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Process Maturity Matters

One of the key findings or our most recent research study is that process maturity matters!  That is, organizations with higher levels of process maturity for key IT controls got more measurable performance gain than those that implemented the same
posted by kurtmilne | 0 Comments
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Health IT

Healthcare organizations are rushing to implement information technologies for a variety of reasons including cost pressures and regulatory mandates.  This drive to implement electronic medical record (EMR) systems and the increasing level of automation

Executive Commitment to Change Process

I've just completed interviews with11 top performing IT organziations to look for common change, configuration, and release practices that are responsible for performance breakthrough. One of the common themes that emerged from these interviews was that
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Detected Changes are Incidents

As we cover in Visible Ops, the use of a detective change control can really reinforce the adoption of Change Management and then be used to report all changes thus allowing for tighter control of operations, an improved security posture, and so on. 

Why does audit care so much about change management?

In the world of Sarbanes-Oxley (Sox), section 404 is concerned about the integrity of financial reporting.  As such, material systems are scrutinized to ensure they are providing accurate information for the financial reporting process.  To
posted by George Spafford | 0 Comments
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You build quality in – you can’t inspect it in

An effective Change Management process can be used to reduce the level of human error being introduced into the production environment.  This is done not by inspecting quality into the applications and systems in question but by collecting metrics
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The Journey from Chaos to Clarity

Last week presented me with several interesting conversations with senior IT executives. Several of the more interesting talks were with folks in the operational hot-seat. There was a golden thread that ran through all of them. Now these were not what I would call casual conversations. In fact, all but one of these folks were seeking advice on how to turn their massive mission-critical IT shops around. What did they all share?

Tone From the Top

Senior management plays a significant role in any process improvement effort and this very much includes Visible Ops. People need to understand that processes and controls are shaped by culture. Culture will either assist in the implementation of new processes or cause them to fail. Management helps shape the culture by sending forth a strong message that clearly sets the tone for the organization. This is what auditors and control theorists call “tone from the top”.
posted by George Spafford | 2 Comments
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