In Defense of the Techies....

I’ve seen so many instances over the years in my various positions a lot of tension exist between client facing teams and the technology folks. Business minded folks can be looked at as unrealistic in their expectations and unaware of what it takes to complete projects. Technology folks can be looked at as methodical and process oriented, having little creativity and an even lower sense of urgency. Without question, both of these stereotypes are unfair, but let’s be real here—no matter which side of the fence you sit on, you have probably had a negative experience in the past so as to formulate a similar opinion of your own.

The sources of friction seem to all boil down to one side not really having an appreciation for what the other does. So how do these two sides reconcile their differences and move towards the common goal of advancing the success of the business? There’s probably no easy answer to that question, because every situation can be different. I did some research on this, and while I came across some articles analyzing the mindsets of ‘techies’ versus ‘non-techies’ and what the differences are between them, no article or abstract really jumped out at me that could be used as a tool. Then I came across this one. Thomas C. Redman and Bill Sweeney provide some good thoughts on how to get the conversations started between the business people and IT. It’s a good framework, and believe there’s lots of opportunity to adapt and apply the thinking at a local level.

As Redman and Sweeney indicate in their HBR article, both sides have ‘legitimate beefs’. My goal in this post is to present just a few things ‘business folks’ should have an awareness of, as it could help present, in part, the perspective of the ‘techie’.  I’m relying on several years of real-world experiences when I offer these items to consider. In my current role, I lead a rather unique team, in that we perform technical functions but sit in a client serving group. By doing so, we are interfacing frequently with stakeholders from both sides.

So here we go—things to remember, business folks:

There are tons of tasks techies do that you never knew existed. Techies are not waiting for work like taxi cab drivers waiting in a queue at the airport for the next ride. DBAs are routinely performing tuning and optimization tasks, production environment folks can be updating operations manuals, project managers are completing requests to get resources and assets assigned to upcoming initiatives, deployment teams are performing regression testing on updates applied to applications—I can go on and on. Each techie you interface with more likely than not is managing numerous tasks all competing for their time and attention. Many of these tasks are time-sensitive, and it is not uncommon to get status emails from these folks late at night or on weekends. For every software or hardware upgrade to servers or workstations, every migration to a new platform, every integration effort with new environments, and every launch of the next great thing involves many people you never see during hours you don’t work doing tasks you had no idea actually happened.

The IT Guy does not have all the answers. Particularly true of medium to larger size organizations, the ‘IT Services’ team will often be segmented into numerous disciplines. You’ll have folks dedicated to teams like infrastructure, website hosting, telephony, on-site support, datacenter, security operations, etc. Even smaller businesses seek to create duty separation in the IT group, and in some cases, may opt to outsource to a third party. What does this mean to the business person? It means it is not reasonable to expect that someone who works in IT to be able to answer any ‘tech’ question. Of course some folks may be versed in more than one area of IT, but making the assumption that the guy down the hall that works on a project team doing a migration is going to know why your emails are not reaching your clients is not realistic.

Support does not equate to subservience. Consider the scenario of needing to contact the ‘Help’ Desk for support with a computer issue. Computers sometimes have buggy behavior and people make mistakes with them, it happens. When it comes to having your problem addressed, honesty saves everyone a lot of time. When did the buggy behavior start? Did you go to a site that you got a virus at? Did you drop the computer? Did you spill something on it?  Don’t put it on the technician to figure that out—just say it. Otherwise, you are not being respectful of their time. If it’s an issue with software, be clear with what the issue was, describe any error messages you saw, etc. Also, don’t make unreasonable requests of them by making statements like ‘I don’t have time to wait, just bring it back to my desk when you’re done’ or asking questions like ‘what assurances will you make that this won’t happen to my computer again?’ The technicians are there to provide support for an issue you have with your computer. They are professionals and will work to resolve your issue, but don’t translate that into permission to scold the technician or make demands for hand delivery of the equipment. They’re not your kids or your servants.

I could probably cite a few more items, but I think you get the idea. As I’ve said in a couple of my previous posts, relating with your colleagues in the most effective manner all starts with respect. With that, some meaningful dialogues could start!

I suspect I’ll be writing a similar post up the road defending the Business Folks, too! This is a two way street, after all!