The Executive's Guide to Information Technology

WatkinsDore writes "The Executive's Guide to Information Technology is a book focused on the 'business' pieces of managing IT, such tasks as IT organization design, vendor selection and management, communicating with business users, IT human resource management, establishing IT steering committees and managing the overall demand within the IT department." Read on below for more of WatkinsDore's review. The Executives Guide to Information Technology author Baschab / Piot pages 500 publisher John Wiley & Sons rating 9 reviewer Quentin Watkins ISBN 0471266094 summary A guide to the business aspects of managing IT with a focus on senior executives and IT managers

This book is interesting because it fills a well-known gap between current book offerings that address vocational issues, such as "how to program in java" and academic research such as the most effective data access algorithms.

In fact, it addresses some of the questions that have been asked by slashdotters in the previous few months for books on the general management of IT, principally in these Ask Slashdot questions: Books on IT (not Project) Management?,Best Computer Books For The Smart?, and General IT Books?

The Executive's Guide to Information Technology is targeted at IT managers, and also senior executives who want to better understand how IT can be effectively managed.

Interestingly, it starts by analyzing the question "Why have an IT department at all?" and answers the question with productivity statistics and other anecdotal evidence of the importance of IT. The premise of the book then emerges, asking "If IT is important, then why does it seem to fail so often, and cause so much trouble for companies?"

The answer, predictably, is that IT is often a poorly managed function within a company. IT managers seldom receive the appropriate business training to manage a large, mission-critical function and budget, and non-technical executives get lost in the maze The authors show that many of the symptoms of poor IT departments (overspending, overstaffing, project budget overruns and failure to complete) are caused by, or at least are related to poor management within IT.

The remainder of the book covers the key topics that, according to the authors, are the key components to the effective management of IT departments. (The table of contents for the book appears below.)

Review:

Overall the book does a good job making the case that the key principles it outlines are the best predictors of a successful IT department. The book is replete with real-life, and often-humorous anecdotes from the authors' experiences in turning around distressed IT departments. IT managers will quickly recognize many of the symptoms of an IT department in trouble. The book is written in a easily readable, conversational tone, and there are charts and graphics throughout to further explain key points.

At just over 500 pages, the book is lengthy compared to competing offerings; however, it is written in a way that lets the reader pick and choose specific chapter topics, without losing much of the context. At $75, it at first seems a bit pricey for a general management book, but low for a textbook. Compared to other books on a price-per-page basis, the book seems more reasonable based on the large volume of content and page count (over 500 pages).

The book also has a CD-ROM with documents, spreadsheets and links to the underlying research that went into the book.

Slashdot even gets a mention in a couple of chapters as a good source of "unbiased customer experience information" although the authors say that for many blogs "it can take some effort to separate fact from opinion on the blogs, and the signal-to-noise ratio on a given topic can sometimes be low."

In all, the book is a relatively easy read, thought provoking, and a great reference for IT managers (or aspiring managers) who want to learn to think like senior executives and ensure that their IT departments are firing on all cylinders. Based on previous threads on Slashdot, the book fills a clearly needed niche on the general management of IT.

The book also has a supporting website that has information on the book - www.exec-guide.com.

Table of contents:

1. The Effective IT Organization
   1. The IT Dilemma
   2. Sources and Causes of IT Ineffectiveness
   3. Information Technology Costs
2. Managing the IT Department
   1. The IT Organization
   2. The IT Director
   3. IT Direction and Standard Setting
   4. IT Operations
   5. Application Management
   6. IT Human Resource Practices
   7. Vendor Selection
   8. Vendor Management
3. Senior Executive IT Management
   1. Working with the Business
   2. IT Budgeting and Cost Management
   3. Effective Decision Making and Risk Management
   4. IT Demand Management and Project Prioritization
   5. IT Performance Measurement
   6. IT Steering Committee

Highlights:

Opening chapters on "why MIS departments matter" and the symptoms of under-performing IT departments.

Vendor selection and vendor management chapters.

