The Disconnect Between Management and the Value of IT 333
DavidHumus writes "According to a Wall St. Journal article top executives at most companies fail to recognize the value of IT, having a tendency to think of information technology as a basic utility, like plumbing or telephone service. The article lists five primary reasons for 'the wall' between IT and business: 'mind-set differences between management staff and IT staff, language differences, social influences, flaws in IT governance (defined as the specification and control of IT decision rights), and the difficulty of managing rapidly changing technology.' Does this fully explain the extreme lack of understanding of IT at high executive levels? The article is even-handed in apportioning blame but touches on a few good points. In particular, how '[m]ost top executives ... think of IT as an expensive headache that they'd rather not deal with.'"
utilities are important (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this comment shows a failure to recognize the value of basic utilities.
Maintaining the pretence of superiority (Score:5, Insightful)
They missed something off the list. One of the biggest, if not the biggest barriers I see is the desperate attempts of managers to pretend they know more than their staff. This is never more apparent than in computers and the painful experiences I have had with managers who have to try and justify a higher salary whilst doing something which, at the end of the day, is less critical to the production of a product or service than the people who are actually developing it, have left me with nothing but pity for those managers. It's a terrible burden to have to try and instruct someone who knows a lot more about how to accomplish something than you do, and it tends to result in interference or denigration. Only a few non-technical managers I have had have had the confidence or humility to just ask me what the best thing they should decide is. And they were the best managers.
No surpise. (Score:5, Insightful)
To us IT folk, the nonsense might seem clear, but to those who are targeted and easily confused, treading waters softly is really a matter of safety, not ignorance.
IT attitudes (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not just management (Score:5, Insightful)
The Cost Of IT (Score:3, Insightful)
The value of IT to most businesses... (Score:2, Insightful)
- it is necessary to the functioning of the business
- unless you are a toilet manufacturer or a landlord, it is NOT part of your central business
- ideally it "just works", allowing you to focus on more important things
- when it doesn't "just work", things start to stink.
The difference is that it is unthinkable that most companies should have a "Chief Plumbing Officer", but the IT world seems to think that they need to be involved at the highest reaches of every company's management.
My personal experience with my IT staff (Score:3, Insightful)
Typical call to IT here?
"Hi, I need to use X piece of software (which is mainstream and well-known). I can't install it myself because I don't have admin rights, can you install it please?"
"Why do you need it?"
"Well [insert many technical reasons here]"
"Sorry, we can't install software that hasn't been approved."
"How do I get it approved?"
"Well it will have to go before the board, which meets every 6 months or so. And you also have to [insert about 100 roadblocks and obstructionist measures here]."
"Great. Screw it, I'll just work from home again."
If you want to know why your IT department is hated, ask yourself how you treat your customers. Do you treat them as your bosses, or as your enemies?
Re:Maintaining the pretence of superiority (Score:5, Insightful)
Manager: "Hmm....well, on this decision, I guess I'll have to delegate to you. Now, honestly, what do you think we should do??"
Dev: "Scrap the java codebase and start over from scratch in Ruby on Rails"
Manager: "Hmm...didn't we work on this for 10 years and have millions of lines of code invested, including stuff that we can't readily replace because we're still trying to replace that last senior dev?"
Dev: "Scrap the codebase and start over"
Manager: "Well...ok!"
That wouldn't go too well
Amen! (Score:4, Insightful)
Basic utilities are immensely valuable. Imagine how much less productive your office would be if it didn't have phones, electricity, or indoor plumbing.
The fact that these items cost only a fraction of their contribution doesn't mean the same is true for IT.
The key difference is that most basic utilities are or have historically been regulated and their price set at the cost of production plus a reasonable profit. Where they are not regulated they are theoretically kept reasonable by market pressures or political pressures.
Employment of knowledge-workers on the other hand is different:
Each job is unique. Each worker is unique. Leaving one employer for another you hope will be better takes time and effort, as does "getting rid of" a less productive worker and replacing him with someone you hope will be more productive. For these reasons, if someone's pay, benefits, and working conditions are "close enough" to what both the employer and employee think are fair, the employee probably won't quit and he probably won't be "gotten rid of."
