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January 2009 Blog Posts (6)

Africa needs to cross other bridges before crossing the digital divide

I have a friend who is the Chief Information Officer of a Government Department here in South Africa. The other day, he said: “The problem with our Government Ministers and Director Generals, is that they are buzz-word-compliant. They use all the latest buzzwords without having a clue as to what the implications of their words are”.

A survey of a number of recent news articles reveals this to probably be true of most of Africa, and who knows, possibly true of many other Governments… Continue

Added by Terry White on January 8, 2009 at 9:42am — 3 Comments

Agile vs Waterfall

At our last CIO Breakfast Forum for 2008 in November we presented and discussed Agile Practice. We specifically looked at the use of the Scrum project management methodology and a practical implementation in an enterprise. There was a lively discussion and unfortunately we went over our usual time limit. This looks like a topic that may evolve into other conversations.

A Certified Scrum Master (CSM) discussed and presented Scrum and highlighted some of the differences between the… Continue

Added by Bridgetti Lim Banda on January 6, 2009 at 5:26pm — No Comments

CIO Research Centre for Western Cape

As part of the CIO Forum program for 2009, we are extending our focus towards establishing an independent applied research centre to facilitate projects that bridge the gap between academia and commercial enterprises. We intend working closely with the four universities in the Western Cape and all faculties and departments where the academic program is relevant to Information Technology and Communication (ICT).

We believe there is a need for a research centre that can help address… Continue

Added by Bridgetti Lim Banda on January 6, 2009 at 5:23pm — No Comments

A CIO Research Centre in the Western Cape

Added by Bridgetti Lim Banda on January 6, 2009 at 5:21pm — No Comments

Grow Your Leadership Skills

There's nothing like a new job to test and expand your leadership skills, but such opportunities don't come around that often. So look for ways to grow as a leader in your current job:

Reshape your current job to find new challenges within it. Rethink your approach to a current responsibility, trade tasks with a colleague, or take on a role that is needed but currently left undone.

Take on temporary assignments that offer fresh challenges. Seek out projects, task forces, and events… Continue

Added by Victor Adedoyin on January 5, 2009 at 3:29pm — No Comments

(10 Indispensable Laws Of Negotiation)

1. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. Successful negotiators are assertive and challenge everything – they know that everything is negotiable. I call this negotiation consciousness. It was Number One on my previous list and it stays at the helm in 2009. Negotiation consciousness is what makes the difference between negotiators and everybody else on the planet.

Being assertive means asking for what you want and refusing to take NO for an answer. Practice expressing your… Continue

Added by Gbenga Olisa on January 3, 2009 at 1:09pm — 1 Comment