Posts
Thoughts that take longer than a meeting.
On escalation, transformation, and why technology decisions are so rarely technical decisions.
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Should we build AI ourselves? The wrong question.
„Should we build AI ourselves?“ is not a technology question. It is the same build-buy-partner decision as ever, only that this time everyone pretends no one has ever calculated it. In most cases the answer is buy, but a buy…
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I know how your provider calculates.
Before I negotiated for clients against providers, I calculated for the provider. You see the same numbers differently depending on which side of the table you sit. For fifteen months I was the provider. A premium supplier for IT operations,…
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Your AI pilot does not fail on the technology.
Your AI pilot rarely fails on the model. It fails because no one introduces it. And introduction is a craft, not a prompt. An AI rollout and a classic rollout across 80,000 users in 16 countries have more in common…
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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…