IT May Need More Business Thinkers
IT has always been about technology, and it seems, at least on its face, that’s as it should be. But IT is a service arm of a business and to truly understand how the technology fits within the goals of that business, IT might need some more business savvy.
Perhaps that’s why a post in today’s Computerworld suggested that it might be better to hire someone who has a deep understanding of business and some technical knowledge, rather than the other way around.
Earlier in my career I was a technical writer (software manuals, online help, etc). My mentor who got me started once said, “It’s easier to teach a good writer to be technical than it is to teach a technical person to be a good writer.” Using that same logic, it may be easier to teach a business pro how IT operates than it would be to teach a traditional IT pro about business.
Once again, however, if you click through to that Computerworld article, it paints a pretty ugly picture of IT and its relationship to business:
“Patrick Thibodeau recently interviewed organizational psychologist Billie Blair, who described IT managers as viewing “…the world in terms of ‘us against them’ and seeing others in an organization as pests or threats to their IT universe.” Even if you take issue with this, you’ve got to admit that IT staffers don’t always mix well with the outside.”
Whether or not you agree with the notion that you need more business knowledge in your department, it couldn’t hurt to take this description seriously, and maybe step back and look for ways to make your department a bit more friendly to the people you are supposed to be serving.
I’ve been writing a lot lately about running IT more as a business offering a set of services. If you want to be a cost center, you need to think like a business and it’s going to be useful to understand how your business venture fits within the overall business needs of the organization.
In my post yesterday, I wrote about my experience working in publications production in the 80s (before I was a tech writer). Part of that was running an in-house copy center that charged projects for our services. One of the advantages we had over external copy centers was that we were employees, and project managers could make (sometimes outrageous) demands on us and we pretty much had to do it because we were there to service the business.
Whether you want to admit or not, the same goes for you. You are there, not as an independent entity to act as the arbiter of all things technical, but as a part of the business, which just like my copy center back in the 80s, is there to service the business.
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I totally agree that IT needs more business thinkers. I do not agree and it is my experience is that they do not and should not come from the business. The problem is that IT is artificially separate from the business by politics, processes and personnel (such as BA’s PM’s and Management). I can’t think of a case where someone came from the business side and TRULY learned IT. Sure you can teach someone to type in code (ie SQL) or how to deploy PCs. But that is not learning technology. There is too much to learn and it changes daily. One must have the talent, ability and desire. I have seen plenty of people who have been in technology for 20 years and really do not understand technology. I work in an organization that has about 500 IT. And most are pretty clueless. They know enough to get by. They have 1 years experience 20 times. I spend most of my waking hours learning technology and there is just so much I don’t know. Honestly, it is much easier for me to learn the business than for someone to learn tech. Is that true for some business aspects (ie financial industry)? Probably.
Mark,
Thanks for the great comment. You’re right it’s not easy, but I know people who straddle both and have done so successfully. They may not know the nitty-gritty down and dirty details of the technology, but they know enough to keep projects going and manage the technical people who do know.
One other thought, it might not be the folks who are there now who are entrenched in the politics and the ways things have always been done. It may take new blood, perhaps young people, who have been trained in both disciplines and can bring a new way of thinking to the department.
Thanks again for the great comment.
I agree people can straddle the fence. I do. I am just saying that “coming from the business side” is more difficult (next to impossible). In all the industries I have worked, the business really was not that difficult. The difficult part was in trying to figure out WHY they do the things they way they do. I can provide you will a list. I have worked at my present company for 7 years and have been “fighting” the business-to-tech people from day one.
“but they know enough to keep projects going and manage the technical people who do know.”
They know just enough to be a problem. They cannot see the bigger “technical” picture. They say “this is the way we have always done it.” That applies to both technology and the business. Many times they cannot see the problem is with there business process. One big issue is that people cannot translate from a paper process to a computer process.
What I have seen is that they get in the way and make bad decisions because “they are in charge”. If they would just facilitate, that would be ok. The problem is that “non-techies” cannot see the problems that are created – the long term ones. And like I said, even many “techies” cannot.
As for new blood, I totally agree. A big problem is that companies/orgs don’t want to hire people without experience in their business arena (i.e. I need a Java programmer in healthcare). Of course they do the same thing with tech (i.e We are going to use C#. Now go hire some C# developers).
I live this everyday. I don’t know you and you may have gotten lucky and found the holy grail of people. But I bet the odds are that (based on what you said your background is) it is your perspective that they are “successful”. Being in production and the users not complaining is not successful. That is just the tip of the iceberg.