B03 Stories – titles

List of stories (subjects of concern) with potentially significant impact on IT projects

Scenarios and topics where we made (or could have made – we are not gods, sometimes we fail) a massive positive difference in terms of IT project challenges and business efficiency

Some of the things we’ve done good (achievements)

Switch of operational template from invoice to balance (E and Man)
Data collection template simplification (Lewisham)
Duplicated records discovery and action (Lewisham)
RAD for operational core business support (Havering)
KPIs for health authority (C and N London Health Authority)
RTT solution for acute hospital (Sidcup)
Data cleansing (Sidcup)
RTT tracking application for acute hospital (Sidcup)
Reference data management (Sidcup)
Full migration RIS-PACS in record time (Jersey)
Extract data from legacy app (Jersey)
Reference data mapping application (Berkshire)
Development environment implementation (Wonga)
Anonymising and Pseudonomysing data (Barts)
Data cleansing architecture implementation (Barts)
Procedures excluded from RTT (Barts)
Data warehouse upgrade testing (CNWL)
Data quality implementation (Michael Page)
Data quality and dictionary implementation (British Gas)
Report builder denormalised templates (British Gas +)
Migration testing of Data Warehouse (Basingstoke)
Datawarehouse ETL upgrade testing (CNWL)
Migration plan and progress reporting (RBH)
Pathways redesign, build and migration (RBH)
Config dependency solution (RBH)
Access plans change/impact (from team to individuals) (RBH)
Integration strategy turnaround from monumental mistake (RBH)
Migration with robots (RBH)
Reverse engineering application for data extracts (RBH)
Project management lab application implementation (RBH)
100% migration delivery (10 mill records) (RBH)
The right attitude in teamwork (Trev and Jake) (RBH)
Good relationship with technical staff of supplier (Jersey + RBH)
Data quality assessment (lab application) (RBH)
Reference data (config) implementation (lab application) (RBH)
Functional testing traceability requirements to implementation (RBH)

The not so good we had to deal with (challenges)

Board misinformation (LLLOOO app) (RRR organisation)
“Criminal, insanely irresponsible” procurement (LLLVVV) (RRR organisation)
Project team without skills and incorrect attitude (RRR organisation)
Supplier without skills (config, pm) (RRR organisation)
Boss without skills (RRR organisation)
Boss without backbone (RRR organisation)
Lessons learned just a tick in the box – no benefits (RRR organisation)
Signoff (testing) not done but ticked and passed (RRR organisation)
Integration incomplete (RRR organisation)
Mismanaged and scapegoating go live (RRR organisation)
Incompetent supplier (LLLVVV) (RRR organisation)
Incompetent local management (LLL+LLLVVV) (RRR organisation)
Writing papers and not actually doing any work (MMMUUU) (RRR organisation)
Learning and taking responsibility (Milan) (RBH)
Piggybacking on other people’s work (MMMEEE) (RRR organisation)
Employing the less competent (MMMEEE) and failing (bbb organisation)
The bully at work (LLLIII) (RRR organisation)
Meetings without conclusions and evaluations (RRR organisation)
Ineffective project meetings (RRR organisation)
Testing and intermediate signoff incomplete  (RRR organisation)
The internal unaware saboteur (SSSAAA) (JJJ organisation)
The project manager talker and switcher (SSSTTT) (JJJ organisation)
Procurement without technical input (LLLVVV) (RRR organisation)
Working without authority (RRR, bbb, ccc,  … xxx organisation)
Transfer of antifragility (no skin in the game) (RRR organisation, etc)
The embarrassing contribution (cookies) (RRR organisation)
The internal unknowing saboteur (JJJAAA) (RRR organisation)
Being too pedantic about development (MMMEEE) (RRR organisation)

Actual deliverable types and services (what we’ve done and still can do)

Project evaluation tool (tool)
New application implementation project template (tool)
Functional testing template (CRUDS)
Must haves minimal technical/conceptual skills and knowledge (document)
Excellent working relationship with supplier (CSC)
Deliverable types (summary of our offer)
Documentation review
Process review
Project organisation and activity review
Meetings and activity review
Procurement process review
Contract review
Board presentation/meeting review
Strategy production ( assistance)
Plan production (assistance)
Resource selection and interview assistance
Project technical resource redundancy
Project tools supplier
Project methodology supplier
Project management assessment/assistance/review
Implementation – data quality
Implementation – reference data management
Implementation – integration
Implementation – ETL
Implementation – Data warehouse
Implementation – quick wins
Project SME workshops and meetings (RBH)
Assisting and supporting SMEs to take responsibility and do (RBH)
Implementation – data migration architecture/engine
Implementation/management – dev, test, train, config, migration environments
Project environments alignment and management
Hands on skills transfer – streetwise IT – attitude and aptitude
Teamwork in agile setting – myth and reality
Executive conversation and partnership work
Brainstorming at executive level (team)
Executive IT advisory assistance
Executive IT expert assistance
Application implementation
Data migration (explain complexity)
Strategic IT transformation assistance/management
The technical fly on the wall report
The technical questions and answers session
Peer review on deliverables
Technical review on deliverables
Quality assurance implementation

General subjects on IT (technical) projects (but not only)

The most important thing – to know what you don’t know
The hardest thing – to know what you don’t know and admit it
The purpose – know what you don’t know, admit it, learn it
Enterprise master data – applications, perspectives, maps
What is referential integrity and what for is important
Simple reference data and composite reference data – examples
Configuration the Achilles heel
The profane business analyst
IT projects and common conceptual vocabulary
Data dictionary between myth and reality – SAP

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