Great Ideas Do Not Succeed On Their Moral Authority

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Great Ideas Do Not Succeed On Their Moral
Authority

• How to assess if your great idea has legs!

Carl A. Kessler III, AVP of Security Engineering,
PNC April 04, 2009
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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• The Idea Lifecycle
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• QA

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Abstract

• Great Ideas Do Not Succeed On Their Moral
  Authority explores the challenge of taking an
  idea from sale to reality from the perspective
  of the Enterprise Architect.
• Don't we all wish that when we have a great
  architectural idea everyone would see the wisdom,
  shed tears of joy, thank us profusely and
  implement away. Unfortunately, life and big
  corporations are not like that. The larger the
  corporation, the worse it gets. We'll look at
  the key realities in an organization (not in the
  architectural solution) that affect whether an
  idea is likely to be seen through to its
  successful end. We'll talk about organizational
  structures, decision rights, financial hurdles,
  business readiness, executive sponsorship, etc.
  My goal is for you to leave this meeting with a
  few hindsight 20/20 a-has and some insights for
  how to move forward on your current efforts.

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Introduction
Take an Idea from Concept to Reality
There are different challenges at various phases
in the idea lifecycle. We will consider selling,
implementing, expanding and optimizing the
idea. You should be able to map your efforts
somewhere into this cycle. The content here is
as much from failures as it is from successes.
The Idea Lifecycle
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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Sell the Idea

• No one cares...
• Who feels the pain?
• Are you selling the right audience?
• Are their minds are at Capacity?
• Is it your fault?
• Because you're saying it.
• Get a consultant to say it!
• Because youre selling architecture.
• Sell why their life will be better
• "Sell Business Value, Not Architecture"

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Sell the Idea

• Part One How can I make them understand?!
• Could be you and your approach...
• If high-level logic doesn't work, more detailed
  logic does not work better.
• Emotion, relationships and "pain" drive action
  more reliably than a well defined argument.
• You can't move people to action unless you first
  move them with emotion. The heart comes before
  the head. -- John Maxwell
• You scare them.
• Many folks cannot detach themselves emotionally
  from a problem. This actually implies they
  understand it enough to be scared.
• Too much information. Finding the right balance
  between scaring them enough to spur action and
  scaring them into paralysis is hard. You can win
  the battle and lose the war.

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Sell the Idea

• Part Two How can I make them understand?!
• What is the personality type of the one you are
  talking to?
• Learn more at http//www.discprofile.com/whatisdi
  sc.htm
• Some folks want summary, not detail.
• Some folks want small talk, some don't.
• Some want rationale to make sure its well thought
  out.
• Some want to follow an established pattern.
• What is their maturity as relates to the idea?
• Do not underestimate this. As architects we tend
  to see several steps ahead of where we are, think
  Chess.
• We recognize patterns in virtually everything,
  including often accurately assessing where our
  organization is going before it knows its going
  there.
• Here's one of our axioms, "You can't skip levels
  of maturity, you can only accelerate through
  them."
• Does your audience have sufficient experience to
  appreciate the idea? If not, you will need to
  wait, collecting evidence in the interim to
  support your case.

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Sell the Idea

• Part One I had great support and it just died.
• Did you fail to achieve "orbital velocity" in
  time?
• Understand your IT cycle. At NCC the budget for
  next year is set in August and much of the design
  is done in 1Q if you're not in-flight by then,
  you'll get left behind.
• Don't exceed your "window of interest"?
• Often we want to have all the information
  complete and perfect, this can lead to long delay
  between management interactions which cause you
  to lose momentum.
• Are there secondary impacts you haven't
  considered?
• What do they need to do to get a higher rating?
• How are bonuses calculated?
• Does the company reward larger teams or
  "efficient/effective" teams?
• Does it shift work from on team to another?
• Show folks how this will move them to higher
  value activities.

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Sell the Idea

• Part Two I had great support and it just died.
• Did you neglect the grass roots?
• You had your 30 minutes with CIO and their direct
  reports.
• They loved it, cried tears of joy.
• Two weeks later they won't return your calls.
• What happened?
• (a) The patronized you...
• (b) Your 30 minutes were great. They went back
  to their office and over the two weeks ensuing,
  in their staff meetings, project meetings and
  one-on-ones they heard five times a day in five
  minute chunks from PLs, Architects and Developers
  that your idea was cracked.
• Develop positive "chatter" from the grass roots.

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Sell the Idea

• Bob keeps holding me back!
• Is Bob your boss?
• Yes...
• Ouch...
• Convince Bob the idea has a manageable risk level
  and will bring him credit at review time. Make
  Bob successful.
• No...
• Is Bob a person with decision authority over the
  idea?
• Yes...
• Bide your time... Wait for the right
  opportunity... Force situations that will make
  Bob reconsider his position.
• Encircle and overwhelm...
• You may not want to waste time convincing Bob
  (see next point)
• No...
• The 20/60/20 rule...
• Ignore Bob and focus on the other 80.

