Diary of an IT consultant
What does effective IT look like, and how do you achieve it?
Wednesday 4 February 2009, 1:55 PM
How to spot the common symptoms of ineffective IT
Outside the world of IT, my ongoing project is the renovation of a former Post Office in rural Devon. Sadly, many years working in IT Effectiveness Consultancy couldn’t prepare me for rampaging mice in the attic, the enthusiastic but potentially-lethal electricity wiring set up by former residents, and the discovery of an ancient Ford Prefect in an overgrown garage a full two years after we moved in!
Luckily, the house has a way of telling me what needs to be done next – whether it’s curling wallpaper indicating a damp problem, or a smoking chimney reminding me that it needs a sweep.
In my experience, this is similar to the way senior management comes to realise that there is something amiss in their IT department. Business managers will start to send smoke signals to their senior managers, indicating that, somewhere, there is a problem. Typically, these complaints tend to be centred on the high cost of IT and the inability of IT to meet business needs.
I’ve established six primary ‘symptoms’ of dissatisfaction with their IT department as reported by senior management:
• IT slows business change
• Ongoing support costs are high
• Disagreements regarding which IT initiatives obtain funding
• Poor return on investment from IT projects
• IT department seen as a barrier to achieving business goals
• IT seen as a cost centre that does not add value to the business
I dread to think how many symptoms of dissatisfaction my Post Office project will show me, but experience both with my IT projects and with my house have shown me that it is never any good simply wallpapering over the cracks and hoping the problem will go away. Long-term improvements can only be obtained if the underlying causes of the six primary symptoms are understood and corrected.
The first step is always identifying the problem and to do even this, it’s vital that senior management pays attention to the smoke signals – there’s no smoke without fire.
Luckily, the house has a way of telling me what needs to be done next – whether it’s curling wallpaper indicating a damp problem, or a smoking chimney reminding me that it needs a sweep.
In my experience, this is similar to the way senior management comes to realise that there is something amiss in their IT department. Business managers will start to send smoke signals to their senior managers, indicating that, somewhere, there is a problem. Typically, these complaints tend to be centred on the high cost of IT and the inability of IT to meet business needs.
I’ve established six primary ‘symptoms’ of dissatisfaction with their IT department as reported by senior management:
• IT slows business change
• Ongoing support costs are high
• Disagreements regarding which IT initiatives obtain funding
• Poor return on investment from IT projects
• IT department seen as a barrier to achieving business goals
• IT seen as a cost centre that does not add value to the business
I dread to think how many symptoms of dissatisfaction my Post Office project will show me, but experience both with my IT projects and with my house have shown me that it is never any good simply wallpapering over the cracks and hoping the problem will go away. Long-term improvements can only be obtained if the underlying causes of the six primary symptoms are understood and corrected.
The first step is always identifying the problem and to do even this, it’s vital that senior management pays attention to the smoke signals – there’s no smoke without fire.
