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April 25, 2000

Your letters to my print column and this E-mail forum ask some serious questions about managing information technology in today's world. Since today's world is essentially absurd, my serious responses may sometimes sound a little whimsical, and my occasional whimsical ones, serious. In any case, if you want to participate, write to me at lovelace@home.com. I'll respond to those letters that I can. I reserve the right to edit for size and content. Just sign your E-mail the way you want it to appear online.

Dear Herb:
I am a misfit analyst. I'm the one who can configure a variety of Linux boxes from the command line one moment and give a two-minute synopsis to upper management on the results and overall impact of a technical analysis in the next. I love a challenge. Generally I have been successful; while promotions have been nonexistent, remuneration, annual review ratings, and freedom to accomplish have been quite acceptable.

I recently supported a newly promoted manager who not only claims to be nontechnical, but is demonstrably so in practice. This individual is responsible for a hybrid project combining both research and prototype software development, neither of which is within the domain of this person's experience or expertise. This person manages by feelings. To this person's credit, the team being managed is ostensibly more coherent than under prior management. The person is also apparently well-liked by both the team and upper management.

During my period of support, I found the manager to be incapable of employing logic on technical issues, even when the conclusions are obvious. Imagine a manager directing an analyst to develop a networking protocol with requirements similar to TCP/IP, and having the analyst present the manager with the standards for TCP and IP (RFCs 793 and 791, respectively). Now imagine the manager not comprehending the nature and import of the documents, and subsequently directing the analyst to continue with the development of the manager's desired networking protocol. I eventually terminated my support after a situation where my technical recommendations apparently hurt someone's feelings.

Is this the direction of industry, where feelings supplant reason, or is this a mayfly manager?

Misfit

P.S.

I very much enjoy your column in InformationWeek! Best regards.

Dear Misfit:
I think you will find that project managers of this type will survive longer than one month of spring. As a reaction to technical managers who may get a project completed on time and on budget, but leave a string of bodies in their path, many groups are now being led by people who have the skills to nurture a team and get its members to work together. As you said, your leader does seem to get along with everyone, and the team is more coherent than it was in the past.

I would suggest that you try to modify your own approach, somewhat, so you can interact more effectively with the project manager. Make sure you don't come across as if the other person is stupid for not understanding the technical ramifications as well as you do. Start off by acknowledging that your solution may hurt some feelings but that the outcome will be specific improvements. Then discuss (seek advice from the project leader) how the fallout can be minimized. I suspect the new manager simply has no mechanism for determining if your technical solution is worth the hard feelings it may engender, and you have to communicate that you recognize the impact on others if the solution is changed to the one that you propose. At all times, keep in mind that people are most comfortable discussing a subject in terms that they understand, not in terms that we understand.

Dear Herb:
I'm a researcher at a corporate think tank in Washington, D.C. I read your article, "Gimme Some Value!" and I'm writing to inquire about measuring value for IT investments.

Particularly, while it's all well and good to say that companies should invest to stay on par with the new guys, my question is directed to the old, stodgy firms that are looking to fund large infrastructure projects in IT and want ways to justify the money being spent. Since return-on-investment measurements don't work so well with decentralized organizations and individual investing, what other means are there for evaluating these types of infrastructure projects? Thanks,

Eric M.

Answer

Dear Eric:
There is nothing more difficult, methinks, than justifying a large infrastructure project in a nontechnology-driven company. Those who are in favor of it have little, if anything, to point to in the way of real, tangible benefits. Those opposed have only to smirk and ask if this is not just another technology du jour exercise that is draining the corporation of funds needed elsewhere to grow the business.

I can think of only three ways to get an infrastructure project approved in such an organization. The first and most effective way is to have a powerful champion for the project--someone who runs a major business unit or perhaps the CEO himself. Nothing is as useful as a key player in the company supporting the new activity. In order to reach this wonderful state, it makes a lot of sense to invest time in providing awareness experiences (seminars, visits to other companies) for willing executives in your organization well before you actually need their support. Doing so bears fruit. When your champion moves forward, making the future happen, you will feel as if you are walking easily behind a huge tractor as it clears a path for you through a dense forest.

