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Making IT Visible to Management?
frustrated Dilbert asks: "We are a very small IT dept where the manager participates in the day-to-day operation of IT services. The problem is that he almost never talks to upper management and doesn't get involved in the business side until someone gives him a specific project to handle. The result is that IT is considered to be firefighters when things fail, and generally plumbers that fix stuff when other PHBs create new projects. We run all the mission-critical stuff in a line of business that can not work without technology. The IT PHB fails to see which sides of the business we need to support and which are second in line. I end up doing my stuff and a lot of his duties of picking up the direction of the business and making strategic decisions. The company is actually great to work for, but I was not hired (or paid) for teaching my boss to run his shop in addition to tech stuff. He simply wasn't made for it and got promoted into something he can't cope with. I'm getting really tired of having to do management and not get any credit and would love to have him replaced, but I hate having to rat on him too. How can I get a more organized workplace when my boss isn't capable of thinking ahead?"
Just by your comment filled with "PHB", makes it seem like you have no respect for management at all. When management comes up with these projects for you to do is their job, they are trying to find ways to improve business productivity. Now the mistakes that a lot of managers do is not give IT or other employees for that sake, a clear image of what needs to be done so the people take it upon themselves to fill in the missing pieces. If you don't want to do the managers job when you come to a point in the project where you need to make a decision you go to management and work the direction you need to take. So for example if you need to create a report and you need to know if you need 3 decimal places in the percent or two. You could just look at the size of the numbers and guess what size is best, or you can go to the manager and ask him how many decimal points accuracy you need. This does a few things.
1. It keeps IT visible on the IT radar, even during the development process.
2. It puts more responsibility on management for bad decisions. So for the case the manager says he want 2 while they really need three you can point to the manager for that fault.
3. It creates a personal connection to you and management so after a while they know how you thing and you know how they think. So after a while the line of what is your job and what is their jobs get better explained.
Next I find it important to be face to face with management as much as possible. If they are in the same builing as you try to be as much face to face as possible. IT Departments have a tendency of doing things electronically, Fixing the problem of the persons PC over VNC vs. just getting off your but and working on the system. The reason why IT is Invisble is that you don't to much work to make yourself visible.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I wonder if this is about me. I've been the Director of Development for the past six years at Zappos.com, but my signature for most of that time has read "Director of Plumbing" :)
I don't think it is about me, but maybe I'm just too much of a PHB to even know! Hey, Frustrated Dilbert, if I'm the guy you're talking about just sit down with me sometime and fill me in!
Cheers.
(leaving potentially ironic signature in place)