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08.17.06
Has IT Become A Dirty Word?
 By
Mario Bojilov
There is a very good chance that the majority of the people relying on IT in their businesses were tempted to answer "Yes". How come one of the industries responsible for many of the achievements of our civilisation has become the object of such widespread distrust and cynicism?
It is so common these days to start a tsunami of winging and complaints at the very mention of any of the words software, hardware, IT. What is the reason for this type of attitude and is it possible to achieve "IT nirvana" at all?
Before attempting to provide any suggestions or answers it may be useful to try and identify some of the causes that created this situation in the first place. Usually they vary from project to project but some general symptoms seem to be present more often than not.
Leadership failure
While many people may disagree with this, it seems that the main reason for over 80% of all horror stories related to IT is the "human factor". In other words, technology fails very rarely on its own. It is the way it is used (abused?) and the expectations placed on it that create problems and disasters. And whether, as business owners/managers, we like it or not, the root cause usually can be traced to the top.
Leadership is just as important in IT projects, as it is in any other aspect of the business. A leadership failure is followed inevitably by a project failure and, subsequent, "witch hunting".
And in most companies it is the senior management team that needs to take the blame. It is much more difficult for a middle manager to get the same cooperation from various business units than for a senior manager.
Even if the most senior people are not directly involved in the project they need to be accessible most of the time. This way any minor "hiccups" can be fixed before they become major "hiccups".
Lack of common sense
For some unknown reason when dealing with IT-related issues the common sense just seems to go out of the window. The processes and criteria used for any other business activity or purchase are disregarded and a variety of "exotic" approaches with little business sense are applied. "People in the know", i.e. technologists, use acronyms and terms no one understands. Other people on the team don't want to lose face and just listen to the gibberish.
But the technology people are not the best in solving business problems. Quite often their focus is primarily on technology and that is simply not enough. Each IT project needs to have clearly defined objectives and deliverables, i.e. "why" and "what". "How" needs to be a secondary consideration.
Poor planning
Unfortunately, IT project management is still somewhat of an art, rather than science. Due to the high complexity of most IT projects it is very difficult to estimate costs and durations within a project. The best project managers usually come within a range of 10%. While 10% may not seem that bad, the major problem here is that people who can achieve these levels of accuracy are few and far between.
On the other hand when a project is underestimated by 50-100% (there are enough
examples around), how would a manager feel going to the board or the bank and
asking for more money halfway through the project. Let's face it, nobody wants
to be in that situation. Yet, it happens so often.
Read
the Full Article
About
the Author:
Mario Bojilov is the Managing Director of Meta
Business Systems. He has been involved with the IT industry since 1989 in
a variety of technical and managerial roles. |
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