Anticlue

Captain Hook Silver

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Check the JVM.config file

Macromedia has recently posted a technote regarding the best source of information for the jvm arguments and classpaths. No surprise its the jvm.config file.

IT Value

While once again attempting to catch up on list serve emails the other day I noticed a thread on project management systems and tools. Surprisingly most conversations were about not having a tool. However Kay mentioned the issue of building a system quickly several years ago and never getting around to improving it.

This made me smile, because we have been in the exact situation for a while. This also amazing to me on how IT organizations can be in this place. We preach about having a centralized integrated system, a tool that assists with workflow, and a way to monitor the departments productivity. In the corporate world, you would hear the business department head voicing concerns if a department was comprised of 10-12 disparate systems, with duplicate data entry. However if this is the case in the IT world, this is a different story. I think a lot of organizations just don’t have the time or resources to expand in developing an IT workflow system. So we end up using several tools with different levels of information, attempting to centralize, but as management changes we get more stop gap measures. So we arrive at a place where it is hard to measure the value of IT. The end result can leave IT being perceived as the only mission critical department that can be totally outsourced.

Organizations are striving for a centralized area for measuring IT relevance, the Canada Management Accounting and the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts have released the IT Contribution Model as a way to evaluate and measure IT performance. The guide line is below.

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In a new CMA Canada Management Accounting Guideline, jointly produced with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), “Evaluating Performance in Information Technology,” we have developed a tool for identifying and measuring the value of IT initiatives. We provide a model and a selection of measures for evaluating performance in information technology in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations so that CIOs can better justify and evaluate their initiatives, and CEOs and CFOs can make better resource allocation decisions. The IT Contribution Model for evaluating performance in information technology is a general model of key factors that helps organizations identify and measure the costs and benefits of IT and properly assess the payoffs of investments in IT. Specifically, the guideline includes the following:

• It describes the key factors for organizational success in IT integration that relate to the critical inputs and processes that lead to success in IT outputs and ultimately to overall organizational success (outcome).


• It outlines the specific drivers of IT success based on inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes, and identifies the causal relationships between the drivers.


• It provides the specific measures of IT performance to track performance of IT initiatives along the four dimensions outlined above. The metrics can be used for both IT project justification prior to implementation (planning) as well as for evaluation after completion (performance measurement).


• Since many organizations have little experience assigning monetary values to IT outputs and the measurement of IT payoffs, the guideline provides examples of how to assign monetary values to non-financial IT outputs (benefits).

It is interesting to see an attempt to measure the value of IT through a different set of eyes.

Another way to display the value of IT has come from Information Management. This is a corporate wide dashboard with requests, priorities, resourcing, schedules, and statuses. It allows an organization to see the breath of projects using resources for an organization. Hopefully this model will also bring to life concurrent and conflicting IT priorities. A tool like this needs to capture everything a person does, because it will be enlightening to the organization. They will see inefficiencies with high level operational and maintenance costs. The organization may even see seemingly redundant projects in the requested queue. The other overlap that does occur on an enterprise view is an overlap in products used for example one department may be doing reporting with Crystal Enterprise, another department doing reporting with Cognos. Or one guy is doing all java based development, while others are still working with the antiquated VB6.

The buzzwords for these findings are:

• Project portfolio management (PPM) a consolidated view of the project pipeline that allows IT to kill redundant projects and select projects with the strongest payoff.


• Application portfolio management (APM) provided companies with efficiency gains through reduced operational and maintenance costs.


• Enterprise infrastructure management (EIM) helped companies discover overlaps in products used to manage different infrastructure domains.

So with all these ways to measure why isn't there a standardized tool?

A Cool FireFox Web Developer Tool

Most of you may already be aware, but Chris Pederick has a great tool for firefox. The Web Developer Extension has a several tools for designers and developers alike.

My favorites are the editing of css, displaying form details, and validation of CSS, HTML, and 508. Its worth checking out.

CFMX 7 Hosting

Here's some good news. Crystal Tech is offering CFMX 7 Hosting.

Agreeing and moving forward.

There are times, I just want to get back to doing the actual work at hand. We are currently in the planning stages of a new project. Yesterday morning, I had the unfortunate experience of scheduling a meeting to decide who is going to do what on a project. The meeting was bright and early on a Monday morning 8:00 am, several VPs and several directors, but a small enough group to actually get a decision made. In my youthful exuberance I thought.

First thing out of the box, the new and improved charter was never received before the meeting, although it had been promised by a director. The old one, which was incorrect, was handed out. Next came the voicing of complaints on the early hour of the meeting on Monday morning. I sat and quietly nodded my acknowledgement, however in my organization it is impossible to schedule this group of people at a better time without 2 months notice. It was 8:00 am on monday or 7:00 am on Wednesday. Trying to get back to the schedule at hand, which was the project organization structure again was lost. One VP wanted something fundamentally this way, the other vp had an opposite opinion of the fundamental belief. Neither philosophy had to do with the project team organization. We tried getting at the project organization from a top down structure, failed miserably, then we tried from a bottom up structure. We were slightly more successful. We stopped at the project manager and decision makers. No one wants to lead the middle but all what to participate. After the meeting, I went to one of the director’s office, and wouldn’t leave her alone until we actually had an agreement on the project organization and structure. We also banged out what each team would be doing, we have teams for reporting and converting, intersystem workflow, technology, case management, quality management, coding and abstracting, and 3rd party denials. I understand that planning is needed. We as an organization need to know where we are now and what we do, then how we will be functioning and then figure out how to get there. But if it is taking 4 weeks to get a project structure and organization, how long is it going to take to plan what needs to be done? Of course if we don't plan, is there a less chance that the pieces will fit?

What's in a Electronic Health Record

One of the core questions that plagues alot of healthcare establishments is to agree on what is actually containted within the electronic record. I personally have been blessed with hearing about the fact the a EHR only contains what the institutional vendor of choice believes to everything in the paper chart.

In an effort to assist in defining a standard, the Institute of Medicine has identified eight core delivery functions that the Electronic Health Record should be able to do way back in 2003 found here. These eight functions look to drive greater patient safety, quality of care, and efficiency within healthcare.

The eight functions are:

• Health Information and Data


• Result Management


• Order Management


• Decision Support


• Electronic Communications and connectivity


• Patient Support


• Administrative Processes (i.e. Scheduling)


• Reporting (ie. disease surveillance, patient safety)