Why is the success rate of projects so dismal? There are several reasons, the top of which are:

1. Lack of user involvement.
2. Improper or changing requirements and specifications.
3. Lack of resources.

I’ve written before on how you can improve the success rates of your IT projects by engaging your end users. Now, I’ll speak about a foundational aspect that can address all areas of IT project challenges.

Many projects are often implemented ad-hoc, except within organisations with a dedicated project office that oversees major projects.

However, any organisations can benefit from similar processes, even if they lack the project management expertise or credentials.

All IT projects can be defined in clear processes that you can map inputs, activities, and deliverables to.

An IT project will have the four basic stages:

1. Plan – At this stage, the project is initiated, and requirements are analysed and documented. A scope of work and/or a high-level design is created on what is to be implemented.

2. Design – The requirements and high-level design are used to create lower level technical design documents that detail the hardware, software, and configuration changes required. Implementation and test plans are also created to ensure quality.

3. Implement – Low-level designs and implementation plans are then used to install the new hardware, software, and configuration changes required in the environment. The test plans are used to ensure quality. Documentation is created, along with training if necessary, to use the new systems implemented.

4. Deliver or Operate – The documentation and training is used to continue to operate and maintain the new infrastructure. The project is then closed.

There is an overarching phase of management of both project activities and quality assurance.

The system has been used by many companies, all calling it something different and even splitting out parts to create many parts.

Many software and hardware vendors use a derivation of this in their “infrastructure lifecycle” methodologies, such as the Cisco PPDIOO Network Lifecycle and the Microsoft Operations Framework. These are all similar, with phases either split off or joined and each with its own special flavours, but the activities are pretty much the same.

I refuse to call it a lifecycle, which gives the idea that these projects go on in perpetuity. Instead, I leave it linear and at the end say that there is some sort of “continuous improvement” taking place, which may then spawn other projects.

This is shown diagrammatically in the figure below along with the associated inputs, activities, and outputs of each phase.

The benefits of using such a structure in your projects are many:

• It gives tangible deliverables at the end of each stage so that everyone knows what to expect.
• It develops a deliberative style to thinking about the designs and the possible challenges they will face.
• It determines the resources required for each stage as you progress.
• It reduces failure of parts, as each proceeding phase develops from the preceding phase.
• It allows a process of deeper thinking as you progress through the project.
• It allows division of labour, so you can hire people with certain skills to handle specific parts where you lack the expertise.
• Teams are a part of the process and share in the learning.
• End-users play their part in the process and can be updated on the progress.
• It makes financing easier since you can determine costs as you progress through each stage, helping you to manage cash flow.
• Quality assurance is built in, helping a project to meet its objectives and reduce risks.
• Project management methodologies can be easily integrated with the process.

Can you see how using such a process will help address those top issues that cause failures of IT projects?

Using an implementation methodology will allow any IT project to be implemented with greater success and bring greater returns to any business. This is the same process that I use to successfully deliver all of my projects, and it will work for you too.

If you would like to know more about how you can use this methodology in your business, please contact me.

Original article: Improve the outcomes of your IT projects by using a design and implementation methodology

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I’ll admit that I was once like that too, but I’ve worked hard to eliminate it. Though, very rarely, when I’m really stressed out, you can see that side of me come out.. but that hasn’t happened in a really long time :-).

I’m proof that even those “techie” IT staff can change and become more personable to the users within the business. All they need to do is develop their softer skills.

What are these soft skills that IT staff should develop? And how can you help them?

Communication Skills

This is at the top of the list. The common complaint is that IT staff are unable to communicate effectively. I disagree though. IT staff are able to communicate very well; they are unable to communicate with people who are not their peers.

IT staff need to learn to communicate effectively to the layman, by understanding their audience and thinking about how they may understand the topic that they are trying to communicate.

There are many ways that you can help staff members become better communicators, whether written or verbally.

• Suggest joining Toastmasters, or send them to a Dale Carnegie course.
• Have internal sessions where you give each person a chance to speak about something non-technical that is important to them.
• Give constructive feedback on written works they’ve done.

For a member of IT learning to communicate with users is not always easy, but another skill can help…

Empathy

Empathy is the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions. I’m not at all saying that members of the IT department have no empathy; if they didn’t have empathy they’d all be sociopaths (although some may argue that they are).

