InformationWeek Stories by Cindy Waxer

InformationWeek Stories by Cindy Waxerhttp://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2012-08-27T08:56:00Z4 Reasons IT Leaders Hate Giving Performance ReviewsDread sitting down with your IT employees to review job performance? Recognize the pitfalls and appraisals will be less troublesome.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240006229?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/the-technology-behind-shark-week/240005671"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/852/great-white-shark-bait-625x450_tn.jpg" alt="The Jaw-some Tech Behind Shark Week" title="The Jaw-some Tech Behind Shark Week" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">The Jaw-some Tech Behind Shark Week</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Programmers and systems analysts aren't the only ones who dread employee performance reviews. IT leaders loathe them just as much--but for reasons all their own. "IT managers look at performance reviews as a necessary evil," said Robert Keahey, founder of SummaLogic, an IT consultancy in San Francisco, Calif. Keahey would know. "I've probably done a thousand of them in my career so I'm very familiar with the process." Here are four reasons why performance appraisals can be an IT manager's enemy, and how IT leaders can learn to loathe them a bit less. 1. Some techies tend to have a bad attitude. Forget about key performance indicators and abject objectivity. No matter how hard an IT leader tries to give a fair and just appraisal of an employee's performance, he or she is often met with an attitude that suggests, "I'm way beyond petty evaluations." Warned Keahey, "Most IT people tend to view themselves as special-class citizens. Most of them are technically well versed and have a lot of knowledge and insight so they often see performance appraisals as a career obstacle." [ Related: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/personnel/4-misconceptions-about-managing-techies/240005245?itc=edit_in_body_cross">4 Misconceptions About Managing Techies</a>. ] 2. No two techies are the same. When gauging the performance of an accountant, clear-cut metrics such as compliance, effective client communication, and error-free reports easily come to mind. But standard metrics for IT professionals are far more elusive, according to Keahey. "It's hard for an IT manager to establish a baseline that would fit across an IT organization that states an expected level of performance," he said. "It's very hard to draw a baseline on what a particular job description should accomplish on a regular basis." That's because one IT programmer's skill sets can differ drastically from another's, despite them contributing the exact same value to an organization. That's all the more reason for IT leaders to be flexible in their evaluation of IT professionals, and be willing to be a slightly more subjective in their assessments. 3. HR is a pain. The ever-evolving nature of technology "makes it tough for HR to define meaningful job descriptions and the accompanying criteria," said Keahey. Yesterday's Java cowboys are today's Ruby geniuses--changes in status that HR managers aren't likely to realize. The result: HR managers and IT leaders are likely to lock horns on the actual value of a programmer's performance. Sitting down beforehand with an HR manager to review technology trends, sought-after certifications, and specific skills sets can go a long way toward coming to an agreement on an employee's performance. 4. Money doesn't always talk. Unlike in sales and marketing, it can be tough to attach a dollar value to optimizing an IT infrastructure or achieving an R&D breakthrough. "The problem is we have very poor standards against which you can measure real progress," Keahey says. Consider, for example, using the costs associated with system uptime to gauge the performance of a network administrator. "With service-level agreements being all over the map it's really hard to measure a set of KPIs [key performance indicators] that are meaningful," he said. What about IT leaders who choose to measure a programmer's performance in terms of his coding skills? "Writing code is a meaningless indicator of performance in today's world; it's not about writing code anymore," warned Keahey. "It's about creating services from collections of objects and connecting these services, which only adds to an IT leader's frustration when conducting a performance review." Mobile employees' data and apps need protecting. Here are 10 ways to get the job done. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/drdigital/082712drs/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">10 Steps To E-Commerce Security</a> special issue of Dark Reading: Mobile technology is forcing businesses to rethink the fundamentals of how their networks work. (Free registration required.)2012-08-17T08:36:00Z6 Recruitment Rules For HR, ITFrom offering the right perks to defining IT shop culture, HR and IT can work together to get the recruiting details right.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240005690?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/240003864"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/838/01_Office2013_tn.jpg" alt="Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features" title="Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Try as they might to hire just the right candidate, HR professionals can miss the mark when it comes to recruiting IT professionals. Software engineers with subpar skills, developers with the wrong certifications, network administrators who don't fit the corporate culture--they all can be the unfortunate by-products of an HR manager who doesn't find the right talent for an IT team. How HR and IT professionals work together better to identify candidates who suit a company's IT requirements and culture? John Reed, senior executive director at Robert Half Technology, says HR managers must master three key areas when searching for IT talent, and suggests several ways that IT leaders can help HR ease the hiring process. 1. Speak the language. Obscure acronyms and high-tech jargon can easily prevent an HR manager from selecting a candidate with the right skill sets. It's easy to understand why. "If you're not a technical person and you're trying to interview a potential candidate, it can be difficult," said Reed. "That's because you might be looking at keywords in a job description and asking a candidate if they have experience in those areas when you really don't have the knowledge to delve into those technologies with a candidate. After all, it's one thing for a candidate to know what a tool is; it's another thing to really have proficiency in it." [ Your best and brightest are always at risk of jumping ship. Learn <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-to-keep-your-best-talent/240005208?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Keep Your Best Talent</a>. ] 2. Stay at high speed. Many HR managers are accustomed to taking their time to find just the right candidate. But although a thorough and lengthy search for a seasoned accountant or marketing executive might prove fruitful, it's more likely to lead to lost opportunities when dealing with IT professionals. 3. Customize the offer. Forget about a handsome salary and the occasional bonus. Although they can make a job offer enticing, Reed said, "People in technology are looking for the 'what else.'" From perks such as subsidized transportation to flextime, he added that "IT professionals want to know that they're not just going to a place that meets their financial expectations but where they can build a career that will continue to challenge them. If you're in HR and you can't lay that vision out, recruiting IT professionals is going to be challenging." To avoid hiring snafus, here's how IT leaders can lend HR a helping hand: 1. Meet with HR regularly. "The HR group has to have a very close alliance with the IT group so that they understand where the IT department is heading, what the opportunities are going to be down the road and even blocking time with IT leaders periodically to understand what technology they're using," said Reed. 2. Create a glossary for HR. According to Reed, IT leaders would be wise to create a glossary of frequently used high-tech terms to ensure ideal candidates don't slip through the cracks. For example, Reed said, "The words 'Web services' might not appear anywhere on a resume but an HR manager might see the term SOAP and not realize that it's part of Web services. That could result in him passing over some really qualified candidates." 3. Fully define shop culture. Matching skills to job descriptions is one thing. But an HR manager should have an in-depth understanding of an IT shop's culture. "One of the most important components is the culture of the IT team, the feel of the team, how they operate and how they interact," said Reed. "Is it a command and control environment, a formal environment, or a laid back environment with lots of creativity?" Making sure HR managers have the answers to these questions is critical to successful hiring. "HR being able to describe an IT shop's environment can be the difference between attracting the people that you want and not attracting them," said Reed. Android and Apple devices make backup a challenge for IT. Look to smart policy, cloud services, and MDM for answers. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/073012s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Mobile Device Backup</a> issue of InformationWeek: Take advantage of advances that simplify the process of backing up virtual machines. (Free with registration.) 2012-08-13T09:06:00Z5 Soft Skills Developers Need to SucceedYou can code your heart out but that will take your career only so far. One IT leader shares what he looks for in IT rising stars. http://www.informationweek.com/news/240005301?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/240004869"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/847/01_Beyond_Nexus7_tn.jpg" alt="10 Tablets To Shake Up 2012" title="10 Tablets To Shake Up 2012" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Tablets To Shake Up 2012</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>As more IT professionals shift from being backroom techies to valuable business partners, the time is now for them to carefully hone their soft skills. After all, being the best programmer or smartest developer can only take an IT professional so far. Knowing how to communicate your needs, negotiate new policies, and lead fellow team members are "soft" skills that can ensure a healthy career trajectory. Andrew Hull, VP of technology at Bnotions, a Toronto-based mobile app development company, comes across his fair share of seasoned developers. But while knowledge of development systems and a proficiency in functional programming languages can land you a job interview, Hull said the most compelling candidates boast the following five soft skills: 1. Ability to express strong opinion. Are you a fan of Python or a Ruby enthusiast? And how do you really feel about service-side scripting in Java? They're questions IT professionals often shy away from answering, especially during job interviews. But that's a mistake, according to Hull. "I find that IT professionals tend to be a little reluctant to answer these types of questions," he said. "They're afraid to give the wrong answer by saying they don't like something that we use so instead they say, 'Well, I'll use whatever.'" [ Rather switch than grow old in IT? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/careers/5-ways-to-escape-a-career-in-it/240003800?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Ways To Escape A Career In IT</a>. ] This shrug of the shoulders can easily turn off an IT leader. Instead, Hull said, "The number-one thing I look for is someone who's opinionated. It's not enough to be familiar with seven types of technology. I really want to hear what you like or don't like about those technologies. That gives me a sense of your passion and your tolerance for mediocre work." 2. Curiosity. Life as an IT professional is serious business. But one soft skill developers shouldn't do without is a sense of playfulness, said Hull. "It's about being willing to try out new stuff on your own. I almost always ask my IT professionals what they're working on during their free time. I expect to hear about projects that don't have a defined goal; it's just about playing with new technology. IT professionals need to be able to keep themselves up-to-date and the only way they're going to get that is if they're genuinely curious about the next big thing." 3. Good writing skills. Writing great code is only part of being a skilled developer. Knowing how to draft technical materials such as system documentation, and being able to clearly respond to RFQs, are increasingly important soft skills IT professionals can't do without. "It's not uncommon now in developer circles to not be a great communicator but to be a really good writer," said Hull. But that's not all. With instant messaging and emails displacing verbal discourse, now more than ever, IT professionals need to know the fundamentals of grammar and syntax. 4. Flexibility. Although the "Mad Men" era placed a premium on loyalty and commitment, today's companies want their IT professionals to be quick on their feet and receptive to change. "With Web-based technology, every month something new comes out and you have to stay abreast of it," said Hull. Being able to pick up new programming languages, experiment with new technologies, and revamp best practices are "soft skills that are essential to getting your work done in an industry that shifts very quickly, especially with mobile applications," he said. 5. "Holistic" attitude. Many IT leaders hunt for professionals with specialized skills but Hull said there's something to be said for a techie with "a very holistic viewpoint of technology." Although in-depth knowledge of a particular programming language or system can enhance an IT shop, Hull said, "I don't like to see specialization where a techie just understands one piece of the overall structure and knows it really, really well. It's good to specialize but I want to make sure you can look at the overall structure and understand the writing and rebuilding of different applications." Writing apps is expensive and complex. Cross-platform tools can help, but they're far from perfect. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/071112s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Develop Once, Run Everywhere?</a> issue of InformationWeek: Why the cloud will become a more accepted development environment. (Free with registration.) 