Technology Asset Management Body of Knowledge - TAMBOK

I'd like to present the industry's first Technology Asset Management Body of Knowledge - the TAMBOK. You can find it by clicking on the link below, but please take a moment to read this brief introduction.

I've been in the technology asset management industry for over twenty years. Fair warning: I rarely talk about “me” but, today, for this purpose, I’m giving you my personal/professional perspective. Here’s where I’m coming from…

In 2000, I designed and delivered two of the first professional certification programs in our industry - one for Software Asset Management and another for Technology Asset Management. For over twelve years I have been developing and delivering collegiate-level programs in Negotiations, Buying Technology Assets, Project Management and other related business topics. However, in 2004 I found myself forced to take a step back and to view the asset management professional development industry from a new perspective. I've spent nearly half a dozen years in intense study of credentials and of the credentialing processes used by some of the top professions - and I have been highly disappointed in the existing certification programs in our field.

We need a paradigm shift
Frankly, fewer than 5% of technology asset management-related training programs I’ve reviewed are performing an effective job of establishing and building our profession. Don't get me wrong: As a sort of "training wheels" beginning, we've produced some decent certifications over the past eight or so years - but we STILL haven't kicked the proprietary supplier/product habit. The vast majority of our training and certifications have been designed by, and in many cases are still delivered by, partners, pals, and allies of the very industry suppliers that created the financial and liability needs to establish technology asset management systems in the first place.

I think it’s well beyond time that we converted our professional preparation into a supplier- and product-agnostic process – one genuinely designed and developed by practitioners, FOR practitioners – a program series that is based on academic methodologies (Think Bloom’s Taxonomy) and shaped to help you obtain and retain professional career employment by delivering serious business value to the enterprise. This is the main reason why I worked with other asset managers to create the industry’s first non profit organization specifically focused on helping asset management professionals: The Institute for Technology Asset Management. It’s also why we’ve chosen to formally document our profession in the Guide to the Technology Asset Management Body Of Knowledge.

TAMBOK = What you need to know
So... Here's what I've done. I've spent the last five years working with over three hundred business professionals, academicians, and asset management practitioners to re-envision our collection of certificates into a serious credential program - one based on a publicly available Body of Knowledge as well as a credible credential preparation program of study. Together, we have built this Guide to the Technology Asset Management Body of Knowledge (TAMBOK) to accurately reflect the skills you need to perform well in the fields of Software & Copyright Compliance Assurance (SCCA), Software Asset Management (SAM), Technology Asset Management (TAM/ITAM), and Technology Portfolio Asset Management (TPM).

Understand that the copy of the TAMBOK currently available - the Third Edition - is the culmination of a series of short, yet comprehensive, reviews to bring together the major components of a credential series that not only speaks to what you KNOW, but more importantly, speaks to what you can DO with that knowledge. The major components include the following:

• Four Life Cycle Process Groups
o Procurement
o Distribution
o Operations &
o Governance

• Six Practice Areas
o Portfolio Management
o Business Management
o Financial Management
o Risk Management
o Contract Management &
o Project Management

• And Over Fourteen Applied Competency Areas
o Think about focused applied capabilities in topics such as Negotiations, Audit Methodologies, License Management, Documentation Management, and others.

We've come a long way with these professions since I first developed and implemented the knowledge infrastructure of my former association. After extensive research and development, our working group determined that we need to take the next step of converting the traditional certification process from a few hours of lecture followed by a memorization test to a credible credentialing process that mirrors the success of such credentialing programs as those provided by the Project Management Institute, the AICPA, the Contract Managers Association, and others. (There is an extensive list of organizations from which we drew samples, guidelines, and advice in the TAMBOK Appendix.)

That next step begins with a formal Body of Knowledge - the TAMBOK - on which we can build and evolve a solid foundation of applied capabilities. The TAMBOK is not a derivative work that attempts to bend technology skills into a new service added on to the responsibilities of enterprise technicians. Instead, this is an entirely new perspective of capabilities to be applied to the Business side of the Technology Portfolio.

And, to further clarify the potential of the TAMBOK, we’ll soon be presenting a Knowledge Briefing Series of how "What you know," is converted into "What you can actually apply," which translates into "The value you can deliver with a significantly more credible credential."

We'll be the first to admit that the TAMBOK isn't perfect - it's a work in progress. But this document IS the first supplier- and product-neutral effort by a credentialing body in our industry to bring order from chaos and to place your cost-effective Professional Development Blueprint in your hands where it belongs.

The TAMBOK is available HERE.