IT steering committee chapter - why have one, what it can help IT accomplish.

IT budgeting chapter - shows key components of IT budget, how-to's and benchmarking information.

Nice forward by Professor Lynda M. Applegate from Harvard Business school.

Lowlights:

Portion of chapters on IT organization describing in painstaking detail the exact roles and responsibilities for every position on the IT team. This stuff needs to be there to make the book comprehensive, but not new news for experienced IT professionals.

You can purchase The Executive's Guide to Information Technology from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Another book my former boss's didn't read

[jj_johny]

The problem with IT executives is not that they don't have a book to bring it all together. The information is all around them but they seem to reflexively question it or say yes, yes I understand but we just don't have the time to do it right. And more often than not it takes more time because they cut corners. The book sounds good, too bad all the people who don't need it will get it and all the people that need it will not read it or use it in any real way.

Re:Purpose of an IT manager

[skillet-thief]

Ability to prevent anyone outside IT from intruding directly into the IT employee's time. Act as a gatekeeper unless specifically requested not to by a techie.

Sounds like an OO approach to management...

But yes it's true. The role of gatekeeper is also to be able to synthesize and translate the needs of the (clueless) users. Often the techies have as hard a time understanding them, as they do understanding the techies.

Re:Purpose of an IT manager

[1984]

You miss something out:

• Ability to explain to his techies why something might not be appropriate without demotivating them.
  

As a technical manager you often get presented with nifty "next best move" ideas by your staff. Some are great and should be executed, others would be good locally, but would cause a problem elsewhere. Your job, unglamourous as it is, is to keep up the overall batting average, whilst avoiding any egregious failings. That doesn't mean every suggestion from below should be acted upon.

Your job as a manager is to get the best out of your technical team in the service of the business. That means fending off stupid, ill-considered IT suggestions from non-IT people, but equally means not wasting time on whizz-bang technical notions that don't (and won't) help the business.

"Briefcase"-logic.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The information is all around them but they seem to reflexively question it or say yes, yes I understand but we just don't have the time to do it right."

Then the next question should be:
"If we don't have the time to get it right, then do we have the time (and money) to deal with the consequences?"

Remember when dealing with managment you (just like in IT) need to be able to speak their language, and put your persuasive arguments in business terms.

IT
---
It's cool.

Business
---
This will save the company money by increasing efficency.

IT
---
I want that neat toy.

Business
---
This will improve my productivity, and generate more money for the company in the long run.

The only obstacles are if you suck at being able to see things from other people's perspective, and your people skills are at death's door.

Re:Purpose of an IT manager

[squaretorus]

In my opinion and experience this is exactly wrong. This is what the lazy techie wants of a manager - NOT what a customer wants of a company.

I want to have direct access to the guy doing the job - I want direct access to the knowledge and expertise - not some half assed (or even full assed) regurgitation. You always get the best quality from the source.

Too many techies use the 'Im a techie!!! I cant communicate!' getout. Quality of service, AND job satisfaction can only be boosted by getting more direct contact with users / customers.

And yes, this WILL mean dealing with jerks sometimes - but if you answer their problems you enjoy the fact the call you LESS.

Trust me - its fun!

A good manager is a great thing - most managers are just a waste of time and an insulator against innovation, quality and progress

Re:How is OSS dealed in this book ?

[rcs1000]

I'm sorry, but it's impossible to have a business that is *entirely* open source. Any large company will want to have some expensive enterprise applications that manages inventory, accounts receivable, payroll, etc. These packages are just not exciting technically, and can't (unless I'm very much mistaken) be found in the open source world.

So, unless you want your company to write its own general ledger software (not a good idea) you will have to buy it from someone. So, dealing with vendors is inevitable.

If its any consolation, the enterprise application vendors (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle) are increasingly supporting OSS. You can run SAP on Linux (and it is increasingly popular) for instance.

Now, what I want to know is when these big (expensive) enterprise software systems will support PostgreSQL...