2012-08-09T14:25:00Z4 Misconceptions About Managing TechiesFrom emotional style to project management style, techies have their own way of doing things. As an IT leader, you'd better understand common myths.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240005245?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsAs important as it is for CIOs to treat all team members the same, there's no denying that IT professionals command a different set of leadership strategies. "The reality is tech support people, engineers, and developers have more in common with each other than they do with anyone else," said Paul Glen, an IT management consultant and author of Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead People who Deliver Technology. "We see the world somewhat differently and we, as groups, interact differently." Such differences create challenges for software companies and auto manufacturers alike. According to Glen, 92% of technology professionals work for traditional, non-technical corporations and only 8% work in high-tech firms. So how can senior-level executives effectively lead and manage IT professionals? The first hurdle, Glen said, is overcoming some common misconceptions about techies, their work style, and how to manage them properly. Misconception #1: Techies approach projects the same way as everyone else. Not so, according to Glen. "It really boils down to the fact that we actually see the world in fundamentally different ways," he said. "For geeks, work is about solving problems; that is the nature of our work. If we don't have a problem in front of us, we really don't know what to do. For non-geeks, they see the world much more about achieving a vision and what they want to accomplish." As a result, Glen said techies require "a very organized structure" with strict "rules of logics and proofs" to begin a project and see it through to its proper conclusion. [ Your best and brightest are always at risk of jumping ship. Learn <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-to-keep-your-best-talent/240005208?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Keep Your Best Talent</a>. ] Misconception #2: Techies are simply being evasive when they refuse to commit to a timeline. While non-techies are known for fudging the truth now and then about project costs and deliverables, Glen said techies see such haziness as outright lying and "a serious offense," especially when it comes to committing to an exact budget or product development timeline. "Geeks are constantly being pushed for a date and often they just say, 'Well, I don't know when it will be done.' Leaders have to recognize that businesspeople and technical people have very different definitions of lying." For example, Glen said while a CIO might just "be asking for a target, geeks feel as if they're being asked for an absolute answer." As a result, he said, "leaders experience geeks as being evasive, non-committal, and unmotivated because they refuse to give them answers." However, by "being explicit" about simply desiring an estimate, Glen said leaders stand a much better chance of getting answers out of their truth-bearing techies. Misconception #3: High-tech jargon makes techies poor communicators. Despite being known for using "a certain amount of jargon," Glen said the communication breakdown between leaders and techies extends far beyond obscure acronyms. "It is a much deeper problem than not speaking the same language; it's not about specific words," said Glen. Instead, he said, "for geeks, language is all about transmitting information. For non-geeks, language is much more indefinite and ambiguous. It's much more about building relationships." Because of these two distinct communication styles, Glen said techies and leaders alike have a tendency to "not understand what others are talking about and then just write them off." However, by "making allowances" for communication barriers, and "adjusting our understanding of how to present issues clearly to one another," Glen said techies can ensure they're being heard correctly. Misconception #4: Techies rarely express emotion because they simply don't care. IT leaders would be wise not to mistake techies' reserved disposition for apathy. Rather, Glen warned, "The cues that non-geeks look for in geeks, like enthusiasm or commitment, are subjective experiences. However, geeks work hard to avoid being subjective." At the same time, Glen said, techies need to learn that persuading IT leaders to rally behind a project takes more than cold, hard facts. A little bit of emotion-charged persuasion never hurt anyone.2012-08-02T12:27:00ZHow To Survive A Merger: 6 Tips For ITCorporate mergers and acquisitions are inherently stressful, but they don't have to result in employee exodus and jumbled systems. Here's the right way to unite IT forces.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004826?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsArlyn Broekhuis, CIO at North Dakota-based non-profit healthcare company Sanford Health, is no stranger to mergers and acquisitions. Sanford Health recently merged with Fargo, ND-based MeritCare Health System and Bismarck, ND's Medcenter One. Whether a company is merging with an organization of equal size or gobbling up a smaller competitor, Broekhuis acknowledges that common challenges arise when the two attempt to unite technologies, business processes, and cultures. Certainly mergers and acquisitions can create new opportunities for IT professionals with the expansion of a company's products and services. But sharing precious IT resources with complete strangers can also lead to everything from culture clashes to poorly integrated systems. Fortunately, a little effective planning and proactive management can help smooth those inevitable bumps. Broekhuis offers these 6 suggestions for IT leaders on how to manage team members, both new and old, while in the throes of a merger or acquisition. [ A little departmental conflict can be a good thing. Read more at <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240004638?itc=edit_in_body_cross">The Upside Of Conflict</a>. ] 1. Keep quiet. It's not uncommon for employees to whisper about rumors of an upcoming merger or acquisition. But that doesn't give IT leaders the go-ahead to disclose particulars of the deal--details that might unnecessarily alarm other staff members. "We've got so many acquisitions and mergers going on all the time, our staff often get general information about the status of a merger or an acquisition," said Broekhuis. "But it isn't until the merger is actually completed that we really get staff involved in planning where we're heading next." 2. Take inventory. Once a merger or acquisition is complete, it's critical that IT leaders conduct a thorough inventory of the systems and technologies that exist between the two entities. "The first thing we do is pull groups together in IT and start to compare technologies," said Broekhuis. For example, following Sanford Health's July merger with Bismarck's Medcenter One, Broekhuis said, "Our information technology directors now meet on a weekly basis to compare the systems we have at both organizations and to work on a plan outlining how we should integrate them." 3. Consider all your options. The post-merger period is usually a time for integrating systems. But Broekhuis points out that it's also important for IT leaders to consider workaround solutions. For example, while Sanford Health has long relied on Microsoft Exchange 2010 for its email system, the company's Bismarck, ND location used Exchange 2003. Broekhuis could have taken steps to eliminate one system altogether. Instead, because of the flurry of emails going back and forth between separate email systems, Broekhuis devised a plan to encrypt all the company's emails as if they were all using one internal email system. 4. Be patient. Disparate email systems aren't the only sources of conflict for newly reshaped companies. "Out of everything in a merger, combining cultures is the most challenging part," Broekhuis said. "[IT leaders need to] take time to understand the two different cultures between the organizations and figure out how to gradually bring those two together." Rushing the process is likely to lead to employee dissatisfaction. 5. Stress the positive. High attrition rates among IT professionals aren't uncommon in the wake of a merger or acquisition. "With a merger there's a lot of change, so if someone is thinking about leaving an organization, that's usually when they'll take the opportunity to leave and find work elsewhere," said Broekhuis. That's all the more reason for IT leaders to emphasize the positive aspects of acquiring a company's new systems and services. For example, Broekhuis said Sanford's merger with MeritCare added 100 new IT professionals to its existing 100-person IT team. "Sometimes there are plenty of opportunities for people and new positions." 6. Be willing to let go. For all the effort devoted to convincing employees to embrace new technologies, IT leaders are often the most resistant to change. "Sometimes we're a little tied to our technology," Broekhuis acknowledges. "But we need to recognize that, in a merger, sometimes we have to give up something we've done a certain way in the past and admit that someone else has done it better." InformationWeek is conducting a survey to determine how IT is perceived in the enterprise. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012ITperception.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 IT Perception Survey </a> now. Survey ends Aug. 3. 2012-07-31T12:20:00ZThe Upside Of ConflictDon't shrug off conflict in your IT team as just a sign of poorly matched personalities. Instead, turn office struggles around to create a more productive IT shop.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004638?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsWhether they involve project priorities or budget allocations, disagreements are bound to happen in any IT shop. Unfortunately, if they're not addressed in a timely and effective manner, conflicts can lead to poor productivity, employee attrition, and lost revenue. But there can be an upside when IT professionals butt heads: Creativity and innovation often stem from diverging views on how to tackle a particular problem or develop a certain product. The trick, according to Brian Anderson, chief technology officer at Kansas-based enterprise content management firm Perceptive Software, is figuring out how to harness conflict and turn it into a positive energy that can fuel an IT department. [ Want your IT team members to take on more initiative? Here's how to encourage them. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/240004508?itc=edit_in_body_cross">4 Ways To Foster Greater Accountability On IT Teams</a>. ] Here, Anderson shares four tips on how to convert conflict into IT success: 1. Recognize conflict's power to spark an open dialogue. Anderson is the first to admit that his team may "vigorously debate many things." But a little bit of controversy is often a gateway to open discussion and more clearly defined goals. "For instance, we might at first bump heads over whether one solution works better than another," says Anderson. "But in the end, we try to understand all the factors and make informed and rational decisions. We have found that open discourse and clear goals are key." 2. Let conflict weed out the unwanted. Sure, colleagues have been known to verbally joust, but outright arguing and hostility will demonstrate to an IT leader who is and isn't right for the organization. It's a process of natural selection that simply wouldn't be possible without the odd IT kerfuffle. "In our culture, those bent on conflict just don't last," says Anderson. "We find our collaborative approach not only results in better products and solutions, it also makes coming to work a lot more fun." 3. Use conflict as a marker for positive change. Many IT leaders view extinguishing internal conflicts as a way to achieve peace among disparate personalities. But for Anderson, identifying and then minimizing conflict is a unique opportunity to uncover an IT team's hidden potential. "Conflict can be detrimental to productivity in any setting," warns Anderson. "Conflict dampens creativity and innovation. If you come to work expecting a fight, you aren't in the place you need to be to create products and solutions that help customers." In other words, find the greatest sources of conflict, eliminate them, and watch your IT team's productivity increase. 4. Let conflict shape your culture. Screaming matches and blame games don't exactly lend themselves to a collaborative IT work environment. However, by keeping conflicts to a minimum and treating them as a litmus test for a company's corporate culture, Anderson says IT leaders stand a far better chance of creating "a peaceful environment, where people get up in the morning and actually want to come to work." InformationWeek is conducting a survey to determine how IT is perceived in the enterprise. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012ITperception.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 IT Perception Survey </a> now. Survey ends Aug. 3. 2012-07-30T08:00:00Z4 Ways To Foster Greater Accountability On IT TeamsConvincing IT workers to step up to the plate takes more than cash incentives. Here's how to get them to take on more responsibility.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004508?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/240003864"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/838/01_Office2013_tn.jpg" alt="Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features" title="Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Microsoft Office 2013: 10 Best Features</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>IT managers can assign tasks and enforce best practices but there's no such thing as mandating accountability. In fact, being willing to stick out one's neck and take greater responsibility for IT endeavors is a nerve-wracking proposition. After all, many IT professionals fear that a failed project could easily result in a pink slip. But there are ways IT leaders can foster greater accountability among their developers, engineers, and programmers without scaring them off completely. Max Katz knows all about the willingness to take ownership for an IT project. Head of developer relations at Tiggzi, a software application development company in San Francisco, Katz said, "Here in Silicon Valley, there are a lot of start-ups so there's a kind of natural inclination to take a lot of responsibility and take on a lot of accountability. That's because there are a lot of people who want to get ahead." When that is not necessarily the case, there are steps IT leaders can take to spur IT workers into action and accept greater responsibility, said Katz. Here are four. 1. Reward creatively. Stepping up to the plate is a scary position that should be rewarded in some way, said Katz. Many IT leaders might be inclined to toss bonuses at developers and engineers who claim a project as their own, but Katz said vacation time is a far more valuable commodity among IT professionals today. Although "giving more money is always good, more flexibility from a work perspective is a pretty hot topic right now among a lot of start-ups, especially in companies that don't have a vacation policy," he said--all the more reason for companies to offer stand-out IT workers time off for a job well done. [ Read <a href="www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/240003011?