IDENTITIES ARE PEOPLE TOO

There’s a people side of the equation that’s all too often overlooked when companies implement a new IT solution and expect it to be embraced. The people impacted may not want to use it because they don’t know how or they don’t fully understand the value. Sound familiar?

I have spent the past two years working in the Identity and Access Management (IAM) space – more specifically the user Administration and Auditing aspects of IAM. These areas of IAM allow for the requesting, approval, granting or provisioning, and verification of system access for an identity. When you consider that these aspects of IAM are the most visible to the organization and have a direct impact on the ability to carry out day-to-day responsibilities, it seems that any improvements to these processes and technologies would be embraced. However, this isn’t always the case.

How many business folks really understand IAM and how these concepts impact them? IAM can be very ambiguous to those on the business side, and therefore just not that easily embraced.

Identity and Access Management projects are most often driven by technology departments. Business sponsorship may be weak or completely non-existent. Business drivers aren’t always well communicated. The actual "people" impacted by IAM initiatives are often forgotten as the concepts and terminology of IAM are more technology focused. The constant reference to “identities” instead of “people” can further de-humanize the IAM effort.

The outcome of an IAM project should be viewed as a win-win for both the IT and business sides of an organization. Information Security has a centralized point for maintaining the "keys to the kingdom" and the business users are provided with a slick web interface and processes for requesting system access, as well as ensuring access remains current.

But when and how should the "win-wins" be communicated? And, am I accurate in suggesting that this communication will make or break the success of an IAM implementation?

To support an article on this topic I am writing for industry publications, I'd like to solicit your comments and help me to find answers to these questions:

1. What role does the IT organization play in breaking down the techie speak and ambiguity associated with IAM?
2. How can IT help sell the value of IAM to the business users?
3. How can business engagement be secured and maintained throughout an IAM effort?

The goal of my research is to define best practices for overcoming these implementation issues, helping to make IAM initiatives successfully deployed across the enterprise.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

CH,CH,CH,CH, Changes......

I recently made an observation in my daily work life, 9 times out of 10 I am the only female in the meetings at work. I am a project manager for an enterprise system implementation. I have a 21 person team and only 3 women are on the team (including myself). So I started to wonder if this was just my experience or if this is a wider norm. I polled a few trusted (male) pals and they shared experiences that contradicted mine. In fact, my polling prompted a discussion on the following topics:

• the seemingly male dominated IT world - perception or reality?
• the dynamics of a the working relationship between males and females vs. same sex workplace interactions
• and the future of application development (and IT in general) with the looming certainty of total offshore development.

Each of these topics really peaks my interest and I plan to devote several blogs to exploring each. I would love to hear any initial thoughts to get my creative juices flowing.

Always Know "Why"

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with the CIO of a leading fortune 500 company at a recent LEGG event. I was immediately struck by his attitude and philosphy toward leading his organization. When I asked him what his biggest challange is he said "getting business engagement and the expectation from the business that IT can fix their problems". He told me that he coaches his team to "always know why". It's the responsibility of the business to determine the best solution to their problem, it's the resposibility of IT to design technology that automates and facilitates executing that solution. He teaches his team to keep asking questions of the business until they have the solution. IT should feel comfortable drawing the line in the sand between the business's role and IT's role on a project.

Are you a CALM person?

Change is difficult. What makes it difficult is often the change to a normal routine that follows. At the root of this is how we deal with change as individuals.

Whether it's a job change, situation at work, or an unexpected life even the question to ask yourself is -"how can I get in control of the change?". Once the change happens and the impact is felt, think about how you can get in control. When we are in control we take ownership for results - both positive and negative. Ownership means that things aren't happening to us anymore, we are making them happen. The key is to stay CALM:

C - Get in Control

A - Adapt to the environment

L - Learn something from the situation

M - Maintain yourself

Those that look at a forced change as a catalyst for opportunity know how to stay CALM. They quickly adapt to the situation and take control by getting into the driver's seat of their own destiny. The change is an opportunity to learn and not a catastrophe to weather. A person in control maintains a certain status quo and isn't on an emotional roller-coaster often associated with the uncertainty of change.

Find your "back edge"

I learned to snowboard 3 years ago. At first it was by choice but succeeding at it was purely based on survival. A colleague who ended up turning into my best friend first introduced the sport to me. Watching from the bottom of the mountain it looked so simple. Much less complex than skiing. Skiers have all those moving parts - 2 skis, 2 poles. Boarders strap on and glide down the mountain. Pretty straightforward stuff. Not to mention the selection of cool gear. So to the bunny hill I went for my lesson. And what a slap in the face, literally, I encountered. I couldn't stay up. Once I got some speed I was too afraid to keep going. I fell backwards, forwards, sideways, and walked uphill for many weeks during my first snowboard season. All the while my friends were having a blast and not breaking a sweat. I was so tired, sore, and frustrated. I convinced myself I just wasn't cut out for this. But I kept going. Why did I keep trying? Because I didn't want to get left behind on the mountain all by myself! I didn't want to miss out on the good times my friends were having on the mountain. So I tagged along that first season, usually the last one down the mountain, the one everyone waited for, the one my friends took turns looking out for. And I took it one step at a time. When you are in the back of the pack you get to see what other's are doing. I mimicked what everyone else was doing. Once I was comfortable staying vertical on the board I had to tackle my fear of speed. I learned to love the back edge of my board. I could ride down any trail on the back edge to control my speed. There I was on a double black diamond full of moguls plowing down hill on my back edge. I wasn't snowboarding, I was surviving. Long story short, I did learn to really ride. By the end of the season I was carving and comfortable with speed. Since then I have tackled some of the finest mountains in Utah and Vermont. And I now have a hobby that I can say with confidence I am good at and I truly love. No more back of the pack rider. I don't worry about the terrain ahead anymore because I know I can handle anything as long as I use my back edge. In life, work, and love I have learned to bring this same philosophy to many situations. Who knows what lies ahead, but if you find the back edge to help you manage through it you'd be amazed what you can accomplish.

The Enterprise as a Social Network

How will social networking be embraced within the enterprise? The enterprise is already a network of sorts bringing people together that all share the objectives and goals of the enterprise. People are coming together online outside of the work place to share common interests and opinion. Why not carry this over to the enterprise as a way to build collaboration across teams? One of the key success factors in popular social networks is organic growth. Let your end-users determine the reason connect. In an enterprise, they already have at least one common reason to connect......they showed up for work at the same place! But if the enterprise provides a platform for social networking will people use it? And should there be standards in place to use these networking tools as management and communication tools for a project? Project success or failure can be directly tied to the strength of the communication across a project. I am anxious to see how companies start using the tools that work so well outside of the office within the enterprise.

Add Market Research to your Project Plan

The number one mistake I see repeated time and time again is the project team assuming, within a vacuum, they already know what’s important to the end-user/consumer of a technology or a process.

A project equals a change within an organization. Whether you are talking about a new process or new technology it’s a change. The most effective change management strategies are those built on the basic principals of Marketing. The first rule of Marketing is “know your customer”. The same holds true when promoting your project. First, understand who the change impacts. Marketers do research before introducing a new product or message. They identify their target audience then talk to them to find out how they might use a new product or perceive a new message. In marketing this process of getting to know your customer is used to make what they are selling relevant to consumers. Conduct “market research” within your organization and get answers to:

• Who does this project impact?
• How is what the project will replace perceived today? What kind of baggage exists?
• What are the issues today?
• What are the real needs of those impacted?

Using a “Market Research” approach to engage those impacted during the planning phase of your project will help ease their transition into the new world and sets the stage for end-users to embrace the changes to come.