Top things in managing an IT department - part 7
I am now pushing on with this series and have just about got to the magic 50 so we are nearly there.
The next 6 things are numbers 37-42 and again they are not necessarily in any order of importance. As always please feedback things that I have missed or just let me know your thoughts.
37. Succession planning
No matter how good you are at looking after your staff people will leave and it is important that you think about who would take over. Sometimes you just have to go external to bring in the right experience but that shouldn’t be the plan. You should plan to have somebody moving towards the ability to take over a position if the current incumbent leaves. Yes there is a danger that you train people and then they leave because the position isn’t available when they feel ready for the next career move but that is better than having no people coming up within the organisation.
38. Production environment
Keep it safe. Build the moat! Make sure your production environment is separated from the test environment and protect it well with technology and process. Also protect it from attack both deliberate and accidental.
39. Testing
Test, test and test again. Testing is the key to a successful implementation. There is a whole career to be made in testing and it is a vast subject with tiers of testing types from ‘unit’ to full ‘integration’ testing and also lots of software to automate the process. Some people will see it as overkill but ignore them and insist on a test plan that is rigorously followed. It will pay off.
40. Innovate
Keep ahead of the game (and the competition). Encourage new ideas from the business and from IT. Create an Ideas bank so it is easy for people to define their thoughts. Link it from the Intranet. Develop a new product development process to make sure that ideas get reviewed and there is feedback to the contributor. Also it is important to identify the need and the value of the idea. Try to get some Research and Development funds in the budget.
41.Push for Data Management
Data is the lifeblood of many organisations but it is not often looked after very well.
Define the data owners and push for the physical stewardship of data to ensure its coherence, availability and accuracy.
Give them the tools to audit and manage the data. Get them involved in system change, data migration, system modifications and the data impact of those events. Build the validation at the gateways and try to keep the rubbish out!
42. Organisational awareness
This is a bit more sophisticated than item 17 where we talked about the customer touch points. That was more specific to the IT service.
Organisational awareness is a bit fluffier but is essential to the well being of what is achieved in IT.
This is about understanding the culture of the organisation so you can swim with the tide. It is about being politically aware of who are the real decision makers and influencers; it is about networking with those people. Create yourself a stakeholder map of the business and use it to your advantage. You and your organisation will be stronger for it.
