Tech Republic recently ran an interesting post on the steps IT managers can take to avoid common mistakes. The top 10 mistakes:
Focusing on technology and not the business Thinking “out of sight is out of mind” Thinking that your team has it covered Not inspecting what you expect Not creating a partnership with business management Burning yourself out Not testing your backup solution Not asking for help Not devoting time to personal development Not finding a mentor or coach
There is lots of interesting detail in the post.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Establishing a working “communication” bridge between “IT” and the “Business” seems to be the holy grail of the Software industry right now.
How a company creates “Requirements” seems to be the key. But even this area is badly understood.
http://www.benchmarkqa.com/PDFs/traps_to_avoid.pdf
I think the area of “Requirements Engineering” is a fascinating new art and I’m particularly interested in how it will affect the practice of law.
Martin Hyndman
Great list. After 20 years in the IT business, each of these holds a lot of truth. Technology people have a tendency to try and do it themselves and many of these points support that view.
I also think there’s a good reason why “Focusing on technology and not the business” is tops on the list. There always has to be a business benefit. That doesn’t mean we can’t do things that are great technology solutions. In fact, I would argue that focusing on technology can bring tremendous value to the business. As IT managers, we need to find ways of sharing that business value.