Eight things execs hate about IT

Thursday, 01 April 2010, 15:36 IST   |    7 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Eight things execs hate about IT
Bangalore: Nobody hates the people in IT - it's the system that's broken. IT's bureaucratic processes rival the tax code in complexity. When challenged, IT justifies red tape as necessary because the business makes half-baked requests and is clueless about enterprise impact, writes Susan Cramm is a blogger on Harvard Business Review and Author of 8 Things We Hate About IT. The CIO may be impressive, but he or she is also totally unavailable. When you have questions, your only option is someone a few rungs down, who lacks the breadth of expertise to advise senior executives. IT nags you for requirements and complains that you always change your mind about what you want from your systems. Your 'simple' request requires a boatload of specialists and weeks (if not months) of analysis. It's not just that IT projects are never completed on time it's that they never feel completed at all. They are perennially 90 percent done. When you need help, you feel like a technology pauper, going door-to-door begging for help from functional specialists who complain that you didn't get them involved early enough. When you try to brainstorm with IT about new technologies you could use to innovate - like 2.0 tools, for instance - they patronize you by dismissing your questions and noting that your people aren't properly using the systems already in place. No matter how much you spend or how hard you work, the promise of technology seems perpetually beyond your reach.