In my previous post, I focused on Program and Project Management in the Public Interest, and the characteristics of its environment, especially from the perspective of the government program and acquisition disciplines. The purpose of this exploration is to lay the groundwork for understanding the future of program management—and the resulting technological and organizational challenges that are required to support that change.
The next part of this exploration is to define the motivations, characteristics, and disciplines of private industry equivalencies. Here there are commonalities, but also significant differences, that relate to the relationship and interplay between public investment, policy and acquisition, and private business interests.
data visualization
Shake it Out – Embracing the Future in Program Management – Part One: Program and Project Management in the Public Interest
I heard the song from which I derived the title to this post sung by Florence and the Machine and was inspired to sit down and write about what I see as the future in program management.
Thus, my blogging radio silence has ended as I begin to process and share my observations and essential achievements over the last couple of years.
My company—the conduit that provides the insights I share here—is SNA Software LLC. We are a small, veteran-owned company and we specialize in data capture, transformation, contextualization and visualization. We do it in a way that removes significant effort in these processes, ensures reliability and trust, to incorporate off-the-shelf functionality that provides insight, and empowers the user by leveraging the power of open systems, especially in program and project management.
Program and Project Management in the Public Interest
There are two aspects to the business world that we inhabit: commercial and government; both, however, usually relate to some aspect of the public interest, which is our forte.
There are also two concepts about this subject to unpack.
(more…)Innervisions: The Connection Between Data and Organizational Vision
During my day job I provide a number of fairly large customers with support to determine their needs for software that meets the criteria from my last post. That is, I provide software that takes an open data systems approach to data transformation and integration. My team and I deliver this capability with an open user interface based on Windows and .NET components augmented by time-phased and data management functionality that puts SMEs back in the driver’s seat of what they need in terms of analysis and data visualization. In virtually all cases our technology obviates the need for the extensive, time consuming, and costly services of a data scientist or software developer.
(more…)Potato, Potahto, Tomato, Tomahto: Data Normalization vs. Standardization, Why the Difference Matters
In my vocation I run a technology company devoted to program management solutions that is primarily concerned with taking data and converting it into information to establish a knowledge-based environment. Similarly, in my avocation I deal with the meaning of information and how to turn it into insight and knowledge. This latter activity concerns the subject areas of history, sociology, and science.
In my travels just prior to and since the New Year, I have come upon a number of experts and fellow enthusiasts in these respective fields. The overwhelming numbers of these encounters have been productive, educational, and cordial. We respectfully disagree in some cases about the significance of a particular approach, governance when it comes to project and program management policy, but generally there is a great deal of agreement, particularly on basic facts and terminology. But some areas of disagreement–particularly those that come from left field–tend to be the most interesting because they create an opportunity to clarify a larger issue.
In a recent venue I encountered this last example where the issue was the use of the phrase data normalization. The issue at hand was that the use of “data normalization” suggested some statistical methodology in reconciling data into a standard schema. Instead, it was suggested, the term “data standardization” was more appropriate.
(more…)I Can See Clearly Now — Knowledge Discovery in Databases, Data Scalability, and Data Relevance
I recently returned from a travel and much of the discussion revolved around the issues of scalability and the use of data. What is clear is that the conversation at the project manager level is shifting from a long-running focus on reports and metrics to one focused on data and what can be learned from it. As with any technology, information technology exploits what is presented before it. Most recently, accelerated improvements in hardware and communications technology has allowed us to begin to collect and use ever larger sets of data.
(more…)The Future — Data Focus vs. “Tools” Focus
The title in this case is from the Leonard Cohen song.
Over the last few months I’ve come across this issue quite a bit and it goes to the heart of where software technology is leading us. The basic question that underlies this issue can be boiled down into the issue of whether software should be thought of as a set of “tools” or an overarching solution that can handle data in a way that the organization requires. It is a fundamental question because what we call Big Data–despite all of the hoopla–is really a relative term that changes with hardware, storage, and software scalability. What was Big Data in 1997 is not Big Data in 2016, and will not be Big Data in 2030.
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Life, Project Management, and Everything 