What I am saying is that sometimes the IT staff has problems understanding the experiences from the users’ point of view. By helping them to become more empathetic, IT staff can relate to user challenges, and will hopefully treat them better (I make no promises).

You may sometimes hear about this as “Emotional Intelligence” as coined by Daniel Goldman. There are courses on emotional intelligence, although I believe this is something that requires longer term coaching.

Someone needs to point out to the IT person what they did, and simply ask, “How would you feel if so and so happened to you or to a loved one?” or “How do you expect that the other person feels about so and so?”.

You have to get them into the other person’s shoes so they can begin to relate to it.

Of course the person doing the coaching should be empathetic too, otherwise it’d just be a case of the blind leading the blind.

It may take some time, but after a while, the person will show improvement. Granted, they may not be the most compassionate person in the world, but they would certainly be more empathetic than they were before.

Critical Thinking

IT staff tend to be very logical thinkers. We follow a well defined thinking style to resolve issues. It is indeed one of our strengths, and is also found in areas such as engineering and other physical sciences.

However, such thinking style often results in rigid beliefs and thoughts. What we need to grow is our “Critical Thinking” skills.

Critical thinking is the process of critically assessing our thinking, and finding ways to improve it.

A definition I like from the Critical Thinking Community:

Critical thinking is that mode of thinking — about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it.

Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.

We must therefore revisit our thoughts and beliefs and discover if they are right. Especially in this fast changing field, what we once knew, may not be true anymore or even relevant.

Developing critical thinking is a process, and there are many books and tools out there to help you develop it. One of my favourite books is “Why Didn’t I Think of That? Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness” by Charles McCoy Jr., but there are tons of other books out there, such as “Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius” by Michael Michalko (which I also recommend), that are worth investigating.

The development of critical thinking may work best in a group setting, so set time aside for group activities where you can help your entire team become better thinkers.

In Summary

There are other skills that may help, such as presentation skills, but the three I’ve listed would help your team go a long way.

IT staff often see their technical skills as the be all and end all of what they need in order to succeed. But I’ve seen time and time again, where not having the right mix of softer skills truly hampers the growth of very talented people.

These skills just don’t make you a better member of the IT Staff… it makes you a better person.

And it’s never too late to learn to be a better person.

Original article: 3 Soft Skills that every member of IT should have'">The softer side of IT 3 Soft Skills that every member of IT should have

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Do we talk about Business-HR alignment, or Business-Sales alignment? Well actually we do. HR-Business Strategy and Sales-Business Strategy is a thing. It seems we have a fondness of discussing the business as a separate entity from its parts.

But looking at it from an IT point of view, this doesn’t meld well with what the future of IT should be, or the future of business for that matter. Business should not be separate from the technology that runs it. Business and IT should be integrated into one.

Peter Hinssen calls this state “Fusion” in his book “Business/IT Fusion“; his views reflect mine as to how IT should be positioned within companies. That IT should be at the table when strategies are being developed and helping to map the business direction.

As an extension, the IT department itself should play a pivotal role in helping companies grow and develop, and be seen as far more than a supplier. Hinssen says:

“IT departments should now be instrumental in helping companies adapt their processes, as well as re-engineer, manage, and streamline them. Our building materials are now processes, and we have to become process thinkers, rather than technology tinkerers.”

From this aspect, we need to see IT move from its current role as technologists, to one as consultants to the business.

From my experience, boards and executives of companies are unsure of the value that they are receiving from IT. Many are asking questions like:

• What are we getting of value from our IT investments?
• Why does all this IT infrastructure and services cost so much? What are we getting in return?

The relationship of the IT investments to the success of the business is unclear. As such, IT departments are often pressured to cut costs, and many new technologies and innovations that may improve the business operations are often dropped, such as implementing wireless LANs that improve mobility and connectivity in open-office spaces.

Because of this, the innovation potential within IT is crushed, and as Hinssen says:

“This of course only strengthens the notion that IT is merely a commodity, because most companies have budgeted themselves out of a situation to be able to use IT for innovation.”

