Course Outline – Excellent IT Management
DAY 1
Introduction to Excellent IT Management
The course starts with introductions, confirmation of
delegate objectives, and outlines the five skills of our IT
management model.
1. Business & IT Strategy
Strategy defines future goals and maps the route to achieve them.
Day 1 looks at business strategy in overview and IT strategy in detail.
Business Strategy
- What is strategy?
- Solving the problems of business strategy
- Leading approaches to creating top-level strategy
- Case study ‘Setting corporate direction’
IT Strategy
- A proven process for IT strategy
- Aligning IT strategy to business priorities
- Balanced scorecard IT objectives
- Enterprise architecture in IT strategy
- Looking for a better way — optimizing IT strategy
- Strategic plans — plot on a page
Communicating strategy
DAY 2
Project Excellence
Day 2 topics include advanced project, program & portfolio management.
- Validating project business cases using investment appraisals & sensitivity analysis
- IT project management wisdom — lessons learnt from successful and failed projects
- Effective project governance and reporting
- Project portfolio management guidelines
The First 90 days
- Making an impact — the first 90 days
- Strategic importance and tactical urgency
- Case study ‘Priorities of the new IT director’
Business Change Leadership
- The emotional cycle of business change
- Guidelines for successful change projects
- IT’s unique role in business change management
DAY 3
Communicating Technology
Day 3 looks at improving business relationship management and communication skills using a number of interactive and typical IT business relationship scenarios.The day uses a careful blend of acting techniques and business methods. It has been carefully constructed to be relevant and applicable to IT
managers and has proven highly popular with delegates.
- The art of communicating technology
- Presenting IT to non-technical audieces
- Creating a compelling technology message — IT’s elevator pitch
- Handling difficult (IT) situations — forum theatre and role play
- Group debate — What has IT ever done for us?
Business Relationship Management
This module looks at some advanced techniques for improving the relationship between business sponsors and IT managers, supporting better project delivery and improved IT services.
- Business relationship scenarios
- The POSTMAN technique for identifying priority business requirements
- The advanced use of questioning strategies — opening and closing dialogue
- Methods of influencing outcomes
DAY 4
Continual Service Improvement
This session looks at a number of techniques in overview, including ITIL, Six Sigma and Lean IT and
the relative merits of each one. The key principles are brought together in a highly successful, interactive, and stimulating case study.
Teams of delegates put together plans and ideas for transforming a case study organization.The exercise emphasizes skills in continual improvement, operational excellence, innovation and delivering to business priorities.
Topics include:
- Continual Service Improvement (CSI) models
- An overview of different frameworks, including ITIL, Six Sigma and Lean IT
- Techniques of root cause analysis
- CSI examples and guidelines
Crisis Leadership
All technology leaders need to manage crisis situations at some time. This module focuses on the essential skills for resolving crisis situations:
- Preparing for major (technology) incidents
- Managing major incidents
- Leading in crisis — the art of communication
- Role play ‘Handling difficult situations’ — media
simulation
DAY 5
Commercial Acumen
This module provides a short but highly valuable overview of some key commercial techniques that will make significant difference to the successful delivery and operation of IT services.
- Making good decisions
- Avoiding supplier pitfalls
- Choosing good technology partners
- Creating a culture of partnership
- Harnessing vendor innovation
Essentials of IT Contracts
An overview of the different types of IT contract to provide guidance for legal representatives to deliver good IT outcomes.
- Contract guidelines for successful IT
- Getting what you want from your legal team
- Designing contract flexibility
- Managing IT contract portfolios
IT Negotiation Strategy
IT managers are often negotiating high-value contracts and yet, shockingly, our research has found that less than 20% of IT managers have had any training in this area.The skills developed on day 5 have been shown to offer massive benefits to IT organizations.
- Creating a negotiation strategy
- Rational supporting arguments
- Agreeing final positions and BATNA
- Negotiating as a team
- Delivering better negotiated outcomes
- Negotiation role plays and case studies
Course Close
- An action list for the future
- Staying connected
- Wrap up
