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The Executive's Guide to Information Technology
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:- The Effective IT Organization
- The IT Dilemma
- Sources and Causes of IT Ineffectiveness
- Information Technology Costs
- Managing the IT Department
- The IT Organization
- The IT Director
- IT Direction and Standard Setting
- IT Operations
- Application Management
- IT Human Resource Practices
- Vendor Selection
- Vendor Management
- Senior Executive IT Management
- Working with the Business
- IT Budgeting and Cost Management
- Effective Decision Making and Risk Management
- IT Demand Management and Project Prioritization
- IT Performance Measurement
- 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.
"A vertical integration synergy strategy helped us realise total productivity gains in the medium term.
We still reckon little elves make it happen though."
MD, Widget & Sprokett
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
All IT managers who used to be techies are required to get a lobotomy. This is standard industry procedure, but it's not even mentioned.
Sheesh!You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
18. Demoralizing staff through excessively harsh IT Policy
19. How to downsize IT for effective annual report manipulation
20. "Waah, go back to your cave, trog!" Or, how to deny IT budget requests
21. Quality is so Expensive: A guide to third world staffing resources
this book tells HR depts how not to ask for people with 10 years .NET experience?
(I'm graduating this semester, no job yet, and I've seen 3 or 4 of those and things like it)
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
There is a chapter on how to select your Vendor. This implies that proprietary software is to be selected (hence the word vendor)
Does this imply that OSS is not on the map? If OSS is not dealt with, I would rate this book as not of this time. The challenge of IT is to make do and do well on a limitid budget. OSS does play a role in this. So does the choise for open standards; this allows for unhindered communication with the rest of the world.
Thanks,
Gerard
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.
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
While we techies know our shit, too frequently we don't know how to explain it to the people who we're helping out, and seldom can do so to those who are going to give us the money to by the equipment we need. A manager who can keep us working happily by filtering innane problems to us rather than having us spend 100% of the time helping people move their mouse is the only way to keep us from jumping ship. And having the manager communicate our needs in the marketing speak that we don't have is the only way to get us our toys so we are happy in our jobs.
A good IT manager knows enough to understand the geeks, figure out when we're lying, and protect us from politics and direct moron access.
This will be a very useful book, because the only people left in IT are the managers. They had to fire everyone else to cover their own salaries.
1) Change jobs regularly. don't stay in any one company for more than a couple of years.
2) When you start at a new company, standardize! Standarize on whatever bit of technology a sales rep. has recently bedazzled you with. Standardize by insisting, for instance:
a) everything has to move onto Lotus Notes
b) all databases must be Oracle
c) Everything must be Microsoft
Score extra points for really stupid and disruptive standardizations e.g.
a) everyone must use MS Outlook.
b) nobody can send email attachments.
c) all databases should be on MS Access.
Make sure that you replace old systems that have been working successfully for years, in the name of standardization.
Don't listen to your technical staff. They don't understand business issues. And don't listen to your users. They don't understand techy stuff.
Assign huge budgets to standardization. Standardize on something your technical staff don't like.
Leave shortly after your new projects have been rolled out. Make sure you get a bit of press coverage about what a great job you've done (your chosen supplier will help you with this...) Get an even higher paid job elsewhere.
What, me, cynical?
"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.
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."
Signal?
(Nods toward JB's (or was it Andy's) comment on the state of things on the 'elbows' mailing list somewhere around 1990...)
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men
As someone who has recently failed upward into IT management from being a grunt (programmer) at an insurance company, the biggest problem I have encountered is translating what the business people want into terms the staff understands. There is also the balancing act of blaming my predecessors for everything that has gone wrong while taking credit for all that is good. That is hard.
And getting money from the suits. Sheesh.
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.