Vision, People, Tools, Processes

Vision

Before you can achieve a goal, you have to be really clear on what that goal is. You have to know your priorities, and where you are going to focus your effort. You need a clear vision of where you are now, and where you want to get to and what is required to make that journey. This vision needs to be clear throughout the organisation.

People

To achieve anything, you need the right people, with the right skills, attitude and approach. In my experience, it is far more effective to have a few really good people rather than lots of average people. On the other side of the coin, if someone is really intelligent, but doesn't have the right attitude, its usually better without them.

Tools

Its a terrible waste to have good people, but then not give them the tools to do their jobs effectively. You need to make them as efficient as possible by making sure you have the key tools in place. These don't have to be expensive - many are free - but they do have to be best-of-breed, performant and reliable. One key example is that you should give your developers high spec PCs, else they can be working at a fraction of their capacity, be frustrated and have low morale.

Processes

Installing appropriate processes is so important. You can have the vision, people and the tools, but without the right processes, it can descend into chaos. There is generally resistence to putting in processes, but if done right, they make things work so much more effectively, people grow to depend on them.