Business-IT alignment was meant to take us away from such a situation, but it only went on to cement the status of IT as separate to the business. Not only that, but because the business strategy was created and then handed to IT to implement, it meant that IT became heavily involved in creating services for departments within the business. What sometimes happens is that several members of the IT department become dedicated to certain departments. This leads to very inefficient infrastructure because many services are doing the same thing. So IT is well aligned to the business, but services did not become efficient. This is what Shpilberg et al of Bain termed the alignment trap.

By implementing an integrated environment, we change the dynamic between the Business and IT; it’s no longer us vs them. And because IT is closely tied with the core business, it means that you can have more efficient IT systems that help the entire business, not just individual departments (who may have their own agendas).

For such a change to take place means that the traditional roles within IT would see a great transition. No longer would we have jobs such as Systems Administrators, Network Engineers and Business Analysts, but would have roles such as Consultants, Thought Leaders and Process Thinkers.

The transition may not be necessarily difficult. You can start with the current crop of IT Staff and start teaching them the softer skills that are required. Skills such as active listening, empathy, business writing, strategy and critical thinking. Such skills can be learned (I should know because I’ve done it!).

So does this mean that Business-IT Alignment is dead? No, alignment may play a transitional step towards integration (or fusion if you prefer that term). You should see alignment as a step in the right direction, but not the ultimate destination.

What are your thoughts on Business-IT Alignment and Business-IT Integration?

Original article: Say No to Business-IT Alignment, Say Yes to Business-IT Integration

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Now the reply was pleasant and not at all discourteous, but did you really expect me to call around to find out if they had the book? I do try to shop locally and support the local business community, but the world has gone global and businesses should make it easy for their customers to do business with them.

Why was one bookstore able to tell me definitively if they had the book anywhere, nationwide, but the other couldn’t? It’s simple, they had a point-of-sale system that allowed them to do that.

The SME Advantage

Many small to medium businesses (or SMEs) have not taken advantage of the Information Technology advances that exists, for reasons such as cost, lack of expertise, or they are simply ignorant of what is out there. That’s a shame because the small business is in a better position to exploit the advantages of the new technologies than larger businesses.

The advantages that an SME has over a large business:

• They can make decisions faster, and adapt quicker to changes and new technologies.
• The adoption of new technologies is easier because of the smaller workforce and closer involvement of team members.
• Success is crucial resulting in the business owner taking ownership of project outcomes rather than delegating it to others who may have lesser interest.

IT can allow SMEs to run faster, run cheaper, and run stronger, but these businesses need to move away from viewing only the capital investment required and think about the long-term returns.

Some ways that IT can help small businesses:

• Manage your accounting such as expenses, revenues, assets, payroll and cash flow. Using reporting and analysis, you can get better insights from financial data beyond the “bottom-line”.
• Track service provision to customers including warranties and performance. Track the time taken to perform service jobs, and the performance of individuals performing those jobs. You can increase your customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and renewals by taking a proactive approach to servicing.
• Manage and track inventory so that you can determine how much inventory is costing you, the turnaround of items so that you can order only the best performing ones, and even the locations where items may have higher demands so you can allocate your inventory accordingly.
• Measure the productivity of your operations by using metrics such as time to complete individual processes, the costs of those processes and how much resources it takes. You can use this data to then make business decisions as to whether processes can be improved or even eliminated to improve the business’ overall productivity.
• Improve collaboration within the business, with vendors, and your customers.
• Manage your employee information such as time and attendance, vacations, and their job objectives and work performance.

Will these cost money to acquire and implement? Yes, it will, but what is the cost of not implementing it?

The Opportunity Cost

Let’s say to purchase and setup a small business accounting software might cost around $500. However, the productivity gains you made by getting information quickly to pay taxes and knowing and following up with your account receivables saved you $1,000 over three years, plus the insight gained into you best performing services or items improved your profitability by another $1,000.

By not implementing the software, you’ve lost $1,500 over the three years.

This is what economists call the opportunity cost – the cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action.

In the long-run, you can be better off by implementing new IT systems to automate your work processes. It may be hard to put out that initial $500, but you’d have turned that investment into $2000; a 300% return on your investment over three years. What other investment is giving you such returns?

This is why I say that businesses should be thinking about the long-term returns rather than that initial capital cost.

