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How to Stop the Dilbertization of IT?
Alien54 writes "In the simplest terms: too many IT workplaces have become Dilbertized -- micromanaged, bureaucratic and stifled creatively. It's become an environment where busy work is praised and morale is low. How is it possible to bring IT's appeal back? 'IT professionals that have worked in the field for a long time often speak about a shift in their work where they have gone from tossing ideas back and forth to make for better technology solutions to fighting fires all day. "There's less emphasis on creativity, and more on maintenance. Tweak this, work on this ... In being reactive not proactive, everything is a crisis. Something has to be done right now, putting out fire after fire, going a long way to making IT a less pleasant environment," said Skaistis. Beyond making for a unpleasant work environment for the techies already in-house, this firefighting serves as a warning to potential recruits: you will not like this job.'"
(1) Ownership: instead of relying on short-term tactical projects and maintenance, create teams to 'own' each area of your business and technology - empower them to make business and technology decisions in that space (2) Measurement: setup appropriate metrics for your teams in their area - judge them against these metrics (a combination of business performance, system performance, uptime etc.) (3) Agile: don't stifle them with heavy methodology - rely on your teams to install the right processes for them: enough documentation, enough release management, enough testing - if they're not getting that right, a heavy process won't help them For an example of a company who IMHO get this right, take a look at this interview with Amazon CTO Werner Vogels: http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&p a=showpage&pid=388
You're the Hero. Of course your code will work ... you're the Hero.
... you might as well not be there at all for all they know. You have to find some way to keep reminding people that you are the one handling the problems BEFORE the problems become problems.
When a problem pops up, you slay it. You're the Hero.
People seldom ask why the problem popped up. They're too happy to have it removed. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
Simply put, bad practices result in bad code. So the Hero becomes the firefighter. Unless s/he moves up or onward.
The easy solution to this is not socially acceptable (unless instituted by a savvy boss). Signs indicating "X days since server crash" or such tend to divide the department between the Hero's and the Thinkers. And that creates its own problems.
People do not value things that they do not have to think about. Until they are forced to think about them. If you're doing a great job and all the updates are transparent to the users
Mod parent up!
Oh, wait, they did...
Well, mod him up some more!
Asshole managers - that's the whole game in a nutshell.
Well, actually "asshole primates" is the whole game in a nutshell - asshole managers are just a subset.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I'm a former IT guy and current MBA student. What I've seen in school is that there are a LOT of IT people in MBA classes right now. I think that you'll see a LOT of former IT people who've gone to business school hitting the market as managers soon.
When was the last technical event you attended? The last speaking engagement, demo, roadshow, retreat, or whatever the fuck, where you could tell people about your business?
First thing: You gotta believe that your services are the best available, because if you dont, nobody else will either. When you do believe it, it is easy to sell it to people who dont even know they need it. If you start the week knowing that maybe one in twenty contacts is a likely sell, then you know how many people you need to talk to.
So, what the fuck are you doing on Slashdot, MF'er? Code up that web site and get at it!
Organizations have no loyalty to their IT departments. Vendors try to go over, around and through the IT department to show their goodies to the higher ups and throw out the buzzword of the day littering in-flight magazines and through a combination of lies, fear and half-truths try to get management to buy off on the IT trinket of the day. And if the IT department doesn't play along, they have a consulting department full of IT professionals who will be happy to implement it for them. Companies waste a phenomenal amount of time looking at sales presentations and dealing with vendors. It's amazing. Simplify.
The other thing I see is organizations being badgered and raped by a combination of Dell and Microsoft. So much overhead to support their stuff. You can't just run a decent firewall and push out disk images as you need them. There's firewall, anti-virus, backup servers, mail servers, management servers, web servers, database servers and the clients plod along at a level just above a calculator. Most home users have more freedom and functionality that most enterprise desktops I deal with all week. It's insane.
If I'm setting up an office tomorrow, there's not going to be one piece of Microsoft software on that network, anywhere. Not because I don't like them...I don't but that's besides the point...but because their stuff brings insecurity, liability and complexity. All the major software would be web-based or framed, open source databases, outsource email to Google, OpenOffice. All I want is an internet connection, Smoothwall and Ubuntu on slim desktops. No off the shelf software, custom web apps. If I can't build them I'll pay some of you to help out. Macs are welcome, one copy of Windows will be grounds for termination.
My network at home goes for months without any problems. We have more problems in a hour at the customer than I have in a year and they spend all their time working on their computers instead of working.
And dealing with vendors. I need to set up a phone system sales people can't get through. One of you help me with that part.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage