What can we do to make IT better?
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It's an interesting question. I talk with people sometimes about what we do in IT, what we like about jobs, and more. I've got some friends that are looking to get out of IT, or at least away from corporate work. I'm somewhat out of the corporate world, and even IT, spending more of my time as a journalist than a DBA.
I caught this article expressing some of the concerns with IT and what can be done to make things better. It's an interesting look and reminds me of Joel's Two Stories.
In many cases IT is a Dilbertized environment. I'd probably argue it's similar in lots of other places in the corporate world, but IT especially seems to be a place that's micro managed to death. Maybe because big bucks are still being invested in IT.
I'm not sure I believe in all the steps recommended, but I do think that better managers, both direct reporting manager and project managers, will make a huge difference. And that means that you hire managers that want to be managers and spend some time and resources teaching them how to manage.
But in line with that, you don't want a crop of newly graduated MBAs with spreadsheets running your programmers. The other thing you need to do is trust the people you hire. Give them goals, projects, and deadlines, and let them run the show. Don't let managers or directors, and certainly not VPs or C'levels, determine how they'd do it and force that system down the chain of command. Trust the people you hire to do it their way and get your results. Not your process.
After all, if you don't think I can handle it, why did you hire me?
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We recently had a departmental training day, with one particular exercise showing how damaging micro-management can be.
We were split into teams, with each team nominating 3 'managers' who remained in the building. They were told the full rules of the game, and had to communicate by radio to 'supervisors' outside. The 'supervisors' were only told the radio had to remain where it was, about 15 yards away from the 'workers' who were told nothing.
The object was to move the 4 'workers' across a chess board using Knight moves without them being captured by 4 King pieces. Most teams gave the 'manager' roles to people without previous supervisory experience, with the real managers deciding to be 'workers'. Most 'managers' took the view 'we are in charge and can do this easily'. Everyone found that it took about 10 minutes to complete each round of moves. They also found that the 'workers' were getting frustrated at the long delays and lack of visibility about how they would get to the target they could see was not far away. The fact that it was cold, windy and drizzling added to the fun.
Eventually our team 'managers' decided to empower us 'supervisors' to move the pieces as we felt fit, and report back when the job was done. By this time the real managers in our team had gone on strike and left the board! The 'supervisors' managed to convince the 'workers' that things had changed for the better, and if they got back on the board we could quickly achieve the target and get a result, without worrying our 'managers' that a crisis was being resolved.
We had already lost 2 'workers' and one more got taken off the board before we finished, but I thought a death rate of 75% was quite acceptable given the quality of the staff acting up as 'workers'. Afterwards, many of us thought the exercise mirrored a typical day for our trans-Atlantic colleagues...
Empowering staff to take responsibility and make decisions is not simply a question of management style. Empowerment unleashes productivity, improves motivation, and is part of training the next generation of managers.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
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When I first read your post Steve I missed the importance of the subject. However I went back and read both of the articles you linked into and got your point.
I am not a manager here, but I have the freedom that Joel described at Microsoft to decide what and how I will get a task or project done. What programming language, database, and what front end if ones required, web or windows based? Or should I move away from Microsoft and go to an open source solution for a given problem? WOW, this really is a GREAT JOB!
So, what am I doing, me personally to make myself better qualified to enjoy my work here? At the moment several things come to mind.
1) I recently met the staff at a remote location. I knew these people existed, but had no idea about their skills. After spending a couple of days with them I was very impressed with everyone there. I had been exploring VMWare Virtual Lab but could not imagine how it would help at this company. After getting to know the employees at this remote location, Virtual Lab took on a whole new meaning and I am now working on the cost and administration details before I propose it to management. VVL could be the magic needed to allow us to be a more cohesive team.
2) We lost one of our people that was doing desktop and server support. We have a number of Linux servers for various tasks and I know little about Linux. It occurred to me that the one person in IT that can keep those systems going needs backup, even if not official backup. So, I purchased a new computer for my home to allow me to learn Linux without risking my company owned development computer.
3) The new home computer will also be my base for developing my next generation development system. It will start off with 64 bit Ubuntu host operating system and perhaps move to a MS 64 bit system if I find problems running VMWare Workstation and virtual development computers under Linux.
