Gantt Charts and Network Analysis

Network Analysis and also Gantt Charts are 2 extremely important instruments of project management used throughout the planning stage of a project. It illustrates activities towards fixed time frames and assists in managing the sequence of routines in a project.

Project Planning Equipment

Network Analysis and Gantt Charts are 2 project management equipment that help with performing tasks towards a time tangent. In a project, networks form the foundation for managing the project. While the WBS forms the backbone of the project tasks along with deliverables, the scheduled time for each and every task to happen is demonstrated by a network diagram. In the network diagram, each activity includes a fixed start time along with a fixed finish. Dependencies of jobs are based on the time allocated for each, where one might start only once a certain task is completed or may start at the same time together with another.

Network Diagram Dependencies and Terms

There are 4 logical dependencies which are followed within a network diagram.

• Finish - Start (One task needs to finish prior to the next task starts. Eg. Sit in a car. Drive the car. )
• Start – Start (One task needs to start prior to the next task starts. Eg. The invitee should begin eating his lunch ahead of the host starts eating his lunch)
• Start – Finish (One task should start ahead of the next could finish. Eg. Security measures have to start before the President setting out for the function. )
• Finish – Finish (One task needs to finish prior to the next one completes. Eg. Security checks must be finished prior to the President’s car arrives. )

Some other dependencies worth remembering are:

• Mandatory Dependencies: Where it's apparent that routines follow a specific logical pattern regardless of choice. (Eg. Build the foundation. Erect the partitions. )
• Discretionary Dependencies: Dependencies that are not mandatory but are recommended best according to earlier experiences. (Eg. Painting a wall with vertical strokes as against horizontal strokes. )
• External Dependencies: Dependencies that involve actions which are based on external agents not directly associated with the project. (Eg. Corporation XYZ needs to write the soft ware just before Corporation ABC could install it. )

Some other terminology associated with Project Networks are Log (time permitted to speed up an activity) Lag (approved time to decelerate an activity) Float (an accepted delay of time that doesn't have an effect on the general project duration) and Critical Path (the longest path inside a network without any room for float or delay which is critical to the effectiveness of the project’s time schedules.

Gantt Charts

Gantt Charts are charts which were developed by Henry L. Gantt in the early 1900’s. As an industrialist professional and researching ways to simplify control over his projects, he created the chart that has gain popularity worldwide. Gantt charts are graphical representations of jobs next to time. In the beginning there have been no dependencies manifested on the chart, but throughout the more recent decades dependencies too were charted.

In the Gantt Chart, jobs are manifested across the vertical axis and also have a fixed measure for calculation. Time is manifested across the horizontal axis of the graph and could extend just as much as the duration allotted for each job. Downward arrows at the start or end of the time schedule between jobs point out dependencies.

Benefits of Network Analysis and Gantt Charts

Network Analysis and Gantt Charts have their positive aspects.

Network Diagrams:

* Makes optimum use of the 4 M’s – Man, Machine, Money and also Material.
* Optimizes and raises effectiveness of stakeholders and jobs specified to each.
* Minimizes the general project length by controlling parallel jobs.
* As it controls all routines of a project all together, the accomplishment of a project could be assured.
* Drawing up network diagrams assist in discovering all probable jobs which can be performed in a project.

Gantt Charts:

* Simple to draw
* Simple to decipher and also understand
* Offers clearness of a project’s status
* Simple to use as a briefing tool in a conference covering an entire set of actions.
* One chart could show many routines.
* One of the easiest ways of reporting and also documenting a project’s development.
* It's a tool which can be used throughout all streams of work.

baby's first publication...

We design cabinet plans for people all the time. Some clients are afraid of their computer. Some want to cut down on the time they are at IKEA working on their cabinet order. Some clients have no idea where to start. Sometimes it's just that the client doesn't have the time to do measure for and space-plan their cabinets.

