2. Black Book of
CIO Secrets
Table of Contents
Chapter One: It’s All About the Business
You Started a New CIO Job. Now What? 1
Finding Things to Fix as the New CIO of 4
a Well-Run IT Department
Giving Feedback 7
Evaluating Employee Attendance 12
Knowing How and When to Fire Someone 15
Getting Your Engineers to Have Open Minds 18
Switching to a 35-Hour Work Week to
Get More Done 20
Want to Perform Your Best as a CIO?
Get an Executive Coach! 23
Chapter Two: Managing the Projects
and Technology
Ensuring You Have a Good Data Backup System 25
Getting a Good Escalation Process in Place 28
Getting the Right IT Metrics in Place 33
Reallocating IT Resources from Maintenance
Work to Project Work 36
Preventing Run-Away Projects from Derailing You 39
Understanding Project Management’s Iron Triangle 43
Chapter One
It’s All About
the
Business
P

3. The CIO position has a notoriously short tenure in most
companies. So if you’re a CIO, throughout your career
you’re likely to have many opportunities to start new jobs
– either because you’ve been promoted from within or
because you’ve been
recruited away to take a
bigger better CIO role.
Like most CIOs I changed
jobs a few times in my
career. I learned that
when you start a new
CIO position you will usually find yourself in one of two
situations. How you should proceed will be determined
by which situation you are in. Either…
Things are a mess – The IT Department needs
significant improvement; or
Things are pretty good – The IT Department you’re
“inheriting” is well-run and doing a great job.
Getting the Lay of the Land
So the big question becomes: how do you
determine which situation you’re actually
in? Here is my advice:
r
r
You Started a New
CIO Job. Now What?
RKeep your hands in your
pockets for the first 90 days–
Unless you have a crisis or
emergency that absolutely
requires action, avoid making
any decisions or radical changes for your first 90 days on
the job. This is not the time to show everyone how smart
you are. They’ll figure it out soon enough!
RListen – It is through listening to everyone that you will
get a 360 degree view of the IT department, how it’s
performing and how it’s perceived.
Notice that the key action here is
“listen.” Not “talk to,” but “
listen.” Listen to senior or
executive staff, your staff
and your vendors. Be careful
not to share your vision or direction
for IT, because at this point you don’t have enough
information about the environment to be able to
intelligently make these decisions anyway.
RBe slow to form opinions – Normally I’m a big
believer in listening to my gut feelings to get a read on
people. What I’ve learned, though, is that in this situation
first impressions are often wrong. You’re the new sheriff
in town, and everyone is trying to put their best foot
Listen to senior
or executive
staff, your staff
and your
vendors. U
1 · 2 ·

4. At first glance you may think it’s preferable to
take over a department that’s doing well. But
the reality is, making a name for yourself as the
“new person” is a whole lot easier if you can
come in and turn things around in a department
that’s beset with problems. Making an impact on the
organization is quite a bit harder if things are already going
well. So what can you do? Here’s my advice…
RMake sure IT’s priorities
align with the business’
priorities – Part of your
“get the lay of the land”
exercise should be to
become very familiar with
the overall direction of the
business and the business
strategy. Once you under-
stand this, assess IT’s
effectiveness from the standpoint of what the business is
trying to accomplish. Are you working on the right things,
in the right priority, to align with those business objectives?
forward to impress you. It’s easy enough for people to
make a good first impression. But if they can’t actually
deliver, it’s a lot harder to “fake it” over the long haul.
RTake a look at the personnel files – Beyond the
obvious of trying to determine who is a good
performer and who is in trouble, see how the
plans or reviews themselves are written. Do
the performance plans contain descriptions
of observable behavior? Do the reviews
contain actual comments on an individual’s
performance, or are they full of summary
platitudes and generalizations?
RGet to know your HR department – During the course
of getting these files it’s also a good idea to talk to HR
to find out if there are any problem employees or “super
stars.” Through this interaction you are also trying to get
a read on what you can expect from HR.
In this Survival Guide I’ll address what to do next, whether
things are a mess or things are pretty good.
Finding Things to
Fix as the New CIO
of a Well-Run IT
Department
3 · 4 ·

5. RWatch for opportunities not seized – As the new CIO
you’re bringing a fresh perspective to an environment
that’s been running successfully for a period of time.
Chances are this success bred a certain amount of
complacency or blindness to new opportunities. Be on
the lookout for things that IT is not currently doing that
perhaps it should be taking on.
RLook for festering personnel issues – Your predeces-
sor may have left you with some unaddressed personnel
issues, i.e. folks in your department who are a problem
for one reason or another. The question is, is the problem
temporary or chronic? Does the person need counseling,
or do you need to start the termination process?
In addition to identifying any
obvious “problem employees,”
you should also look for those
who are treading water, not
helping to move the ball forward
or “retired” on the job but still
performing acceptably. If these people are in key roles
where their performance is going to heavily impact
whether or not IT achieves business objectives, you
need to take action.
RRealize that there’s always a demand for IT – Even if
things are going well, the good news is that there’s usually a
seemingly infinite demand for IT services, and never enough
IT to go around. You’re going to find some pent-up demand. It’s
just a question of getting the necessary budget to address it.
Regardless of what you find, don’t rush to start pointing out
all of these areas for improvement right away. If you do, you
risk making suggestions that aren’t relevant to what the
business is trying to accomplish. Wait until you’ve been on the
job long enough to develop relationships with executive staff
and gain a thorough understanding of the company’s culture
and direction. Float some of your ideas to a few key people
before you announce them to everyone, to ensure you have
a few allies who agree that your ideas are worth pursuing.
Because even if things overall are going well, as the new CIO
you’re bound to find some things that need “fixing” anyway.
Ccontinuedfrom:Findingthingstofix...
5 · 6 ·

