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What’s in a name?

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We need some help.

“We” is Dave Kaiser, my co-author, and myself. The help we need: Figuring out the best title for our upcoming book.

The book starts with a premise more familiar to members of the KJR community than to the management world at large. The premise: There’s no such thing as an IT project — it’s always about business change or what’s the point?

We use this premise to launch what we think covers the ground of what it takes to achieve intentional business change. We don’t dive to great depths. We’ve tried to write a handbook, not a tome, for three reasons: (1) a tome would be inestimably dreary to read; (2) a tome would be even more inestimably dreary to write; (3) in any event, neither of us, separately or in combination, is remotely qualified to write about this at the tome level.

Nor, we suspect, is anyone else.

Until now, when titling a book, the challenges haven’t been conceptual. My book about IT leadership is Leading IT. When I wrote about the principles to follow in order to run a modern IT organization, Keep the Joint Running — a tie-back to this, my weekly column, seemed reasonable, as it was where I introduced most of the ideas incorporated into the book.

Naming my 54-page project management book was even easier. It presents the bare bones and only the bare bones of the discipline, so Bare Bones Project Management jumped directly from the Introduction to the folder name without any conscious effort at all.

Even The Moral Hazard of Lime Daiquiris, the worst-selling novel Dave and I co-authored (it is, by the way, an outstanding Chanukwansamas gift for everyone on your list who’s (1) a reader; (2) has questionable taste; and (3) wants to read something nobody else they know has read) made some sort of sense, as the trouble all started with two guys ordering lime daiquiris with the hope of achieving a morally questionable outcome, although not as morally grave as it turned out to be.

But now we find ourselves in a quandary. We like There’s no such thing as an IT project: Achieving intentional business change, but especially when separated from its subtitle, the main message is negative.

On the other hand, we find Achieving intentional business change to be, while accurate, a phrase that promises dullness.

It also leaves out the handbook part, which we think is important — we’re trying to identify what matters, all with enough substance to point readers in the right direction but not so much substance that they get stuck in one section for so long they forget what they read in the three preceding sections.

So, we thought, maybe it should be There’s no such thing as an IT project: A business change handbook. Or, if we do lead on a positive note, A business change handbook: Why there’s no such thing as an IT project.

Don’t really like that one? Neither do we.

And so, as we’ve read that crowdsourcing is supposed to achieve brilliant results without our having to work all that hard … how about it?

What’s that you say? You need to know what the book actually covers? Alright — it covers the management culture change needed for intentional business change to happen; redefining the business/IT relationship so everyone focuses on the change instead of who’s to blame for nothing important happening; how to fix Agile so it delivers business change instead of software; how IT and business operations fits into the whole picture; replacing IT governance with business change governance; IT regaining its place of leadership in defining business strategy; and a very brief look at the seven disciplines organizations must master in making intentional change happen.

Please leave your suggestions as Comments, to facilitate the whole crowdsourcing thing — presumably it’s only crowdsourcing if everyone who looks sees all the other ideas already posted.

We do reserve the right to ignore all of you, especially if our publisher disagrees — we do need to acknowledge their expertise in such matters, not to mention recognizing the critical role the fine art of sucking-up plays in our working relationship with our editor.

But if you do submit the winning entry, what you’ll get in return is us telling everyone we know what a wonderful and creative person you are.

Who else would make you a promise like that?

Comments (86)

  • “Handbook for Managing Business Change,” or just “Managing Business Change.”

  • The worlds connected. Change or struggle. Your choice.

  • Why there is no IT project handbook!

  • “Delivering Business Change with IT: making a difference instead of just finishing projects”

    “Impacting the business using IT: a handbook”

  • Death to IT Projects
    Stop doing IT Projects
    Beyond IT Projects

  • I think a lot of it is in the verbs, and also getting the title short enough, to imply active-ness.

    I keep coming back to the verb “aim” for some reason. Also “direct”. Maybe “target”, although using target as a verb annoys some people.