Re:If only we were treated as well as utilities (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And how does IT view Management? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, on the other hand (Score:5, Insightful)
On the third hand, IT departments are often not staffed adequately, either in butts in chair or in the quality of the heads over those butts. It seems absurd to think about using IT to achieve breakthroughs in productivity or competitiveness when they seem to spend more time restricting the work that goes through the department than actually getting things done.
The bottom line is that skill is distributed on a normal curve, and the vast majority of people are mediocre. That includes top management; most companies have mediocre leadership. When the leadership of a company is weak, there's not much IT can do to make things better. They really are just a facilities type function.
Re:It's not just management (Score:2, Insightful)
Who says that you can't simply turn of the services with a cron-script at midnight and turn them back on with another cron script when the day of strike is done? At least, that's how I'd do it.
Phones make people productive? O RLY? (Score:5, Insightful)
Good reasons? (Score:2, Insightful)
I knew one like that. He got fired for not knowing some tech buzz word that I can't even remember myself. Many of those guys are defensive for a reason: maybe because of their own irrational insecurities or maybe they've learned the hard way not to look "stupid".
Let's face it, if you don't know something, many, if not most, IT folks will be quick to criticize and pounce on the "stupid" person and give the poor bastard a bad rep that is almost to get rid of. I once worked somewhere on someone's code that I thought was designed quite well: it was tight, commented impeccably, excellent memory management (in 'C'), and it work as designed. I was told that the original coder has a horrible reputation as being "stupid". I just shook my head and said that I wish I were that "stupid". He was no longer with the company. He quit and got a better job - good for him!
Re:The value of IT to most businesses... (Score:5, Insightful)
Plumbing - you do it once, it lasts 25 years if not 50. The only upgrades might be for more efficiently flushing toilets and taps that don't drip. That's the equivalent of putting a 750GB hard drive on an original IBM PC.
IT is an essential part of a modern business, and if it's done wrong the business can go down the drains. Wrong can be getting IT in the way of people's jobs, instead of helping them. Sadly this can't be avoided (e.g., third party clients demanding that you use IT for something that only benefits them whilst being a massive inconvenience for the supplier).
I bet many IT guys would love to get paid at the rates plumbers get paid at though. I don't think they'd like the apprenticeship period though
Re:utilities are important (Score:4, Insightful)
* Yes, there might exist businesses that might benefit significantly from hotter hot water. Please spare me your nerdly nitpicking.
Re:Maintaining the pretence of superiority (Score:1, Insightful)
A "single" strong IT manager/department that works with the people in the different departments help determine their needs will provide a much better experience for everyone involved. You have the department expressing a goal and the IT department choosing the way to reach that goal. I've worked at both type of places.
User Attitudes (Score:5, Insightful)
Employees also tend to blame IT when they got caught browsing porn or running their home business at work.
User: "My computer is broken."
IT: "What's wrong?"
User: "I can't access Myspace"
IT: "That's because we block it."
User: "You suck!"
Re:The value of IT to most businesses... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's quite simple, actually (Score:3, Insightful)
IT is not the only department that is misunderstood. For example, Ray Kassar of Atari thought that software programmers were a cost center too, and no different than assembly plant workers. He didn't realize that programmers were vital to how Atari makes money, and thus the best programmers all left Atari and went to start Activision with a business plant o make 3rd party software for Atari.
No, it is a disconnect in three ways (Score:3, Insightful)
When it comes to IT their are THREE parties involved. Those who build it (IT), those who govern it (Management) and those who use it (Employees).
These three groups often have no idea what the other is actually doing.
Have you ever seen one of those programs where the boss of a big company is put to work on the factory floor? They used to be pretty common, was there ever a SINGLE boss, who wasn't shown to be totally clueless about how the actual work was being done?
You think IT is any better? How many people with the best training in IT skills ever bother to go down to the factory floor and SEE the REAL workflow before they implement a system?
You got management trying to make decisions on how to improve a workprocess they don't understand, you got IT trying to implement something that has no basis in reality and employees forced to choose between actually getting the work done and following procedure.
It doesn't suprise me at all that this article doesn't mention the workforce. Management article talking about proper management but ignoring the people who got to do the actuall work, yeah, never seen that before.