6. Use a Proven Formula for Giving Back
There is a three-part formula for providing feedback that I
learned from a book called “People Skills” by Robert Bolton.
The formula, which works equally well whether you are giv-
ing feedback for positive or negative behavior, looks like this:
When you _____ I feel _____ because _____. In this formula:
The first blank (“when you____”) is for the
observed behavior itself.
The second blank (“I feel____”) is how this
observed behavior makes you feel.
The third blank (“because____”) explains the
impact of this behavior and gives the “why” of why
this behavior makes you feel this way.
Learn to Express Your Feelings
To see how the formula works, let’s start with a positive ex-
ample: One of your IT team members is doing a good job of
completing their tasks on time. So your formula would
start like this: When you complete your tasks on time.
Okay, that was easy enough. But after that things can get
tricky: I feel _____. What do I feel? For many techy people, the
feelings part doesn’t come easy. So what do you do? You cheat!
If you Google “list of feelings words” you’ll find lists, many of
which are nicely divided up by emotion. So look at one of these
lists and pick a “feelings word” that seems most appropriate.
r
r
r
Giving Feedback
The ability to give constructive feedback is an essential
tool in your CIO tool kit. Giving feedback is all about letting
people know where they stand and how their performance
is being viewed. And if you’ve recently taken over an IT
organization that has not been doing well, you’re likely to
find that many people in your group have no idea how their
performance is being viewed. Chances are no one has
been receiving feedback at all – whether their
performance has been good or bad.
Start by Giving Feedback on Observed
Behavior
The easiest place to
start giving feedback is
regarding observed
behavior, performance
or results. Examples
include completed work,
attendance, interactions
with others, or participa-
tion and behavior in
meetings – anything that YOU saw (as compared to
hearsay or reports from others).
Of course, feedback is not just for problems. Get in the
habit of “catching people doing well.” At a minimum
comment on both positive and negative behavior in equal
measure. Ideally things will be going so well that 75%
of your feedback will be positive!
7 · 8 ·

7. either publicly or privately,
negative feedback should
always be provided in private,
in a one-on-one situation.
When dealing with negative behavior it can be especially
important to refer to your feelings words list. Be sure to
choose a word that’s the right level for the infraction – there’s
no need to be “furious” instead of “irritated” when the problem
is minor. For example: When you were late for this morning’s
meeting I felt annoyed because your tardiness was disruptive
for the entire team.
Be Prepared for Push Back
If the people in your department are accustomed to receiving
feedback then they’ll take your feedback in stride. But if this
is something new, your feedback will probably make them
uncomfortable. The good performers aren’t used to being
noticed, and the bad performers aren’t used to being called
out on their bad performance.
People will probably make excuses or otherwise try to wriggle
out of the feedback. For the feedback message to get through,
it may need to be repeated a few times as you’re delivering
it. You’ll give the feedback. They’ll provide their excuse. You’ll
listen reflectively, tell them in your own words what you just
heard them say, and then repeat the three-part feedback
again, in the exact same words. Lather, rinse and repeat
until the person says, “Oh, okay, I got it.”
Ccontinuedfrom:GivingFeedback...
In this example, you probably feel happy, thankful,
delighted, ecstatic, etc. I’m going to pick “ecstatic.” Why?
Because if I’m in a turn-around situation where nothing
is getting done and someone actually is turning in their
work on time then I’m thrilled and I feel ecstatic. So our
example now looks like this: When you complete your
tasks on time I feel ecstatic.
Feeling uncomfortable with this? Don’t worry, it gets
easier with practice!
Be Sure to Include the Third Part
of the Formula
The third part provides context. If you merely tell someone
“thank you for doing that” then they have no context for
understanding why their behavior was so important. On the
other hand, if they understand why they’re being praised,
they’re more likely to repeat the behavior in the future.
So in our example, you might say: When you
complete your tasks on time I feel ecstatic because
we’re under a tight deadline and your being on time
helps everyone else get their work completed.
Use the Same Formula When Giving
Feedback Regarding Negative Behavior
If the observed behavior is negative the formula remains
the same. But while positive feedback can be provided
For the feedback
message to get
through, it may
need to be
repeated... a
9 · 10 ·