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Rev Up Your IT Career</a>. ] 2. Don't punish. One of the most common disincentives for taking greater responsibility for a project is the chance of failure. How IT leaders respond to the odd failure or fumble can have a significant impact on an IT team's morale--and on a leader's ability to foster accountability. "Failures happen," said Katz. "The key is to learn what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. If you read about successful start-ups, one of the best things they did is fail a number of times. If things don't work as expected, you learn from it and hopefully it'll never happen again. At the end of the day, it's a good experience." Besides, warned Katz, reprimanding an IT professional who took a chance on a doomed project is likely to backfire. "There are so many companies today looking for developers, if something doesn't work, and you reprimand them, they'll just leave the company and go somewhere else," he said. 3. Look beyond tasks. There's more to accepting greater responsibility than becoming a project lead. Katz said he looks beyond IT tasks when evaluating workers' efforts to play a starring role. For example, Katz said, "It's becoming popular to launch inside hacker-thons where employees get one or two days to build whatever apps they want." Taking it upon oneself to stage such an event is as much a demonstration of commitment as taking over a project. 4. Recognize risks taken. Anyone can attach his name to a project that's destined to succeed, but being willing to inherit risk is the greatest show of accountability, said Katz. If someone took on a job developing apps for RIM's Blackberry instead of Apple, for example, he also took the risk that Blackberry isn't doing well right now and that perhaps in a year or so, everything he spent his time working on might not pan out. That would be unfortunate, but this person tackled a project head-on, against all odds, said Katz. He also had the foresight to realize that even if things didn't work out with one project, if he did a good job he could easily transfer his skills to another platform. At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a>, C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-07-27T09:06:00Z4 Tips On Leaving Your IT Job GracefullyTake a page from new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's handbook and ensure a mess-free departure.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004451?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsLast week, Marissa Mayer, one of Google's top executives, resigned from the search engine giant to become Yahoo's CEO. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240004099">Mayer's much-publicized resignation</a> happened without a hitch, but not all company departures are quite so seamless. From hurt feelings to hacked systems, parting ways can have a disastrous impact if not handled properly. Just ask Stephen Faulkner. As president of Cybernut Solutions, an IT services provider in Garland, Texas, Faulkner has seen IT professionals come and go over the years--some more gracefully than others. Faulkner, in fact, left behind a career as a paramedic to enter the technology field. Faulkner offers these four tips on how IT professionals can leave their job without burning bridges. 1. Honesty is the best policy. If you're about to jump ship, Faulkner said it's always best to be as straightforward and honest as possible. "It's about full disclosure," he said. "Tell your IT manager that you're moving on to a better position with more pay and more responsibility. At least give your current manager a couple of weeks' notice to give the company time to cover your workload as well." Not only will an IT manager appreciate the heads-up, but it might compel him or her to return with a counteroffer to get you to stay. [ Time for a new career? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/240003800?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Ways To Escape A Career In IT</a>. ] 2. Ensure proper knowledge transfer. Although Cybernut Solutions depends on several CRM systems to track employee-client relations, Faulkner said he always appreciates when a departing employee shares "any insight or problem issues that a client has been experiencing lately." As it is, Faulkner said, "We do a good job of tracking all of our client touchpoints and our documentation is live and updated daily," but any kind of knowledge transfer between an IT professional and his or her manager prior to leaving can earn that individual a strong recommendation. In fact, Faulkner said it's not uncommon for him to ask an IT professional that's about to leave to spend time training a new hire. 3. Stay off social media. IT professionals are known for their social media savvy. "Obviously, everyone is on LinkedIn," said Faulkner. But that's no excuse to tweet about quitting one's job. In fact, Faulkner said Cybernut Solutions "has policies in place" to ensure that employees--past and present--remain discreet when it comes to working for the company. "It's all part of the HR kit we have our IT workers sign when we hire them on," he said. 4. Be ready to relinquish control. An "employment agreement and lists of company assets like a smartphone and notebook with accompanying serial numbers" is how Faulkner makes sure that department employees return their company-issued devices. "Usually we handle that business before an employee's last paycheck," he said. But any step an IT professional can take to ease the process is a step in the right direction. Nor should an IT professional attempt to access a former employer's systems. "We use access-control lists so their accounts will go into expiration as soon as they serve their notice," said Faulkner. Even still, attempting to access proprietary information once you've left a company--even if it's for an entirely honest cause--could raise unnecessary suspicions. InformationWeek is conducting a survey to determine how IT is perceived in the enterprise. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012ITperception.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 IT Perception Survey</a> now. Survey ends Aug. 3. 2012-07-18T09:29:00ZHow To Explain IT Value To Business LeadersMany IT leaders struggle to justify the cost of IT services and products to business leaders. The Technology Business Management Council has a framework to help CIOs to make the case.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003904?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsMany CIOs struggle to communicate the high cost of IT products and services to a company's senior-level executives. The <a href="https://tbmcouncil.org">Technology Business Management Council</a> (TBMC) has come up with an innovative framework to guide the conversation. The TBMC is a new, non-profit group that grew from a twice-yearly summit by Apptio into a 400-member consortium that includes Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby as its co-chair, as well as Facebook's Tim Campos and Xerox's Carol Zierhoffer. The group's mandate is to create and promote best practices for running IT as a business by encouraging collaboration and sharing among distinguished IT leaders. One of the first projects completed by TBMC is a "Bill of IT"--a process that instructs IT professionals on how to communicate the costs of IT products and services to various business lines. "It's the whole notion of taking the raw supply of labor, servers, storage, and networks, and composing a bill of materials that offers the business a service or capability that they understand," said Chris Pick, president of the Council and chief marketing officer at Apptio. [ When the business wants change so much that it's willing to go rogue on IT, is it misinformed, or justified? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/240003838?itc=edit_in_body_cross">The Rise Of Shadow IT</a>. ] For example, Pick said rather than simply providing a company's employees with access to a top-grade server, a Bill of IT can help IT professionals communicate to business line users that they're receiving a gold email service at a reasonable price. According to the TBMC, Bill of IT projects can be based on one of four variables: cost, price, budget, or hybrid. "You can create a bill based on costs. You can create a bill based on price. You can create a bill based on plans and how you forecast demand for the business. And you can also create a bill based on a hybrid composition," said Pick. Whereas the Bill of IT defines costs as the actual expenses by each service, price entails setting a predefined unit rate for services (price x quantity) that allows business line leaders to better understand the company's consumption of IT services. Communicating the costs of IT services and products in budgetary terms, however, helps business units know ahead of time what costs will be for a whole year. And finally, the hybrid model, which includes a combination of costs, price, and budgetary measures, is the most flexible and the easiest for business units to understand. It's a multifaceted framework for communicating the costs of IT products and services that extends far beyond IT's standard chargeback model. "What Gartner has done somewhat incorrectly in the market is defined the process for financial transparency solely based upon chargeback," said Pick. However, the TBMC's Bill of IT goes a step further to recognize that the process of billing can be based on the consumption of IT products and services (showback), consumption at a particular unit rate or price (chargeback), or linking consumption back to the overall expenses by service and product (automated reconciliation). By creating best practices around how to communicate the cost of IT products and services, TBMC hopes to help IT departments everywhere accomplish a number of feats. For one, by relying on "a decision-making framework that allows them to have visibility into the cost structure," Pick said IT professionals will be better able to cut costs and recognize how these measures will impact service delivery and quality. A Bill of IT framework also "allows IT professionals to optimize toward funding the products and services that really make a difference strategically for the business," adds Pick. But that's not all. By creating and encouraging a Bill of IT framework, the TBMC hopes to foster greater communication between business units and IT and drive greater business unit accountability across an organization.2012-07-18T08:30:00Z5 Ways To Escape A Career In ITCIO-turned-executive coach Susan Cramm offers advice on how to parlay your high-tech skills into a non-tech career.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003800?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/240002947"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/826/1-Interactive-wall_tn.jpg" alt="Intel Puts Future On Exhibit" title="Intel Puts Future On Exhibit" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Intel Puts Future On Exhibit</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Being a CIO doesn't have to be a life sentence. Plenty of IT professionals parlay their positions into non-tech pursuits. Take, for example, Susan Cramm. Currently an executive coach and president of Valuedance, an executive coaching and leadership development firm in San Clemente, Calif., Cramm began her career as a programmer and held the position of CIO and VP of the Information Technology Group at Taco Bell Corporation. Following this, she landed a position as CFO at Chevy's Mexican Restaurants where she led the finance, business strategy, franchising, legal, and information technology functions. But although the author of the book 8 Things We Hate About IT credits her "independent streak" for starting her own business, Cramm says it takes more than blind ambition to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232900489">leave behind a position in IT</a>. Here, Cramm offers five tips on how to convert your IT skills into a non-tech career. 1) Do your homework. Like most IT professionals, Cramm cut her teeth as a techie by earning a BA from the University of California, specializing in management and computer science. But according to Cramm, "It would have been impossible [for me to exit IT] if I hadn't have made a couple of key decisions early in my career like getting a financial MBA from Northwestern University." That's because academia is the perfect place to pick up valuable management skills and business expertise that can benefit techies and non-techies alike. [ See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/240003077?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Job Hunting? Here's How To Keep It Discreet</a>. ] 2) Volunteer for strategic roles. Many IT professionals fail to see themselves as strategic business partners. That's a huge mistake, according to Cramm. Serving as CIO at Taco Bell didn't stop her from jumping at opportunities to work on tasks that were less technical and more managerial. For example, when the restaurant giant began undergoing sweeping organizational changes, Cramm says she was quick to join the task force. "I immediately raised my hand," she recalls "I recognized issues that weren't being addressed and opportunities to explore. I really had to sell myself because Taco Bell hadn't really thought about how technology was going to be a key enabler but, in the end, it really was. People needed to see me operate within the general business rather than just from an IT standpoint." 3) Consider consulting. If leaving IT altogether strikes you as too big a leap, consider taking on IT consulting projects within or outside of your organization. By applying their IT skills to business challenges, Cramm says IT professionals are better able to "test different business environments" and get a better feel for common corporate challenges such as market trends and employee attrition. What's more, acting as a consultant allows IT professionals to "figure out how the organization works and how to get things done" in a business environment. 