5 Best Checkpoints to run an IT Department Successfully

Running a smooth and stable IT department successfully can be a real problem and a challenge if Head of IT (IT Manager / IT Director) don't have a complete understanding and control of the IT best checkpoints. Many of you even have excellent degrees and technical knowledge but might not have yet learned management and operations skills throughout your school of experience.

To help you on your way, I would like to discuss and offer 5 best checkpoints which I learned in my career and implemented for running an IT department successfully.

1. Planning & Communication
2. Team Management
3. Accountability with Authority
4. Processes & Tools
5. Technology Roadmap

Planning & Communication:

Planning is a fundamental and core to any successful journey and running an IT department is nothing but a journey. The second core part of this journey is a clear communication.

Everyone in your team needs to know what is expected of them. How can you reach a destination and achieve your goal if the direction is not set, marked and communicated clearly? Don’t waste time and efforts in your meetings only or creating documentation but do need to have limited but efficient and effective meetings and then strict follow-up, adherence, and communication of action point so everyone in your team should know what is expected from them.

TIP: Always plan for a big picture and then split into small frames and pieces for easy control. In our childhood, most of us must have played puzzle game where we join small pieces of the picture to make a big picture. Just reverse it!

Team Management:

We live in a society where somehow, somewhere every one of us depends on and need others. We can’t live our lives alone. Follow the same principle in running your IT department. You need others, a team, a good team and you can’t build a good team if you as a leader are not passionate.

Team management has core components starting from team building, encouraging and motivating team members, raise their technical and leadership skills, give those rewards in terms of their appreciation and financial benefits. Empower them by delegating your responsibilities.

TIP: Always be a leader, not a manager. A leader does the right things while manager does things right. Just follow this principle!

Accountability with Authority:

This is an area where many organizations fall down. You should never hold someone in your team accountable without giving them the authority which they need to accomplish their tasks. Consider your fellow employees in the organization are your partners rather than your customers. Otherwise, people will sidetrack IT policies and bypass IT processes because “the customer is always right.” If you let that happen, you will not meet your objectives. 

For instance, to make accountable of your service desk manager/lead, first you have to fully empower and give authority and stand with him/her which is required to accomplish service desk team’s tasks, then only he/she can be accountable. Employees need to use the ticketing system to open and track an IT issue rather than saying: “Hey since you’re already here can you also look at this problem?”

TIP: Influence your team, give them authority and don’t dictate them. Let them also grow with you.

Processes & Tools:

You need processes and tools, even in an environment where you have a simple, single, ideal or co-located cross-functional team. I strongly believe you are going to need processes and to make them efficient and effective you have to automate and tools are essential. Make a list of processes required, make them simple and not complex, review them periodically and optimize if required and customize the tools as per processes.

Processes are required to drive your IT department and not the other way that IT team is struggling to follow the processes because of the complexity. But again I’m not dismissing the agile manifesto. Sometime in some critical scenarios individual interactions over processes and tools might be more effective but then this is how we improve our processes, that time do a gap analysis, revise and optimize processes so next time you will not require any individual interaction.

TIP: Simplify processes to make life easy, efficient and effective.

Technology Roadmap:

Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use & operate that power. How to use & operate technology power into right and profitable direction is delivered by setting the technology roadmap. Defining the technology roadmap is essential because we are living in an era where technology is evolving rapidly and dynamically. For instance, if the cloud-based solution is more efficient compared to on-prem? If so then it not only improves productivity but also saves cost. Always assess the organization needs first, discuss with business, what are their requirements in the next 6 months, one year and subsequent years. Don’t get dictated by them for technical solutions, it’s not their job to drive technology. Suggest them a solution with Pros/Cons and then can take joint review and decisions.

TIP: Always remember, to keep a close eye on the future technology trends so your roadmap does not need a forklift at a later stage rather you should be able to mold and refine it as technology evolves.