What is productivity?
I read yet another vendor funded article claiming to raise productivity. Having read and heard unmet promises far too frequently, it makes one stop to ponder the nature of productivity. In order to be productive, then we must have a goal. Then, in order to attain that goal we must have a plan that gets us from our current state to the desired future state or at least sets our direction towards the future.
Whenever we buy hardware, software or services we must gauge if the purchase truly will move us towards our goal. Any investment of time and money should contribute to the goal directly or help mitigate risks around the attainment of a functional area objective or organizational goal. If you can not see the relationship between the purchase and goals for whatever reason then you risk not only the promised productivity enhancements but also distractions that can cause current productivity levels to reverse.
At the same time, anything that distracts us from our goal, or inhibits us from attaining our goal needs to be eliminated. In the world of IT, a tremendous amount of time and resources are lost to unplanned work arising from human error. We can use the Visible Ops methodology as a proven means to implement change management and reduce unplanned work. As a result, planned work in the form of projects that support the organization’s goals can be worked on instead.