4) Face the business world. Forget about holing yourself up in a cubicle. According to Cramm, techies stand a far better chance of transitioning out of IT if they land themselves a more "business-facing role." The good news is Cramm says IT positions from software development to IT architecture are becoming increasingly business facing as companies begin to see IT as more of a critical business partner than cost center. Still, IT professionals need to be proactive. "Get yourself working on initiatives that are strategic--you'll get a lot more visibility that way," advises Cramm. 5) Forge relationships. It's easy to fall into the habit of fraternizing only with your close colleagues. But Cramm says it's critical IT professionals "develop relationships that are external to IT." After all, she says, there's no underestimating "the potential of what can happen when two people really connect and support each other within the workplace and want to help each other out professionally." At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a>, C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-07-17T08:30:00ZBoard Membership Do's And Don'ts For IT LeadersYou don't need to look further than RIM's board of directors to recognize the risk of joining a corporate board. But there are plenty of upsides, too.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003765?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsThese days, IT touches every department in a company, from human resources to product development. No wonder then that more and more corporate boards of directors are considering the value a CIO can deliver as a card-holding member. After all, a seasoned IT professional can provide crucial insights into technology projects and how they might impact a company's revenue and workforce. So, too, can IT professionals benefit from serving on a board of directors. A carefully chosen membership can add instant credibility to a curriculum vitae, as well as grant veteran IT leaders the chance to give back to the corporate community. There are, however, risks to joining a board. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/240003444">Research in Motion's board members</a>, for example, have come under heat in recent months as the Canadian technology giant struggles to appease disappointed shareholders. "[RIM's board of directors is] getting dragged through the mud pretty seriously," said Barry Jinks, CEO of Colligo Networks, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based records management specialist focused on SharePoint solutions. "There's a reputational risk and a real financial risk [to joining a board]." Fortunately, Jinks said, there are steps IT professionals can take to ensure their participation on a board of directors is a positive experience. Jinks would know. In addition to participating on the boards of directors of several successful technology companies, he is also a member on the board of directors of the British Columbia Technology Industries Associations and the board of advisors of the University of British Columbia electrical engineering department. [ Big business needs to worry: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240003422?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Here Comes Corporate Brain Drain</a>. ] As boards abandon yesteryear's "country-club mentality" for an environment that's both risky and rewarding, Jinks offers these tips for aspiring members. 1. Find the right fit. "Everybody brings their own unique perspective to a board," said Jinks. IT professionals are no exception. "IT professionals vary in terms of their technical capabilities and what they bring to the table," he added. That's all the more reason for an IT leader to carefully consider what a board hopes to reap from his or her input. Are members looking for a CIO with "broad technology knowledge," asked Jinks, or someone with niche skills in programming or ERP, for example. Always answer these questions first. 2. Don't wait for an invitation. Rather than wait around to be asked, Jinks said that membership on a board of directors is something a CIO "can actively pursue." How? For starters, Jinks said, "More and more boards are using IT recruiters to bring board members on." "Personal relationships with CEOs" are another route to consider, said Jinks. "And networking is also a good thing. Get out there--attend local events, join technology associations, and get to know people who are interested in the skills you can bring," said Jinks. 3. Reap what you sow. Being on a board isn't just about contributing ideas and technology insights. Membership also grants a unique "outside perspective" that lets IT professionals "reflect on how they're operating and how to recognize ways that they can improve." For example, helping a company perform a post mortem on a failed ERP project can also enable a board member to flag potential problem areas in his or own company's technology undertakings. 4. Look for conflicts. While there's something to be said for lending a professional hand, IT professionals need to be careful that their generosity doesn't come at a cost to their own careers. For instance, "I wouldn't serve on a board that's in the same industry that I'm in," said Jinks. "That's very dangerous. IT professionals should avoid that kind of conflict."2012-07-16T09:30:00Z6 Habits Of Successfully Decentralized IT DepartmentsGranting individual departments greater IT autonomy need not come at a cost to your CIO powers. Here's how a hybrid model can help you strike a balance.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003728?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/enterprise_apps/240003177"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/829/01_iPad-summer-apps-1st-slide_tn.jpg" alt="10 Great Summer iPad Apps" title="10 Great Summer iPad Apps " class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Great Summer iPad Apps</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>As IT departments seek to strengthen their positions as strategic business partners and increase delivery speed, more CIOs are choosing to decentralize their IT shops. Granting various business lines greater and more independent access to IT operations becomes necessary. However, many CIOs chafe at granting unfettered access to IT operations, fearing that relinquishing control will only give to rise to rogue activities, procurement nightmares, and integration headaches. Those worries can be alleviated with a balanced approach, said Nari Kannan, founder of <a href="http://www.appsparq.com">appsparq</a>, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile app development company. Kannan has experimented with both centralized and decentralized IT, and believes a hybrid model that combines a central IT infrastructure with a decentralized managed information system is the smartest way to strengthen an IT department without diluting an IT leader's control over business-critical IT operations. [ Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240001592?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Handle IT Growing Pains</a>. ] Here are six characteristics of a successful hybrid, according to Kannan: 1. Department heads use self-service technologies. Business-line leaders need no longer wait in queue for a new proprietary app to be developed. Instead, said Kannan, "What IT used to do, department heads can do for themselves now with a self-service or browser interface. These days, all it takes is a user name and password for an employee to go in and set up a Windows server or a Linux server. In two minutes it's done." 2. Increased productivity. IT departments are known for taking weeks--sometimes months--to respond to requests. By granting individual departments the ability to develop their own apps to meet specific business requirements, Kannan said CIOs can expect to significantly erode the backlog that so often delays IT operations and bogs down IT professionals. 3. Policy making stays close to home. Like it or not, there are times when a CIO simply can't afford to loosen the reins. "Companies still need centralized IT to set up policies to ensure security, disaster recovery, and business continuity," said Kannan. "These activities must remain under IT's purview." Data center activities, infrastructure operations, email, standards architecture--they also are central IT functions that should remain under one umbrella, advised Kannan. 4. Better communications. A centralized IT shop, with its red tape and autocratic decision making, can sometimes lead to communication breakdowns with business-line leaders. "Centralized IT has always found the communication gaps between IT and business departments very frustrating," said Kannan. "If smaller IT groups are attached to each business division, then these communication gaps can narrow." In fact, decentralized IT can help IT professionals better respond to the unique business needs of individual departments without burdening a CIO with minor requests and technical issues. 5. Procurement stays centralized. If it's economies of scale you're hoping to achieve, centralized IT is the way to go, said Kannan. That's because a centralized IT shop is better poised to take advantage of existing vendor relations and licensing agreements when purchasing hardware and software. What's more, centralized IT grants a CIO a broader and more accurate view of IT costs across the organization, and the impact of these expenses on a company's bottom line. 6. Integration is maintained. "Centralized IT helps ensure systems can talk to each other," said Kannan. With decentralized IT, "there's a chance that all these different departments will once again start developing apps in silos," he said. But while it's important for a CIO to stay on top of this potential risk, Kannan said that thanks to service-oriented architecture, "integration is still possible." CIOs will always debate the pro and con of a decentralized IT environment. But as Kannan points out, a hybrid approach is an excellent way to reap the benefits of self-service and increased productivity without having to relinquish complete control of your powers. By keeping activities such as procurement, security, and policy enforcement under the purview of centralized IT, while granting individual departments greater freedom, a CIO is most likely to reap the best of both worlds. At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a>, C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-07-03T08:00:00ZIT Pro's Travel Guide To Volunteering AbroadVolunteering overseas can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. But you'll need more than a passport to bring IT projects to life in developing countries.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002911?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_networking_consumer/240002326"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/813/Social-sites-slideshow-slide-1_tn.jpg" alt="5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks" title="5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Not all tech workers view stock options and annual bonuses as the pinnacle of a career. In fact, many are finding that lending their skills and expertise to projects in developing countries is the secret to a fulfilling career in IT. Luckily, options for tech-savvy volunteers are plentiful. The <a href="http://www.iesc.org/">International Executive Service Corps'</a> Geekcorps division, for example, is a non-profit that sends highly skilled IT professionals to developing countries to assist in computer infrastructure development projects. <a href="<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineers_Without_Borders">Engineers Without Borders</a> and <a href="http://www.acdivoca.org/">ACDI/VOCA</a> also are agencies that deploy teams of IT professionals around the world. Even corporate tech giants are helping to match skilled engineers and software developers with overseas projects on a pro bono basis. Since the launch of its Corporate Service Corps (CSC) in 2008, IBM has dispatched more than 1,600 of its employees to more than 30 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Morocco, to participate in community-driven economic development projects involving technology. [ Read <a href="4 IT Career Mistakes Can Hold You Back?itc=edit_in_body_cross">4 IT Career Mistakes Can Hold You Back</a>. ] Edward G. Happ is no stranger to IT volunteerism. Global CIO of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, Happ also is the chairman of <a href="http://nethope.org/">NetHope</a>, a U.S.-based consortium of 31 non-profits focused on collaboration and information technology. "The data show that poverty and disasters continue to grow," said Happ. "So, on the one hand, the need [for IT volunteers] is rising. On the other, the opportunity to help with technology has never been greater." Using your IT skills for good takes more than a sturdy backpack and bottled water, though. Here are four things every IT professional should know about volunteering overseas. 1) Some skills count for more. The ability to write SMS or smartphone applications is the most sought-after skill in developing countries, according to Happ. Driving this demand is the explosion of smartphones in emerging countries. "The fastest growth is in smartphones, and below $100 price points are being seen in countries like Kenya and China," he said. "So there's a huge opportunity for mobile apps that can be used by field workers." 2) What works in one country might be a bad idea for another. When Marie Schonholtz, a project manager for IBM's microelectronics supply chain division, arrived in Brazil as part of the company's CSC program, she was eager to help GAIA, a small non-profit environmental group, develop a knowledge management system for its transient consultants. But Schonholtz fast discovered that the perfect technical solution for a North American enterprise isn't always appropriate for a foreign agency. "From a systems perspective, we looked hard at using some formal knowledge management systems," she says. "But we actually recommended that they not use a complicated knowledge management system--it just wasn't practical." Instead, Schonholtz opted to deploy Microsoft Suite which could be better supported by the agency's limited IT resources. After all, she says, "Once we left, they needed to be able to continue to use what we put in place." 