Making the Choice to Invest in IT

All of this is not to say that you should run off and implement everything under the sun. What you should do is to first understand where your business is now, then determine where where you would like it to be and start figuring out how ways that IT can get you there.

That last step is not easy for everyone (and not as simple as I’ve put it), but it can and has been done.

So are you ready to invest in growing your business?

Original article: There's a lot for SMEs to gain if they invest wisely!'">Why Small and Medium Businesses should invest in IT There's a lot for SMEs to gain if they invest wisely!

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To me, there was no reason that the services could not cost more that the hardware or software being implemented. The provision of service itself is a valuable thing, just ask anyone who has been given bad service at any establishment.

I didn’t realise it then, but that moment initiated a change in my thinking about how I approach service jobs or more particularly, knowledge work.

There is an old joke I know.

There was once a widget factory that depended on a core piece of machinery for the production of its widgets. This piece of machinery was running for about fifteen years. One day when the turn it on, all it did was give a grinding, whirring sound and refused to work. Without this machine, the factory couldn’t produce its widgets and was losing tens of thousands of dollars for every hour that the machine was down.

The current engineers tried as they could over a day to figure out the problem and get the machine operational once more, but they couldn’t figure it out. It took another day and a half, but eventually they contacted an engineering consultant who had knowledge and experience working with such a machine. They asked him to come and see if he could fix the machine.

The engineering consultant came and turned on the machine. He spent five minutes and listened to the grinding, whirring sound, and took a quick look inside of the machine. He then went to his truck and came back with a 10 inch long bolt. He reached into the machine and took out an old, rusty, worn version of that bolt and put in the new one. He then turned on the machine, and voila, it was back in action. It took thirty minutes in total for him to get the machine working again.

Everyone cheered and thanked the consultant. He then handed them an invoice for $10,000.

The managers baulked at the price. “But all you did was spend thirty minutes replacing a $10 bolt! How could the charge be $10,000?”

“Oh, the bolt is free!” the consultant replied. “Knowing where to put it costs $10,000!”

I often tell this joke to illustrate to people how valuable knowledge work is. People often put value in tangible items, but little value to thoughts, ideas and ability.

We are able to quantify the costs associated with an employee, but are unable to quantify how much value in return an employee returns to a business.

It’s time we change that.

In the information age, value is no longer tallied in terms of how many items you can produce, or even how many hours you put it, but only by how much return that you can bring.

That’s why I’ve created a business that’s about producing value for other businesses. And I do this, not by selling hardware or software, but by using the knowledge, skills and experiences that I’ve gained during the years to help businesses run better using information technology.

It’s different from what other consultants in the region have provided, but knowledge work should be valued. My current customers believe that, and so should you.

Original article: The intangibles are sometimes the most important part.'">The Value of Knowledge Work The intangibles are sometimes the most important part.

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Most businesses and departments would have already gone through their goal setting exercises already (at least those with a financial year ending in December), but that doesn’t mean that you can’t review your goals for the year and make adjustments.

Have you set the right goals?

I’m not going to go through setting IT goals, but just offer a few tips on ensuring that better goals are set. I’ll do this by asking three questions.

Do they integrate with the business goals?

I use the word ‘integrate’ over the word ‘align’ as the latter implies that IT is separate and apart from the business, when it should not be so. Business and IT goals go hand-in-hand, as IT not only helps the business achieves its goals, but also to create new goals to achieve.

• Have your spoken to your stakeholders and executives?
• Have you suitably educated them on what they can reasonably achieve with existing technology
• Have you used new technology to influence the business goals?
• Have you showed them what else they can achieve by using new technology?
• Have you taken account of the existing business goals?

Not all goals may be IT related, but IT may nonetheless help.

What about employees?

Have you taken account of your employee goals? Employees that find meaning and purpose in their jobs perform better.

Have you collaborated with your employees? Employee engagement helps improve productivity, quality of work, quality of health and reduce turnover

Are they SMART?

You’ve probably heard about SMART goals before, all businesses have. Yet, we still have goals such as “improve customer satisfaction”. SMART goals are more than just a hype, it is way of setting better goals and objectives.