Get your hands dirty before you even bother trying to think of implementing IT, FIND out what is REALLY needed. IT can do wonderfull things to be sure, but it needs to fit with what is really going on in your company, not what some manager thinks should be going on.
Make sure your management decisions can be executed, first observe what REALLY goes on, plan your changes, then TRY THEM YOURSELVE, with FULL pressure. If you can't do it, your employees can't do it and what counts isbeing able to do it on the busiest day of the year.
The most perfect example, testing an application with just 3 records in the database for performance. My job was to convert the old data, if I pushed more then ten records in, performance crumbled. Took me MONTHS to confince them that the problem was in the application, not my conversion (for every insert MILLIONS of reads were being done thanks to the most idiotic database design in history (no keys), compounded by some really really bad code). But they TESTED IT and it worked fine. Yah, 3 records and those not even fully fleshed out.
I could rant on for hours about bone-headed mistakes of all kinds, but basically FORCE management to get a clue and the only way to do that is BACK TO THE WORKFLOOR!
99% of IT projects that end up unused or not meeting requirements can simply be explained because they were designed without knowing what the real situation is.
it's geeks vs. results!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying that either one is better or doesn't have a place but workers in IT & particularly IT leadership need to start thinking that those business management classes in college are a good idea to at least take & listen in on. You're not going to convince the ones with deep pockets (upper management) to keep you around if you don't show your value up front to them. Sure, their practices may be antiquated but they are time-tested and in their eyes, work.
Geeks are also going to need to realize that not all things are academic, business leaders expect results, not some elegant solution that looks cool in an IDE. There's that classic line from Ghostbusters I remember, "I've worked in the private sector. They expect results. You've never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there."
Maybe it's not that extreme but that is the truth, like it or not.
Re:Maintaining the pretence of superiority (Score:4, Insightful)
Operation Management Systems (OMS)
and
Business Intelligence or Decision Support Systems. (BI/DSS)
OMS are the mission critical systems which need to run perfectly on time and efficiently. These are the programs that keep the business running smoothly.
BI/DSS are jobs that try to take and represent data so it can be understood clearly without information overload. These systems run with margins of errors based a lot of statistics can be down for a few days or months without effecting daily operations. But their value is giving management and the decision makers information to make good decisions for the future. A silly app that seems to say track marketing calls how much time they take on each call to who. Then could be put into a Data Warehouse linked with the HR systems and Sales and find that some marketing people spend to much time with small customers and less with big customers who can greatly effect their profit and save on marketing costs.
iT departments often have a hard time with BI/DSS because they are loose nebulous systems, that are continually changing and evolving, often run very slowly because they are using loosely tied togeter data, often in bad formats... But they do have a value, many times these values are the difference of surviving and dieing as a company.
So I would take a step back if I were you and try to see what the value of the request. It may not be someone just trying to show that they are HIP with IT, but actually working for getting real value out of their IT
Re:utilities are important (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen it both ways (Score:4, Insightful)
The people who say IT is mostly support, they have it exactly right. IT is a support function unless the business's main product is IT. Stupid management always devalues the workers, the people who keep the place running. In this regard, IT is not special. Sometimes IT is staffed by arrogant asses who deserve to be mocked, just like you can have rude janitors or marketing weenies. Again, nothing new here.
In a healthy organization, IT's attitude is "How do we make things better?" I'm always the Excel go-to guy since most people don't have the time to learn all the tricks. I'm fine with that. I've got a thousand tricks and most people only need to know a few of them. I set their sheet up the way they need it, they'll learn just the tricks they need and will be happy.
IT is always lacking for resources? Most departments are. My dad worked as a mechanic for the phone company motor pool and he was constantly complaining about how they had to make bricks without straw. Management saw them as nothing more than a cost center, never appreciating the value they provided. They increased the average age of the fleet from 10 to 20 years. Oh, that's great. Yes, you're cutting down on procurement costs but did you notice how maintenance is skyrocketing? No, that chart wasn't in the meeting. That's great.
Good IT makes itself available to the business, makes things run more efficiently and is invaluable. Ask the workers or management what would happen if the IT staff all got hit by a bus. If the response is "Oh my God, we'd be so fucked," that's a good IT department. If they just get this wistful little smile on their faces, that's a bad IT department.