The clients who are strapped for time are often flush with style and decor ideas. That was definitely the case with Michael Richardson and Brian Sevy, our clients from the Southern Lower Mainland in January of 2009. They were just in the beginning stages of a major renovation project then. Lovely people who we hadn't heard from in a while, until...

Picture this... It's Saturday night and my family is in town and we're doing a barbecue dinner. Hubby's hard at work prepping the food when we realise we are out of charcoal. No problem! We live a minute away from the grocery store. So my brother in law and I head over to pick up a bag of charcoal from the store. Standing in the check-out line, I see this:

I thought to myself "I never buy magazines from the grocery store. And Kimberley Seldon is the Decorating Editor for this one. I should buy it." So I did.

Cut to 45ish minutes later, me eating my dinner, and flipping through my new magazine while casually listening to the conversation my sister and mum are having. Thank goodness I was between bites, because there would have been a serious spit-take. My thoughts: "Oh this is a great sofa. Love that table. Huh - the set-up of those kitchen windows looks familiar..." That's when I almost lost my dinner. Here's what caught my eye:

I think to myself "I know those windows." How do I know those windows? Because we were there. We measured and planned this kitchen a year and a half ago.

So congratulations to Michael and Brian for having the vision to restore this retro gem. Congrats to us for having a client featured in a major design publication. And thank you to Kimberley Seldon for being so generous and inspiring because, without that, I probably wouldn't have thought to pick up this issue of Style at Home.

To see more...

We planned out the cabinets for the main kitchen area, and also designed and sub-contracted the fabrication of the custom piece that you'll see to the far right of the image directly below (wood-framed pass-thru between kitchen and dining area). All cabinet parts were supplied by IKEA, the finishes were selected by the client, the cabinets were installed by our company, and all other finishes were fabricated and installed by other companies.

And pick up the issue - on stands now!

Thanks so much for reading.

Continuous Improvement - Using Kaizen to Your Advantage

 

What is Kaizen?

Toyota's Production System is established on Continuous Improvement. This fresh strategy is actually just the Western version of the Kaizen scorecard. Kaizen, interpreted from Japanese, means quite literally "Good Change". In English, people employ this to indicate continuous improvement, flawlessness, and continual expansion. Essentially, Kaizen is an improvement program for any work area. To assist Japan's devastated post-war economy, The War Department's "Training Within Industry" program contacted expert statisticians to improve their chances in the global market.

Toyota Motor Corporation has taken process improvement methods that arose in the fifties and then introduced its own technique called the Toyota Production System. Juran's statistical approach, Deming's Shewart cycle, and Kaizen are only three illustrations of developments Toyota Motor Corporation based its method on. Although past strategies relied on instruction and education of their employees, Toyota Motor Corporation journeyed many degrees further by demanding production lines to be shut down if a defect had been discovered. Once that transpires at Toyota, the line laborers, executives and the employees having administrative responsibilities work together to discover and overcome the reasons why production needed to be stopped.

Kaizen is a great way to save on spending in manufacturing. Kaizen is being used more and more around the world. By using this program, less proficient tactics will be weeded out, leading to increased employee morale, reduced waste and increased productivity. The advantages will not only benefit the owners but also the employees as well as the stockholders. The Kaizen concept can be implemented on a large, small or personal level.

Why Kaizen Fails

Putting this strategy into place requires evaluating every level of production. One of the first tasks is to time the entire process from start to finish, allowing executives to see what part of the production process is taking longer than it should. Improved time management by cutting delays and slowed actions delivers bottom line efficiency results. The Kaizen system streamlines communication at all levels, which also results in better efficiency. Until every bit of extra time and wasted effort has been pulled from the process, the strategy cannot be called a success. However, once you have, you can be sure you've created a first class production process.