Your goals should be:

Specific

The goal should be as specific as possible. For example we can set a goal that “80% of customers choose a rating of 4 and above on a scale of 5 as to how satisfied they are with our service.”

I would suggest finding the root cause of customer dissatisfaction and creating smaller, more specific goals towards reducing those causes, but I won’t go into that for the purpose of this example.

Measurable

We should be able to measure the goal. In this case we would have a survey at the end of every service to determine what their satisfaction is with the service.

Attainable

Can the goal be attained or achieved? Do you know what small steps you can take to reach it?

Improving customer satisfaction may not be possible if the problem is that sales consistently give customers the wrong information, or if the technical issues are due to limitations of the systems being used.

Realistic and Relevant

Is the goal realistic? For example, current customer satisfaction is 20%, can we realistically expect a jump to 80%? The optimist may say yes, the realist says no.

Also, is the goal relevant? If IT has no impact on external customer satisfaction, then why is that goal there to begin with?

Time-Bound

Goals should be given a time for completion. Improve customer satisfaction to 80% by when? End of the year? Six months? It needs to be stated. Of course, that time frame should also be attainable and realistic.

What not to do?

I can’t say (or rather won’t say) what your goals should be for this year, but I would give some tips on what not to do.

Buy technology because it’s shiny and new

Don’t fall for the hype that analysts and tech journalists put out there. Always do a proper analysis first and decide whether such technology is suitable for your business.

Believe vendors when they say that you need something

I’ve seen this many times. Most businesses depend on vendors to provide them with truthful and accurate information, but this is sometimes not the case. Vendors usually have their own interest in mind, and sometimes let that conflict gets in the way of their best judgment. Review the information on your own and do your own research that you may make a more educated decision.

Not invest in training and continuous improvement

In tough economies, and slow growth, many businesses cut back on expenses, with training being one of the first to grow. I’ve always thought this contradictory thinking. How can you grow your business if you don’t grow the capabilities of your people? Grow your intellect and grow your people, and the business will grow

Plus you will learn what new goals to add for next year.

Original article: 3 questions to set better goals for IT'">What are your goals for IT in 2014? 3 questions to set better goals for IT

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Happy New Year to all my readers!

With the new year here once again, I’ve compiled a list of the technologies that I see will have a great impact, if properly exploited, for us in the region. Much of the items in my list last year came to pass; however, much of them have not been adopted by the Caribbean region. Some of those items are back again as they are still quite relevant and growing.

I hope that this year we will see more businesses and companies taking advantage of current and new technologies to improve their levels of service and production.

1. Cloud

Some consider that 2013 was the year that cloud has become the “new normal”. This is thanks to many vendors now offering cloud services of some kind, such as Microsoft’s Office 365, Google Apps for Business, and even Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Other services such as Dropbox and Evernote have also gained traction within the enterprise.

Caribbean businesses have been slow to adopt cloud services, although some have come aboard, especially with Microsoft Office 365; Microsoft has a huge presence in the Caribbean region. Cloud services will give businesses flexibility and mobility, but requires a change in thinking, which I think that is the major challenge.

One area that needs to be addressed is the governance of cloud services. There have been much academic thought put into it, but such thought needs to reach the enterprise.

2. Big Data and Data Analytics

Big Data is another thing that took headlines, but for much nefarious reasons. Thanks to the National Security Agency (NSA) in the USA and the allegations of widespread data capture and surveillance, people started to become very sceptical about both Big Data and Cloud services.

This does not take away the fact that Big Data still has a lot to offer (see my last article on Big Data). Again businesses and governments in the region have been slow to adopt big data, or any kind of data for that matter. Data provided by public agencies have been slow, and oftentimes criticised as being inaccurate or skewed, leading some to posit that such data collection and dissemination should be privatised.

But businesses can start capturing data from within their own operations and start analysing that for insights on performance and productivity improvements. I hope that Caribbean businesses will start taking data analytics more seriously this year.

Data analytics is also helping with data security. Security attacks are getting more advanced and harder to detect. Security analytics use data from a variety of sources to discover anomalies that may indicate an attack. This, in my opinion, is one of the best defences possible again the advanced persistent threat (APT).

Big Data has also raised the status of a new type of employee – the data scientist. These are people with IT, statistical and analytical skills that allow them to test and analyse data.

