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No one wants to spend money for something they don’t want or need.  Many companies, including the healthcare industry, try to squeeze IT when it comes to the budget.  But what most CFO’s and executives that control the IT budget need to understand is, they have become a digital business, at least in the back office. Everything is now done on the computer.  Therefore, there must be an increase in resources to keep the computers up-to-date, secure and operating at acceptable levels.

With cyber criminals focused on stealing Protected Health Information, cyber security is now very important and a top requirement of every healthcare covered entity and business associate.  The problem is, all the demand to defend against cyber-threats has created a massive shortage of cyber security expertise.  In the small to medium sized business, there is an estimated 68% shortage of cyber security expertise.

What to do?  Make sure you train staff on protecting ePHI.  Talk to your IT staff or vendor to create a plan to improve and maintain the security of your computers.  AND increase your budget to make the necessary improvements to protect your patients, protect your practice, and protect yourself.

For more details on the shortage of security resources check out the Wakefield Research survey of 700 IT decision makers at SMBs in the U.S., U.K. and Australia conducted on behalf of endpoint security firm Webroot.

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I’ve been credited with saving “lost” projects, turning around massively behind schedule and over budget projects and actually launching and completing “mission impossible” projects.  Most of them required some severe bleeding on my part, but working closely with people, being honest with the sponsors and stakeholders and forcing communications among all involved righted the ships and improved the sailing.  And I was able to do those things because I have been a programmer, developer, systems analyst, business analyst, system administrator, network administration/architect, application architect, solution architect, team lead, integration lead/officer, disaster recovery manager & consultant, vCIO and held various other jobs.  I basically knew when a person wasn’t understanding the requirements or able to deliver the “goods”.  I was willing to force issues out on the table and have them resolved no matter how difficult the discussion.  More importantly, I was willing to tell the stake holders, customer and sponsors the project was not on schedule or within budget.  And often I told them changing the scope was the problem.

I’ve never been a big believer of certifications.  They are too heavily based on academic learning and not near enough on experiential knowledge.  Although, there is one certification I keep thinking I should pursue, the PMP.  I definitely agree with the benefits of standard terminology, processes and procedures to help a team function and perform better.  I have to assume the PMI is trying to remove some of the issues of projects such as the politics and lack of communications by creating a process that works in many cases.

However, I was in a meeting the other day with many project managers who were asking me questions and I was asking them questions.  After leaving the meeting it dawned on me the struggles they were having were not because of the management of the project itself, but the lack of management or handling of the politics driving the business through the projects.  The stakeholders were not willingly on board, they were being forced down the path by sponsors and external forces.  That has to be brought out and resolved are the project will struggle at best, but more likely fail.

I also realized, most of the project managers did not have experiential knowledge of the actual work they were managing.  That is, the project manager over the network enhancements and new build-out had never been a network architect, network engineer or network administrator.  He simply had no clue if the network staff was actually doing the right things in the right order with the right equipment.  How could he possibly know if the project was truly on track.

Of course, the reality is, the PMP is a great “tool” to have on your tool belt, but the best tool does not make a master carpenter.  I might add, it appears the PMP has become much more real world over the years making it an even better tool and learning experience for project managers.

For more information on the PMP visit the PMI web site at http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx

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