3) Prepare for technical challenges. No matter how good you are at putting out fires, nothing can prepare you for the technical obstacles you are likely to face while on overseas assignment. "The basics, like electricity, an Internet connection, an office, and security may often be a challenge, and cannot be taken for granted in the emerging world," warned Happ. "It's getting better, but plan on working in a sometimes-connected world for the foreseeable future." Schonholtz also faced her fair share of technical challenges. "We're very used to having networked IT working all the time but that simply wasn't the case [in Brazil]," she says. "If your server went down, it's just not available. That's the reality." 4) You'll change in ways you least expected. Volunteering overseas is an excellent way to refine your IT skills. Learning "how to make things work in significantly under-resourced IT groups and how to get things done in the midst of chaos" are just two examples of how IT volunteers can hone their craft, noted Happ. But working in a foreign country is also an opportunity to enhance your management style. "I see and hear things differently now," said Schonholtz. "I'm more likely to listen to suggestions that are different than I was before. When you have the opportunity to talk to people from 15 different countries every day at breakfast about a problem in the workplace, people will come up with solutions that are completely different. So now I'm more likely to go out and look for different answers." InformationWeek is conducting a survey on the state of IT outsourcing. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012itoutsourcing.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 State Of IT Outsourcing Survey</a> now. Survey ends July 6. 2012-07-02T12:50:00ZJob Hunting? Here's How To Keep It DiscreetIT professionals use everything from recruiters to LinkedIn to find work, but don't want their current employer to know they're looking. Here's how to keep your search on the QT.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003077?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_networking_consumer/240002326"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/813/Social-sites-slideshow-slide-1_tn.jpg" alt="5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks" title="5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">5 Social Networks To Achieve 10 Business Tasks</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> The good news: The Internet, search engines, social media, and online job boards have made it easier than ever for IT professionals to search for work. The bad news: These very public job-seeking tools can tip off your current employer that you're looking for a new job. That's a huge mistake, according to Chris Sherret, founder of Sherret Inc., a Toronto-based IT recruiting agency. "Companies are downsizing, so if somebody is looking to leave, it's a very easy decision for an IT manager to let that job seeker go," he warns. "Managers may also look at the employee with suspicion as if he's planning to steal confidential information. The employee might get passed up for internal promotions, special assignments, or bonuses. Or he may get treated differently if a manager thinks he's going to leave the company." Here's what every IT professional needs to know about conducting a job search on the down-low. 1. Know your IT recruiter. IT recruiters and head-hunters are skilled at sussing out engineers and developers while flying under an IT manager's radar. But even the most discreet IT recruiter can mistakenly spill the beans. "I have a policy in recruiting that I don't send anybody's resume out to any company without telling them who that company is first," says Sherret. "But it's not a guarantee--there are always new recruiters who can make mistakes." [ For more IT career advice, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/240003011?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Rev Up Your IT Career</a>. ] 2. Search social media. LinkedIn is an excellent job search tool, but not necessarily in the way you might think. Suddenly revamping your entire LinkedIn profile and uploading your resume can draw unnecessary attention. Rather, Sherret recommends quietly exploring your network of connections for job opportunities. "If you have a lot of connections, you can enter your skills in LinkedIn and look for other people who have the same kind of skills as you and see what companies they work for. That can give you some good clues," says Sherret. 3. Do your homework. Before you stick your neck out and apply for a job, Sherret says, it's important to first perform the necessary due diligence. "What kind of actual work is done at the prospective company--the exact technologies, the level of people they're looking for, the IT environment, the size of the company. Are they growing? Are they steady?" According to Sherret, these are all questions that should be answered upfront. 4. Go underground. Many IT professionals enjoy unlimited access to everything from underground forums to skills-related user groups and industry-related user groups--places where colleagues speak freely, and anonymously, about specific IT projects, corporate culture, and even staffing gaps. "While user groups are typically where people with similar skills meet to learn more about their industry," Sherret says, "you can meet people there and be discreet [about searching for a new job.]" 5. Seek out salespeople. Conferences and trade shows are regular events in the life of an IT professional. But Sherret says IT job seekers would be better off schmoozing with salespeople than senior-level management if they're hoping to keep their job hunt a secret. "Salespeople are actually more open about employees and who you should talk to about landing a job," he says. "They may even tell you the names of managers and people you need to talk to." InformationWeek is conducting a survey on the state of IT outsourcing. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012itoutsourcing.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 State Of IT Outsourcing Survey</a> now. Survey ends July 6. 2012-07-02T08:38:00ZHow To Hire A HackerHackers might have shady pasts, but they can also bring a lot of IT expertise to the table. Should you consider hiring one?http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002918?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/security/attacks/232600322"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/735/01--AnonScientology175.jpg" alt="Who Is Anonymous: 10 Key Facts" title="Who Is Anonymous: 10 Key Facts" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Who Is Anonymous: 10 Key Facts</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> They're the bane of the IT security professional's existence when they're on the wrong side of the law, but the truth is, hackers often understand the nuances of network security better than your average CSO. So is it safe to bring a hacker into your IT team? According to Shane MacDougall, there are pros and cons to hiring a hacker. MacDougall is a partner at Canadian security consultancy Tactical Intelligence, a hacker at the DEFCON Hacking Conference, and last year's winner of Social-Engineer.org's The Schmooze Strikes Back hacking contest. "Every IT department needs to hire an ethical hacker," says MacDougall. But his advice comes with a warning: "You really do need to check the background on who these people are, who they've been hanging with, and who their crews are." MacDougall offers these tips for hiring a hacker that's right for your IT shop: Ensure a good fit. No two hackers' skill sets are exactly the same. For this reason, MacDougall recommends that you carefully consider why you need to hire someone in the first place. For example, if your company is focused on programming, MacDougall says, "Somebody who has a lot of background in breaking applications is a desired skill." On the other hand, a network operations center might look for a network ninja who is handy with lots of network sniffing tools. Finally, if your company needs a systems administrator, a hacker who has broken into systems and who knows how to find the holes within various servers and where vulnerabilities exist might be the best bet. "They're all very unique jobs and they all take very unique skill sets," says MacDougall. [ Read more about the government's use of malware for security purposes. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/240001596?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Was U.S. Government's Stuxnet Brag A Mistake?</a> ] Be prepared to embrace open source. Most hackers are open source enthusiasts--a plus for companies who need to stretch IT resources. "It's advantageous to have someone who is familiar with open source tools because they're a lot easier to deploy in a lot of organizations, and it can make a company a lot more agile in terms of software development and network administration," says MacDougall. Still, for hackers to put their open source skills to good use, MacDougall says, "It's critical that senior management has bought into open source or that you have a visionary CTO or CIO who says open source is the way we want to go." Without this leap of faith on the part of an IT leader, according to MacDougall, a hacker's open source prowess will simply go to waste. Limit time spent underground. One of the most impressive things a hacker can bring to the table is access to an elite--and often underground--network of IT whiz kids. But while this brain trust can prove useful, MacDougall warns, "If the hacker is involved in the underground scene and frequents a lot of forums and IRC chats, you still need to be very cautious. You can get a lot of blowback." For example, MacDougall points to the hacker who spends hours plumbing forums for tidbits on "zero-day" attacks. "I have to seriously question the value of spending all that time underground," he says. Rather, simply paying for services that track traffic and monitor data logs frees up a hacker for more important tasks. Revel in the D.I.Y. spirit. Years spent breaking down systems and cracking passwords teach hackers a thing or two about being resourceful. This is just the type of scrappiness that cost-conscious IT shops will appreciate. After all, says MacDougall, "A lot of freeware and open source programs can let small IT teams do a lot on a fairly small budget." Test for authenticity. Checking references isn't always an option when it comes to hiring a hacker. "It's a judgement call," warns MacDougall. "You have to tread very carefully, especially if that someone professes to be a hacker--a good hacker is never going to tell you that they're a hacker. How many bank robbers introduce themselves as a bank robber?" Instead, MacDougall advises using online hacker challenges to test a prospect's breaking and cracking skills. <a href="https://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-us-12/">Black Hat USA Las Vegas</a>, the premiere conference on information security, features four days of deep technical training followed by two days of presentations from speakers discussing their latest research around a broad range of security topics. At Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, July 21-26. Register today. 2012-06-29T14:14:00ZRev Up Your IT CareerIn the constantly evolving world of IT, there's no such thing as resting on your laurels. Here's how to stay relevant.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003011?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/compensation/232900448"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1331/331Coverart.jpg" alt="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" title="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> Millennials may occupy the majority of cubicles in Silicon Valley, but there's still a place for today's more seasoned IT professionals. The trick is staying relevant in an era of fleeting trends and fickle clients. Just ask Dr. John Wooten. At the ripe age of 70, Wooten is CTO of ShouldersCorp, a Virginia-based IT consulting firm he co-founded with Dr. Tom Love, co-inventor of programming language Objective-C. "Those of us who are a little older have learned how to constantly improve our skills," says Wooten. "You have to constantly read and update your skills and learn what's going on. Otherwise you're doing something someone did 30 years ago, and nobody will be interested." Wooten offers some tips for IT professionals—advice he says has not only helped him stay relevant but also rev his career engine in later life. Go off the rails every now and then. Working on code that requires a lot of maintenance can become a tiresome task, especially when you've been doing it for years. To combat fatigue, Wooten says, he downloaded Ruby On Rails and started playing around with it. "It's a nice tool to create maintenance scripts," he says. "For example, if you have a very complicated database, you have to write a lot of code--all of which is just about adding users and addresses. There are all these little pieces that have to be worked on. But Ruby On Rails lets you almost mechanically build them." By learning more about a full-stack framework, Wooten got just the refresher course he needed to continue creating great code. [ For more IT career advice, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240000480?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Ways IT Leaders Can Get More Staff Feedback</a>. ] Explore new states. Over the years, Wooten says it's easy for software developers to fall into the pattern of writing software "in a very restricted sense--like a little PC program." In order to stay relevant, according to Wooten, it's critical that IT professionals learn how to create enterprise applications and proper systems analyses that allow for greater scalability. To do this, Wooten began studying stateless Web development. "It was another way of handling complex exchanges," he says. "In the past, we tended to maintain state in various pieces of the software. But what I finally had to do was learn that there's a way so that I don't have to keep the state information in a certain place." Test-drive new development processes. Working day in and day out, IT professionals can easily become overwhelmed with developing system requirements. To avoid this fate, Wooten got into test-driven development and Agile development. Rather than get caught in the black hole of software development processes, Wooten explains, "I talk to a customer, find out what they want to do, and write a test to see what works. I write the code so that the test will pass. It's a backwards way of doing things, but as soon as the test passes, then you know you're done. You've written a good test." Build your own apps. While trying to figure out how long it takes to develop certain software, Wooten decided to "make it fun." Rather than record data on spreadsheets, he says, he decided to write an iPhone application that would perform the same job. "Not only did that help automate Wooten's timing of software development cycles, but it was also a way to learn how to create an iPhone app," he says. A DIY approach to learning--and staying relevant-- helps older IT professionals compete with fresh-faced newcomers, according to Wooten. "It's about staying involved and continuing to look for challenges." At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a>, C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-06-07T08:36:00ZHow To Handle IT Growing PainsHow can managers keep IT staffers happy even as a company morphs from a startup into a large enterprise? Consider this CEO's advice.