3. Health IT

This is less to do with IT within healthcare institutions (although that is an area with real growth), and more to do with people using technology to take better care of themselves. With devices such as Nike+, Jawbone Up and Fitbit, and apps such as Runtastic, Endomondo and Noom, it allows for a more open market of healthcare that was never before available. This is using data to manage health.

Many of these devices and applications have APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow developers to create their own applications to integrate or interact with those apps and devices.  We in the Caribbean can start creating our own applications to help improve the health of many of our citizens, who seem to be taking an unhealthy road.

4. Robotics

Robotics is more than The Terminator and SkyNet. It is about automation and machines performing physical tasks at or beyond human capacity. Robotics have become so commoditised that the everyday Joe can now purchase a drone, and Amazon says that drones may one day deliver your packages.

Google themselves have gotten deeper within robotics with the purchase of Boston Dynamics. While I’m uncertain how this will play out (and whether to be excited or afraid), expect great advances in robotics.

In the Caribbean, with our small geographic areas, drones can certainly be useful for delivery of materials to rural areas, for surveying and for domestic security. Robots may be useful in industry, especially in dangerous conditions, but not sure of the feasibility.

5. Mobile

Expect to see the continued rise in market share of mobile Smartphones and tablets, and fall in desktop computing. More people are choosing Smartphones and tablets in lieu of desktop computers for their homes, using the desktops at their offices instead (see here).

I’m seeing more adoption of mobile services within the Caribbean and more mobile developer are popping up. I expect that this trend will continue.

Businesses should explore ways to improve the mobile services offered to both their customers and their employees.

6. 3D Printing

More advances were made with 3D printing in 2013. 3D printers, beyond printing trinkets, were making advances in medicine to space travel.

In the Caribbean, we have yet to grasp the opportunities available to us with this technology, for example, the manufacturing and energy sector can use 3D printers for rapid prototyping and repairs.

Original article: Caribbean businesses still playing catch-up!'">6 Tech Trends to Watch for in 2014 Caribbean businesses still playing catch-up!

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Some business leaders are okay with that, like my current customers, others, not so much so, as they consider it a risk, in that I can’t provide additional support. But, I don’t resell any hardware or software (at least not yet, and don’t so that happening in the foreseeable future), so there is little to support. What I do instead is evaluate and recommend hardware or software for purchase, and work to ensure that it’s implemented to meet the objectives, whether I do the implementation, or work with other vendors.

Because I work alone, I cannot provide extended support beyond the project life. But what I do is work closely with the in-house team to pass on the knowledge of how the systems work, and how to maintain and operate them. I do this using a combination of hands on training during the implementation, and documentation when the project is completed. Sometimes there are a few calls afterwards, but it dies down soon enough once the team is comfortable with the new systems.

In my experience, my clients, and their team, love this approach, as they get to learn new technologies, and new ways of doing things. And what’s more, is that the business benefits, because as they staff learns, the business itself grows, as the staff is more capable than before.

Many consultants don’t like this approach as they believe that it gives away their intellectual property, and prefer to have support contracts instead. I like to think that I’m expanding my expertise. If my clients know as much as I do, then I better keep learning to keep providing value. Keeping a client ignorant is not providing value, and instead diminishes the relationship that you may have.

Some businesses want to have consultants that they can call at any time and get support, and that’s fine, but that’s not what I do. I often take calls from my current clients in cases of emergency or when they are looking for some advice, as I know how difficult working within IT can be sometimes; however, I cannot guarantee that that can always happen. And if a prospect can’t accept that, then it means that we can’t do business together; there are many other consultants out there who can service you.

However, if you want expert advice, quality work, and staff that will develop to support your growing business, then give me a call and let’s talk.

Original article: And what works instead.'">Why I don’t do support contracts And what works instead.

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A friend of mine recently quipped, “Do people still depend on firewalls for security?” I think he was alluding to the idea that the firewall plays a far lesser role in protecting your network as it once did. But it still does play a role.