    Aim for Business Change: Directing IT Actions

    ? not really good enough. But in the right direction, pun not intended.

  • The Seven Principles of Intentional Business Change

    (This comes with its own click-bait)

  • “How to Manage an IT Non-Project”

  • “Better than IT Projects: A Handbook for Driving Business Change”
    or
    “Better than IT Projects: A Handbook for Achieving Business Change”
    or
    “Better than IT Projects: A Handbook for Achieving Results That Matter”

  • I came to leave a title similar to some others above about changing business with technology/in the IT age. Here’s another version:

    Creating Business Improvement Through Technology: A Handbook For Business-IT Projects

  • I think a lot of it is in the verbs, and also getting the title short enough, to imply active-ness.

    I keep coming back to the verb “aim” for some reason. Also “direct”. Maybe “target”, although using target as a verb annoys some people.

    Aim for Business Change: Directing IT Action

    ? not really good enough. But in the right direction, pun not intended.

  • Taking Care of Business: Getting Business & IT Right

  • Focus on the Business! A Field Guide to Making IT Projects Matter

  • It’s NOT About IT! It’s About Business!
    A Handbook for Making IT Projects Matter

  • Hi Bob,
    How about one of these (it doesn’t hurt to try!):
    Project Leadership – What’s the Point?
    Project Management – What’s the Point?
    There are no IT projects – So what’s the point?
    Leading Business Change
    Leading Business Change through IT – a Handbook

  • “Business Change Handbook: Not an IT Project!”

  • Changing the Business, not just an IT Project.

  • Intentional Business Change: a Handbook
    Digital Business Transformation
    Leading Business Transformation
    Building a Learning Organization
    Using IT to drive Business Change
    Where the rubber meets the road – IT driven Business Change
    Changing your business through IT
    Moving IT at the speed of Business
    Business Strategy through IT tactics
    Developing your business through IT
    There are no IT projects!
    Thinking like the CIO: Intentional Business Change
    Breaking through silos with Intentional Business Change
    The way of the CIO – melding IT projects with Business results

  • “Leading the Revolution in Your Business: Populist IT Project Management (Is Not Impossible!)”, assuming your target audience is IT professionals.

  • “Man of Action, Man of Passion: The Bob Lewis Story”

    As your loyal reader since the InfoWorld days, I think we both earned this submission!

    😛

  • Handbook of Business Change : The Best Use of IT
    Handbook for Business Change : An Innovative Use of IT

  • How about…

    “Stay Relevant! Reframing IT projects as managing business change”

    “Reframe IT projects as managing business change – a helpful/concise/revolutionary (take your pick) guide”

    “Demystifying IT Projects – a guide for managing business change”

    “Reframing IT as leading business change (a guide to a paradigm shift)”

    “Tortoise or hare? A guide to leading intentional change through IT”

  • IT’s About Business: A Change Handbook

  • On the assumption that this book is both for business people outside IT and business people inside IT, I submit:

    Changing Together: A IT Handbook for Business Leaders

    – or –

    Forward Together: IT’s Role in Business Change

  • IT Projects Are Really Business Projects: A Handbook for Business Change with Real-World Impact

  • – Intentional Business Change, the driver to Project success
    – Business Change the Route to Successful Projects: There’s no such thing as an IT project
    – IT’s all about Business Change: There’s no such thing as an IT project
    – IT’s All About Business Change or What’s the Point
    – IT’s About Business Change not IT Projects
    – Keep the Business Change Horse before the Project Cart
    – It’s About the Business Change, Stupid
    – It’s About the Business Change: There’s no such thing as an IT project
    – Culture, Relationships, and Business Change: There’s no such thing as an IT project

  • “Not an IT Project:
    A new handbook for a changing business world”

  • “IT is about the business “

  • Becoming an Agile Business

  • – The “No IT Project” Handbook
    – Intentional IT Business Change
    – Successful Business Change without IT Projects

  • IT means Intentional Change, The Organizational Survival Guide

Comments are closed.