For the purpose of supervision and administration, it is very necessary to use a Kaizen Scorecard, which indicates the implementation of continuous improvement in day to day work of the company. Since Kaizen is expanding continuously, review and adjustment when required are essential. Eventually, Kaizen can increase productivity, cash flow, workmanship and total success

 Abraham Maslow's Workforce Motivation Wizardry

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was written as he tried to convey the basics of human concern and desire. He based his research on the more intellectual people of his era. Abraham Maslow's Needs Hierarchy has five different tiers. Included in these five tiers are Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self Actualization. In his theory, Maslow says that lower tiers must be reached before one can attend to the higher levels. It's important to know where your team sits as a whole, as well as knowing the placement of each person in the group.

The lowest level is a human's physiological concerns. In order to survive, we must feed ourselves, quench our thirst, breath, use the bathroom, and procreate. If we did not do these things, then we could not survive. A leader must make sure that his employee's basic concerns and comforts are met in order for them to reach their full potential. For example, if an employee is freezing cold in the work place, then she will not work as quickly and efficiently as if she were in a comfortable environment.

Safety and security occupy the second tier of needs that humans have to fulfill in Maslow's Needs Hierarchy. For adults, safety is achieved by having employment and monetary security. At work, employers should create a secure environment for the workers. Employees who fear layoffs or termination will not invest as much care or effort as they could. Without job security, employees might do sub-par work. Even worse, insecure employees might resort to causing harm to the company as a form of revenge.

The third step covers a person's desire to belong and feel loved. By helping employees establish friendships with one another, an employer can help create an environment in which employees enjoy working. Scheduling social events or pairing compatible individuals on tasks are ways an employer can provide bonding opportunities.

The fourth level involves a person's esteem. Humans have the desire to feel as though they are part of a group. In group situations, we have the ability to feel emotions of achievement and confidence. We start to gain the respect of others which in return boosts our self esteem. An employer can create activities outside of work to help engage his employees. Whether it is a team sport or relay picnic event, co-workers can bond over the activities, have a great time, and boost their confidence in themselves.

Self-actualization is the last level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This level includes our ability to solve problems, reach moral decisions, and use our creativity. This tier cannot be reached until all of the previously summarized levels have been accomplished. Once we have achieved self-actualization, we become fully mature adults.

Motivation, McGregor, and Management

When I'm asked about the topic of employee motivation, I describe the nature of work and human nature and share my belief that people don't come to work so that they can fail. While this may seem odd, I have worked with managers and leaders who don't fully believe this statement. Applying Douglas McGregor's theory of motivation, these folks belong to the Theory X camp which asserts that the average worker dislikes work and will avoid it at any price. Theory X managers aren't positive thinkers. Based on my life experiences, I have reason to believe in Theory Y and my perspective is that that no one wakes up saying, "Gosh, I hope to fail miserably today," or "Let's hope I perform with overwhelming mediocrity." Everyone wants happiness, success and meaning in their lives.
"If we lived in a perfect world, there would not be a need for managers."
- Bryce's Law
"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere."
- Ronald Reagan (1986)

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about Theories X, Y, and Z in management; whereas "Theory X" is autocratic, "Theory Y" is more of a "carrot and stick" mentality and "Theory Z" promotes individual participation. Remarkably, despite the many years of promoting the rights of the worker, today we primarily live in a Theory X world. Employees are told what to do and when to do it, without any interest in their input. Today, this is commonly referred to as "micromanagement." With this approach, even though the work will get done eventually, there is no company loyalty from the worker, mistakes are made and quality suffers, and productivity slides since there is no personal sense of pride by the employee. In other words, the company works, but certainly not like a well-oiled machine.
The people that run many non-profit groups have the best intentions, but they seldom know how to actually manage. Sadly, some people get involved with such organizations to satisfy a petty power trip they are on. Consequently, they have little regard for organization and adherence to existing policies and rules. Instead, they try to micromanage everything. People, particularly volunteers, have a natural aversion to micromanagement and quickly lose interest in their work.

