What about "Q"?

Published reports suggest that half of all CIOs leave their jobs in less than three years¹. Having been in the business far longer, I'm often asked what is my most critical piece of advice for success in our profession. It boils down to one question — do you know what Q x A = E means?

Most everybody in industry by now understands the power of Six Sigma methodologies to design robust processes, root out defects, and ultimately assure the highest possible quality in delivering solutions. The impact of "less-than-superlative" quality is easily demonstrable: an IT system running at a 4 Sigma quality level will likely suffer 54 hours of computer system downtime per year, while at 6 Sigma, unplanned downtime is only 2 minutes per year.²

At Sun Microsystems, we recognized early on that the explosive growth of network computing poses an unprecedented quality challenge, because the number and complexity of connected devices is such that any single defect whether it's in a hardware or software product or in a business process is greatly magnified through what we call the "Net Effect".

Ever since the Spring of 2000, Sun has applied Six Sigma (under the name of Sun Sigma) to develop a common customer-focused methodology to deliver high quality in everything we do, and I led its use within Sun IT as CIO.

However, we knew from our experience and that of other leading companies, that quality by itself is not enough. So we invested heavily in the other variable in our formula.

What about "A"?

Sun, GE, and many other industry leaders recognized early on that a "flawless" technology or product can and will often fail through lack of Acceptance.

Specifically in IT, technologists tend to focus on the "hard" Q side and do it very well, but generally do not enjoy focusing on the A part. This explains why the half-life of CIOs is so low: It is not nearly enough for IT executives to implement the right "technical" solution. In today's world, technical capability is mere table stakes.

Most failures in technology implementations happen because of inadequate attention to A. The acceptance piece encompasses the human and subjective elements the "soft" part. In actual practice, the "hard" part is the easiest and the "soft" part is the hardest. In our case, to help drive organization-wide acceptance of change driven by Sun Sigma, we introduced training early on with the Change Acceleration Process (CAP). This was extended to employees at all levels of the enterprise, and we have no doubt that our Sigma investments have been far more productive thanks to focus on CAP.

A particularly complete treatment of this topic can be found in Making Six Sigma Last: Managing the Balance Between Cultural and Technical Change by George Eckes.

What about "E"?

E for Effectiveness. In one word, what organizations and executives strive to be.

Whether in hiring senior executives or in evaluating somebody's contribution as a leader, I often boil the question down to one point — Is he or she effective? CEOs and Boards of Directors ask much the same question in evaluating CIOs and the value of a company's IT organization.

The only way for IT executives to have their vision executed successfully is for all stake-holders to accept it and follow their leadership. Whether in technology or in business (and these days the two are inseparable), this boils down to one formula:

Remember, to reach 100% of "E", an organization must do well on BOTH the "Q" and the "A". Excel at one but falter on the other and you will not make the grade.

Bill Howard
Chief CIO Advocate and Advisor to the CEO
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
cio@sun.com