8. While you may expect people who are receiving negative
feedback to argue or make excuses, many people also
don’t know how to accept a compliment. Once again you
need to listen reflectively and repeat the feedback: Yes,
I understand that it was no big deal to you, you were
just doing your job, but the fact remains that when
you complete your tasks on time I feel ecstatic because
we’re under a tight deadline and your being on time
helps everyone else get their work completed.
If you’re the new CIO, when you first start giving feedback
people may be surprised or uncomfortable. But as you do
it consistently everyone will start to figure out that you’re
going to provide the feedback they need to know where
they stand and how their performance is being viewed.
While feedback works best for observed behavior, with
a minor tweak the feedback formula works for non-ob-
served behavior as well. For example: When I hear reports
that you_____ or when others tell me that you ____ then I
feel ____ because ____.
Evaluating Employee
Attendance
As the CIO you need to have a handle on employee attendance.
And if your department is currently a mess this issue will take
on a much greater sense of urgency! Here’s what I recommend
you do:
RStart in the parking lot – What time are your staff members
arriving for work and going home in the evening? Are they
coming in on weekends? During your first few months on the
job you may have to work some long hours yourself in order
to observe all of this, but once you know everyone’s car you
can drive in at any hour and know who is there.
RCommunicate clear expectations –
Make sure your department knows what
you expect in the way of attendance. Plus,
make sure it is understood that you’re
referring to hours at the desk doing actual
work. Lunch, coffee and other breaks
don’t count!
RDetermine who’s on board – If you’re in an IT organization
that’s in trouble, you can bet you’ve got morale problems.
Low morale, of course, drives poor attendance. While
it’s good to identify the dedicated employees who are working
an inordinate amount of time and trying to make a go of things,
what you really want to find is the exceptions – the people
who aren’t showing up.
11 · 12 ·

9. RDetermine who has checked out – You’ll typically find
at least one or two people who are shirking their
responsibilities. Look for:
People with chronic attendance problems – Is
there anyone who is absent four or five days each
month without calling in sick or being out on
vacation? People who have “checked out” often
stop showing up.
People who are working short hours – These
are the folks who are regularly showing up late,
taking a long lunch and then leaving early. Finding
them requires getting out of your office and
walking around.
RMonitor people who are working remotely –
Conventional wisdom suggests that you can tell if staff
members who are working from home are putting in the
expected hours by their output. But for those who don’t
have measurable deliverables, determining if they’re
actually working can be more difficult.
Look to see when they’re online or using the chat system,
what time they’re sending emails, whether or not they’re
attending meetings, etc. Listen to your staff and constituents.
If your remote workers aren’t actually working, you can bet
that the people in your office will start dropping little hints
and offhand remarks.
RDeal with problem employees
When you find someone who is
working less than the expected
number of hours per week, you
need to nip the problem in the
bud. Either you or the employee’s
manager needs to follow your HR department’s progressive
action policy to address the issue.
Attendance is key. Whether you’ve taken over a department
that is in good shape or bad, nothing is going to get done if
people aren’t showing up, whether physically or mentally.
Find and fix the problem as soon as possible.
r
r
Ccontinuedfrom:EvaluatingEmployees...
13 · 14 ·

10. Most of the Time You Try to Counsel
the Person First
Beyond the situations described above, when you have
a “problem employee” on your team you want to start by
following your HR department’s escalating disciplinary
process. This usually starts with counseling and looks
like this:
RTalk to the employee – Clearly explain the behavior or
performance deficit – what they are doing wrong, and what
“acceptable” behavior or performance looks like.
RDocument this discussion – Be sure to send a copy to
Human Resources.
RMonitor the employee’s behavior/performance – If
necessary, give feedback again and document it again.
Depending on the seriousness of the situation you can have
as many of these chats as you want, but the minimum is
generally two.
RCreate a written Corrective Action Plan – If the discussions
have failed, the next step is to create a written plan that
documents the performance improvements that need to be
made or the behavior that needs to be modified. A big key
here is that these items must be observable, measurable
and time-bound. The typical timeframe is 30 to 90 days.
Knowing How
and When to Fire
Someone
Turn on the TV these days and you’re
likely to see some variation of someone
getting fired. Whether they’re being
booted off the island or voted off the
show, their involuntary termination is
dramatized for your entertainment and viewing pleasure.
In real life, though, having to fire someone is not the least
bit entertaining and really nothing like the way it’s
portrayed on TV.
Yes, one of the tools in a manager’s tool kit is to
involuntarily terminate someone’s employment – i.e.,
fire someone. Unfortunately, few managers ever receive
instructions regarding how to fire someone. How can you
tell when you need to fire someone? How do you do it?
Sometimes it is Necessary to Fire
Someone Quickly
Workplace violence, criminal activity, substance abuse
or serious violations of company policies all warrant an
immediate involuntary termination of the employee’s
employment. But if the person’s performance simply
isn’t meeting your standards, or there is something
inappropriate about their behavior, then firing the person
should be the last resort – not option number one.
15 · 16 ·