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001592?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsYour IT management style must evolve as your company grows from a startup to a large enterprise. Clate Mask, CEO of <a href="http://www.infusionsoft.com/">InfusionSoft</a>, has watched his tiny sales and marketing software company in Arizona grow to 250 employees, 60 of whom are IT professionals, including Java developers, product designers, and quality assurance staff. Mask has advice to share on how to keep IT team members happy as this significant change plays out--and not all of his advice boils down to money. What changes should you anticipate? Here's how IT shops differ by size, and the leadership challenges that arise with growth. 1. Cooks In The Kitchen Forget about drawn-out meetings. Small IT shop members simply don't have the time or inclination to brainstorm for hours on end. Instead, each and every employee is considered a key decision maker with plenty of decisions made on the go. "In a small group setting, there's not really any policy or decision-making overhead that you'd typically find in larger organizations," said Mask. "It's extremely nimble and you're working with people who want to do, do, do. They don't want to sit around and strategize a lot." That all changes, however, as a company's IT department expands. "Today, InfusionSoft has 250 employees and there are probably four or five in the group who are major decision makers," said Mask. "The rest are in teams, writing code or conducting research. The percentage of workers who are decision makers naturally goes down as the company grows." [ Can you tell a promising IT leader from a potential troublemaker? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240001068?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Signs Of A Lousy IT Leader</a>. ] Having more cooks in the kitchen also requires a change in leadership style, according to Mask. While it's important to solicit feedback and input from IT professionals, he said that within a large enterprise "it's a manager, director, or VP who needs to make all the decisions." 2. Hands-On Involvement Many IT professionals place a high value on having a say in product development--an on-the-job perk more likely to occur at a small company. "When you're very small, everybody is heavily involved in the deliverables and the product," said Mask. "As you get bigger, though, you hire people who specialize in product development and others become less involved in product creation." Because such a loss of input can impact the morale of engineers and developers, Mask said IT leaders need "to do things to make sure that employees feel that their products are highly valued even if they aren't being touched by the customer. Otherwise, as your company gets bigger, engineers will be harder to inspire and many of them will want to be in smaller groups or startups." Fortunately, employee surveys and group demos can go a long way toward making IT professionals feel a part of the process. 3. Consider Compensation To be sure, larger companies have the deeper pockets needed to compensate their engineers and developers for a job well done. But Mask said if there's one thing IT professionals at both startups and tech giants share, it's a desire to be recognized for their efforts. "Far more important than the ability to make more money is the ability to have your voice heard," said Mask. "As a leader, I found that I have to invest time in hearing people and incorporating their feedback into the decision-making process. That kind of recognition is more valuable to an engineer than making $8,000 more per year and helps keep morale high among our IT professionals." 4. Moving On Up An unhappy IT professional at a startup has little choice other than to find work elsewhere. In a large company, however, an IT leader is free to "repurpose people as the company grows." Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. "The key is to make sure that you're not just moving somebody because they're not doing a good job in their current role," warned Mask. Instead, he said IT professionals most likely to succeed in a new position are those that excelled in their previous role as well. 5. Mind The (Skills) Gap Startups are famous for employing jacks-of-all-trade--IT professionals who can monitor networks, install security patches, and develop apps all in the same breath. But skills requirements change as a company's workforce expands. "As companies grow, specialization comes into play and that can lead to some uncomfortable turf wars," warned Mask. "It's hard for an IT worker to let go of general skills and allow a specialist to come in and take over." That's all the more reason for an IT leader to ensure proper knowledge transfer and training in a way that doesn't undercut a generalist's contributions to the company. InformationWeek is conducting a survey on Windows 8 adoption. Upon completion of our survey, you will be eligible to enter a drawing to receive an 16-GB Apple iPad. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012Windows8.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 Windows 8 Survey</a> now. Survey ends June 15. 2012-06-04T09:30:00Z4 IT Career Mistakes Can Hold You BackThe path to a satisfying IT career can be paved with missteps. Here's how one IT pro corrected common mistakes and found success starting his own company.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001360?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/231000302"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/635/01_Mike_Altendorf_tn.jpg" alt="My Mistake: 10 CIOs Share Do-Over Worthy Moments" title="My Mistake: 10 CIOs Share Do-Over Worthy Moments" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: My Mistake: 10 CIOs Share Do-Over Worthy Moments</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Mike Townsend's career as an IT professional had its share of highlights, from his developing algorithms that synchronize a power plant's electronic valves to testing sophisticated radar systems. Most recently, Townsend launched Zing Checkout, a Los Angeles-based provider of online point-of-sale systems. Despite these accomplishments, Townsend says the path to a satisfying career in IT is paved with missteps, not milestones. Here's his take on the opportunities in failure. Mistake #1: Undervaluing your skills. Underestimating the market value of one's IT skills "is a very common mistake made by a lot of engineers and developers," said Townsend. "A large part of that is because many of us don't have access to information on how much skills are worth and what are the hourly rates for our work." More than simply a blow to one's self-esteem, Townsend warns that downplaying IT skills can have a negative impact on an IT professional's pocketbook. "When designing and developing websites and applications, I would do work for free in the beginning to show companies what I was capable of. As a young engineer, it was hard to get a true perspective on the market and realize your true value." However, by "learning the ability to say no and start charging clients," Townsend said he learned a valuable lesson: how to create his own value. Mistake #2: Lousy networking. Blame it on Myers-Briggs' personality inventory: "The most common traits of IT professionals like engineers are shyness and being introverted. It's difficult for them to network," said Townsend, despite the fact that engineers typically are very good at what they do. "Understanding that and staying in touch with people who can help you down the road is something I wish I had done more of," says Townsend. Today, he makes a point of "maintaining a good relationship with a few select people" and tooting his own horn--practices that have helped him launch a business of his own. [ Is your company in a training rut? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/training/240001009?itc=edit_in_body_cross">4 Ways To Supercharge IT Training</a>. ] Mistake #3: Putting too much stock in school. Although proud to have attended the University of Connecticut and the University of California in Los Angeles, Townsend warns, "There's really an over-emphasis on some of the collegiate accreditation tools. Getting a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/healthcare/leadership/232800319">college degree</a> is not as valuable as it once was because these days people are hiring you for your skills--not for your degree. In fact, your resume is essentially the work that you've done, not the schooling you've been through." All of this has pushed Townsend to create his own products and branding. Mistake #4: Wearing blinders. Stuck working 70-hour weeks, Townsend says it's easy for IT professionals to become blind to the tech industry's wide array of opportunities. "It's hard to see what's out there in the world," he warns. "When you're at a large company, you don't necessarily see the opportunities that exist at smaller companies. Plus, IT professionals are very focused on their own tasks rather than trends." Fortunately, Townsend said he's turned that around. "I was very focused on software and mechanical engineering and became very good at that but then I started seeing friends raising money and creating new products--it was eye opening to see what was possible," he said. "It was truly like turning on a light bulb of inspiration and seeing what I really wanted to do with my career." <a href="http://www.mobileconnectevent.com/?_mc=MCIWKPREM">Mobile Connect</a> addresses the strategic direction that will define enterprise IT for the next decade--building and managing information systems that run on a mobile platform. Mobile Connect will bring together enterprise mobility thought leaders to discuss the innovations in mobile, and how forward-thinking companies are getting the technology to work for them, providing unprecedented business value. It happens in Boston, June 18-20. Register today. 2012-06-01T11:06:00Z5 Qualities IT Leaders, Paratroopers ShareFireHost CEO Chris Drake says years of jumping out of a plane prepared him to be a technology leader.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001273?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700109"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/765/01_CEO_Logos_tn.gif" alt="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" title="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Chris Drake is used to having his head in the clouds. Not only is he the founder of FireHost, a Texas-based secure cloud hosting company, but Drake served in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army as a third-generation paratrooper. Here, Drake describes how his 64 jumps as a paratrooper prepared him for managing techies, staving off hackers, and always landing on his feet as an IT leader. As an IT leader, are you developing these qualities in your staff? 1. Rapid-fire reflexes. The cloud hosting business requires fast decisions in the event of an outage. The same split-second decision making is also required of paratroopers when making death-defying jumps, according to Drake. He recalls a time when he accidentally landed midair on a fellow paratrooper's parachute. A phenomenon known as "stealing air," it can cause a paratrooper's chute to collapse and for the top paratrooper to free-fall to his or her death. Fortunately, Drake says, "instincts kicked in and I was off that chute within half a second. I literally hit with my feet and then started jumping as far as I could to get off that chute. And that's why I'm still here today." [ Can you tell a promising IT leader from a potential troublemaker? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240001068?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Signs Of A Lousy IT Leader</a>. ] 2. Nerves of steel. Every IT leader has felt that overwhelming feeling of panic when network traffic suddenly bottlenecks or a server goes on the fritz. Referred to as "the fog of war" in military terms, Drake says it's as common in a server room as it is on the battlefield. "It's a time when there's chaos all around you but you still have to focus on what the objective is, no matter what issues are surrounding you in a battle situation. It's the same way with hosting when you have outages and panicked individuals. To be the calm in the storm is something that I learned as a paratrooper and have transferred to the business world." 3. Leadership from a distance. Leading a highly qualified team of IT professionals needn't be any different than leading an elite cadre of paratroopers, according to Drake. "As a leader at FireHost, I hire the best people I can find and then I remove any obstacles that exist so that they can do a good job," he says. "Similarly, paratroopers are kind of a rogue unit. They're great people who, if you get rid of the obstacles, will do great things." 4. Strong communication skills. Careful planning and best practices are key to excellent communication among paratroopers. The same goes for Drake's approach to keeping the lines of communication open among FireHost's 80 employees. "We're able to read each other's minds and that's because the planning is there and our vision is extremely focused," says Drake. "When your vision is focused and you have a plan, that day-to-day communication isn't required. Similarly, when we jump out of an airplane, we already know what our next 24 hours is going to be like." 5. A sense of mission. It takes more than passively monitoring traffic and managing servers to block 200 million hack attempts, as FireHost has during its two years as a company. According to Drake, such success hinges on recognizing that you and your IT team are all that's standing between a client and a security snafu. "Being in the IT business of secure cloud hosting, we are protecting businesses and people," says Drake. "As a paratrooper, I was protecting our country. It's that kind of awesome responsibility that exists within our corporate culture. Every one of our employees understands that we are the National Guard of the Internet." At a time when cybercrime has never been more prolific and sophisticated, budgets are being cut. In response, IT is taking a hard look using third-party services--outsourcing--to meet security challenges. Our <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/SecurityServices/util/4601/download.