Overwhelming Bureaucracy in the IT Department?

Nedry57 asks: "I am in the somewhat unique position of being a technology worker, who lives outside of the IT department in my company (a very large organization in the US). By far, the biggest challenge I face is getting anything done due to the bureaucracy that exists, within IT. There are certain tasks (i.e. anything that happens in the data centers) that I don't have the access to do. Even a simple task, like installing more memory in a non-production server, can take nine months and massive mountains of paperwork (no exaggeration), thus costing many times more than it should. The lack of agility is maddening, because I know we are missing significant business opportunities. My management is extremely supportive and despite our excellent track record of success in creating robust/secure applications--our work has passed audit numerous times with flying colors--we get no support from IT. Even senior management can't break through the barrier. I am very interested in hearing the experiences Slashdot readers have had in similar situations." How do you get your technology work done, when your IT department is more hindrance than help?

Comments

Look... it's like this

[ellem]

Us IT types have no real control over anything in the human realm because we are socially awkward and ill prepared to mete out our skill. To make good on our high school threats of revenge we muct abuse Users. Thusly we must make them grovel to us for our massive IT arcana!

Get a voice modulator and call as a girl - that will assure a quick resolution at all times!

Take ownership

[Arandir]

It sounds like your management needs to take ownership if their department computer. In far too many companies IT goons act like they own they place. Here's news to them, they're employees just like everyone else.

So take control of your own computers. Put them behind a department firewall. Put big stickers on them saying "Not IT Controlled" or "Keep your hands off!" Then if you need some more RAM, all you need to do is to go down to the store and buy some. If you need a department webpage, go buy a cheap eMachine and slap on Debian. Of course, you will need your own guy in the department to manage all of this stuff, but surely that's cheaper than sitting on your butts for nine months waiting for RAM.

It goes without saying that all ordinary desktops should still be IT controlled. Why waste your time on this penny ante stuff. But keep your servers, development workstations, and special systems your own.

IT acts like like any help support

[Via_Patrino]

IT acts like any help support, they don't want to solve your problem they just want to add a "change request" to their productive level, so they lie, pretend to solve your problem, give you partial solutions and procastinate the "hard" ones (anything that takes more than one minute).

That happens more when there's staff deficit but has a lot to do with moral (you may call it culture) too.

Power Corrupts

[derrickh]

Every IT person I've known has acted like a tyrant. Without exception. I figure that it stems from them getting beat down as geeky kids and now that they have some power, they're gonna use it. They know they could upgrade that server in a heartbeat, but they also know that you want them to. I've seen request for password changes take a week. And god forbid they have to fix something that doesnt work. It's easier to display power by denying something from someone than granting it.

It's payback, plain and simple.
D