11. RMonitor the employee’s behavior/performance –
Throughout the action plan timeframe meet with the
employee with some regularity and provide feedback
regarding how they’re doing against the plan.
How to Fire Someone
If all of the counseling and monitoring fails, it’s time for
an involuntary termination. But how exactly do you do it?
RSchedule a meeting – You, the employee and an
observer from your company’s Human Resources
department should all be present.
RKeep it short and to the point – Explain that the
performance or behavior issue still does not meet
expectations, and therefore the person’s employment
is terminated as of a specified date.
RWrap it up quickly – Then let the HR person take over
from there and go through your company’s exit process.
Although an involuntary termination is sometimes
necessary, it’s serious, often unpleasant and should rarely
be done as a first resort.
Getting Your
Engineers to Have
Open Minds
The engineers and computer scientists that you’ll
get to work with as a CIO tend to be very passionate
about technology and how it works. They also tend
to be very smart…and very stubborn. Unfortunately,
this combination sometimes leads to people hav-
ing such a strong conviction about how something
works that they cannot consider the possibility that they
may be wrong.
Often the debate is about “does it work this way or does it
work that way?” Furthermore, these debates usually happen
in a public forum, such as a staff meeting or project meeting.
As the CIO the question then becomes: What can you do to
break the stalemate?
Make a $1 Bet
When an engineer is speaking with the
conviction of God that they’re right and
everyone and everything else is wrong,
try offering a $1 bet. “If you’re so certain that this is the way
it works,” you can say, “put your money where your mouth
is and bet a dollar on the issue.”
Why Does this $1 Bet Work?
There are a few reasons why betting a dollar can change the
“stubborn know-it-all engineer” dynamic:
17 · 18 ·

12. RThe bet should only be made when there’s an issue –
After all, if the rest of the team agreed with this engineer,
there would not be a debate. What usually happens is that
because he or she is not willing to consider the possibility
of other information, the engineer loses the bet.
RThe notion of a bet creates a little pause – Although
this is not usually the case the first time. The first time you
do this, the engineer will probably lose the dollar pretty
quickly. But it should only take a few of these wagers be-
fore everyone recognizes that the $1 bet itself is a signal
that maybe they should rethink their steadfast position
and reconsider other possibilities. about the dollar being
exchanged. The goal is to get a team of people who are
passionate about what they believe in and fairly stubborn
about their opinions to consider that sometimes they just
might be wrong.
RPaying off the bet is humiliating – Stipulate that the
loser must pay the winner in public, at the next staff or
project meeting. As a result you, like me, might end up
with a trophy case full of crumpled dollar bills that were
grudgingly handed over by closed-minded staff members
who lost their bets.
In fairness, this $1 bet works both ways. You’re likely to
lose your share of dollars, too. Now when you’re convinced
that your position is right and someone offers you the $1
bet, you’ll think twice and wonder if perhaps you’ve overlooked
something in your thought process. Which, of course, is the ul-
timate goal here. This is not about the dollar being exchanged.
The goal is to get a team of people who are passionate about
what they believe in and fairly stubborn about their opinions
to consider that sometimes they just might be wrong.
Switching to a
35-Hour Work Week
to Get More Done
In the discussion on evaluating employee
attendance I talked about ways to root out
all of the slackers in your organization.
But having an organization full of work-
aholics can be just as big of a problem
as trying to run a department filled with
people who aren’t showing up.
Everyone Was Working Long Hours.
Why Weren’t Things Getting Done?
Years ago I was the new CIO at a company in the Silicon Valley.
When I evaluated employeeattendance I found that everyone
was working an average of 50 to 60 hours a week. Moreover
it was a tight-knit team where everyone liked each other and
seemed to genuinely enjoyworking together.
19 · 20 ·

