The Agony Of Talking With IT
Written by Todd L. MichaudNovember 11th, 2009
Franchisee Columnist Todd Michaud knows of a lot of people who rub others the wrong way. They're called IT staff. No matter how helpful they're trying to be, the IT talent and the businesses they're supporting speak different languages and frustrations are inevitable.
The problem is only getting worse. First, technology vendors are creating new features and functionality much faster than they are retiring them. As a result, the catalog of things that most IT people need to know is constantly growing. Second, as technology advances and becomes more complex, so do the explanations behind it. But Michaud offers suggestions, including IT telling business units answers to the questions they don't know to ask.
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6 Comments | Read The Agony Of Talking With IT
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November 12th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Excellent article, Todd. Great points. IT must realize that many users of their systems, particularly forecasting, merchandising, and category management are needed to be used by folks who went to the side of the university where “No math was required.” Their skill sets are different.
What is alluded to here but not overtly mentioned is that that business process must change to obtain the ROI benefits. That needs to be communicated as well. 75% of IT projects fail to meet ROI objectives because of this one point.
Thanks for a great article.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Business analysts can help bridge that gap!
November 15th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Thanks for the comments!
Greg, you bring up a great point about the business process change. Often business users expect “magic” ROI, without realizing that the true ROI comes from enhancing the business process. If they are not willing to change, then the technology implementation often is a waste of money.
Jen, I totally agree with the business analyst comment. The challenge with smaller IT shops is that it is very difficult to justify the role. Just like the movie Office Space: “I am responsible for taking the customer’s requirements and giving them to the Engineers. Can’t the customers just talk to the Engineers? No! I am a people person! I have skills!!!”
In most small IT shops, the traditional Project Manager and Business Analysts roles are both critical and extremely difficult to justify.
Thanks again!
November 16th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Todd, while you are correct that it’s difficult to have an IT business analyst or seasoned project manager in small shops… it’s certainly not out of the ordinary to have on-boarding with all employees including IT folks that would among other things mean spending time in a restaurant to understand the business. IT people don’t know the terms COGS, margins, etc because they haven’t always been exposed to them. In restaurant training is key to having the individuals helping to run an organization understand how the business is measured / evaluated by the operators.
A large part, in my opinion, of IT projects fail to materialize their ROI goals because they do not have accurate requirements set from all participants. Better understanding about what the client needs often leads to other discoveries about the system and a deeper analysis of the project objectives. This further develops the need for a business analyst or for the IT person to be programmer / analyst.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Paul,
I couldn’t agree with you more about the lack of accurate requirements being one of the leading causes or ROI miss. “Tell me what you want.” turns into “Tell me what it can do.” Unless you are following a Agile methodology, the “big unveil” can be a disaster!
I also agree about in-restaurant training. In my previous role, we were 100% franchised, which made that difficult. Now, all my IT folks spend time in each of my brands to learn them from the ground floor, and when we meet with our business counterparts, we talk in their terms.
Thanks again.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
My big frustration with IT is about attitude. Many of the IT folks I deal with have an attitude that they know more than me, even about topics that they aren’t tasked to manage.
For example, my company’s IT department installed web filtering software that started blocking websites that our staff use on a regular basis, for work purposes. The IT department felt that those sites were wasting time and bandwidth. But they weren’t tasked with managing employee time and didn’t consult with any downstream managers about their unilateral decision. They also didn’t look into the true cost of bandwidth, which was costing less than it cost the company to run a refrigerator in the employee break room.
That example is just me venting – there are many more examples that impact more critical business systems, where IT overrules business decisions without consulting the very people they are tasked with helping.
I’ve seen this attitude at other places I’ve worked, and I don’t feel that C-level management understands how much of a negative impact it can have. Or, maybe I’ve just had some experiences with bad IT groups?