Comments are welcome - as are qualified practitioner volunteers to help evolve the next release.

Before you spend BIG MONEY for big software - read this!

This post is in response to, and supplemental to, the article on ZDNetAsia: "4 tips for buying 'big' software," by Patrick Gray - as posted in TechRepublic on 5 May, 2010.

I've observed well over a hundred negotiations where enterprises spent tens of millions of dollars for highly complex software (and/or hardware). In parallel actions I've seen thousands of small to medium-sized companies spend enormous percentages of hard-won revenue for products they didn't need, couldn't effectively use, and shouldn't have touched. In virtually every case, the enterprise or company making the purchasing has been hammered by supplier negotiating teams.

Here's a few issues to consider BEFORE dropping all your spare bucks on big money software or other business technology goods and/or services.

Nobody is permitted to speak with ANY supplier about the project - PERIOD!

• Why do I bring this up? Because, time after time, I've seen people come back from conferences or conventions where they have "found the perfect product to solve all our problems."
• Major violators of this rule? Technical people and management. Rein them in BEFORE they damage your options.
  
• Result? The supplier already knows precisely what your project looks like; its schedule; its budget; who will be on the internal team; and who will be part of the decision tree.
• Since the supplier has also conveniently learned the details of ALL your requirements, their product or service is going to somehow magically fit exactly inside your needs analysis.
  
• When - not if - this happens, you can kiss negotiations goodbye - because you will have no leverage with this supplier.

Conduct, and follow, accurate analysis - EVERY time.

• If your company is typical, you purchase new technology goods and services for nearly ALL the wrong reasons. (Don't get all defensive on me until you read on.)
• Conduct clearly defined, honest, and complete analysis. Make sure that they are accurate and not filled with vendor hype - as well as supporting "pet" projects.
• Pick one or more, then DO IT: Needs Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Feasibility Study, Forcefield Analysis, Business Case Analysis, Cause & Effect Analysis, Stakeholder Analysis - ANY of these will take you further than you are already going in terms of whether or not the acquisition or project is genuinely necessary. (Incidentally, The Institute for Technology Asset Management - www.TAMinstitute.org - is the only professional organization of its kind that actually teaches you how to conduct over 16 of these critical business analysis.)
• The key is this: Fewer than 10% of enterprises actually conduct any serious level of structured analysis prior to beginning the acquisition process. Of that number, fewer than half ever follow up to ensure that the goods or services acquired actually ADHERE to the expectations. Even more critical is the tendency, in nearly ALL analysis, to insert personal perspectives in place of quantifiable documentation. Result? Decision makers are coming to conclusions that are NOT based in fact or actual business needs.

Negotiate based on what you expect to happen, not based on supplier representative assurances.

• If you do nothing that I recommend, at LEAST do this. Nearly every software or technology agreement that I have read in the past 23 years has a clause somewhere that clearly states that ANY statement or assurance given to you is null and void - the agreement supercedes ALL verbal discussions. (You don't have to believe a word I say. Just get up out of that chair and go read a software license - any license to confirm my rantings.)
  
• So? If you want any specific issues made clear in the agreement you will have to negotiate them in. (Trust me, suppliers do NOT appreciate it when I give this advice. It means that they have to actually deliver the value they claim.)
  
• This interestingly hidden little caveat also seems to forget to mention that the functionality of the product, as delivered, does NOT have to match what you were told it would do. Again, if you expect to get the value for what you purchased, you better negotiate your specific expectations into the agreement.

The actual costs of this acquisition are NEVER what you think.

• You should already know this but nearly ALL of us tend to forget. We get excited about the new toys and slip off into Christmas morning... What to do?
• Patrick covers this but I'll expand - When you conduct the Cost-Benefit Analysis, step the process out at least three to five years. Check with anyone and everyone who has touched this product. Find out what worked out well and...well...what didn't work out. Document it ALL as part of the CBA - BEFORE you spend a single penny!
• Check out implementation costs and be sure to match them with the specific talent brought to bear on the project. If you think your internal team is going to implement better than a highly trained and highly experienced (think: expensive) support team, you may be in for quite a financial surprise. But, if you planned and budgeted for the difference in team talent, you may find financial relief.
  
• What about defects and patch management? Upgrades? Ongoing support? Check into the actual details of each and every one of these items. Look over the actual supplier contracts for the "rough" spots. Does support cost more if your own team implements the project? Is this product so full of defects that the supplier has a monthly patch day scheduled for every consumer of every product? Are there cute little items such as the "product cannot be used more than 15 miles from the server" or implementation support is billed out as "$180 per call"? (If you don't know about these interesting little revenue stream items, you really should spend some quality time in one of my asset management courses.)
  

