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July 19, 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 Herbert:
So, I'm looking to move up to the ranks of CIO for a yet-to-be-determined company within the next two years. Any suggestions regarding what I need to do to step successfully into this career? As a consultant (mostly) and sometimes real employee, I've worked both the technical and managerial sides of the business in startup as well as legacy companies.

Thanks in advance and regards,

S.

Dear S:
I applaud your focus, drive, and defined timetable. Becoming a CIO within a two-year period from a base of "a consultant (mostly) and sometimes real employee" won't be easy, however.

Since you're still a consultant, about the only way I know for you to achieve your goal is to have an assignment in a small IT shop where you do a wonderful job for the client and spend a lot of time convincing her or him of your competence and talent. It also doesn't hurt (except morally and ethically) to verbally trash the accomplishments of the in-house people (see Machiavelli's "The Prince"). Just make sure that when you get the job and replace the CIO, you don't give any consultants you hire the opportunity to talk to your boss.

On the other hand, if what I describe isn't to your liking (and I hope it isn't), you could consider another approach. Make sure your next few assignments give you a range of experience in the key issues most CIOs face: E-business, enterprise resource planning, and infrastructure. Take a few courses at night in management, if you haven't already, emphasizing building relationships and communicating in nontechnical terms. After that, network with friends, acquaintances, and clients about your career goals. It may take awhile--and possibly may not succeed--but it beats the first method.

Herb:
I learned of your column about a week ago. Since then, I've been reading back issues, and I must say that I enjoy it immensely! You dare to tell the truth, and you do it so humorously. I look forward to reading many more to come.

Something has been happening to me in the last few months, and I would like to know where it was that I screwed up. Or perhaps I didn't. In either case, I'd love your opinion.

Three months after I became a permanent employee, I was eligible for company benefits. However, at the time, I was looking for other work and didn't really want to go through all the hassle of the paperwork, because I was leaving the company anyway. Upon giving this reason to the human-resources director, she asked me if I'd told my manager. I looked at her puzzled and asked if I really should do that. She said it was a good idea, and I should do so right away. So I did.

About a month later, my manager told me he was hiring a replacement for me. I had an interview scheduled for early the next week, but it was by far not a sure thing. He asked me if he and I could set a date for my departure. So we did. (Apparently all the candidates were interviewed, and they were ready to bring one in.)

My question to you is this: Should I not have told my manager I was leaving? Are they trying to oust me because they think I'm a security threat? If they did consider me any kind of threat, wouldn't they just hand me two weeks' pay and show me the door? Or is this just poor management? What would you do if one of your employees told you he or she was looking for work?

I'd like your input on this situation and how to avoid it in the future. I have less than two years' experience in IT and in business. I'd love to learn from a seasoned veteran like you. Thank you for your time. It's greatly appreciated.

Naive

Answer Dear Naive:
While you may have less than two years of business experience, you have just learned a valuable lesson. How and when you share information about your personal plans requires great thought. There was no advantage to you to share with either the HR director or your boss your intention to leave the company. Only if you were not sure whether you wanted to leave should you have discussed with them your concern about your future in your present job.

If you had it to do over again, you should have remembered that looking for a new position is not the same as having one. You made a declarative statement about leaving, and the company went ahead and hired a replacement. Unfortunately for you, although a new person was appointed to your position, you hadn't found a new employer. The fact that your "vacancy" was filled, not a security issue, was most likely the reason for your manager's request to negotiate a termination date.

You didn't mention if the HR director or your manager asked you about why you were leaving. I don't know whether you were adamant about wanting to go to another company, so they thought discussion was pointless, or whether they didn't care that you were going. In any case, they should have spoken with you about your reasons for their own benefit.

What would I do if one of my employees told me he or she was looking for another job? As you might imagine, over the course of my career I've had that situation occur more than several times. The answer is that it depends. In cases where their talents weren't a good match for their jobs or potential jobs in the company, I've agreed with them that they were making a good move and discussed their timetable for departure. However, unless I was planning to dismiss them anyway, I never forced a date on them. If I thought they had a future in our company, I'd tell them, to the best of my knowledge, what they could expect in the way of future assignments and their potential for advancement.

Greetings:
I enjoyed your article "If Only I Had An SLA ..." While I understand the point of the article, I'm interested in your general opinion about service-level agreements. Don't you think they help set the operating standard for the providing company and allow it to quantify its own performance? In addition, do you think SLAs can help you limit the level of service, avoiding the overprovision of service while still providing strong customer service?

I'm charged with making recommendations for SLAs that we will provide to our customers and want to make sure that the end agreement is mutually beneficial to both the customer and to our company. Any suggestions as to how to get started and issues that should be addressed in an SLA?

Thanks for your time.

Rhea Baker
Product Manager, Technical Support
Best Software

Answer Dear Rhea:
I was concerned about the propensity of companies to put together service-level agreements between their internal departments. For the reasons stated in the article, they can be a waste of time as well as counterproductive. The same isn't true of a service-level agreement with an external company. Long before the phrase service-level agreement came into vogue, these types of relationships were described in one time-honored word: contract.

Certainly I think that any business relationship between separate legal entities that involves the transfer of real money in exchange for goods or services requires a written document that spells out the obligations of each party. Just keep in mind that extending this type of relationship to a guy who works in another department in the same company isn't the same thing.

As a part of a legal contract, it's extremely important to have an understanding of the service levels to be provided. In fact, they should be worked out as part of the request-for-proposal process so they're in place before the selection of the vendor.

Here are 12 of the things that generically should be considered in a hardware, software, or service SLA with an external company:

Percent of time availability
Time to repair
Time between failures
Response time for a given transaction
Maintenance costs
Permitted escalation in maintenance costs
Costs for changing the number, location, or type of user
Pricing methodology for enhancements
Ownership of enhancements
Performance guarantees (penalties)
Communication and resolution of disputes
Extension and termination options

Dear Herbert:
I read your article "But The Computer Said." At a supermarket freshly equipped with point-of-sale terminals, I recently bought two six packs of soft drinks. With tax my bill was on the order of C$75.00. When I questioned the cashier, the reply was, "The computer is correct." Although annoyed, I asked politely it be rung up again. Then the bill came to C$12 or so. No apology, no comment.

A couple of years ago, the Atlantic Monthly ran an article from a professor who was trying to suggest some reform in the education system, with the slogan: "Teach carpentry, not hammer." It's amazing that people frequently have little concept of the meaning of what they produce.

Peter

Answer

Dear Peter:
What a wonderful phrase to communicate the importance of thinking about what you're doing rather than just going through the mechanics of the act. It reminds me of what the CEO of Black & Decker said some years ago: "We sell holes, not drills." However, I wouldn't be too hard on the clerk at the store or on the attendant whom I met in the airport. People seem to have a propensity to believe what a computer tells them, and it isn't unusual for them to turn off their cognitive functions when they're doing things by rote in front of a terminal. What's not excusable is for the clerk, as a representative of the store, to have neglected to apologize for the error.

NOTE TO READERS: As I've mentioned, I am planning to put my InformationWeek columns together into a book with some 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 and I'll build a mailing list to let you know about it. Just use the word BOOK as the subject line.

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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