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Making The Security Outsourcing Decision</a> report outlines the various security outsourcing options available. (Free registration required.)2012-05-29T11:05:00Z5 Signs Of A Lousy IT LeaderCan you tell a promising IT leader from a potential troublemaker? Consider these managerial style red flags.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001068?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_AuthorsFrom former FEMA director Michael Brown to Enron ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, history is rife with poor leaders. "There are a lot of [people] who get into leadership positions who probably shouldn't," says <a href=http://riggio.socialpsychology.org/>Ronald Riggio</a>, the Henry R. Kravis professor of leadership and organizational psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California. While we can't always control who's in charge of an IT department, recognizing potential trouble ahead of time can help your team select and groom future leaders, and learn to deal with certain challenges that may lie ahead. Riggio cites five ways to spot a bad boss: 1. An unquenchable thirst for power. Power corrupts, whether it stems from running a software maintenance department or planning global IT capital. "Power becomes intoxicating, because all of a sudden people are doing what you want them to do, and that's very addicting," says Riggio. "The real problem, though, is that leaders who abuse their power aren't developing their people to collaborate with them, but to fear and obey them." What's worse, warns Riggio, is that leaders who become drunk on power often start to believe that the rules don't apply to them and that they're somehow above the law. [ For more on how to recognize poor leadership, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/232602672?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Are You A Bad IT Manager?</a> ] 2. Punishment over positivity. Rather than empowering team members and fostering trust, Riggio says, lousy leaders control their minions using fear and punishment. By demanding complete obedience and punishing professionals for questioning department decisions, a bad boss creates an environment devoid of innovation and collaboration. "The punitive management strategy is really terrible because leaders end up spending all their time looking for errors or people who are out of line and coming down on them," says Riggio. "But as soon as their back is turned, employees are going to try to get away with things. That's not a good management strategy. The best strategy is to encourage positive behavior." 3. Communication breakdown. Failure to communicate with colleagues is a key sign of a bad leader, according to Riggio. "The biggest problem with [poor] leaders is the tendency to under-communicate," he says. "[Poor] leaders believe that followers know more than they actually do, so they neglect to communicate information. Sometimes [these] leaders believe that followers don't want or need to know certain information, but in reality, workers want information. They want to know what's going on." 4. An ego in overdrive. To be sure, confidence is essential to managing both people and IT systems. But an IT leader with an out-of-control ego is a dangerous thing. "Extreme narcissism is really problematic," warns Riggio. "When self-confidence becomes narcissism, that's when a leader becomes toxic." Leaders need to have some humility to recognize the responsibilities that come along with IT, and they need to understand that it's a privilege to care for the best interests of a team and organization, Riggio says. 5. Passion overload. Not unlike self-confidence, passion is a powerful part of being an excellent leader. But IT leaders should not allow their passion for technology to override their compassion for people, Riggio says. "Sometimes the passion gets in the way of the humanity, especially if the focus is always on the technology--on the things, and not the people who are creating the things," he says. Whether the vector is a phishing scam, a lost iPod loaded with sensitive data, or an email-borne worm slithering through a public account, our <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/InsiderThreat/util/4515/download.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Well-Meaning Employees--And How To Stop Them</a> report gives you pointers on keeping well-meaning end users from blowing up your systems from the inside. (Free registration required.) 2012-05-25T09:05:00Z4 Ways To Supercharge IT TrainingIs your company's IT training stuck in the 'same old' rut? Here are some tips to make sure employees get the most out of your IT training dollars.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001009?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232901628"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/794/slideshow001_tn.jpg" alt="10 iPad Cases For Summer" title="10 iPad Cases For Summer" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 iPad Cases For Summer</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  Faced with tighter training budgets, many IT leaders are looking for new ways to develop their workforces. However, many businesses are realizing that "the old training methods just don't work anymore," said Tom Graunke, founder and chief storyteller at Arizona-based IT training firm StormWind. Forget about courses that drag on for days. According to Graunke, there are four ways companies can supercharge their IT training modules for maximum impact. 1) Cut to the chase. The name of the game should be IT training, not torture. "Traditionally, the IT training model has required employees to spend eight hours a day learning a new Cisco or Microsoft technology," said Graunke. "It's mind-numbing. People don't have time anymore for a 45-minute intro. Just cut to the chase." Graunke recommends companies whittle down their training content by as much as 75%. Whether teaching employees how to troubleshoot a Cisco router or install software patches, Graunke said, "courses should cut to what people need to know. IT training, in general, has a tendency to be 180-page chapters in a 1,500-page book. Instead, it should be about what an IT professional needs to know to install this piece of equipment right now--not about learning the 17 commands they may never use." [ Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/232602672?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Are You A Bad IT Manager?</a> ] By distilling lessons down to must-know info, delivered in short intervals, Graunke promises employees will consume knowledge at a higher rate and retain it more easily. Additional learning materials can then be provided online or through interactive channels with an instructor. 2) Think like Spielberg. Having trouble seeing through your car windshield? According to Graunke, increasing numbers of people "go to YouTube to learn how to change the wipers on their car" and accomplish other fairly simple but non-traditional household tasks. IT training shouldn't be any different. "Everything is so visual that if you take IT training content and surround it by multimedia, from a learning perspective, a company can cut training time by over 50%," said Graunke. That's because it's easier to capture the attention of IT professionals with fast-moving content, quality video, and entertaining effects. Fortunately for IT leaders, Graunke said it's not about producing the next summer blockbuster. Rather, he said IT training is about "creating visual learning sentences. Not just a sentence to explain something but a visual learning sentence that tells your story with a picture." 3) Create winners. Another way to keep staff interested is gamification--the art of creating social scoring for training activities, such as who can complete a lab the fastest and who received the highest score on a post-learning test. "The video game Diablo 3 just came out and sold nine million copies in 48 hours," said Graunke. "That fundamental mindset of scoring and competing is already embedded within the IT industry. Why not leverage it? Now learning goes from being painful to being a source of pride. IT professionals are challenging themselves to get better and they're doing it through training that makes it fun." 4) Keep it human. Despite its bottom-line benefits, Graunke said IT leaders need to think twice before replacing live instructors with cursors and keyboards. "Something went terribly wrong with e-learning. It's a miserable failure," he said. "It's cheap and it's anytime and anywhere but can you name the last time you did something in e-learning that you thought was amazing? What we're missing is the human element." According to Graunke, the presence of an instructor actually increases a student's ability to learn and absorb material. Whether it's a live chat or an interactive classroom, being able to connect with a living and breathing human being helps "knowledge retention rise dramatically," he said. At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a> C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-05-21T09:00:00Z5 IT Budget Presentation Do's And Don'tsStrong presentation skills can be an important advantage when negotiating projects with your company's senior execs. But leave the Mr. Cool act at home.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000659?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/compensation/232900448"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1331/331Coverart.jpg" alt="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" title="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> IT budgets are shrinking. President Obama requested a 2013 federal IT budget of $78.9 billion--a 0.7 percent cut from the government's 2012 budget. As learning to do more with less becomes a national reality, many IT leaders are learning that strong presentation skills can go a long way toward getting sign off on important projects. Making a case for an IT investment requires more, however, than piling on obscure acronyms and technical bells and whistles in presentations to corporate bean counters. Just ask Rick Gilbert. Founder of PowerSpeaking, an executive training and coaching firm in California, and author of Speaking Up: Surviving Executive Presentations, Gilbert said IT leaders need "to throw away almost everything they've learned about public speaking when presenting to the C-Suite." Gilbert offers IT professionals these five tips for captivating a C-level audience's attention--and budget share. [ Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/personnel/240000480?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Ways IT Leaders Can Get More Staff Feedback</a>. ] 1) Shift your thinking. IT professionals love to wax about high-tech products and propositions. If, however, you delve into too much detail without painting any sort of big picture, you might find yourself losing control of the meeting, warns Gilbert. "C-level executives tend to be very bright, very time-pressured and powerful people. They can change the timing and the focus of the meeting in an instant. If a mid-level manager goes in and doesn't expect that, they can be completely knocked off base." 2) Skip the jargon. Presenting your CEO with a detailed account of how you plan to migrate a company's data to the cloud is a sure-fire recipe for disaster, warns Gilbert. "There are a lot of ways that people process information--technical people are naturally more detail oriented and are going to want to know the algorithms. But when speaking to a top-level person, the language needs to be the language of business, the language of profit and loss, and the language of shareholder value. The C-levels aren't interested in how it works." 3) Adjust your attitude. It's not uncommon for a company's techies to butt heads with other business line leaders. Especially if those leaders have a tendency to view the IT department as a cost center rather than a profit center. Just remember, said, Gilbert, "a technical person needs to understand that we're all working together, we're all in the same company and C-level executives want IT professionals to be successful. We need the expertise of technical people as much as we need sales and product development expertise in order to be competitive in the marketplace. It's really about understanding the bigger picture that the C-level person has in mind." 4) Crunch the numbers. Chances are you're one of many business line leaders vying for a small slice of a company's annual budget. That's all the more reason to build the most compelling business case you can, with plenty of ROI figures, to convince senior-level executives to allot the largest amount possible to your IT endeavor. "The executive may have a limited pile of money but there are five guys at the IT manager level all fighting for that money," said Gilbert. "I need to be well prepared, know how much money I'm looking for, be able to provide estimates because my business development people have done the proper analysis, be clear about what all this is going to entail to find out what investment C-level people are willing to make." 5) Don't be slick. Presenting an IT proposition to the C-level suite might make you feel as if you're in a sales position, but save the suave act for another time. "If executives feel that a presenter is overdoing it or is trying to be too glib or smooth, that'll just bring negative points. They want somebody who's serious and enthusiastic, not somebody who's a smooth presenter." The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today! 2012-05-17T09:00:00Z5 Ways IT Leaders Can Get More Staff FeedbackCriticism is hard to take, but it can be even harder for employees to offer. Here's how to encourage your IT staff to open up and build a stronger team.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000480?