Books on IT (not Project) Management

bangpath asks: "I realize that many of my peers aspire to become managers in their field/respective subfields, but upon visiting Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I noticed a significant lacking in books about IT management. That is, most books that came up under this search were IT project management or IT systems management. Surely, these are important areas that an IT manager deals with frequently, but what about dealing with the people, policy, and responsibilities of IT? One would think that IT workers aren't the same as HR people, or Accountants, or the other types of people you'd find in a typical office. Can anyone recommend any books specifically about managing IT Professionals?"

Comments

Dilbert!

[idiotnot]

The Dilbert Principle.

Of course, there is something comforting about there being a paucity of books on IT Management. I shudder to think what kind of bozo would get an MBA with a concentration in IT.

"MS is good. They told me so."

There's some of this stuff in Limoncelli and Hogan

[biglig2]

That's "The Prcatice of System and NEtwork Administration", Addison-Wesley, 0-201-70271-1.

It's about a quarter of the book, and to is probably enough since there aren't that many differences between managing IT people and managing e.g. accountants. Of course there are some; firing sysadmins is non-trivial as you have to change every password (although this is almost a good thing as you can set the team a task to clean the accounts and this keeps their minds off what just happened).

You obviously

[jsse]

aren't looking hard enough.

And this online repository is useful too. Look at its archive section.

Some pointers

[Twylite]

Any book on IT project management that doesn't cover human resources and project-related procedures and policies isn't worth its weight in water. Many IT activities are (or should be) approached as projects, even upgrades or security or policy changes. For those that aren't (such as routine administration), HR management should be no different from management of other employees: define their job and expect performance.

The responsibilities of IT management should be in your job description. Failing which you shouldn't have got into the position without having a passing knowledge. Your best source of information is in books on Information Systems, which will cover the necessity of IT to business, and the requirements to deliver IT/IS in a manner that supports business. Never forget that IT/IS is a support function.

Policies and procedures are perhaps the most difficult to tackle. It is important to remember that books only form a guidelines - you must tailor the policies for your business. Policies often fail because someone got a list from somewhere and tried to implement it, without understanding the needs of their business.

It is especially important to know what your policies are intended to achieve. Are you trying to make a process faster? More formal and requiring independant approval? More secure? ISO-9000 compliant? Less legally problematic? Start with knowing the goal, then work back to the process.

A quick search on Google and Amazon produced a list of potential titles: "IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done", "The IT Survival Guide", "Foundations of Service Level Management", "IT Policies & Procedures: Tools & Techniques That Work (3rd Edition)", "Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: Guidelines for Effective Information Security Management", "Best Practices in Policies and Procedures", "Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures".

I don't know anything about these books -- they just look like suitable starting points

I am always amazed by the tendency of managers to think of IT people as "different" when it comes to management. This is simply not true. At a push one may point out that most IT people are highly qualified, and that highly qualified people are more mobile and less likely to accept poor working conditions. But the basic principles of HR management apply to ALL employees.

Re:Some pointers

[bastardadmin]

Any Management Controls textbook has a lot of applications in IS/IT, there are a lot of principles in common here.

Some have said that generic project management skills are something you want to cultivate as an IT manager. Those aren't going to hurt you by any stretch, but honing strategic management skills are going to benefit you the most - and make your job easiest - in the long run.

To find resources I'd look at what they're reading in the final year of an undergrad business program (4 years for Honours, a little more extensive than the average MBA program).

"Never forget that IT/IS is a support function."

IT/IS is a support function in the same way that Finance and Accounting are support functions. Something we IT types all too often let ourselves forget. IT/IS has its place in strategy, especially when IT is responsible for building the mechanisms that keep internal and external communications alive.

"I am always amazed by the tendency of managers to think of IT people as "different" when it comes to management. This is simply not true. At a push one may point out that most IT people are highly qualified, and that highly qualified people are more mobile and less likely to accept poor working conditions. But the basic principles of HR management apply to ALL employees."

At the same time IT people are also the most likely to report to a manager who has no idea of what the devil their staff actually does all day long -- when was the last time you met a controller with no accounting background? It is much easier to encounter IT managers who have no technical background.

Just some thoughts.

Peopleware

[denisb]

This book should definitely be in an IT managers bookshelf ..

Peopleware

Yes, it is specific to software project management, but goes deeper, and applies to generic management of technical personell aswell.

Managing Einsteins

[haplo21112]

Amazon Link
Highly Recommended.

IT management is an awfully big topic...

[PinglePongle]

IT management is made up of many disciplines - some technical, some financial, some project-based, and some people-based.

I'm a development manager, and there are a handful of books which I think stand out in those disciplines, but I know of only 2 which cover my role specifically : "Leading a Software Development Team" by Richard Whitehead (which I have not yet read), and "Herding Cats: A Primer for Programmers Who Lead Programmers" by by J. Hank Rainwater, which I've started and looks pretty good. You could also try "The Manager Pool" - again, mostly about development teams - or "Software for your head".

