August 25, 2008

"PRIDE"-EEM PHASE 2 - LOGICAL ENTERPRISE ANALYSIS (SPECIAL)

This is Part IV in our series on the "PRIDE" Methodologies for IRM. In this edition we provide a description of Phase 2 of the "PRIDE"-Enterprise Engineering Methodology (EEM).

The full text for this section can be obtained by clicking: HERE

NEXT UP: PHASE 3 - PHYSICAL ENTERPRISE ANALYSIS

If you would like to discuss this with me in more depth, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.

Keep the faith!

OUR BRYCE'S LAW OF THE WEEK therefore is...

"Enterprises with identical missions will also be identical in terms of their logical structure."

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MY "PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK" IS "HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY USE OUR HEAD?"

Ever wonder what goes through people's heads? Or maybe you have heard yourself say, "What the hell are you thinking of?" It shouldn't come as a surprise to find a lot of people don't use their head during the day. A couple of years ago I wrote a paper entitled, "Increasing Brain Power." Although the intent of the paper was to suggest ideas for sharpening worker acuity, I made the observation that we typically don't use our head as much as we assume we do.

First, we typically rest or sleep for eight hours each day whereby the brain is not truly engaged. We then spend eight hours for work and eight hours for personal time. In the typical work day, office workers are normally 70% effective, meaning we spend about five and a half hours on productive work. During personal time, we perform pet projects and hobbies, pay the bills, run errands, attend a meeting or function, relax, and wake up or go to sleep. During this time we typically spend two hours on concentrated work. All of this means in a typical work day, we only spend about eight hours to really exercise the brain. But from a management perspective, we can expect to get only three hours at peak performance. Actually, this number fluctuates based on how well the worker is able to engage the brain. Some people are able to engage their brains for several hours, some for only an hour, and some not at all.

I guess what I am getting at is that people tend to operate at a primal level most of the day representing nothing more than their basic instincts and reflex actions (I call this the "autopilot" mode). We see this on our commutes to and from work, we see it as we shop in stores, and we see it as we "zone out" watching television. Basically, people prefer to tune out than to tune in to what is going on. As a systems man, I tend to make the analogy that we take in more input than we produce output. Because of this, we are highly susceptible to subliminal messages from the media and are easily influenced.

We commonly make extensive use of technology to assist us at work. But because technology often supersedes our thought processes, it actually causes us to be less sharp intellectually. To illustrate, not long ago a study was performed by Kings College in London for Hewlett Packard, the purpose of which was to study the effect of technology on worker performance. According to Dr. Glenn Wilson, the author of the study: "Results showed clearly that technological distraction diminished IQ test performance." Basically, the study said that excessive use of technology can have an adverse effect on a person's brain power. This is somewhat disturbing as technology permeates our society.

So, the next time you have a confrontation with the human animal, just remember they are probably not operating at the same level as you are; they could be a lot smarter or a lot dumber than they may appear.

Such is my Pet Peeve of the Week.

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"BRYCE'S PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK"

Folks, a couple of years ago I started to include my "Pet Peeve of the Week" in these "Management Visions" podcasts. They have become so popular that I now syndicate them through the Internet and they are available for republication in other media. To this end, I have created a separate web page for my writings which you can find at phmainstreet.com Look for the section, "The Bryce is Right!" Hope you enjoy them.

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AND FINALLY...

I received the following e-mail regarding my Pet Peeve on "Who's in charge here?":

An I.L. in Kansas City, Missouri wrote...

"All you have to do is look at how screwed up this planet is and you will know that no one is in charge. The inmates are running the asylum."

I received the following e-mails from my "Pet Peeve" entitled, "Thinking Small":

A J.D. in Tampa, Florida wrote...

"I'm no business analyst, but I'm thinking a few things are happening, which changed (and continues to change) the corporate landscape. First is the idea that many trends are cyclical. We may return to a "think big" mentality soon enough. But the other thing is the explosion of small entrepreneurs, work-at-home sole-proprietorships. You can blame corporate lay-offs, down-sizing, and bankruptcies for dumping large numbers of workers back into the fray of unemployment. Also, many workers are fed-up with, or not interested in, working for the large corporate machine. Too much politics and b.s. to contend with, where often you're rewarded socially for *not* working too hard and making everyone else look bad (a socialist state within the corp.), or you just don't mix well with the personalities involved. You don't have to "fit-in" if you're a sole proprietor. I'm one of the latter group - I work for myself now, and the fruits of my labors go directly to me, not some ivory tower CEO whom I never met."

An R.G. in Richmond, Kentucky wrote...

"Hey! I'm one of those bean counters. All we do is tell you how much it will cost. The execs decide what they will spend. I, for one, try very hard to think long term. My personal budget projections go out 4-5 years. However, I do understand what you mean. Instant gratification seems to be the mantra these days. Even more so than I remember in the 80's."

Again, thanks for your comments. For these and other comments, please visit my "Bryce is Right!" web site.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

MBA is an international management consulting firm specializing in Information Resource Management. We offer training, consulting, and writing services in the areas of Enterprise Engineering, Systems Engineering, Data Base Engineering, Project Management, Methodologies and Repositories. For information, call us at 727/786-4567.

Our corporate web page is at:

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Management Visions is a presentation of M. Bryce & Associates, a division of M&JB Investment Company of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA. The program is produced on a weekly basis and updated on Sundays. It is available in versions for RealPlayer, Microsoft Media Player, and MP3 suitable for Podcasting. See our web site for details. You'll find our broadcast listed in several Podcast and Internet Search engines, as well as Apples' iTunes.

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Copyright © 2008 by M&JB Investment Company of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA. All rights reserved. "PRIDE" is the registered trademark of M&JB Investment Company.

This is Tim Bryce reporting.

Since 1971: "Software for the finest computer - the Mind."

END