Some of the most productive organizations are those where management succeeded in aligning the individual workers with the running of the company. While management is still in control, they have stimulated employee interests by encouraging their participation and feedback.
Even in this model, management still has some top-down responsibilities, including:

1. Delegate - prioritize and assign tasks to qualified employees.
2. Control work environment - minimize staff interferences and provide a suitable workplace to operate with the proper tools to perform the work.
3. Review progress - study employee reports and take corrective action where necessary.

Determining the current situation of the organization, the current status of the employees, and the organizational cultures are just a few additional responsibilities of a leader. Changes in cultural and organizational structures have caused every organization to change their management styles every now and then. Some prefer to use the authoritarian style which focuses on the concept of teamwork and empowerment of employees and there are some who uses the managerial style which focuses on technical aspects of the leader who controls all the activities within the organization.

Complex Organizational Structures

The Family & Children's Services division of the San Francisco Human Services Agency is a complex organization, but it can be easily understood through the Bolman and Deal's four frames.

Bolman and Deal's Structural Frame involves these core assumptions:

1. Organizations exist to achieve specified goals and objectives.
2. Organizations use specialization and a clear division of labor to increase efficiency and improve performance.
3. Coordination and control make sure that the diverse efforts of individuals and units align.
4. Organizations work most effectively when rationality wins over personal preferences and external pressures.
5. Structures must be designed to fit an organization's circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment).
6. Problems and performance gaps arise as a result of structural deficiencies and are best remedied through root cause analysis of these deficiencies and restructuring appropriately.

FCS exists to achieve established goals and objectives. Some of these goals, for example, are to protect San Francisco's children at risk of neglect and abuse, preserving their families through assistance via a wide range of services. This is achieved through investigations of child abuse and, in some situations, by putting children in foster care.

FCS has internal specialization and a clear division of labor. For example, the emergency response units are trained to interview children, parents, and others to determine if child abuse allegations are true, whereas the specialized teen units are trained to work with adolescents in foster care to stabilize placement and prepare the teenagers for successful adulthood.

Coordination and control of the agency's various activities is provided by the presence of managers at various levels, who supervise all the employees and all the projects.

Rationality prevails - For example, workers must be objective and put aside personal perspectives when reporting to the courts, which operate under rational laws, policies, and procedures. Furthermore, decisions about how to deal with families, including whether or not to remove children from their homes, are made collectively by the agency, not by individuals, who may have personal motives at stake.

The organizational structure at FCS is designed to fit the organization's circumstances, in the sense that the agency recognizes that its budget and workforce are limited, and so it cannot propose goals that are beyond its means. For example, the agency cannot investigate every home about which a complaint is made. The truthfulness of the complainant must be taken into account, as well as the seriousness of the charges.

There are problems and performance gaps in the agency that arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring. For example, recent studies have shown that the agency places a disproportionate number of African-American children in foster homes. Some people would argue that this is connected to the fact that most social workers in FC are, as are most social workers in the US, Caucasian women. The federal government has taken an interest in this situation, and has recommended, among other things, that there be fewer removals of children from homes and more assistance to homes in the way of services.

Human Resources - According to Abraham Maslow (1954), humans must first satisfy their needs for well-being, including food and shelter, and only then can they address their higher needs, such as belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization. To Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor (1960) added two notions, which he called Theory X and Theory Y, that apply to organizational contexts. According to Theory X, most organizational managers assume that their subordinates are, in the words of Bolman and Deal, "passive and lazy, have little ambition, prefer to be led, and resist change".

According to McGregor's Theory Y, a managers essential task "is to arrange organizational conditions so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts toward organizational rewards".

Maslow's ideas and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y play out heavily. The administrators make sure that each employee is provided with his or her basic needs-a workspace, office supplies, and office equipment-so that they can meet their potential in delivering services to clients. However, many of the managers operate out of the assumption that workers are lazy, lack ambition, and do not favor change (Theory X). This is manifested in micro-management actions as section managers require workers and supervisors to submit compliance logs and weekly reports to make sure the work is being done. At times, the actual acts and times of completing these reports prevent quality contact with families. On the other hand, Theory Y is played out at FCS in various ways, such as when an employee is cited as "employee of the month" for outstanding service.

