Every summer, around my anniversary of career change to CIO (chief information officer), I reflect about the lessons learned by being in the trenches. Having consulted many clients of all sizes on technology issues in the past, the accountability and responsibility of living the outcomes of my strategies and decisions has taught me quite a bit. The trenches view also has allowed for more forthright exchanges with others in IT management in other companies. The facade of bravado has come down. They now share because I am a colleague and not a sales person. In this context, based on my experiences and the many others heard over the last four years, answering this question seems possible.

 

There is no single element that leads to even modest success in IT management over time. Instead, IT success is comprised mostly of pieces of the following building blocks.

 

Luck. I know that this sounds trite. Nonetheless, even the basic decisions like which vendor to choose can be the first step towards disaster. There are many unpredictable events and challenges that will undermine the expectations from the most realistic business case for an initiative. Thus, overcoming the myriad of risks to any IT effort, or mitigating those risks, requires good planning and good luck.

People. Most IT projects involve many people. The projects introduce change in process and sometimes an individual's scope of responsibility. The success of IT in an organization is a reflection of management commitment to IT's role in the organization, IT staff dedicated to the support of corporate objectives, and the competency, understanding, acceptance, and enthusiasm of users.

 

IT staffing. Internal IT staff and outsourced staff are specifically integral parts of IT success. The attitudes of our IT resources and their interactions with end users convey the spirit that IT has adopted to meet its mission. Success is determined by smarts as well as eagerness to learn, a can-do attitude, perseverance, and, importantly, a helpful disposition towards users.

 

Confidence with humility. With IT, there is rarely only one way to resolve a business challenge. We must have poise to show follow-through with our decisions, but must never know when to reevaluate and even change an assessment made.

 

Also, while we have a thorough comprehension of our prospective solution, we must be open-minded to learn from anyone. For example, users may have unique perspective into simplifying processes that they are involved in daily.

 

Finally, look to others in our industry and even outside our industry. It is too easy to become arrogant and inbred in thinking, especially if our industry is very unique.

 

Hard work. No success comes without it. Successful IT management is about getting your hands dirty to understand the way the business works and how technology can improve it.

 

Admit and learn from mistakes. In IT, we make many of them. 'Fess up to those mistakes and bad decisions that we make. The key is to learn from them to not only prevent them from happening again, but to also to apply the lessons to where they have not yet happened.

 

Usually, IT's credibility will likely not be undermined by this. Instead, the increased honesty will create organizational transparency, as everyone realizes that the mysterious world of IT is working towards accountability.

 

It's all about greater purpose not functional purpose. Nowadays, we hear a lot about IT alignment with corporate objectives. Almost universally, IT's role is to facilitate change in the process quality of the life of the users. Forget ROI and other justification methods for sake of this conversation and think "improve bottom line" and "user satisfaction." We have customers, too! Think Apple Computers -- making life easier!

 

Thus, our mission is not functional, but nearly a spiritual calling akin to the physician and nurse. We should be making things better for users, vendors, and customers. We should be improving owner and stockholder value.

 

A functional purpose on the other hand, can easily lose value to corporate goals. For example, managers of cruel labor camps make prisoners do work that is useless and benefits no one. It is however functional. Dig ditches and then fill them in. Build walls and then tear those walls down. Not only do these activities not add economic value, they are demoralizing to the people performing these jobs.

 

Information Week wrote recently that "IT departments must adopt the process optimization practices and productivity increases they've enabled in other parts of the business." IT has matured to become a vital part of corporate success. Some would simply summarize this quest with "What will we in IT be remembered for?" or "What real value did IT add to my business?"

 

So ask yourself, "Is IT successful in my business?" And if yes, "What has made IT successful in my organization?"

CHAIM YUDKOWSKY, CPA, CITP, is Chief Information Officer at Textilease Corp., a uniform and first aid services company serving the Southeast. He may be reached at 301-937-4555 or cyudkowsky@ByteofSuccess.com. Chaim is available to speak to your group or business on a variety of technology topics.