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Sell the Idea

• Part One Not sure about presenting my business
  case...
• You have one right?
• Dont be afraid get some training for this and
  especially ask you LoB partners if they will let
  you review their business cases.
• Is the cost quantifiable? Make sure you know the
  difference between what can be quantified and
  what you can quantify.
• What scope are you trying to sell your business
  case in?
• Project scope?
• Typically can't be done for a really good
  "enterprise" idea. Good significant
  savings.
• You will normally lose to expedience and
  "perceptions" of risk.
• Asset Life-Cycle Scope?

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Sell the Idea

• Part Two Not sure about presenting my business
  case...
• You have one right?

• Benefits
• Show how costs accelerate. "Chinese water
  torture costs." Data Center. Adding to the code
  base.
• Inconsistency drives increased management costs
  and reduced flexibility. Multiple code bases,
  FTE, multiple management tools, etc..
• Scale, scale, scale (the location, location,
  location of IT)
• Compliance, compliance, compliance (the other
  location, location, location of IT)
• Be careful of overselling flexibility if the
  business requirements don't actually call for it.

• Costs (cost to execute)
• Include true costs
• Careful not to include costs the company would
  have to incur anyway.
• The cost to remediate what is currently in
  production is too high? This is a problem in
  more mature enterprises.
• Be careful about jumping too quickly to an ELA.
• Software and hardware costs are typically less
  than half the overall cost to the organization
  when standing up a shared enterprise solution.

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Sell the Idea

• I couldn't get it funded.
• Are you asking a line of business to fund a
  shared service?
• How are enterprise efforts funded?
• How are costs recovered?

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Implement the Idea

• We ran out of funds half way through and weren't
  able to do things right.
• This is typically based on labor over runs or the
  late identification of the need for additional
  environments. Make sure you review the cost
  comments in "Sell the Idea
• You underestimated the cost to promote the
  technology and enable folks to use it.
• Folks are backing off..
• Make the technology easy for folks to adopt.
• Continue to sell, sell, sell.
• Did you start with "the willing and influential".
• Start with someone that wants to work with you
  AND can influence others for you.
• I can't keep up.
• So don't. To achieve ultimate success, the idea
  has to be passed on to others. This starts by
  delegating during the implementation. By
  teaching/delegating you make yourself more
  valuable to organization, by hoarding you make
  yourself a risk.

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Expand the Application of the Idea

• No one would adopt it.
• Review the "secondary impacts" from "Sell the
  Idea", have you dealt with them?
• Are you using the carrot or the stick?
• Can you tell if folks should be using the idea?
• I can't dispel the myth that the idea is risky.
• Be prepared to acknowledge and address the risks.
• Many people will cling to any risk, in order to
  maintain control.
• Frankly, it's kind of boring now.
• You're not the person to operationalize this,
  based on your personality type.
• I have a better idea.
• Beware of endlessly looping through "Implement
  the Idea
• Having implemented the idea once, you should know
  how you would do it better.
• Balance achieving your original value proposition
  with moving to "Gen 2".
• Architect with "versioning" in mind.

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Optimize the Idea

• Good ideas tend to make themselves obsolete. If
  nothing else, they are commoditized. Think of
  how many great ideas out there today are now
  commodity items? Take the constant innovation of
  the iPod as an example.
• Don't get to married or pigeon holed to one
  particular idea. Youre more valuable to your
  business if you can apply your skills across
  multiple domains to improve whatever you are
  assigned to.

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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What's Next?

• DO NOT use this presentation as a list of
  excuses, great ideas always face stout opposition
• DO ASSESS your environment.
• Consider a SWOT Strengths Weaknesses
  Opportunities Threats
• Cover all dimensions cultural, financial,
  maturity, political, etc.
• CREATE a plan
• Press your strengths
• Identify allies to compensate for weaknesses
• Be aware of annual budgeting cycle and be first
  to the table at the right time
• Target the influential
• If you can afford it, BE PATIENT.

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Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Sell the Idea
• Implement the Idea
• Expand the Application of the Idea
• Optimize the Idea
• What's Next?
• QA

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Q A
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Thank You!
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Authors Biography

• Carl is a native of Cleveland. He has a Bachelor
  of Science in Broadcast Journalism from Ohio
  Universitys Honors Tutorial College. After
  working for the Defense Finance Accounting
  Services Expert Systems team for six years, he
  embarked on a three year consulting gig with New
  Media (aka Brulant aka Rosetta). The .com bust
  landed him at National City Bank (now PNC) in
  1999.
• At NCC, Carl worked as an architect on
  NationalCity.com and Online Banking. After a
  brief run at systems engineering
  (infrastructure), he took a lead role in
  developing the enterprise SOA strategy. Most
  recently Carl led to a three year foray into
  architecture governance. The combination of SOA,
  governance and share service engineering at NCC
  led to over 60mm in reuse savings over the last
  three years. Carl recently accepted a position
  at PNC as the Director of Security Engineering.

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About NEO-IASA

• NEO-IASA is the local chapter of the
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