The political frame is also apparent at FCS. Within this framework, organizations are seen as political arenas that host a complex web of players and interests. In this context, coalitions are established, people fight for scarce resources, and decisions are made by bargaining and jockeying for position.

At FCS, it is easy to see the complex web of players and interests. Beside its organizational structure, with administrators and employees fighting for resources and jockeying for position, there is the court system that the agency has to deal with, sometimes antagonistically, and the families that the agency serves, also sometimes with resistance. The agency has a union, which fights for the employees' rights, and many staff members belong to various professional associations. In addition, many of the foster parents belong to a foster parents association. The conflicts among all of these players serve as a check and balance system to protect the needs of society at large and all the various individuals involved.

The symbolic framework clearly applies to FCS, for this agency, like every other social agency in the country, is dedicated to noble causes: in this case, protecting children from harm and helping families to survive and prosper. The agency does these things literally, but there is a sense in which everyone in the agency is united under the symbol of doing good in the world.

IT Departments Face a Lack of Project Management Know-how

More than 75% of 219 IT executives interviewed earlier this year by Meta Group Inc. indicated that a lack of in-house project management skills is a major workforce issue for them. But comparatively few companies offer formal IT project management training, according to a Meta document.

The dearth of experienced project managers is so acute, said analysts from Stamford, Conn.-based Meta & other consulting firms, that they are waiting to see whether IT-intensive regulatory compliance efforts, such as meeting the mandates of the Sarbanes-Oxley & USA Patriot acts, will lead to a resurgence of training efforts.

Margo Visitacion, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said Meta's findings mesh together with her own research. "A lot of unofficial training is going on where people take on the role of project manager," Visitacion said. But, they added, "the only time there is been a dedicated hard work for project management training was Y2k, & once that was done, the money went somewhere else."

Providing consistent project management training to a technically oriented staff can be "a challenge," said Mark Reilley, an IT project manager at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in Washington. They is one of two IT staffers who support 125 users at the nonprofit company.

Reilley said some IT technicians don't have all the basic skills needed to coordinate projects, but the CPB offers them training when feasible. In addition, Reilley mentors staffers in the course of the analysis phase of projects & helps them outline an overall plan.

That setup "works well on a day-to-day operational basis," Reilley said. But when the CPB needs to put in a brand new method or make major know-how enhancements, "we tend to struggle," they added. The CPB cannot afford to assign a dedicated project manager to each IT initiative & in lieu relies on a method "owner," meaning an IT staffer, to oversee the work.

One of the reasons why plenty of companies lack project management capabilities is that they tend to hire IT professionals with similar skills, said Martin Colburn, chief know-how officer at the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. in Rockville, Md. To combat that, they said, IT managers ought to create a matrix of the primary & backup skills they want & then evaluate their strengths & weaknesses "to choose where to fine-tune."

Meta's document, which was issued last month, said that less than 15% of companies polled informally have IT project management training programs in place. The poll was done separately from the document that identified project management shortcomings as a key issue.

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) - An IS Strategy for ERP Implementation

The following is based on Dr. Bozarth’s research on “ERP Implementation Efforts at Three Firms: Applying lessons from the SISP and IT-enabled change literature” which is scheduled to appear in the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.

Strategic advice systems planning, or SISP, is based on two amount arguments. The aboriginal is that, at a minimum, a firm’s advice systems investments should be accumbent with the all-embracing business strategy, and in some cases may alike become an arising antecedent of aggressive advantage. While no one disagrees with this, operations administration advisers are aloof starting to abstraction how this alignment takes abode and what the assessable allowances are. An affair beneath assay is how a manufacturer’s business strategy, characterized as either “market focused” or “operations focused,” affects its adeptness to accumulate ability against chump account allowances from its ERP investments.