The firewall is still your network’s first line of defence from outside threats. However, with security threats evolving, they are becoming harder to block at the firewall level. Even though a threat may not be advanced, it may be hard to discern from harmless activities. For example, how can a user determine a malicious PDF file from the harmless ones? The same goes for network traffic, how can a firewall determine malicious web traffic, from harmless ones? Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) were developed to counter these attacks and were either additional devices or modules in firewalls.

But the IDS/IPS were always considered and configured separately from the firewall. Then enter the Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW). The NGFW was coined by Gartner Research and has a defining feature of the IDS/IPS features being integrated within the firewall and not as an add-on. Specifically, Gartner defines a NGFW as having the following minimum features:

• Standard first-generation firewall capabilities such as packet filtering, network address translation (NAT), stateful inspection, etc.
• Integrated IPS rather than co-located services. Someone configuring rules on the firewall should also be able to configure the IPS at the same time without going to another module.
• Application awareness and full stack visibility so that it’s able to discern the different services within an application regardless of the port that it operates on.
• Security intelligence whereby it may use an external database to help make optimal blocking decisions.
• Supports upgrade paths for new techniques to address future threats.

I don’t know why they call it the next generation firewall. What would they call the generation that comes right after? The next next generation firewall? Or perhaps NGFW2? Anyway, that’s beside the point.

I also buy into this view that this is where firewalls should be evolving. NGFWs don’t only have the ability to simply threat protection, but also to speed up inspection due to its single pass nature (traffic is inspected once, not inspected by the firewall, then passed to the IPS for inspection).

I got into a heated discussion with a Fortinet engineer about NGFW and UTMs (Unified Threat Management) devices. I said that while UTMs may have a place now, the NGFW is where enterprises should be heading. He said it sounds like I’ve been brainwashed by Palo Alto Networks. I haven’t, but I like the direction that they are heading.

Palo Alto has the advantage of not having a legacy product and starting with a fairly blank slate. They are disadvantaged by a lack of maturity. But they are a new kid, and I think the technology has a lot of promise.

With threats constantly evolving, and with such a large attack space for internal networks, we need to re-evaluate the ways we protect our data networks. We shouldn’t get rid of the firewall, but we need to alter the way it functions all together to protect us from new threats. NGFWs gives us new hope for the firewall and for protecting our perimeter.

Seriously consider NGFWs for your next firewall upgrade.

Original article: How firewalls are changing to fight against new threats'">The Evolution of the Firewall How firewalls are changing to fight against new threats

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These same reports put lack of user involvement and stakeholder engagement as one of the top obstacles that these IT projects face.

I think that IT departments sometimes forget that they’re there to help end-users do their job; IT is a tool for the business, but users are treated as secondary to the operations. This is particularly so with IT projects. I suppose it’s because it’s easy for IT teams to get absorbed and giddy with new technologies.

Users are consulted, but at the beginning of the project, and only to get the “user requirements”. The IT department then goes off to work to create the next big thing. They return later with the finished product and the users hate it. Tony Collins once said, “Users are likely to reject any system that gives them what they asked for. Better… to understand what users do rather than what they say they do.”

You can increase the chances of success of IT projects by collaborating and getting buy-in from users. Even projects that are on the brink of failure can be recovered and go on to be successful, as the PM Solutions report shows.

Here are some ways to work with your users to increase project success rates.

• Truly engage your users. Don’t just put them in a meeting and tell them what you are doing, but listen to them. Ask about their thoughts; tell them your difficulties and ask for their input on how you may solve them. You might be amazed at what you may get.
• Start training them from the start. If you have an exam in the next couple of months, you don’t wait until the last minute to study (ok, maybe some of you do, but you don’t do that well, and you forget everything by the next day); instead you study and practice a bit before the exam so you can ace it. So why does the IT department expect users to suddenly adopt the new IT system when it goes live with little or no training? Instead start training them once you have a minimum viable product. The feedback you get would also be very valuable.
• Be consistent. Have you ever gone on a diet and achieved your target weight? If you’re like most people, a few months later you’ve gained it all back, or at least a few pounds (sometimes a few more than when you started). People have a tendency to go back to the status quo if you have not put systems in place to keep the change effective. Keep on top of the users, getting their feedback, and incorporating it into continuous improvement.

Original article: Your users hold the key!'">Improve the Success Rates of your IT Projects with these Simple Ideas Your users hold the key!

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