Slashdot Mirror
Organizational Practices of an IT Department?
fbg111 asks: "I've recently joined a company, a regional airline, with an IT department that has grown organically (ie in response to immediate, rapid-growth-driven need, rather than according to any organizational plan). In the past five years the company has come to rely on IT, specifically the web team, for about 3/4's of its revenue. However, this unstructured growth has caused some problems, like this one: the lack of defined career paths and clear promotion 'triggers' makes techs feel 'stuck' in dead-end situations, and we tend to lose good people who find more transparent advancement opportunities elsewhere. I've recently joined the new CIO's task force for putting together a plan that addresses the immediate problem of defining career advancement paths and payscales. Does Slashdot have any ideas on this subject?"
"I'm particularly interested in industry best practices that cover providing breadth and depth of experience and training, dual (or more) career tracks that allow techs to go the management route or the technical guru route, and aligning promotion triggers and career paths with IT department & corporate goals, and anything else relevant to the matter. Do any of you have anything in particular to recommend?"
Unionize! That always fixes things.
And then there's the oral sex.
*shudder*
We think there's some sort of hierarchy with an advancement/promotion plan involving a Lovecraftian quagmire of Thunderdomes and quatloos, but scientific instrumentality can only accomplish so much.
Your salary grows 2-4% every year until the CFO decides to outsource your job to India for 1/10th the cost.
That is the future of IT.
But let me know when you find something, implement it, have it fail, get laid off, get hired as a contractor somewhere else, get laid off again, and finally get hired by Google. Then you can tell me how Google does it...
And I lift my glass to the awful truth which you can't reveal to the ears of youth except to say it isn't worth a dime.
Psy us, the IT workers out there, whatever we ask for. For fear that all your systems shall come to a grinding halt, and us in the back room having a party.
Talk directly with each and every member of the IT staff, first as a group and then in private. Find out what they want. Find out what they expect. Collect all the data you can directly from them. Then discuss your findings with the CIO.
Shitcan those that gave you the best ideas in private. Take credit for those ideas. Take the humdrum and promote them underneath you. Tell the CIO what he wants to hear.
Make sure that the typical employee has a very locked down machine. No IM, No WMP. Keystroke loggers. Email auditing. Create a big staff to do that, announce success in a year, then in another year, reduce that staff to save costs. Ensure employees cannot install Windows Updates. Have your department install the updates from two years ago.
Have a Big 4 Auditing company give you security consulting services.
GET RID OF THE MACS!
Just offer them Free Sodas and Pizza and they are yours for life.
RTFM? FTFM!!
The NHL was on strike?