Beware the Reference Fruit Punch Shuffle!

• Patrick mentions being alert to what I would call "happy people" references. You know the ones I mean: "I invented Windows 7." Keep in mind that a supplier would NEVER connect you with someone who had a nightmare failed implementation. If you rely on supplier connections, you'll only hear from the folks who consumed the entire cup of fruit punch.
• As an element of this particular common scam is the supplier advertising budget. If the product is so great, why do you have to spend so many tens of millions of dollars TELLING me about it? If implementation and ongoing support are so simple, why do I constantly hear, or read, about over budget, over time, and failed projects? You want references? Check with the people who have lost tens of millions on failed projects with this product line or supplier. THOSE folks will give you a totally different story than the ones who had plenty to spend and plenty of talented techies to contribute to implementation and ongoing support.
  

Manage the Project

• Patrick's observations regarding the implementation partners is right on track. Keep in mind that any enterprise that has reached the "Partner" stage of a relationship with a major software publisher has also consumed massive quantities of that ever present fruit punch. These folks make their livings via their relationship with the given software publisher. If you honestly expect them to admit the product is a dog - don't hold your breath. Instead, they'll follow the supplier pattern of letting you pay to resolve the problem so the supplier can wrap it into the next release - the one you'll pay to acquire.
• For a major software acquisition & implementation either use your own project manager or follow Patrick's advice and bring in an independent PM to monitor the project - even a spot check will be better than nothing. But, let's take this a little further...
• IT projects fail significantly more frequently than they succeed. There are plenty of reasons for this - some of them are even reason-able. But, as a PMP and a faculty member teaching project management I have found that the key to project success - or failure - all-too-often rests on the heads of project sponsors, executive management, and the initial planning team. THESE folks need to be visibly and aggressively on board or the project manager might just as well be a NATO observer.
• Remember that "negotiation" thing we discussed? It also comes into play right here. Place serious penalties in the acquisition agreement to "encourage" the implementation company to get it done right. Wrist slapping does not belong in this clause. If it is going to cost you $1M for the product, $2.5M for the implementation, and $5M to correct failure - include those costs in the failure clause. Otherwise (as clearly stated in the software license) the software publisher needs only refund the price of the software after it fails and they blithely walk away from your completely devastated IT environment.

Is there more? Oh, absolutely! In fact, there are literally hundreds of "gotchas" hidden inside every software acquisition - whether it's a simple operating system or a major overhaul. If you expect to gain value from business technologies, you absolutely must learn to identify, define, and pursue that value. Otherwise, the suppliers are in control of your money and (lack of?) results.

Want to Save IT Money? Try Standardizing.

It never ceases to amaze me how many enterprises simply have no structured standards in place for key business technology issues. Are you at ALL concerned about shrinking technology budgets, a decline in valid technology ROI, a technology-inspired erasure of competitive edge, or a complete absence of derived business value from your enterprise technology assets?

You have several choices in terms of dissipating your dissatisfaction. You can:

• Completely ignore the lack of genuine business value coming out of IT,
• Of course, since you have so much money to burn, this isn't a problem for you...
• Browbeat your technology personnel to start delivering value, or else,
• News Flash: Their job isn't to deliver value. It's to get systems operational and keep them that way.
• Invest heavily in a globally recognized silver bullet standard best practice cover the world process methodology to cookie cutter your way to perfection.
  
• Of course, this one matches up nicely with the first option in terms of money to burn.
  
• Start to change business processes to ensure a higher level of business management and control over the IT portfolio,
• Personally, I like this idea. It costs next to nothing; requires nothing more than a few select employees using their brains; and gets you rolling VERY quickly.

The big secret?

Simplify standardization.

I am well aware of the collective gasp of dismay that accompanies this statement every time I bring up the subject of plain old common sense management of the technology portfolio of goods and services. Business technology consumers accuse me of delivering an infomercial. Suppliers whine and wring their hands because (to a certain extent) their costly proprietary partial-solution just got dumped on the

Leasing Hardware? PAY Attention to the Lease Terms!

Because, if you PAY attention to the lease, you won't PAY penalties at end of lease. Or, if you have business technology money coming out of your ears, and you like spending unnecessary cash, you can ignore my suggestions...

The companies that lease hardware to people like you and me know full well that they're going to make some serious fun-money at the end of the lease. These folks are very aware that the odds are incredibly high you will fail to read, understand, or follow the terms of the agreement. Of equal importance, they know you will fail to monitor "end of lease" requirements. However it plays out, you'll be sending them some hefty un-budgeted checks.