Cheers,

Robert

Re:Missing chapters

[Le Marteau]

24. Understand that schedules are not meant to actually reflect reality. Use them to cover one's ass, to deflect blame, or to beat up your subordinates with.

25. There is no such thing as morality, but simply what you can and can't get away with. Concepts such as personal honor and integrity are for suckers... the real power players know that what matters is the result, not how you get there.

Re:Purpose of an IT manager

[Anonymous Struct]

I have to disagree with this. While it's true that being a techie is absolutely no excuse for not being able to communicate, users shouldn't generally be talking to the technical staff directly in my opinion. This is primarily because they often don't really know what questions to ask or how to interpret the response, and often they're not even entirely sure what they want from a technical perspective. Additionally, it exposes the technical staff to a slew of completely unprioritized requests, some of which have to be kicked up to the manager anyway in the event that the user is asking for something that requires a great deal of time and manpower (and maybe doesn't even realize it).

I think it's great to have a working relationship with the users, but I know that in my position, the orders come from my boss, and he filters out the things he's not willing to support and escalates the things he knows are important to the business.

To add: one thing that I think is understated in the original post is the ability to interface technical operations with the business needs of the company. Techies aren't usually entirely aware of the business needs of the company. A good IT department can get things done quickly and well, but it will still need a manager who understands both technology *and* business to direct their efforts in a productive way. Getting an old tech grunt in as a manager by no means guarantees you an effective staff. You have to have a guy that can understand and take advantage of your technical potential and apply it effectively to what your business is trying to do. That means knowing both sides very, very well.

Re:How is OSS dealed in this book ?

[Mr. No Skills]

It's hard to tell how this is treated without reading the book. It's possible that "open source" is a type of vendor and the book addresses this.

Also, remember that vendors are used for things besides software. Hardware, facilities, hosting, sub-contractors -- all are generally a vendor selection process. Even if you are committed to open source for solutions you are definately going to have some commercial products to select.

Re:How is OSS dealed in this book ?

[gillisgirl]

You're right - the book should address this. It's hard to say whether or not it does by reading the review.

However, vendors can also supply hardware, staff and ancillary services such as off-site back-up storage and printing. Those vendors can be just as significant to an IT manager as a software vendor. I think your dismissal of the book based on only one criterion is a little short-sighted.

Aspiring IT managers better not know business...

[magarity]

IT managers seldom receive the appropriate business training to manage a large, mission-critical function and budget, and non-technical executives get lost in the maze

It shouldn't be any wonder IT people are selected who do not understand business; they aren't allowed to! The reverse for general management. And whose fault is this? The HR people are the obstacles. With a shiny new degree in business and extensive computer experience, I thought I could get into IT management. For general management jobs HR people said I'm not qualified because because all my practical experience is technical. For technical jobs I'm told I'm not qualified because me education is in business. Fortunately I landed a somewhat IT position at a firm too small to have an HR department but I wonder at what kind of people ended up at all the big corp positions whose HR people blew me off.

Re:But does it have buzzwords ... ?

[perfessor multigeek]

Buzzwords? Not much but.

I don't know about you guys, but I read all the sample pages and all I saw was vague bizspeak, anecdotes about X Corp saved Y dollars that could have been on QVC for all the useful detail they gave, and more rambling mush.
I saw two good sentences about IT departments being left out of decisionmaking. That's it. Not a single concrete "if you see X problem then you need to examine Y points of failure for Z reason" or any other useful advice.
This looks to me like one more high-priced, prettily-wrapped hunk o' junk to make non-techies feel like they "know all they need to" without their having to dirty their hands or strain their minds by actually learning how any of this stuff works.

I assume that the three thousand dollar executive training session in an expensive resort is coming right behind.

Oh, and don't forget, the cost of those "seminars" and books and training manuals and time away from their operational responsibilties will be coming out of your pocket and mine when they further raise their prices to cover yet more executive bullshit.

I am *so* fucking glad that I don't run a corporate IT department anymore!

Rustin