All Blog Posts Tagged 'Project' (25)

One of the most famous works of Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, is “To a Mouse”.

During 1785, on a bleak winter’s day, Burns addressed a field mouse whose home he accidentally turned up with his plough.

In the poem, the bard praises the ‘foresight’ of the mouse in building the ‘cozie’ nest in advance of the freezing weather, while there was still good grass to do so.

But, ultimately, one of Burns’ conclusions is that, although we can…

In advance of the recent Davos conference of business executives, think tanks and leading politicians, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published its “Global Risks 2012” report.

The report is a ‘call to action’ to global leaders.  It seeks better coordination and collaboration of

“...public and private sector efforts to map, monitor, manage and mitigate global risks...” …

Over at Forbes.com, Dan Woods argues that,

“In every dimension, CIOs are facing an increased pace of change at the same time they are losing control over the computing environment. The number of assets they must manage is exploding. Consumerization, virtualization, cloud computing, software as a service, mobility are all increasing the complexity of the job of managing IT by orders of magnitude.”

In “The Coming Crisis of IT Management”, he…

Chateau Margaux 1983 is one of the many things I love about France.

My wife lived in France for a while so I’ve picked up her appreciation of the culture, food and language.

The French have a great way with language; they seem to find a way to say in a word that which takes a sentence in English. “Impasse” is one. I hate that word. I get a constant feeling of déjà vu (see what I mean) every time I hear it. It reminds me of a million meetings I was involved in…

Where is Sextus Julius Frontinus when you need him?

Frontinus was a Roman aristocrat of the late 1^st century AD, and an expert in the engineering of water flows.

Such was his expertise, the Emperor Nerva appointed him as Water Commissioner of the Aqueducts at Rome, an office only conferred upon persons of very high standing. 

In that capacity, he…

Zombies and oil refineries really don’t mix well.

So it was with some alarm that I awoke abruptly last Sunday morning and heard nearby the chuckling voice of my teenage daughter, “Dad....dad....there’s a zombie massacre down at Ineos...can we go and watch?”

My first thought was that my old boss must have let Health & Safety slip a little, and that his job might be at stake.  Then I remembered Brad Pitt was in the district, filming “World War Z” close to…

This week marks the first anniversary of OBASHI Think, so its a good excuse for a recap – and to highlight what we think are some of our key posts!

A quick birthday reminder - OBASHI is a “new standard” way of thinking about how a business works and is available as a methodology, a professional accreditation and software.

With OBASHI you see the business in only two views:  Business and IT…

I often daydream about the day a Hollywood executive approaches me to make a movie about the global phenomenon that OBASHI has become, and I always envisage a “Star Wars – esque” introduction:  "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

The reality though is slightly less romantic. OBASHI was born in the Scottish Oil & Gas Industry about 11 years ago (although my wife assures me it seems longer......much longer.)

My colleague Paul Wallis and I met at…

Process industries, like Oil & Gas and nuclear, have for many years been using information technology to create clarity about how the business works, to optimise performance and to minimise risk.

In control rooms all around the world the flow of product is represented by the flow of data. This is possible because every component that supports the flow of product has a digital sensor attributed to it.  And the industry knows exactly how all the pieces are put together to…

The other day, without being too obvious, I was trying to discover what my wife wanted for Christmas.

I didn't have much success.  Whenever I introduced clothing or perfume or book titles into our conversation she got distracted.

"Do you think 'Diamonds are Forever' will be on TV again during the holidays?",…

The flow of traffic along Scotland's busiest motorway, the M8, ground to halt this week as exceptionally harsh winter conditions caught many drivers, and some transport authorities, unprepared. Peoples day-to-day lives have been severely disrupted and businesses have lost trade and money.



Yesterday I was stuck in a minor traffic jam which formed when cars were diverted from the M8 to nearby minor roads. As we…

The flow of water into my house was interrupted the other day. One of the water pipes decided it had had enough of what is the coldest start to the UK winter in decades. Luckily, the burst happened outside rather than inside the house, so there wasn't too much damage.



But it meant an unscheduled trip to a nearby supermarket, which I hadn't used before. After filling my basket with a few bits and pieces, I approached one of the self-checkout machines and began scanning…

Appendix B of The OBASHI Methodology,“How OBASHI fits with MSP”, explains how OBASHI can help you with the Managing Successful Programmes process. Below are some excerpts from…

The business world continues to grow in complexity. Until we can see how data flows through and between businesses, the frequency and severity of IT-related problems like these will grow:…

OBASHI is a way of thinking that will help you get a clear picture of how your business works. Below is a short extract from the OBASHI Methodology manual, if you would like to read the extract as it appears in the manual, here is a pdf.

"Chapter 3 – OBASHI and Digital Flow

 …

Socitm is the UK membership association for all ICT professionals working in Local Authorities and the Public and Third Sectors and suppliers to those sectors.

The organisation takes the view that the real-term cut of 15.75% in UK public sector IT budgets since 2008 demonstrates that ‘that senior management does not always believe in IT's ability to deliver wider cost savings.’

Martin Greenwood, Insight programme manager is…