Posts
Thoughts that take longer than a meeting.
On escalation, transformation, and why technology decisions are so rarely technical decisions.
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Agility does not scale around the budget.
Agility does not scale around the budget. Whoever releases eight figures needs a statement of work. And that is exactly what contradicts what „agile“ promises. I once resolved the contradiction in practice, in a large program. Only after a sponsor…
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Audit with no finding: what that really means.
„Audit with no finding“ is neither chance nor the examiner’s carelessness. It is the most expensive result you can work for in this business. The phrase sounds as if nothing happened. In fact, hard design work stands behind it. At…
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A program is only as good as its sponsor’s questions.
Years ago I explained to project leads how to handle their board. Today I write for the board. Because most get exactly the program they demand. No more. The usual advice literature turns it around: it explains to the program…
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Unbundling under the supervision of the Federal Network Agency.
A system separation can be postponed. An unbundling under the supervision of the Federal Network Agency cannot. There the deadline is a law, not a suggestion. Honest about my role: in this carve-out I was responsible for the base and…
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Roles only grow, they never shrink.
In every grown system sits an „H. Schmidt“ who is allowed to do everything. Not by intent, but because roles only grow and never shrink. The only question is whether you know him. I have seen this again and again…
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The works council is a design problem.
Whoever plans in the works council only at the end negotiates. Whoever brings it into the design shapes. That is the whole difference. One thing up front, because it is often misunderstood: the external rightly does not conduct works-council negotiations.…
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An audit finding is not an attack. It is the only currency for resources.
An audit finding is not an attack. It is the only currency with which an understaffed area gets resources from the board. The reflex is the same everywhere: a finding comes in, and the first thought is defense. Of course…
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Who is actually allowed to sign here?
Governance is not the slide with the boxes. Governance is the answer to the question of who may sign, bindingly, at three in the morning. A group, too, consists of distinct companies that may not automatically represent one another. In…
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The budget process destroys the transparency it is meant to create.
A budget process is meant to create cost transparency. In many organizations it destroys exactly the transparency it is meant to create. The buffer I knew in a budget was usually five to ten percent, in a politically charged environment…
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Sometimes the rule itself is the most open item in the plan.
Most programs take the rule as given. Sometimes the rule itself is the most open item in the plan. The core problem of a Europe-wide posting-compliance program was that at the start there was no regulation, but a directive. Instead…