The additional amount altercation abaft SISP is that companies can best accomplish IS-based alignment or aggressive advantage by afterward a proactive, academic and absolute action that includes the development of ample authoritative advice requirements. This is in adverse to a “reactive” strategy, in which the IS accumulation sits aback and responds to added areas of the business alone back a charge arises. Such a action is abnormally accordant to ERP investments, accustomed their costs and abiding impact. Seegars, Grover and Teng (1) accept articular six ambit that ascertain an accomplished SISP action (notice that abounding of these would administer to the cardinal planning action in added areas as well):

1. Comprehensiveness

Comprehensiveness is “the admeasurement to which an alignment attempts to be all-embracing or across-the-board in authoritative and amalgam cardinal decisions”.

2. Formalization

Formalization is “the actuality of structures, techniques, accounting procedures, and behavior that adviser the planning process”.

3. Focus

Focus is “the antithesis amid adroitness and ascendancy orientations inherent aural the cardinal planning system”. An avant-garde acclimatization emphasizes avant-garde solutions to accord with opportunities and threats. An commutual acclimatization emphasizes control, as implemented through budgets, ability allocation, and asset management.

4. Top-down flow

SISP should be accomplished by top managers, with the aid of abutment staff.

5. Ample participation

Even admitting the planning breeze is top-down, accord charge absorb assorted anatomic areas and, as necessary, key stakeholders at lower levels of the organization.

6. High consistency

SISP should be characterized by common affairs and reassessments of the all-embracing strategy.

The recommendations begin in the SISP abstract accept been echoed in the operations administration literature. It has been appropriate that firms should allocate a academic top-down planning action for bond advice systems action to business needs as they move against change in their administration orientation, planning, organization, and ascendancy aspects of the IT function.

Business Intelligence Solution

Business Intelligence is a know-how solution that helps enterprises, corporations & institutions to understand better, their business operations & performance by analyzing information across lots of dimensions. This improved understanding enable the business leaders in making the right decisions & utilize the resources effectively. Our team has extensive experience & expertise in industry leading Business Intelligence application products that include Oracle-OBIEE, Oracle-PeopleSoft EPM, Actuate, SAP-Business Objects, Microsoft BI Suite, IBM-Cognos & also Open Source product including Pentaho, Jaspersoft & BIRT.
 

In today's competitive marketplace, making the right decision with right information is the key to success. Our business intelligence solutions can provide deeper insight in to various aspects of your company & enable your business leaders in making informed decisions.

  * Enterprise Business Intelligence Reporting, Dashboard & Score cards
  * Enterprise Performance Management
  * Information Warehousing
  * Mobile Application for Business Intelligence Reports
  * Advanced Analytical
  * Reporting Portal
  * Information Integrations

They have helped our customers in building the following parts of business intelligence systems:
 

Our methodology to implement the Business Intelligence Solutions

They partner with our customers to understand the operational business processes, revenue stream, expenses, workforce, sales, marketing strategies, operation challenges, decision making processes & provide the very best quality business intelligence solutions that suites our customer needs. With our custom solution for Business Intelligence Reporting, domain knowledge, technical expertise & best practices they have developed & implemented lots of high-quality business intelligence systems that best suites our customer�s requirement & have dramatically lowered total cost of possession of the business intelligence method.

Infrastructure first, then SYSTEM

You work in an office or an organization? The environment in which we work would have been much supported by IT devices such as computer networks, operating systems, data centers, servers, etc.. The equipment is not selected haphazardly or function but must be well planned in order to deliver ideal results.

A good IT infrastructure support will contribute to the acceleration of the achievement of organizational goals, otherwise if the infrastructure is not good it could hinder the achievement of goals. Even more than that, with good IT infrastructure can be a key enabler for the development of the organization.
What is a key enabler and how we organize and plan a good IT infrastructure needs knowledge which includes:

I. Planning application infrastructure companies:

    Identify the components of an enterprise IT infrastructure and standardization.
    Integrate the organization's strategic needs, technology trends, and industry standards (best practices).
    Oriented enterprise application architecture.

