theodp writes "Instead of laying off techies who directly help users, Robert X. Cringely argues that the best place to cut IT organizations is generally at the top. One of the great problems in IT management, Cringely says, is that the big bosses typically haven't a clue what is happening, what is needed to happen, and what it all should cost. He issues the following challenge: 'If you are managing an IT shop and can't write the code to render 'hello world' in C, html, php, and pull 'hello world' from a MySQL database using a perl script, then YOU are in the wrong job.' Even with help from Google, Cringely believes many technical managers will fail and should get the boot as a result — you can't manage what you can't understand."
This discussion was created for logged-in users only, but now has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
With this article, Chringely demonstrates that he's in the wrong job, pontificating about things he knows nothing about. In fact, many great managers don't know the details of the operations they are managing, but know how to get the most out of the people working for them who do know the nuts and bolts and extend the trust to them to get the job done right. I've seen many great technical people, people who could easily pass Cringely's test, who fail as managers because, while they know what they are mana
Cringly's not right for his job (Score:1)