The newest buzzword for enterprises today is “attack dwell time.”

That’s what cybersecurity professionals call how long a hacker is in an enterprise before detection.   The median duration is 209 days. In two-thirds of the cases, enterprises are unaware until the FBI or another agency alerts them.

What a wake up call.

The Internet of Things (IoT) offers Interconnected, cloud-enabled technologies that give products, operations and equipment features and advantages previously unimagined – and exposes enterprises to infiltration in ways equally unimagined. A report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers details the risks and the stakes (the US Director of National Intelligence ranked cybercrime as the top national security threat, higher than terrorism, espionage, and weapons of mass destruction).

The report also offers guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework that should be in every project manager’s toolbox. So should a training solution that gets everyone on the same page, filtering in security in chartering, planning, control and updates….because no matter what our jobs are, we’re now all virtual locksmiths, too.

The list of project management stakeholders is getting bigger –and so are the potential headaches for project managers.

As enterprises become more proficient at data collection via the Internet of Things (IoT), some think they need a Chief Data Officer to manage it. Gartner predicts that by 2017, some 25 percent of companies will have a CDO.

Still others think the solution is a Chief Digital Officer, an evolving position.

Whatever the acronym, speculation is rampant that the CDO, however defined, will usurp the CIO role, or even eliminate it entirely.

Even the most diplomatic project managers, aware of how office politics can torpedo even the best plans, might need additional strategies for stakeholder and sponsor management.

One option is to have an objective third party coach sponsors, advisors and other stakeholders. An unbiased viewpoint can sharpen executive commitment, untangle resource planning, and sort through the hot button issues.

“Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers,” said Pat Riley, one of the NBA’s all-time greatest coaches. It’s as true in business as it is in sports.

Three letters that alarm many businesses are not IRS but IoT, (AKA the Internet of Things), the Machine to Machine technology that collects and transforms data into information.

IoT could revolutionize business. A new Verizon report details increased efficiencies that could give, by 2025, a ten percent revenue advantage to businesses using IoT applications. Yet the same study estimates just ten percent of enterprises extensively adopted IoT.

These dabblers in IoT for shipping, maintenance (imagine factory equipment issuing service alerts), or security think it’s too intimidating to go ‘all in.” Some 92 percent of banks implementing IoT call “Complexity” the biggest challenge – but instead, “complexity” can bring project, career, and marketplace success…if everyone is on the same page with the right methodology and tools.

Our Project Success Enterprise Solution can get companies from a blank page to a completely organized, customized project management function, built from the ground up, equipped with the right tools and software, with fully trained staff.

Then, enterprises from manufacturing to finance to pharma might find another three letter word handy.

Win.

Connect with me:

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/clintpadgett
• Twitter: @clintpadgett

Clint Padgett is the president and CEO of PSI. Since joining the firm in 1994, he has provided consulting, training, and account management to clients in a wide range of industries. His project experience covers many traditional and special applications, including: product development, equipment installation/startup, facility construction/moves, marketing, software/hardware system implementation, and international sporting events. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is associated with the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the Product Development & Management Association, among others. Additionally, Clint is a published author and frequently speaks at conferences on the subject of project management, including the Executive Education program in the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is an adjunct professor.