I agree that "Peopleware" is an absolute must - it's focussed on managing development teams rather than system administrators or helpdesk staff, but a lot of the principles apply to pretty much any kind of team.

On the whole, though, I'd suggest you look for books related to the specific disciplines you are interested in, and grab some stuff from the general business literature shelf - "Finance for non-financial managers", and "Influence" have both helped me enormously !

IT Organization

[lwbecker2]

There is a book on the O'Reilly Safari Bookshelf (free trial available)called IT Organization : Building A World Class infrastructure. While not 100% devoted to your topic of interest, some sections from the Table of Contents seem like they may help you.

Good luck.

Re:There's some of this stuff in Limoncelli and Ho

[TilJ]

I'll second this. It's one of the best IT "best practices" books I've seen, and the authors are hang out on the SAGE (http://www.sage.org) mailing list - which is a group you should be involved with if you're interested in IT management issues.

Managing and leading

[MrWa]

If you really want something specific about "IT people" you shouldn't be asking for management books - look for something in psychology (or "Microserfs", ha!) instead. Actually, reading Slashdot or other IT-centric websites may help give some insight...

Any book that claims it can teach you how to manage a specific type of worker is lying to you and isn't worth the paper it is printed on. ALL people are different so there can't be a "Managing IT workers, for Dummies" just as there isn't "Managing HR workers, for Dummies".

I hate to state the obvious...

[galaxy300]

...but a quick search on Amazon revealed the IT Managers Handbook, which looks like a pretty good fit. I haven't read it, but the reviews look pretty positive and you have to give them credit for the title. ; )

"the practice of system & network administrati

[KD7JZ]

I realize you are looking for book about management instead of system admin, but this
book by Limoncelli and Hogan (ISBN 0-201-70271-1)
has a number of good chapters about organizing
work flow, hiring and supervising IT types, etc..

This one was okay.

[bpalmer]

Leading Geeks

Classics

[Felipe Hoffa]

There are books on these topics that were written several years ago. You should (or must) read Peopleware and The Mythical Man Month. Both of them have been revised recently to comment and argue about what has changed through the years (HINT: not much). How can they become so timeless? Because they talk about PEOPLE.

Use the "look inside" feature of Amazon, you will be able to read some interesting pages (they will make you want more). You can also read a sample chapter of Peopleware from their publishers.

Fh

Fh

The Practice of System and Network Administration

[TheZork]

"The Practice of System and Network Administration"
by Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christine Hogan

That's a good one for general use. Don't be fooled by the name - it's got quite a bit about policy and practice, and topics like ethics, customer care, budgeting and hiring (and firing) systems administrators.

Re:The Practice of System and Network Administrati

[TheZork]

Yeah, yeah - missed it below. Sorry. Take it as a doubly strong recommendation.

Two Books

[humblecoder]

One book that you should look at is _Rapid Development_ by Steve McConnell. Although the book primarily is about software project management, there are several chapters on the topics of motivating tech workers and teambuilding that are among the best that I've read. Basically, he notes that tech workers and tech managers are usually motivated by different things, and one big mistake that managers make is trying to motivate their workers in the same way that they would want to be motivated. He backs this up with a lot of primary research, and the bilbliography along makes this book worth the price.

One book which McConnel cites a lot in his book is _Peopleware_, which is also about managing tech workers. I haven't read this book myself, but this book is considered by many to be the seminal work on managing tech workers. McConnell has very high praise for this book, and he quotes it very liberally.

I should warn you that _Rapid Development_ is a Microsoft Press book, and McConnell worked as a Microsoft consultant at one time. McConnell does draw on his experience with Microsoft in this book, but he is very fair in his assessment of the company's processes. He praises them when it is warranted, and he criticizes theme equally often.

The Book You Seek

[WatkinsDore]

The Executive's Guide to Information Technology, written by John Baschab and Jon Piot (ISBN# 0471266094) published by John Wiley and Sons, 2003. I've seen two or three iterations of this question about the IT (not project) Management book that explains it all, and I agree with the statement that there are some unique issues when considering the management of IT people and processes. There are some fundamental genetic differences in the way IT people operate from the way the rest of the workforce operates. These idiosyncrasies make IT departments difficult to run efficiently. The Executive's Guide to Information Technology is the first book I've seen that takes a really broad approach to the management of an IT department. What makes it different is that it is addressed to senior level managers and particularly the CIO. This book is listed on Amazon and BN. Its designed to help IT managers and top executives get the most out of their departments, their budget and themselves. The book covers such topics as: managing the department, establishing leadership roles, assessing the organization, cost management, project demand management, operations management, infrastructure planning, vendor selection and management, technical standards setting, investment evaluation, and productivity and quality measurement programs.