The second way is to bundle the new infrastructure as part of a project that is going to be approved anyway. For example, if people want a new mail system because of particular benefits, use the new system as the mechanism to change the infrastructure. Explain exactly what you are doing and why it is necessary. If you do not, and people think that you are sandbagging them to get extra money you do not need, you run the risk of getting into serious trouble and no one will ever trust you again.

The third way is to present the opportunity cost. This approach is based on you explaining the cost to the company for having the flexibility to do something it may wish to do in the future. You wind up saying something like, "We may decide not to engage in E-commerce, but by modifying our infrastructure, we buy ourselves the capability to do so. Here is what it will cost. If we don't do it now, and want to do it later, it will cost this much more and take this amount of extra time. I think we are better off paying the money now for the insurance to have the flexibility."

Dear Herb:
I enjoy your columns in InformationWeek and recently read "Gulf of Misunderstanding."

In the early 1960s, my father (a Ph.D. in mathematics) was hired by Univac. His biggest contribution to that company was as a troubleshooter. The Univac sales team would make a sale, the computer would be installed at some business, and troubles would begin. He discovered that, in the majority of these cases, the salesperson had sold the wrong computer for the problem at hand. The sales team lacked sufficient ability to understand the problem to be solved, and the company with the problem lacked sufficient knowledge of the products and their capabilities.

It seems to me that the seller should develop sales teams that include people with extensive backgrounds in the industries and problems for which their products are targeted. When attempting a purchase, nothing is a bigger turn-off for me than an ignorant salesperson.

Jim W.

Answer

Dear Jim:
I came up with the six bullet points about effective selling the hard way, having to listen to years and years of poor presentations. In defense (somewhat) of the salespeople, their poor performance frequently comes about because of the situation you cite: They simply do not have a clue about the problems that face the buyer and doggedly move forward with their sales pitches rather than test with the prospective purchaser as to whether they are on track. What is worse is that too often they do not have a good working knowledge of their own products--hence, your father's job. The best way of making a sale is to understand what you are selling and to present it clearly and succinctly.

Dear Herb:
I am writing to you in the hopes that your years of experience and knowledge can be brought to bear on a question I believe you are very qualified to answer.

I am a 26-year-old programmer/analyst with a major mutual fund servicing company. I am thinking about where I'd like to be in a few years (a few in this case being five to 10) with my career, and I am beginning to think that the position I want is that of the CIO, although not necessarily with my current employer.

My question is this: What qualifications, job experience, or other goals do you suggest I set for myself in the next few years to move myself down a path toward a CIO position? I do not have a college degree (because of financial constraints when I was younger), although I am now enrolled in school to get both a computer science degree and a business administration degree. I have it planned out so I can achieve both within five years by attending school part time.

I think I have the technical expertise even now to be successful as a CIO (more than 15 years of computer experience), but I know I don't have the business experience yet, among other things. Hearing what actual CIOs have done to get themselves into their positions and what suggestions they would have that I might want to consider would be of great help to me.

I thank you very much for your time and hope to hear from you soon!

Frank Z.

Answer

Dear Frank:
You are to be congratulated for continuing your education while working a full-time job. Certainly, it will be an asset to you in your effort to achieve your career goal.

In order to advance, you will need to demonstrate an understanding of the business of the company as well as the technology. Volunteer for difficult assignments that are doable. Get a variety of experience. Make sure you develop a reputation for getting things done and for working well with others. Be the type of person who is perceived as a leader and as an individual who can be trusted and you will advance, either with your present employer or with another one. It isn't an easy climb, but there is no reason for you not to reach your career goal if you have the talent and work hard at utilizing it.

Good luck.

Herbert W. Lovelace shares his experiences (changing most names, including his own, to protect the guilty) as CIO of a multibillion-dollar international company. Send him E-mail at lovelace@home.com.

NOTE TO READERS: As I've mentioned, I am planning to put my InformationWeek columns together into a book with a little bit of additional commentary around the events and people about whom I write. If any reader would like to be notified of such an event, please drop me an E-mail. Just use the word BOOK as the subject line.

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