13. People were there all day long. Morale was great. Yet it
was the strangest thing: The group was not getting a lot
done. Everything was backlogged.
In trying to figure out what was going on I made a few
observations:
RThere was a huge work load – Mission-critical stuff,
strategic projects, ongoing day-to-day mundane
maintenance work, you name it.
RWork was never turned away – Whatever work arrived
was put on the list, regardless of its importance level or
relationship to business objectives.
RThere was a lot of socializing – The overall thinking
across the board was “I’m going to work12 hours today,
so what’s the difference if I take a break now?”
Shortening the Work Week Solved
the Problem
What the organization needed was focus, efficiency and
a change in mentality. To solve this I instituted a 35-hour
work week. Needless to say, everyone thought I was nuts.
But it worked. Why?
21 · 22 ·
I needed to change the prevailing
attitude from “we have plenty of time”
to “we have very little time, so we must
be ruthlessly efficient about how we
use it.” This was a radical concept at this organization. It was
a new way to view time. And it worked…eventually.
It took a fair amount of convincing and mentoring to get 40
people to adopt a “time famine” mentality. I wanted to create a
sense of urgency around attacking a list of work, because time
is tight. Once this shift in thinking took place, focus, efficiency
and prioritization – and with it the newfound ability to “just say
no” to the unnecessary “wish list” items that surfaced – started
to happen naturally.
Long Hours Can Lead to Low Productivity
Silicon Valley is famous for encouraging people to stay at work
for long, long hours. It’s not unusual for companies to provide
breakfast, lunch and dinner for their employees. Yes, from time
to time some people do need to work an extra long day. But it’s
been my observation that after about nine hours most people
just aren’t that productive.
So did I really succeed in reducing the work week to 35 hours?
No. In reality, we were able to shave it down from 50 to 60 hours
per week to a more realistic and reasonable 40 to 45. And when
that happened – lo and behold – things started getting done!
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14. 23 · 24 ·
Want to Perform
Your Best as a CIO?
Get an Executive
Coach
Whether you’re new to the CIO role or have been
navigating the CIO waters for years, if you want to enjoy
peak performance, you should get an Executive Coach.
Athletes – even elite athletes who are at the top of their
game – have coaches. As a C-level executive, you qualify
to benefit from coaching, too.
What is the Difference between
Mentors and Coaches?
Both are good to have, and both have their place:
RMentors – Mentors are typically informal, non-paid
relationships. Mentors provide advice, share their
experience and wisdom with you, and talk you through
difficult decisions.
RExecutive Coaches – Coaching is a formal, paid
business relationship. An Executive Coach is not just shar-
ing wisdom. An Executive Coach is working on your game.
What Can an Executive Coach Help
You With?
Your Executive Coach can help you with many things.
Some examples include:
RRecognizing your strengths – A good Executive Coach will
point them out, and help you recognize situations where you
should be making better use of them.
RWorking on your weaknesses – Recognizing your strengths
is the fun stuff. An Executive Coach is also paid to tell you things
you don’t want to hear. Your Coach can look at situations that
bring out the worst in your performance, and help you find ways
to shift your behavior to handle the situation differently.
RManaging up – Especially after a promotion or a new CIO
assignment, understanding how to participate on a peer level as
a member of the executive staff can be crucial to your success.
RHandling challenging relationships – You may have one
or more difficult peer relationships within your organization.
There may even be a competing department that has some com-
puter-related responsibilities, that is not currently cooperating
with you. With their backgrounds in organizational psychology,
Executive Coaches can be especially helpful inteaching you
ways to successfully navigate relationships such as these.
RLeading your team – Let’s not forget
the IT department for which you are
responsible! An Executive Coach can
bring their organizational development
skills to help you build a strong and cohesive team.

15. 23 · 24 ·
Where Do You Find an Executive Coach?
The best way to find an Executive Coach is
through a referral. Ask your company’s HR
department, your peers, your former bosses,
people from the places where you used to
work and your LinkedIn network. If none
of these routes turns up a good Executive
Coach, you can also check to see if a
university near you offers a CIO leadership program. If so,
contact the people in charge of the program to see if they
can recommend someone.
You don’t have to get a coach. In fact, you might do fine
without one. But I guarantee you won’t do your best. If
you choose to go it alone you’ll go as far as your skills
can take you, and that’s it. However, to be the best you can
be as a CIO, to really maximize your performance, there’s
just no substitute for working with an Executive Coach.
Ccontinuedfrom:WanttoPerform...
Chapter Two
Managing the
Projects
and Techology
P

16. 25 · 26 ·
Ensuring You Have
a Good Data Backup
System in Place
Having a data backup system is crucial, so early on in your
tenure as the new CIO you need to find out the state of the
backups of your organization’s critical systems.
Of course, there’s more to a good data backup system
than just backing up the data. Just as important is making
sure you have a way to get the data restored.
How Do You Check on Your Data
Backup System?
RAsk – Go to whoever is responsible and say “do you
have a good backup?” If the response is “yes,” get more
details about the backup process and how it runs:
What time of day and how frequently are
backups done?
Are they doing full, incremental or differential
backups?
Is someone being alerted if the backup fails? If not,
who is checking the log file to ensure that each
backup completed normally?
RAsk for proof – Regardless of what answers you get,
you want to see documentation that all of this is actually
taking place.
RMake sure the backups are being
monitored – Backups frequently fail.
What you want to see is that if the backup
fails then this failure is detected and the
backup is restarted during the normal
backup time frame.
RLook at the backup media – You’re
looking for a few things:
Storage location – The backed up data should be stored
off-site, by a company that is in the business of storing
magnetic media.
Storage length (retention) – Are you in compliance with
the regulations or standards regarding how long data
must be kept?
RVerify that your backups can be restored – The next thing you
need to ask is “when was the last time you had a test restore?”
Restoring a system is much harder than backing it up, and
your staff may not have the ability to do it! People must be able
to get the backup and put that data on a computer some place,
whether the restore is needed because of a hardware or soft-
ware problem at your data center or because of a disaster.
Having a test restore system in place is therefore vital.
r
r
r
r
r