II. Management of service level (service level) IT companies:

    Focus on a company's IT infrastructure lifecycle.
    Aspects of service level: capacity & scalability, availability & reliability, and security.
    Infrastructure capacity planning and measurement.
    Infrastructure management procedures based on best practices.

But before discussing further I want to describe in advance about the definition of infrastructure. When we hear the word infrastructure what is imagined? Roads, electricity, bridges, PAM channels, cable networks Telkom and everything that is physical and the basis for the use of the other equipment (the superstructure).
There are some general characteristics of the infrastructure include:

    Wider use than the structure above it (it supports).
    More permanent / static compared to the structure above it.
    Physically connected with the structure above it.
    Often counted as a service / support services.
    Owned and managed by a different party than the structure it supports.

Then what is meant by the IT infrastructure can be seen from the image below:

So the IT infrastructure running on public infrastructure such as electricity, buildings, etc.. In the IT infrastructure can be seen not only consist of perngakta hard but also consists of software such as OS, middleware and database applications.

The trend of infrastructure is increasingly creeping up. More and more software components that form the basis for other software components to be working. An example is a library of programming languages. Template design template (theme) that can be used by many applications.
Even now there is a trend called SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), which provides her (applications) to be used jointly by other applications. Understanding of the IT infrastructure is no longer mean something static (hardware) but it has become something more flexible (software).

Now as to what the ideal IT infrastructure?

Today's business world is increasingly pervasive, which means its business activities without IT is not able to go as banking database instance, or a university academic information systems. IT has become a key not only operational but also has become a competitive advantage. Banks for example, if the network ATMnya often die, the Bank will be unable to compete with the Bank ATMnya network more stable and more widespread.

The entry of IT in this strategic region make IT a key enabler for these companies. Key enablers enabling it meant to be a key to something new business opportunities. For example a large company who wants to acquire or merge with rival companies IT systems are different then if their IT systems can not be reconciled in order to work together then the acquisition / merger can not be done which means the loss of business opportunities.
This is where the importance of planning for a flexible IT infrastructure that IT can be obstacles at the same time can also be an opportunity. There are several motivations why we should have the ideal IT infrastructure:

Motivation: key enabler

    Information Technology (IT) is key enablerperusahaan to realize its business strategy.
    Business strategy is something that is dynamic: subject to change.
    IT must be able to adapt to the changing strategic needs of the company:
        New business unit or service
        The new branch office
        Organizational restructuring, etc..

Motivation: adaptiveness

    The speed of implementing change is a strategic requirement.
    IT must be flexible to accommodate changes quickly and efficiently.
    Keywords: adaptive IT infrastructure.
    Why is infrastructure?
        Infrastructure can be an obstacle or an opportunity to open a business initiative.

We see the company's mobile telephone operators competing race to adopt advanced electronic technology such as 3G, 3.5G and so on. Though not yet ready to market new technologies that take advantage of this because they want to have an adaptive IT infrastructure in order to seize opportunities ahead of new business opportunities, can pass the content or other innovations in the future.
Adaptiveness of an IT infrastructure can be measured from:

    Time to Market: the speed of implementation of new services.
    Scalability: able to accommodate increased usage / load.
    Extensibility: the ease of adding new components.

Then the characteristics of an adaptive IT infrastructure:

    Efficient: With the availability of components that can be used together by a variety of application systems (old & new).
    Effective: With the components are easily combined (interoperable) and integrated.
    Flexible (agile): The components are easily overhauled, upgraded, or replaced

In addition to the above features can be seen from:

    The complexity minimization
        Minimizing management costs, including the provision of human resources.
        Strategy: comprehensive planning, modular architecture, uniformity, avoiding duplication.
    Utility maximization (Value)
        Maximizing return on investment.
        Strategy: re-use / joint, application of open standards.