To begin a lease value initiative, start with the big money issues:

1. Precisely when does your lease end? (Miss this date, by even a day, and pay an enormous penalty.)

2. Precisely what is the return process you will be expected to follow? (Fail to follow the process to the letter = pay penalties.)

3. At what date, or dates, must you begin the replacement initiative? (We ALWAYS wait until too late to begin this process - big penalties for being late as well as in disruption of operations while your techies scramble to catch up.)

4. Where is every single leased system and who is responsible for it? (Think you know where everything is located? Think again. Just go try and find a few systems today and consider the cost of this scramble if you wait.)

5. What hardware or software has been added to each system and how will the changes impact the lease terms? (In most cases, leased systems must be returned configured precisely as they were originally delivered. Think you'll remember?)

6. Create and follow - In Advance - a precise plan for for collecting, replacing, auditing, and returning every system covered in the lease. (If you do the planning and management, now, you'll pay a lot less later.)

Remember: The business technology leasing folks KNOW you are going to fail to follow even these basic common sense procedures. They are PLANNING on the penalties you will pay. (Try fooling them.) If you take nothing more than these simple steps, you will significantly reduce the costs, and increase the business value, of leasing technology systems.

Minimizing Costs & Risks of Business Technologies - Online Seminar Series

Free Online Knowledge Briefing - April 22nd, 2010

For over ten years, I have commented that we lose way too many of our technology dollars to essentially empty IT spending. Industry studies have consistently backed up my perspectives, with some actually placing losses at more than $10 for every $1 spent. There a plenty of purported solutions to this waste. Unfortunately, very few of them are designed to produce positive ROI without serious additional spending.

On April 22nd, 2010 I'll deliver the first of an online Knowledge Briefing Series covering a wide range of methods any company can use to minimize risks while putting the brakes on wasteful IT spending - without negative impact on your budget or operations.

Tired of the unnecessarily high costs & risks of business technologies? This is your chance to identify the life cycle technology asset management issues that create those problems and to walk through the simple, common sense, and cost effective procedures that you can use to begin saving serious IT dollars.

Each registered participant receives a customized Session Workbook to use in documenting delivered content. We'll add to the Workbook with each new online session we deliver.

Let's conduct a quick cost-benefit analysis...

The Costs?

• It's free...
• The methods are proven,
  
• I'm not selling you anything and,
  
• It's only a single hour out of your day...
  

The Benefits?
Your company could easily begin converting those all-too-frequently negative technology investments to gaining $5 (or more) in value for every $1 you spend.

You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Series intro URL: Minimizing Technology Costs & Risks, April 22.

Session One: Minimizing Exposure to Punitive Software Non Compliance Audits

Are You Watching the Secret ACTA Debacle?

Are you a business owner? An executive manager? Are you at all concerned about external controls over your business technologies? Does it bother you that your children have become easy audit targets for copyright compliance sharp practices?

Well, here's yet another threat to your so-called "peaceful use" options for literally any technology that can be covered under copyright laws. Even the European Parliament is threatening the European Union with legal action if the drafting group doesn't quit hiding details to the agreement.

Yet another draconian copyright law... Written in secret so the consumers won't understand until it's too late. Wonder what they're working so very hard to hide?

The ultra-secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is multinational in scope and continues to cruise under the radar of virtually everyone except a select number of copyright holder representatives.

As usual, this one is being instigated by the same folks who gave us the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the No Electronic Theft Act (NETAct), the Super Digital Millennium Copyright Acts (SDMCA), and who did their best to shove the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) down our collective throats.

As I continue to suggest:

"If you don't wake up and become clearly aware of copyright reform activities, you will soon find out that what is being done isn't being done FOR you, it's being done TO you!"

And, yes, you should be pulling that blanket up over your eyes.

Update ACTA... More resources you need to read!

If you haven't followed up on my suggestion to look into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, here are several more links to perspectives you might want to consider. This thing is well out of hand and only through clear and effective public demands will the onerous terms of ACTA be avoided.

Excellent materials on the We Rebuild web site.

Free Software Foundation link on the Linux.com site HERE.

ComputerWorld, New Zealand HERE.

Great Statement by Mark Harris on ACTA Lemming-Brothers HERE

As I have said since the first attempts to pass DMCA and UCITA: "If we do not start monitoring what is being done in terms of special interest lobbying, we are ALL going to discover too late that what is being done is being done to us."

Once these laws, acts, regulations, and agreements are passed, they will be impossible to counter.