17. 27 · 28 ·
What If It Turns
Out You Don’t Have a
Data Backup System?
If your questioning reveals that
you don’t have any backups and/or a backup system in
place at all, you must take immediate action. Do whatever
it takes to get a backup. And if that backup is not suc-
cessful, go to senior staff to get the budget needed to get
a successful backup. This is something that absolutely
cannot wait.
In my experience, though, I have found that getting a
backup is the easy part. Getting the restore process in
place can be like moving a mountain. People (especially
your IT staff members) simply don’t want to do it. But as
the new CIO, this is something you must get in place.
If there’s a disaster or failure and you can’t restore the
company’s data, you’re sunk.
Getting a Good
Escalation Process
in Place
Once you get a good backup system in place, the next thing
I recommend you do is make sure that you have a good
escalation process – a formal process for addressing IT issues
and problems when they arise – in place. If your department
already has an escalation process, then this may just be a
matter of reviewing it and making sure it works. If you don’t
have one, you’ll have to create it.
Creating the Escalation
Process
One of the reasons it’s called an“escalation
process” instead of a “problem solving pro-
cess”is because the bigger the problem – the
longer the outage or the larger the impact –
the higher up the organizational command you
need to go to communicate it. Your process
should include:
RWho to notify – Within IT, who needs to know there’s a
problem, be called in to help fix the problem or be communicated
with about the problem? Outside of IT, what functional groups
need to be informed that there is a problem in the system that
affects them and impacts the business?
If there’s a disaster
or failure and you
can’t restore the
company’s data,
you’re sunk.
l

18. 29 · 30 ·
From the standpoint of people outside of IT, if it’s a
small problem you’ll probably just need to ensure that
the department manager is notified. Bigger problems
will need to be communicated to the functional area
manager, such as the VP of Finance or Sales. And for
really big problems (for example, your sales system is
down and you’ll miss your quarterly revenue numbers),
the escalation process can go all the way up to the CEO.
RWhen to notify each person –
The longer the problem lasts,
the higher you escalate. For
example, although when the
problem first crops up you
may only need to notify the
department manager, eight hours later if the problem
has not yet been fixed the COO may need to brought
in to the conversation, too.
RWhat to communicate? – This list typically includes:
What the problem is.
When the problem started.
Size and scope of the problem’s impact in terms
of number of people affected and/or the overall
impact on the business.
Estimated time to fix the problem, and
estimated time until the next check point.
RWho is responsible? – Your escalation process also needs to
state who is responsible for making the calls, and list the contact
information for each person who may need to be reached.
RWhat type of problems warrant each type of response? –
Your Escalation Plan should eliminate all guess work. The
decision regarding what type of problem
warrants what type of response should be
laid out in the process itself. Once a problem
arises it should just be a simple matter of
implementing the decisions that have been
made in advance.
In sum, your escalation process should define exactly who
needs to be notified when, and what they need to be told, based
on both the type and duration of the problem. All of this, of
course, needs to be documented.
Timelines are a Very Important
Part of the Escalation Process
Having a timeline-driven escalation process in place helps you
avoid a situation where the technical person is working on the
problem for hours and never calls out for help, because they
either (a) think the problem will be resolved in another 15
minutes or (b) want to avoid management attention.
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r
r
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19. 31 · 32 ·
Testing Your Escalation Process
Just like other processes and systems, your escalation process
needs to be tested. You need to work out any bugs in the system
before the system is actually needed. Which means you need to
schedule and run drills.
Schedule times when you will tell someone in IT that you’re
going to pretend there’s an outage and run the escalation
process. During this drill whoever is the designated person
in IT will test out the escalation process communication system.
Your goal is to make sure that people are following the
escalation process as it is written and calling the appropriate
people at the appropriate times. You also want to ensure that
the contact information in your written procedures is all correct.
And by the way – as the CIO you need to ensure that in case of
emergency you always have the home and cell phone numbers
of your CEO, CFO and other executives at your fingertips.
Once you’ve had a few successful drills during business hours,
insist on having some drills during the off hours, too. You need
to train people that it’s okay to wake you up to give you
bad news.
In fact, defining the escalation
timeline is especially
important because time is
likely to pass very quickly
for the technical person who
is working on resolving the
problem. The system is down
and the next thing you know four hours went by and
they didn’t realize it. This is one of the reasons why the
escalation process is designed to alert another level of
management in IT. Someone can check in with the
technical person to see if they need more resources.
Ideally, someone in your operations group should be
responsible for tracking the time and quarterbacking the
communications. If you only have one person working on
the problem, this person must be taught to set an alarm
to keep track of the time.
Be aware that when a problem arises during off hours, the
people involved with solving the problem will tend to be
even more resistant to following the escalation
procedures. No one wants to be the
one to wake someone up in the middle
of the night to give them bad news.
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20. 33 · 34 ·
RNumber of help desk tickets or application enhancements
completed per month. Then, for each of these, keep track of
which application (email, financial
system, etc.) needed the help, which
engineer did the work, who requested
the work, which department the
requestor is from, how long it took to
complete the work and whatever other
items specific to your organization you
want to track and measure.
RNumber of new project requests received each month.
RNumber of work hours that it took to complete each project.
RAccuracy of the initial work-hour estimate versus the time
that was actually devoted to each project.
RNumber of on-time completions.
What Should You Look at for Ongoing
Maintenance Work?
In analyzing the data you should ask a few fundamental
questions:
As the new CIO you want to make sure that you’ve got an
escalation process and that it works. Of course, having an
escalation process in place does not fix the problem any
faster. But by proactively communicating the problem to
the business you create space for IT to focus on the prob-
lem, and you enable the business to take the necessary
steps to deal with the outage from their standpoint.
Getting the Right
IT Metrics in Place
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Without
metrics your decisions are based solely on observations
(which can be faulty) and gut instinct. In contrast, having
a system in place to track IT metrics enables you to en-
sure that IT resources are being applied efficiently
and effectively.
What IT Metrics Should You
Be Tracking?
While an easy place to start your IT metrics project is at
the Help Desk (since the Help Desk typically already has
at least some metrics tracking in place), you should keep
track of things from the application maintenance and
project development sides of things, too. Make sure you
have systems in place to track:

21. 35 · 36 ·
RWhich department within the company is using the
most IT resources? And which person is using the most
IT resources? You may find that IT resources are being
consumed by a department or person that overall should
not be getting that amount of priority. IT resources?
RWhich infrastructure group within IT is the busiest?
Which group or department is getting the most
requests? Why?
RWhich individuals within IT are completing the most
tickets? Are these people taking all of the low-hanging
fruit while the ones who appear less productive tackle the
really hard stuff? Or is one person a go-getter while the
others are slackers?
What Should You Look at for
Project Work?
In analyzing the data, some fundamental questions
here are:
RAre certain people in IT doing a poor job of estimating
projects? If so, sit down with them to figure out what you can
do to help them improve.
Be sure to also judiciously share your metrics with your IT
Steering Committee. Metrics can be very useful for helping them
gain an understanding of where resources are currently going,
making it easier for you to gain buy-in when there’s a
misalignment that needs to be addressed.
Reallocating IT
Resources from
Maintenance Work
to Project Work
After tracking your IT metrics, you’ll probably find that
somewhere between 50 and 90% of IT resources are being
consumed by ongoing maintenance work (what I call “keeping
the lights on”), with relatively little resources being devoted to
project work. This is not good, because as the CIO you’re not
going to get much credit for keeping the lights on. If this is the
case, you need to take action to change this allocation.

22. 37 · 38 ·
There’s Always a Shortage of IT
Resources
While you do need to keep the lights on, you’ll make a
name for yourself and your department by completing
new projects that help the organization reach its strategic
objectives. Accept the fact that there’s always an infinite
demand for IT resources. Part of the CIO job is to
manage the priority lists, and to brutally manage the
cut-off line that determines what gets acted upon and
what does not.
The Line Between “New” and
“Ongoing” Work is Arbitrary
Your IT metrics probably show that most of your IT
resources are currently going towards ongoing
maintenance tasks. This bucket includes two things.
Operational work – Things that must be
done on a daily or weekly basis to keep the
system running.
Enhancement requests – Things that are not
big enough to be a “project,” but will still consume
IT resources. This includes things to make the
system better, report requests, bug fixes and
so forth.
r
r
If your IT Department has
10 people, you may find
that two are doing the
operational work, four
are working on enhancements and only four are available
for project work. Recognize that this allocation is arbitrary,
and change it. Move two people from enhancement requests
to project work.
What Happens When You Reallocate
IT Resources?
When you move that line, the queue for enhancement
requests will immediately
grow. Things at the bottom
of the priority list will start
falling by the wayside, and
you will have to pay close
attention to monitoring your
client satisfaction levels.
Here’s where things can get
interesting. The people
making enhancement requests are typically the rank and file
employees. But the people making project requests – the ones
who will benefit most from your reallocation of IT resources –
tend to be the executives.
Part of the CIO job is
to manage the priority
lists, and to brutally
manage the cut-off
line that determines
what gets acted
upon and what
does not. F
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23. 39 · 40 ·
r
r
r
r
As the CIO, who do you most want to please? Do you
think the other executives care whether all of the report
enhancement requests get acted on? Or do they care
about the project that will save the company $10 million
next year?
To avoid a big backlash against the IT department, let
your IT Steering Committee know what you’re doing and
why you’re doing it. Have these people help you spread
the word that from now on, only the “must haves” will
be getting done.
Preventing
Run-Away Projects
from Derailing You
Run-away projects are the projects from hell. They’re
the ones that miss multiple deadlines, blow budgets and
make the members of the project team want to jump
ship. As the CIO it’s your job to recognize and either fix
or end run-away projects before they derail your entire
department – and, possibly, your career.
How to Recognize a Run-Away Project
Run-away projects are usually easy to spot. Look for:
Missed deadlines
Low ownership
Fuzzy requirements
“One more try-itis”
What to Do about a Run-Away Project
Once you’ve identified that you have a run-away project,
you should:
RDetermine what’s wrong with the project – Is it a lack of
business ownership, poorly defined scope, a project team that
doesn’t have the right skills or what?
RLook at the project’s scope, objectives and requirements –
Is this clearly documented? Does anyone know what “success”
will look like?
RFind the project’s business champion – You’ve got to have
one person responsible, and that person needs to have some
skin in the game. If no one is willing to go to bat for this project,
the project needs to be killed.