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/compensation/232900448"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1331/331Coverart.jpg" alt="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" title="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> Most IT leaders are accustomed to dishing out constructive criticism to employees. But how many employees would feel comfortable criticizing their boss for an ill-conceived product launch or a poorly executed deployment? Many workers fear that rubbing a manager or CIO the wrong way could mean a poor annual performance review or a withheld bonus--or at least dirty looks. But the truth is IT leaders stand to lose the most from employee silence. Constructive feedback from talent in the trenches can help managers work smarter and manage teams better. "IT people love data, and feedback is important data," says Andrea Corney, a leadership coach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business' Center for Leadership Development and Research. Fortunately, there are ways IT leaders can solicit honest feedback from their team members without striking fear into their hearts and wallets. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Accept feedback graciously. The truth sometimes hurts--but that's no excuse to behave defensively. No matter how much you may disagree with an employee's assessment of your latest BYOD policy or data analytics software purchase, it's critical that you embrace criticism as constructive feedback, not a personal attack. "Most IT managers, like any human being, can be defensive when receiving feedback," warns Corney. "But if they're defensive, employees can take these signals to mean they don't really want feedback at all." [ Do you have what it takes to be a successful CIO? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232900481?itc=edit_in_body_cross">6 Must-Have Skills For Aspiring CIOs</a>. ] 2. Offer examples from the past. Assuring employees that they won't be punished for offering feedback isn't convincing enough. Instead, provide real-time examples of feedback you've received in the past and the positive changes you made as a result. "Publicly share the feedback you've received in the past and explain how you accepted it, how you found it helpful, and how you responded to it," Corney advises. 3. Be specific. Asking employees, 'Hey, how am I doing?,' is more likely to elicit blank stares than insightful input. Rather, if you're looking for answers, ask for specifics. "Say to team members, 'Here's what I've been working on--I've been trying to listen better to others and manage IT department workflow better. What about my approach has been working and how can I do it even better?,'" Corney suggests. "Offering feedback is scary, but helping people know where to start, and what kind of feedback is welcome, creates a little bit more safety." 4. Be selective. You don't need to canvass every member of your IT department to identify areas for self-improvement. Nor are you likely to learn the most from your closest IT comrades. Instead, choose your source of feedback carefully. "Select someone you have a relationship with, whose perspective you trust and who you think will tell you the truth," says Corney. "It can be very powerful to go to a peer and say, 'I know we haven't always seen eye to eye and I'm guessing that this thing that I do is troublesome to you. Is that so?" Other questions Corney recommends: What are the ways in which I am a good colleague, and how can I be a better colleague? Here's what I think you need from me--is that right? 5. Take action. While it's true that feedback is not a command to change, Corney points out that asking for constructive criticism but not acting on it will send employees a mixed message and discourage further feedback." If you don't act on feedback, people will think you don't mean it when you ask," warns Corney. "Let people know that they've been heard." The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today! 2012-05-15T08:30:00ZSoftware Engineer: 2012's Top JobHiring demand, high salaries, and some lesser-known perks make software engineering the most enviable profession, CareerCast.com survey finds.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000347?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/compensation/232900448"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1331/331Coverart.jpg" alt="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" title="2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">2012 Salary Survey: 12 Career Insights</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Years of studying are finally paying off for today's software engineers. Job search website CareerCast.com recently ranked 200 jobs from best to worst based on five criteria including salary, stress levels, hiring outlook, physical demands, and work environment. The top job for 2012: software engineer. According to the <a href="http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/2012-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst">CareerCast study</a>, software engineer beat out positions including physician, Web developer, computer programmer, and financial planner, thanks to through-the-roof demand and excellent pay. In fact, according to the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Computer-and-Information-Technology/Software-developers.htm">latest figures</a> from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for software engineers in 2010 was $90,530 per year. And the demand for software engineers is on the rise, with an estimated growth rate of 30% between 2010 and 2020--more than double the 14% average growth rate for all occupations. "Over the last few years there's definitely been a 20% to 25% uptick in salary for software engineers," said Tom Janofsky, VP of software engineering at Monetate, a Philadelphia-based provider of marketing optimization technology and a 15-year software engineer veteran. "I feel like I live in a different economy. We're constantly hiring, which is so different from what I hear on the news. It's sort of surreal." [ Before you apply for a new job, consider these <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/232901417?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Tips: Get Strong IT Job References</a>. ] But great pay and plentiful job opportunities aren't the only aspects of what makes the role of software engineer an enviable IT position. The collaboration, creative thinking, and hands-on experimentation required of software engineers can lead to an ever-evolving career path. Just ask Ruchi Sanghvi. Facebook's first female engineer, Sanghvi worked her way from "an office space in downtown Palo Alto right above a Chinese restaurant" to the executive office of Dropbox, where she's currently the VP of operations. Consider these five advantages of a software engineer career path: 1. Tons Of Flextime: Artsy Web designers aren't the only IT professionals who get to think outside the box--and work outside the cubicle. "Being a software engineer is a really creative job," said Janofsky. "There's a lot of freedom around workplace hours and a lot of the work can be done remotely from home--perks people typically associate with more creative positions." 2. Cool Colleagues: A big part of software engineering is constant trial-and-error--an experimental spirit that's likely to attract those who "enjoy theoretical problem-solving" rather than IT professionals "from more traditional IT roles like systems administration," said Janofsky. As a result, he said, "some people who come to our company and interview for a position may not have even studied to become a software engineer, but maybe wrote a game that's available in an app store. It's very much a field that's open and accessible to people that may not have a traditional computer science background." 3. A Team-Oriented Work Environment: Unlike programmers, software engineers typically work in teams in order to meet tight timelines and release dates. It's a collaborative environment that Sanghvi described as "the closest thing you can find to a meritocracy. It's results that matter and it's what will get you noticed. It's an unusual environment and it's a great environment because of that." Facebook was no exception, Sanghvi says. "Being the first female engineer at Facebook was just a lot of heads-down hard work building products that we really cared about and working together to get things out. It was really exciting," she recalled. 4. A Chance For Creativity: Forget Hollywood. "People have a 1980s movie view of a software engineer as someone sitting at a desk and banging at a keyboard," said Janofsky. "But that really misses the part of the problem solving that's so fascinating. We're not talking about something you can type into Google to find the answer. Rather, software engineering is like having an infinite set of Legos. It's about taking things apart and rebuilding them." 5. Freedom To Fail: Whether it's ensuring a network's availability or blocking malicious code, many of today's IT professionals work within a razor-thin margin for error. That's not the case, though, for software engineers. "A lot of what we do is about failing, doing something wrong and then going back and looking at the problem again," said Janofsky. "Our work is a puzzle and that's a great part of the job that's often not seen or understood." From thin provisioning to replication to federation, virtualization options let you reclaim idle disks, speed recovery, and avoid lock-in. Get the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/nwcdigital/may12/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Storage Virtualization Guide</a> issue of Network Computing. (Free registration required.)2012-05-11T14:00:00ZKlout, Social Tool Tips For IT Job HuntersAre you wondering how social media sites influence your hiring chances? Here's one recruiter's advice.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000249?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_networking_consumer/232900305"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/780/montage_full.jpg" alt="Get Social: 11 Management Systems That Can Help" title="Get Social: 11 Management Systems That Can Help" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Get Social: 11 Management Systems That Can Help</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  In today's tight labor market, understanding how IT hiring managers and recruiters depend on online social tools to source candidates is critical. In fact, many IT professionals would be surprised to learn just how sites like Klout, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and MeetUp are shaping today's war for talent. Just ask Irina Shamaeva. A partner at Brain Gain Recruiting in San Francisco and a headhunting veteran in the IT field, Shamaeva explains how companies today are using everything from social media tools and search engines to online communities to source and recruit top tech talent. Klout This San Francisco startup has stirred plenty of controversy by assigning users a score based on data gathered from social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The higher the score, the thinking goes, the mightier an individual's social network and the greater his or her influence. No wonder an increasing number of companies are looking to Klout to determine a job candidate's desirability. "Klout is important if you're very open to sharing your skills in IT [via social networks]," says Shamaeva. "That way you're more visible to those who are hiring." That's not to suggest, though, that IT job seekers should try to inflate their Klout score with constant Tweets and countless links to different social networks. Rather, Shamaeva says that while some recruiters won't even consider an IT professional unless they boast a high Klout score, hiring managers are far more likely to view Klout as one in "a combination of factors" determining a candidate's market value. Besides, she says, "My Klout score totally doesn't reflect my influence. I have thousands of followers worldwide but my Klout score is pretty low – 49." [ Want to learn more about how businesses are using social? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/strategy/232901667?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Design A Social Business</a>. ] Google Some IT professionals disregard Google as any sort of barometer of hirability. That would be a mistake, according to Shamaeva. "Search engines have started to reflect social influence," she says. "In the past, Google search used to rank web pages high if other pages linked to them." But search engine optimization has given way to a new method for ranking techies with an online presence. "Google Plus now makes search social," explains Shamaeva. "When somebody searches, it's not the web pages [that are] linked to most that come up high but rather the pages that your friends favor. So if I'm looking for a new hire with cloud computing skills, and an IT professional is ranked high on Google Plus and is influential in the cloud industry, that person's profile will pop up very high in my Google search." That's all the more reason for IT professionals to lend their IT expertise and advice to colleagues via social networks like Google Plus. MeetUp.com The online social networking portal Meetup.com isn't only for avid hikers and wannabe gourmet chefs--it's also a place where IT professionals like engineers often hang out, according to Shamaeva. For this reason, many recruiters tap the site, which helps visitors coordinate offline group meetings in various locations, for members of groups whose interests vary from C++ coding and Android programming to Ruby on Rails and Hadoop. LinkedIn.com Without a doubt, LinkedIn is one of the most popular online professional networks in the world. But according to Shamaeva, while LinkedIn is fantastic, many recruiters "combine LinkedIn with other [talent identifying] tools because some IT people aren't really present on LinkedIn and can't always be found using keywords." As a result, Shamaeva says it's important for IT professionals to consider how sites such as Facebook, About.me, and Twitter also convey one's marketability. Referral programs Tools like Klout might delve into a candidate's interests and online influence, but Shamaeva says it's more important for recruiters to create a "distributed profile" of a job seeker in order to find the right fit. Enter software for recruiters, like Talentbin, which scours a combination of social networking sites from Facebook to GitHub, for candidates with just the right skills. "There are new kinds of software for recruiters that build those distributed profiles for you so you don't have to search everywhere on Google," says Shamaeva. "Instead, programs such as Talentbin and Entelo already connect the dots across networks." That's all the more reason for job seekers to keep careful track of what they're saying--and what's being said about them--on sites ranging from Twitter to GitHub. The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today!