In our experience, many technology decision makers aren't confident in their ability to evaluate tech requests. When they hear technical jargon their eyes glaze over and try to seek out a simple answer. If you are such a decision maker, the following tips should help you frame the debate and avoid getting bogged down in irrelevant technical minutiae.

The difference between great companies and poor ones rests not in their good intentions but in how well they execute change.  In short, you need good, old-fashioned project management to get payback on your initiative dollars. The good news is that effective project management is actually very simple. The bad news is that it is usually not easy.  I have never seen a project fail if it had all five of the ingredients described here.

Don’t be scared off by industry hype promoting the need for major change.  Many organizations can realize enormous benefits by becoming small change experts.  Learn five advantages that incremental improvements can offer over large-scale projects.

A key weapon in your project management arsenal, the project office provides teams with access to key people, tools and information. It should act like a library, information desk and tool shed all rolled into one. It usually takes the form of a web site, or portal, and supports team collaboration.

Although very useful as one component of a business process improvement project, a best practices audit has important limitations that you should recognize upfront.  First, you must be sure you know and understand the real problem.