer to recuperate.

Second – My weekends have been spent attending weddings, birthday parties, and the occasional family visit requiring me to be an unofficial tour guide.

Third and most importantly – My wife and I are expecting our first child. So we are eagerly preparing our house for our new arrival.

We recently visited the doctor’s office for our first full body ultrasound of our baby. I must admit I was a little intimated by the ultrasound machine. Having worked  in datacenters the size of football fields filled with blade servers, main frames, and generators the size of locomotives, I was humbled by this ultra sound machine the size of a small desk that was able to peer into my wife’s stomach and show us our precious little one in 3D.

It is rare for me to be impressed with technology these days but this did. With a small scanner the technician was able to see every finger and bump in what appeared to me to be a bad black and white picture. But everything was there and measurements and even weighted were calculated.

As I sat in the room and watched it on a 45inch lcd screen next to my wife I couldn’t help but say to myself, “Damn this is really really cool”. I often forget that technology is more than processing and storage. It can be and should be used for things like this. To peer inside and give parents that feeling that everything is going well and to not be afraid of what is about to come.

I have been having problems over the last year with both my TV signal and Internet. During critical time of watching “Game of Thrones” my TV signal with pixelate and skip causing my wife and I to miss key parts of the story. She was not happy about this. My cable modem on the other hand would lose connectivity again when the wife needed it the most.

I called Cablevision and to their credit they did try and fix the TV issues by digging up my front lawn and replacing an underground cable. I had the modem replaced several times with what looked like a very large car battery (I was under the impression technology should get smaller and thinner not bigger and fatter). Again the Mrs. was not happy about this. But we suffered through and called Cablevision every time we had and issue. It got to the point where we had them on speed dial and customer support knew our name.

A few weeks back Verizon had a deal going on where I could get a TV, Internet, and Phone for a cheaper price then what I was paying Cablevision . I did some research and talked to my neighbors that had Verizon and the reviews were overall favorable. I live in neighborhood where we have several choices for providers so switching is not difficult.

So I made the call, scheduled the appointment and last week had Verizon install the services. 6 hours later we had a Verizon lit house. As a technologist I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the services.

My TVs are showing in true HD. I can see every wrinkle and freckle. The TV guide provides so much information about every show. Navigation is a little complicated but it is nice to have options and different ways to get around.

As for the Internet, I got bumped up to 50mb/20mb and I am getting true speeds all day every day. There are no peak times where my service degrades.  Configuration is done all thru Verizon provided software.

Overall the move was worth it. Let’s see how it goes over the next 2 years and what the increase in my contract will be. Being able to do more with my TV and Internet is always a plus.