Mental Effort Archive

Lessons from AOL's TBM journey: TBM Part 7

Mental Effort Archive

Lessons from AOL's TBM journey: TBM Part 7

Many companies have historically viewed central technology as a cost of doing business, one without offsetting revenue targets. Managing costs are clearly important to a business, yet must be balanced with the value the services provide to an organization.

The Model Flywheel: TBM Part 6

The Model Flywheel: TBM Part 6

IT is the engine that needs to turn for our business to be successful, and in so many ways, we're the flywheel at the center of our products and services.

Goals of an IT Financial Model: TBM Part 5

Goals of an IT Financial Model: TBM Part 5

Here are 8 goals for creating an IT financial model: 1. Most Financially Transparent Organization at the company 2. Represent The Real Cost of Technology 3. Provide Value 4. Map Costs to a Service Catalog 5. Be 100% Data Driven 6. Limit Caveats 7. Hit Your Monthly Deadlines 8. Drive Accountability

Start with a financial model: TBM Part 4

Mental Effort Archive

Start with a financial model: TBM Part 4

Building an all-inclusive financial model for IT is the first step on the path to running IT like a business. Get it right, and you will forever change the course of the company. Get it wrong, and … well ... we can't afford for you to get it wrong.

Addressing Technology Misconceptions: TBM Part 3

Mental Effort Archive

Addressing Technology Misconceptions: TBM Part 3

As a technologist you have experience and knowledge that business leaders in other areas won't. What you perceive when merging your observations with this knowledge may be vastly different than the perceptions that others form about your work.

Moving IT from Cost to Value: TBM Part 2

Technology Business Management

Moving IT from Cost to Value: TBM Part 2

Over time, continuous cutting of IT budgets will cause the misconceptions about IT to become realities.

IT is a Strategic Weapon: TBM Part 1

Mental Effort Archive

IT is a Strategic Weapon: TBM Part 1

Technology leaders must be willing to tackle a broad set of work in culture, language, transparency, technology trends, operational blocking and tackling, and present a vision. Failure to address each of these categories puts their company at risk.

The Unassisted Triple Play

The Unassisted Triple Play

Shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance were the most famous double-play trio in baseball history. They succeeded by being well prepared, aware of the game's situation, and lucky.

Mental Effort Archive

Be a "Student Of The Game"

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it". Maybe those kind of people are the opposites of the "student of the game". Don't fall into the same pitfalls that others have encountered and solved.

Technical Debt - Part 3 - Data Center Strategy, DTC For Sale

Back in the expansion of AOL's dial-up business in the

A day with TEALS kids

AOL's Dulles, VA campus hosted a field trip on May