24. 41 · 42 ·
RAssess the project team – Are the developers compe-
tent and delivering functionality on time? Do you have a
good project manager? Is there a project schedule, and
are they managing to the schedule?
RMake the decision to save it or kill it – In most cases
the right thing to do is to kill the project. Stop the loss and
move on. Sometimes, though, a run-away project can be
fixed or saved.
How to Save a Run-Away Project
If a project is worth saving you’ll usually have to take
further action, such as:
RPut different people on the project team – If you don’t
have competent people in the project manager or key
developer roles, you can try to swap them out. Sometimes
that helps, but in my experience it’s a 50/50 gamble.
RBring in outside help – Often a viable option is to
engage one of the third party IT consulting companies
that specialize in saving run-away projects.
How to Kill a Run-Away Project
Since no one is championing it, killing a run-away project is
actually much easier than it sounds. Discuss the issue with
your boss and/or IT Steering Committee.
Be up front. Tell them that this thing has
failed and it’s time to stop throwing good
money after bad. Get everyone’s buy-in
and then kill the project. Dismantle the
team. Reallocate the budget.
One of the reasons why CIOs often hesitate to kill a run-away
project is that it represents a failure. However, if you’re the
CIO, I believe it’s better to call the project what it is – a run-
away and a failure – then to let the malaise linger on and have
your manager or Steering Committee raise the issue for you.
Be proactive, cancel the project or at least raise the questions,
and put the pain behind you.
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25. 43 · 44 ·
The Iron Triangle
In response, Earl introduced me to
the Iron Triangle. He explained that
as the Project Manager there are only
three variables that you can use to
affect the outcome of your project:
Scope
Schedule
Resources
Your job is to figure out which of these three things is the
problem. To solve the problem you manipulate the other two.
The Iron Triangle in Action
My initial reaction was that it can’t be that simple. But
Earl was right.
In my case, the project was running late. I had schedule
problems. But since the schedule (i.e. the due date) was fixed,
my only real options were to either reduce the project’s scope
or increase the resources assigned to the project.
r
r
r
Understanding
Project Management’s
Iron Triangle
Knowing what to do about run-away projects is useful,
but how do you manage your projects so that you avoid
creating run-aways in the first place? The answer, of
course, lies in good project management. In the IT world,
good project management depends on what is known
as the Iron Triangle.
My Early Experiences with Project
Management
Earlier in my career I got assigned to manage a project
that was a data center move. In spite of my lack of formal
training in project management I somehow managed to
pull that project off rather well. As a result, people within
the organization suddenly thought I could run a project.
Unfortunately, the next project I got put on did not go as
smoothly. In fact, it was quickly turning into a run-away.
I made a schedule and assigned people accordingly,
but still I was struggling. In over my head, I went to my
mentor at the time, a manager named Earl. “Earl,” I said,
“I’m dying. My project is running late, and I don’t know
what’s wrong. I’ve got a big budget and practically
unlimited money to work with. Why is the project such
a disaster anyway?”

26. 45 · 46 ·
But what if I was short on resources because there were
only so many people available who knew how to do “X”?
If you have fewer resources, these people will take longer
to deliver a certain scope. Either the scope or the schedule
must change. In other situations you might find that the
scope is fixed, but the schedule can be expanded and
more resources can be brought in.
Keep an Eye on the 3 Variables
Healthy project management involves
keeping the three points of the triangle –
scope, schedule and resources – balanced and
in equilibrium. Any time your project runs into
trouble you need to look at these three items,
and remember that by manipulating or changing one or
two of these things you will always affect the third.
Once I understood the Iron Triangle I was never again
intimidated by project management, as I knew that no
matter how big the project, it all boils down to just three
things. The details are always different and can be
challenging, but as long as you keep the Iron Triangle
in balance the project will be okay.
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About the Author
Mike Faster is the founder and president of Coyote Creek. In addition
to a degree in Management, he has more than 25 years of experience
in building and leading IT organizations with technology companies
including Apple Computer, Ariba, Cadence Design Systems, Chemdex,
Komag and Palm Computing.
About Coyote Creek
Founded in 1998 by a team of former corporate IT professionals,
Coyote Creek understands the issues and complexities that are part
of large-scale and high-growth IT environments. Pragmatic and vendor
neutral, Coyote Creek brings deep expertise to help customers manage
technology and project risk, inspiring confidence and creating peace
of mind.
For more information, please visit www.coyotecrk.com or
call 888-269-6838.