Re:Maintaining the pretence of superiority (Score:3, Insightful)
"It's not what you know, its who you blow."
Back in the late 90s, I got a nice generic RFP for a website for a local business development group, and spent two solid weeks developing a detailed website development plan, including creating an ad revenue stream and offered it up for free to them. I wanted the contacts from the other businesses and figured that I would get some of those businesses. My bid was the only qualifying bid response to the RFP. So, did I get the bid? NO! Why? Because there was only ONE qualifying bid. They took my bid, respecified the new RFP based on many if not all of the proposals I had in my original bid. Did I get the bid? NO.
And the business development group paid through the nose for a website that sucked and didn't meet any of the expectations. The president of the group asked me to join the group, knowing I was pissed and what for.
His response, "That's business, get over it".
I looked at him and said, "You're not getting my business, ever. That's business, get over it" The look on his face was classic.
Vendors and Management are the problem. (Score:3, Insightful)
If management had instead gone to IT and said "This is what we need to do" then the real value of IT comes to light as we can work on a solution to that problem, or maybe even give some insight into "Well, with technology, that problem is actually this..let's solve that".
Re:utilities are important (Score:5, Insightful)
I know of several companies who are going to replace thousands of pounds of functioning servers simply because they've reached the end of their 3year service life. When we stop measuring server lifespans in months and do so instead in decades, we'll have matured as an industry. And then people will understand computers as they understand electricity, telephones and plumbing.
They'll still call a specialist.
Re:utilities are important (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, TFA's whole point is that IT shouldn't be treated as a utility!
Re:The Cost Of IT (Score:3, Insightful)
An intelligent system is to cascade things...Replace a percentage when you have to, and move the machines you replace down along the line to less critical functions. When the power users need new desktops (which isn't that often unless you're doing graphics or something), buy them new machines, and pass their machines down to people whose older machines are wearing out. Etc.
If you're buying huge software upgrades all the time, you're being foolish. Either your primary software is under a support contract, in which case upgrades are free, or you're just buying tons of over the counter consumer grade crap. The former is a necessary evil, and the latter is an extremely poor business practice. And new software shouldn't be a continuing expense; software should be purchased based on a demonstrated need, and an intelligent evaluation process.
Almost all of the things you say scream mismanagement to me. A three year cycle doesn't even fit the release cycles of most major upgrades, and no IT department worth its salt will move onto a platform right after release (which is the real reason no one is moving to Vista). Three year hardware cycles are too slow to be bleeding edge, but too methodical to take into account the best times to buy new hardware.
You definitely have a management point of view. I suggest if your IT department is out of control with its expenses, you fire half the staff and slash their budget. If your quality of service remains roughly the same, you'll be a hero...If it doesn't at least you won't have to work at that company any more.
Re:utilities are important (Score:3, Insightful)
In any business larger than a small shop there are usually several toilets for capacity and redundancy. One can be down for a long time without an adverse effect, provided that it's properly sealed from the rest of the network. This bears a remarkable similarity to a setup of multiple redundant servers. In fact, a large establishment that gets large peak loads may have one or more clusters with several toilets, urinals, and sinks in a single room connected to shared plumbing; similarly, a large establishment that gets large peak loads may have one or more clusters with several servers, load balancers, and storage systems in a single room connected to shared networks. Then again, if you live in an apartment with just one toilet, you want it fixed pretty darn quick.
If the availability of toilets goes down for some reason, the performance of the affected workers can be assumed to go down, since a worker on a "nature call" is longer away from their desk. Unless sitting at a desk is counterproductive, and getting up and meeting some new people actually improves results... At a customer service location, at least if food or drinks are served, it's important that a customer toilet be available. And if a toilet is available, it had better be in a working condition; a broken toilet is worse than none at all.
Re:Well, on the other hand (Score:2, Insightful)
I wish I was treated like a plumber (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Phones make people productive? O RLY? (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, one of the most ignorant things I see is people who are in the middle of a conversation with you and just stop (often mid-sentence) to answer the phone, regardless of who's calling. I will very occasionaly do this, but only if it's likely to be an important call, or someone I've been trying to get hold of all day, and will always apologise to the person I'm currently talking to.
Learning to treat the phone as a tool, not your master, is one of the most important time management skills I've ever learned.