"That said, my best advice to you is to help IT help you. Try come to some agreement or understanding with IT and define what it is they they need in order for them to be more responsive to your needs. Respect their needs as much as you want them to respect yours."
I have to disagree with that. As an external projectmanager I see a lot of different governmental organisations from the inside. As I come in and change ICT-infrastructures, I keep running into a lot of the problems that are described here. Some of them are understandable from business-perspective, but I believe the real problem isn't in the procedures (that should help people handle changes), but in the way these procedures are handled by management. Incompetent managers will stick to their procedures at all time, independent of the time and money spent, the hassle and outcome of the work that has to be done. In fact this is the easiest way to manage thing, simply because you only have to follow procedures that have been created (often by a different department). IMHO this will not bring your company any further. The thing is that the people that have to follow these procedures, will stop thinking for themselves after a while.
Competent managers are working hard to try to find a balance between what is workable and what the procedure says. The procedure is a supportive-thing in this case, not a leading thing. This is harder, because this requires a manager to work hard, keep up, ask the right questions, check for impact etc. This way of working will bring you further and brings more joy into your work, because you have to be sharp, creative, inventive etc.
Unfortunately, a lot of (big) organisations work this way. If you cannot handle the way your company works, my advice would be to find work in a different company. You should check the culture of the company right at your jobs interview. Your best pick would be a smaller company. They don't have the time, money and resources to follow procedures in an overly strict way. The downside is that you will have to work harder than you have to do now...
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"That said, my best advice to you is to help IT help you. Try come to some agreement or understanding with IT and define what it is they they need in order for them to be more responsive to your needs. Respect their needs as much as you want them to respect yours."
I have to disagree with that. As an external projectmanager I see a lot of different governmental organisations from the inside. As I come in and change ICT-infrastructures, I keep running into a lot of the problems that are described here. Some of them are understandable from business-perspective, but I believe the real problem isn't in the procedures (that should help people handle changes), but in the way these procedures are handled by management. Incompetent managers will stick to their procedures at all time, independent of the time and money spent, the hassle and outcome of the work that has to be done. In fact this is the easiest way to manage thing, simply because you only have to follow procedures that have been created (often by a different department). IMHO this will not bring your company any further. The thing is that the people that have to follow these procedures, will stop thinking for themselves after a while.
Competent managers are working hard to try to find a balance between what is workable and what the procedure says. The procedure is a supportive-thing in this case, not a leading thing. This is harder, because this requires a manager to work hard, keep up, ask the right questions, check for impact etc. This way of working will bring you further and brings more joy into your work, because you have to be sharp, creative, inventive etc.
Unfortunately, a lot of (big) organisations work this way. If you cannot handle the way your company works, my advice would be to find work in a different company. You should check the culture of the company right at your jobs interview. Your best pick would be a smaller company. They don't have the time, money and resources to follow procedures in an overly strict way. The downside is that you will have to work harder than you have to do now...