After knowing the ideal infrastructure and how to get the ideal IT infrastructure?

In the past we know that the applications are usually monolithic, single source code to handle all kinds of functions. This is not a good strategy for the development will be difficult because it is not flexible. Yan strategy either by breaking large applications into a modular system perlayanan function. As such systems become more adaptive.
Strategies to achieve adaptiveness:

    Complexity Partitioning: partition the application architecture into components that can be managed separately (modular).
    Reusability: reuse / cross-infrastructure components by a variety of IT services companies.
    Integration: the utilization of open technology standards that enable integration between infrastructure components.

The problems that often arise when we will plan a infrstrusktur IT in an organization are:

    Infrastructure is often not well planned
        No part of business strategy planning.
        CEOs rarely go to plan infrstruktur, this is where the role of CIO is required.
        Also not involved in designing applications from the beginning.
        Ad-hoc nature: in accordance with the requirements of new applications, without standardization.
    The result: infrastructure with high complexity, not focused, with high operating and maintenance costs.

The solution of these problems can be described in a number of points:

    Infrastructure plan as a whole (holistic)
        Covering the entire company.
        Include various levels of structure.
    Also consider the need for future infrastructure
        Accommodate change and growth.
    Maximize reuse and cross (reuse) infrastructure components (including infrastructure, human resources).
    Choosing the right technology
        Applying open-standardsuntuk ensure interoperability and freedom from attachment to the vendor.
        See fit with business needs and readiness / ability of the organization to adopt it.
    Applying the standard procedure in the planning and management infrastructure.
        Platform: Category basic components of infrastructure.
        Pattern: The structure of application systems involving platforms.
        Service: IT Services that provide common functions (can be used together).
    Using these patterns as templates in the design of infrastructure, with more quickly and efficiently.
        Facilitate the identification of a pattern-based design of components that can be shared
         Based on the pattern similarity between applications.

Notice the top (stovepipes) in which each each application has its own infrastructure itself while the bottom (pattern-based) of all applications using the same infrastructure.
According to Robertson & Sribar infrastructure components can be grouped into three central concepts:

In pattern-based approach can be identified several patterns of common applications that can be used as a reference in designing a variety of enterprise applications.
To be able to create a shared infrastructure in the pattern-based, Robertson-Sribar using the following methodology:

 IT infrastructure planning methodology.

 Inventory / data collection technology
        Based on the category system layer (see image above):
    Identification and development of pattern-pattern (pattern) architecture
        Standard configurations are widely applied (best practice) for various system applications.
        Each pattern is generally mempersyarat of a single set of infrastructure technologies.
        Become a reference for the development of new applications or services.
    Identification and development of service infrastructure
        Identify the system functions of a general nature.
        Make facility providers such functions as a service to the public.
        The transfer of duties / responsibilities of the facilities management TSB application to the infrastructure.
    Portfolio management infrastructure
        Organize platforms, patterns, and services in a standard portfolio companies.
        As a center of information for planning (costing, capacity planning, quality assurance).
        Periodically conducted reviewatas standards are selected, both in the long term (strategic planning) and short-term (tactical planning: per-project).
    Institutionalization of infrastructure planning
        Establishment of the role of IT Infrastructure Manager or Planner
        Separate from the application development project implementing organization.
        Selects and sets the standards the company's IT infrastructure.
        Develop interfaces (eg middleware) for reuse / cross-infrastructure resources.
    Management infrastructure as solution packages.
        Mengkemas infrastructure services as a package of products
        Complete with information about benefits, capacity, performance requirements (service level), and costing.
        Facilitate the business management to evaluate and make decisions about infrastructure investments.
        Can be developed into a profit center.
   

    By following the above methodology in planning IT infrastructure according to Robertson & Sribar obtained an adaptive infrastructure and organization into a strategic asset.