A side note... I have an Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop that I currently use for development. That said I've been much impressed with the AMD 64 bit processors. So, when I went shopping for the new 64 bit workstation for home I had settled on AMD for my processors. Both AMD and Intel have been doing great things in the 64 bit, multi core processor world. However, I was not aware that Intel had trumped AMD's Dual Core with a Quad Core processor in my price range. Fortunately, I did enough research before purchasing to have that knowledge before ordering. If you think I did something stupid ordering Intel go ahead and purchase an AMD. I think both companies make fine products:-)
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Another great editorial Steve!
:{>
Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
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I couldn't agree more. My boss at my former place of business got too much into the details. He would drive design more than any manager should. One time he told 3 of us to change our design right before coding. The 3 of us had a combined IT experience of over 30 years and had spent 2 weeks becoming intimately familiar with the process. The manager had spent all of 10 minutes in this meeting. As programmers you need to be given the support to develop your systems and your manager should remove hurdles. Unfortunately in my old company the manager was more of a hurdle than anything that was thrown at you. But then again that is why it is my former company.
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"But then again that is why it is my former company. "
I've left a couple jobs for that reason as well. I'm a project oriented guy. Give me something to do and leave me alone and I'll do it. Bother me about it and I'll be sure I'm working the resume at night.
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There is another factor, too.
IT has become an established discipline, not unlike accounting. The demands of the business world have created structures and bureaucracies.
15 years ago there was a real frontier mentality (in the microcomputer world). There was a lot of room for off-the-cuff experimentation that sometimes worked and sometimes failed completely. Competing with even major packages of the time were something that a couple of people could actually pull off in a basement. And management were either clueless or intimidated by the techies so they stayed (or could be kept) out of the way. Hell it was fun
But life has changed irrevocably. We have structure. We have rules. We have standards. We have SOX. No one working in his spare time is going to hit the world with the next big thing. IT has been assimilated. We are Borg. It's stil fun, but the heady days are gone forever.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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IT may have become an established discipline, but it still amazes me that after all the books and articles that have been written about how damaging micro-managment is to the bottom line (in all professions, not just IT), managers still insist on doing it! Don't they ever learn?
Time after time, research and the real world show that hiring good people, pointing them in the direction you want them to to, and letting them DO THEIR JOB creates value for a company. Look at the Saturn car company - they built a near-luxury car for an excellent price, when the Big Three were ignoring the consumer in favor of building "the same old thing". (Too bad Saturn got bought out...) Now the Big Three are in danger of becoming the bottom three, and they're crying for a bail-out, when they should have been paying attention to what successful companies were doing! Employees who are micro-managed do not have time to innovate at work, and if they innovate at home they aren't going to share it with managers who treat them like peons.
If management wants IT to be an innovater, and create value for the company, they are going to have to let go of the controls. Outsourcing gives more control (in fact it REQUIRES micro-management), but quashes innovation. Plus you lose the business knowledge that an internal IT department has when it's part of the business team.
Think about it this way. If you tell a team to go from New York to Sacramento, and get there in three days, would you rather micro-manage by telling them what kind of vehicle to use, and each turn to make along the way?
Or should you express your confidence in their decisions by turning them loose? With the first scenario, you have a manager who is wasting their own time - they can't do any other work while micro-managing. With the second, you have a manager freed up to do their real job - determine the direction of the company, and provide guidance for where to go. Maybe that's where some of the value is created, hmmm?
Here there be dragons...,Steph Brown
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I just tell people... hey, I have 20 years of doing this stuff and if you want me to do that, you need to put in writing cuz I'm tellin you right now it's going to fail, and I want it to be *your* ass on the line. People like that tend to respect experience, even though I am perfectly capable of making n00b mistakes. I've told everyone here that I'm in charge of IT, and if they have any suggestions, it needs to go through me. People seem to like that, but I've worked at companies where I would have been told to go straight to hell and die in a fire if I acted like that. Some people just don't get it, and they never will.
