In Episode 7, Mike and Nate and returning special guest Kevin Dushney discuss Chapter 8 of the IT Survival Guide, which focuses on creating your first budget at your new company.  Many pieces of information go into your first budget, many of which you have already gathered by this time in your tenure.  Now, you need to go and put someone together to form a spending framework for the balance of your first year.  Nate, Kevin, and Mike break this process down and discuss all of the additional nuances that come with this process 

We also discuss the evolution of OpenAI, how we will begin to find ways to transition from the cleverness of GAI to the usefulness of CAI, and the other usual stuff.

Post-chapter 8 analysis/reflection questions:

1. What challenges do you anticipate in developing your first IT budget, and how might these differ in an established company compared to an early-stage company?
2. Which stakeholders are crucial to engage during the IT budgeting, and why?
3. Which aspects of the budgeting process require the most effort, and are you concerned about gathering the details for a "bottom-up" budget?
4. Was any content in the chapter unclear, or do you have additional questions that need more explanation?
5. How would you decide which technology costs belong in the IT budget versus other departmental budgets?
6. From the tips provided, which will be most beneficial during the budgeting process?
7. What risks should you monitor when developing your IT budget, and how can forecasting and adapting to budget changes help manage these risks?
8. How would you dissect a high-level budget to uncover detailed IT spending, and how important is building a relationship with Accounts Payable and financial personnel in this process?
9. Reflect on an experience where you had to analyze spending deeply. How did you ensure accuracy, and what did you learn from budget discrepancies or optimization opportunities?
10. Discuss prioritizing IT spending with limited resources and the challenges of managing software and hardware renewals within the budget.
11. Share your method for forecasting IT spending and adapting the budget throughout the year, considering known and unpredictable factors.
12. How do you approach centralizing IT spending within your department, and what lessons have you learned from past budgeting errors or oversights?
13. Can you expound on the reforecasting process and strategies for justifying outcomes versus the budget at the end of the fiscal year?

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