Max Milhan

In 2009, President Obama created the new governmental position of Federal Chief Information Officer. As the world’s largest single buyer of IT products and facing ever-increasing fiscal deficits, the United States government was in need of effective, cost-conscious leadership and Vivek Kundra stepped in to take over the role of Federal CIO. His “cloud-first” policy […]

Although understanding your bias is important to effectively analyzing a situation, the first step in improvement is to identify your problem. What motivates you to make a change? The key to innovation is desire: the desire to do something better, faster or more easily. Consider the following thoughts on innovation: “Discontent is the first necessity […]

Pam Baker at ReadWriteWeb posted an interesting article this morning advocating the atomization and integration of enterprise software. She argues that integration and accessibility are becoming as important as features and functionality. Remember the old days, when a mainframe or PC operating system dictated what corporations would buy and support? They seem so quaint now. “Anything […]

This morning I read an interesting article by Scott Anthony called “How Iteration-itis Kills Good Ideas” in which the author details an experience he had at a company whose system and culture were accidentally stifling creativity. “We never see any good ideas,” lamented a senior executive. “People bring us ideas. But they just don’t have any […]

A friend of mine recently showed me an excellent TED talk by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink, Outliers and Tipping Point. The insights in his books have always been entertaining and he has a great way of bringing data to life. In the video below, he recounts the story of a friend who, in his work as a psycho-physicist, uncovers […]

According to the Project Management Institute, in 2007 61% of all “IT” projects failed or were halted before completion. In 2008, more than 75% of all projects exceeded budgets by 30%. All too frequently, IT projects fail to meet customer or user expectations. There are many risks inherent with creation in an enterprise IT environment: […]

We are so often asked to “think outside of the box” that the phrase has almost reached a cliché status. What does it really mean, and how can you train yourself to do it? The first step in changing your perception is to acknowledge your background and biases. Consider the following excerpts taken from Horace […]