I think there is also a hiring problem. Management knows nothing about picking good IT people, so they've been burned by idiots in the past, which naturally makes them want to micro-manage. Companies need to learn how to hire good IT people, and send the hacks packing. Problem is, being a hack is the art of convincing people that you know what you're doing, when you don't. Often, they are better at giving a good impression than the people who actually know what they are doing. Drives me nuts... the last guy we hired here who was like that, wasn't even run by me first, he was just hired and introduced to me later. When two weeks went by and he hadn't produced anything, in spite of a ton of help, I said "see, you shoulda asked me"... and that problem will not happen again. I blogged about this a while back:
http://smoothjazzy.blogspot.com/2006/09/it-job-market-sucks-rocks.html
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Jasmine, somehow I have the same feeling about people. I also work for IT about 20 years. When I started working, people and company had different mentality and attitude, they were much nicer and companies cared more about employees. Most of the programmers had very good skills. They were also nice to the junior programmers and taught me a lot of things.
Nowadays it was totally different. Company cares more about the quarterly report. Somehow there are more programmers that care about their own business, do not want to share information, competition is high.
In a lot of big companies, people got hired because they knew someone working there, not because they had the skills.
Actually I think it is a ripple effect, bad management (CEO, CIO....) hired bad managers that had no management or technical skills and in turn hired lousy programmers. So most of the work falls on the shoulder of the good programmers and you begin to wonder why you get the same salary as the other guys who do not know anything!!!!!
Scott, it is a nice article. If it is not because of money that I would quit IT long time ago. I used to be so excited to go to work, now I drag myself to go to work everyday. I am totally stressed out and depressed.
It is not happened in a particular company, ever since the bubble, every company I worked for is liked that !!!!! Maybe I am getting too old for this profession.
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IT was the best of times IT was the worst of times. I think perhaps Charles Dickens was forward thinking and not only considering the French Revolution. Unfortunatly at my current place of employment "IT was the worst of times" translates into "IT is the worst of times" for many of us in the different IT groups.
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Mark Twain? Don't you mean Charles Dickens in "A Tale of Two Cities"?
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Well, I'm starting my own company soon. I have this theory you see. I have this theory that if you treat employees like human beings, help them develop their skills, buy them lunch, have a 'dog day' on Friday (and no 'cat day' cuz it's my company
), and let them dress however they want, give them flexible schedules, allow work from home sometimes, and pay them a ton of money with good benefits, with the only requirement being that they develop the best software mankind has ever seen... then people will do well and enjoy their jobs, and that you can be profitable, if you want to be. An added side benefit is that your company will attract good talent - look at Google... I don't know a programmer who wouldn't want to work there (except me, unless I can be in Colorado) I have changed my mind recently and realized that a company's responsibility is not to rake in as much profit as possible, but to support its employees, pay its bills, contribute to the local economy, and support the local community in charitable ways. I think all profit should go back into the employees pockets and to the community. And all you have to do is write the best code ever written... easy, right? Heheheee...Of course, that's all based on the assumption that better software is something people actually want... and that better treatment results in better employees, or results at least in employees who are trying their best. Sometimes better treatment results in laziness, which would not be tolerated at my company. You have to work, and you are required to love it.
PS: Bringing my dog to work is one of the best possible perks I could ever ask for... and everybody loves to see him
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I can do without the bring your dog, cat, goldfish, kid, spouse, best friend, interesting street bum, or whatever to work day.
If you really need them with you while you work, just work from home.
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It's easy to complain about micro managing, but it's an easy trap to fall into. All it takes is for the troops to hang you out to dry a couple times and you can start becoming defensive - or managing more aggressively, depending on your point of view. In my experience those most prone to micro managing right out of the gate are the ones that screamed about any management involvement!
A little off topic, but part of this I think - all too often IT pro's decide to accomplish a task that is somewhat different in scope/duration because they 'know best'. There's no doubt that most of us were hired because we are the experts - technical experts. Managers are the ones tasked with making business decisions and those often conflict with what we as technical people believe to be the correct course of action. As a manager I've learned that what I need from the expert are good/better/best recommendations, pro's and con's of each, and a statement of bias (if any - I've had experts recommend solutions solely because they want to learn a new technology!). Then I can choose how much time/energy seems like the best course and let the expert proceed with implementing with very little supervision.
Not sure I said that well. Maybe said one other way - ask yourself why the manager is micro managing. Are they inexperienced, work for a super demanding boss, have had a number of recent project failures, etc? As employees sometimes (only sometimes) we force the very behavior we detest.
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