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?

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.

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.

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!

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.