Kendall Consulting Group - Archive
Archive
Articles in the archive were published prior to 1992. This material remains useful to our friends and clients, and continues to serve as a resource for academic research in the fields. The following article is one of the articles in the archive.
CSF Technique Can Apply To Team Management
Robert Reck and Gary Gulden(Adapted from original submission to Computerworld, June 25, 1984)
The critical success factors (CSF) process is quickly becoming known as a high-quality, interview-based system design technique. Traditionally, the CSF process has been used with managers to create a management or decision support system. Now, however, Index Systems, Inc. has developed four new uses for the CSF technique that strengthens its usefulness.
The CSF process is usually recognized as a valuable method for determining information system priorities and other information that is useful in MIS planning. The CSF process was first articulated by Dr. John F. Rockart of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Originally, Dr. Rockart envisioned using CSFs with a single executive. The philosophy of the approach is that if an executive articulates objectives and the essential things that must go right to make the objectives happen (CFSs), then the important areas for information support are the measures that track performance, help analyze or model critical elements of these CSFs.
More recently, Rockart and Index have extended the process of identifying management support systems to entire teams of managers with four new uses for the CSF process:
- Focusing the information presented in an organization's current management report (or reporting) portfolio.
- Identifying, analyzing and supporting the definition of new business functions.
- Overhauling the methods and procedures of a business or organization.
- Supporting business (strategic and tactical) planning.
An organization can reap
significant benefits from any one of these uses. However, taken together,
these four new applications of the CSF process, along with the two conventional
uses, offer a powerful basis for improving the effectiveness of managers.
The first new use for
CSFs is to focus and tune up current management reports. If the CSFs and their
attendant measures are known, then available information can be added to current
reports to give some critical measures and thus enhance the value of those
reports. Alternatively, the CSFs can be used to cut out irrelevant data from
or even to eliminate current reports. This use can be an interim step while
management support systems are being developed to meet the full needs of a
management team.
In an energy resources company, the CSF process was used by senior managers
with the goal of developing management support systems. The process ended
with the definition of three major systems. However, the managers sought immediate
results for the current report portfolio to cut down the flow of paper in
the business, to focus management attention on critical areas prior to the
availability of the new systems and to help solve the "data rich, information
poor" problem.
The measures supporting
the CSFs were identified and were used as the basis for adding and deleting
data from many of the reports, combining several major reports and eliminating
several others. The results were immediate productivity improvement and cost
savings, as well as other desired achievements.
The second new application uses the CSF framework as the basis for identifying
a new organizational element or business function, for analyzing the functional
role within the business and how it interacts with other business units and
for developing support from managers for the new organization or function.
In one business, a quality assurance function was being created. However,
the function's role and required actions for success were unclear. In a brainstorming
session, the manager of the new function defined the ideal mission, objectives
and CSFs and realized that lateral managers needed to be involved in and responsible
for quality assurance.
CSFs, once identified, can also be used as a basis for overhauling the methods
and procedures of a business and focusing on where they are helping or inhibiting
the achievement of objections. Additionally, once critical measures are known,
the business processes that support these measures or management information
can be streamlined.
For example, a company with market-driven CSFs (such as "know the competition"
or "get close to the customer"), but with a strong set of product
development and sales controls, could use the results of the process as the
basis for removing some of the controls no longer appropriate for the new
thrust and orientation of the business.
Finally, a fourth use for CSFs is focusing a team of managers on the mission,
objectives and CSFs of an entire organization. Management consensus regarding
these factors is crucial at the start of any information system or planning
project.
In one telecommunications firm, the planning process showed that the mission
and objectives for the firm were not shared by the senior executives. The
CSF process was used. The result was a consensus by the executives on a mission
that was considerably broader than the managers' original view and a consistent
and shared set of objectives and CSFs.
# # #
Links to other articles at this site may be found at the bottom of this page.
Links to other articles at KCG's website
Innovations Articles
• Measures
of Success for Internal Consulting Orgs (NEW!)
• Consultative
Selling (New)
• Trends
in Consulting (New!!)
• Commentary on Trends in Consulting
(new)
• Marketing
of Consulting Services (new)
• Skills and Competencies of Successful
Consultants
• Consulting Skills Development
Experience (new)
• Effective
Uses of I.T. Staff as Internal Consultants
• Strategy Implementation (new)
• Organizational Due Diligence (Mergers
and Acquisitions)
• Principle Driven Operations
• Change Management
• Education's Role in Change Management
• Communications and Change Management
• Value Disciplines
• Role of IS Strategy in Making Market Leaders
• Strategic Planning and Change Mobilization
• Project Management
• Grow Your Own Consultants
Archive Articles (below)
• Designing
Executive Information Systems
• Executive Information Systems: An Overview
of Development
• Implications of Transition From an Industrial
Era to One of Information
• Critical Success Factors Techniques can Apply
to Team Management, Too
• Decision Scenarios Ensure Information System
Meets Business Needs
• Critical Success Factors : Helping IS Managers
Pinpoint Information Needs
• Combining Quality and Reengineering for Operational
Superiority
• Steering IS Committees Straight
• Internal Consultants and a Consultative
Approach
• EIS Plays Critical Role in Reengineering
• Rapid
Software Selection
Kendall Consulting Group is an international general management consulting firm specializing in strategy execution, change management, and executive education. We invite you to contact us for how we might help you and your company grow and prosper.
You may reference and use the material from any of the articles provided that full written credit is given to the company and authors in your work.
© 2002 Kendall Consulting
Group of Sarasota, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
