AITS CAI's Accelerating IT Success More than 10,000 IT Articles for your Success

It is harder than ever before to ensure consistency among complex programs. Making sure everything works on the same wavelength requires figuring out some important aspects of your project and your business. In a post for the Association for Project Management, Mark Holmes delineates some of these essential points to consistency. Points to Program Progress It’s important to acknowledge that the business objectives you have are unique to your own situation and as such should …

A concept developed by Motorola in the late eighties, Six Sigma has continued to be an approach that gets results. It’s a data-driven approach that, since being coupled with lean project management 12 years ago, has helped Motorola save $16 billion. Yes that’s billion, with a “b.” Since then, companies have been trying to apply this winning formula to their own companies. Moira Alexander gives the blueprint for how Six Sigma works in an article …

It’s no secret that the retention at tech companies is low. According to Payscale, even the industry leaders like Amazon and Google only have employee tenure of about a year. With everyone vying for the same talent, it makes sense as to why employees may not stay long. In her article at InformationWeek, Gianna Scorsone shares some things you can do to help retain your talent: Invest in your employees. Develop an employee appreciation strategy. …

IBM’s Watson seems to be able to do it all: From learning medicine to Urban Dictionary, he’s shown to be quite the versatile supercomputer. So it was only a matter of time before Watson and his Personality Insights program were used to analyze what makes people tick. Paysa has conducted research using Watson to analyze business titans and tech leaders for the personality traits that define them. Are you curious if you have traits in …

Change managers ensure that changes are integrated smoothly, safely, and efficiently. But as with anything, change managers could improve upon their own processes so they can be as effective as possible. In a post at his website, Joe the IT Guy describes the tips that take a change manager from good to outstanding: Create a change policy. Get to know your environment. Make it easy to raise changes. Set the right CAB agenda. Own the …

Brainstorming sessions are a great way to come up with creative solutions for problems. They build up relationships, utilize each team member’s past experiences, and create a healthy environment for contribution across the board. In a post for Project Management Tips, Alana Downer has some guidelines to help you get the most out of your brainstorming session: Have a purpose. Prepare your group. Present the problem. Establish some ground rules. Guide the discussion. Offer comfort. Use …

Most things in our lives have gone digital. We communicate, learn, and work with people hundreds of miles apart that we may never meet. Virtual teams are now commonplace in IT, but they are still relatively new and have problems that are unique to the format. Elizabeth Harrin explains in a post for the PM Perspectives Blog what some of these issues are and what you can do to fix them. Incinerating Issues Miscommunication plagues …

IT harbors a workplace where the loudest people tend to get a lot of the credit. This doesn’t mean that you should change who you are as a person and start going on Wolf of Wall Street-esque tirades to get people to respect you. There are some things you can do to improve the way you lead so you can be effective while staying true to yourself. In an article for Project Times, Lee Grinberg …

Picture this: You have two options for risk identification and you can only choose one. One involves identifying over fifty risks at the start of your project, but you never look at them after the fact. The second option is a risk identification workshop that requires regular maintenance, but facilitates a lot more communication about the risks and the responses to them. If you chose the second option, you’re well on your way to great …

As IT becomes an increasingly integral part of the business world, burnout of IT staff has become a major issue. In a study of 614 HR leaders, 95% said that burnout has hurt employee retention. It’s clear that IT workers are stressed out, and no Twenty-One Pilots song is going to make them feel any better about it. But in her article for Computerworld, Mary K. Pratt gives six ways to keep burnout from wiping …

Getting into an argument with a coworker is not a place anyone wants to be in. At some point, you stop listening and you start counting the veins popping out of their forehead. You’re both professionals here, but this is becoming a borderline impersonation of a drill sergeant and you need to deescalate this quickly. In an article for Harvard Business Review, Liane Davey shares tips for how to resolve an argument with a coworker: …

Escalating problems is something no one wants to do. It sort of gives off the vibe of “the ship is sinking, send the rescue boats,” and most people would rather drown in the work/stress than ask for help. But not every problem can just be powered through, and extra help might necessary. In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, Elizabeth Harrin explains when it’s the right time to escalate an issue: When you don’t …

Risk management used to play a much smaller role in IT. But now the constantly shifting state of initiatives means that risks need to be monitored constantly. As risk management continues to rise in importance, there are emerging trends that will help shape the way business leaders look at risks. In an article for TechRepublic, Alison DeNisco discusses six new trends that will help reshape the way we view risks: The transition to the modern …

A workplace’s culture is one of the main reasons people are attracted to or repulsed by an organization. A lot of organizations seem to have difficulty when it comes to culture, and the missteps can cost them dearly. In an article for CIO.com, Sharon Florentine gives the rundown on how to define your organization’s culture. Cultivating Your Culture The best way to start shaping your culture is to identify and own up to it. If …

Be it with bitcoin or another type of cryptocurrency, the digital age has completely transformed how we buy and sell things. Now blockchain aims to change everything else about how businesses operate digitally. In her article for the Enterprisers Project, Minda Zetlin describes three areas blockchain will affect your company in the future: Cryptocurrency transactions Transactions between organizations Workflow within large organizations Blockchain on the Brain As already noted, cryptocurrency transactions will be greatly affected …